Marissa Fajt

With $225 million of fresh capital on the way, Umpqua Holdings in Portland, Ore., is on the lookout to buy failed banks — both in its market area and beyond.

Guaranty Financial Group Inc. is the talk of Texas this week. With the $14.4 billion-asset Austin company warning of its imminent failure, speculation has abounded about who will make the winning bid on its lucrative branches and deposits.

For years banks from other states have been eager to enter Texas. Now at least a handful of them are weighing branch sales there. It's not that these sellers have soured on the Lone Star State, which continues to hold up relatively well despite the recession. It's just that they need capital.

Forget the pile of nonperforming assets, eight consecutive quarterly losses and the cancellation of a similar rights offering a year ago; BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. is again asking shareholders to double down.

Nearly 1,500 small, privately held banks around the country could have to pay tens of millions of dollars combined in back taxes if a court ruling stands.

Profits at Hudson Valley Holding Corp. in Yonkers, N.Y., plummeted 96% from a year earlier, to $300,000.

The once-acquisitive company announced after the market closed Wednesday that it had hired the investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods to review strategic alternatives, including a sale.

Hampton Roads Bankshares in Norfolk, Va., swung to a loss for the second quarter, suspended its common share dividend and said it plans to offer stock.

SP Acquisition Holdings Inc., a blank check company with $429 million to spend, has agreed to buy the $4 billion-asset Frontier through a share exchange and then recapitalize its bank.

Chemical Financial in Midland, Mich., said its 2Q profit dropped 76% from a year earlier because of a higher provision for loan losses and higher deposit insurance premiums.

Despite a boost from the sale of its Colorado branches, First State Bancorp in Albuquerque said Thursday that it lost $6.2 million in the second quarter.

Like New Orleans next door, Omni Bank in Metarie, La., is undergoing a reincarnation of sorts. The $750 million-asset bank has hired new management and is shifting its focus from residential loans to commercial and industrial. Plus, plans are being made to bulk up through acquisitions.

East West Bancorp Inc. in Pasadena, Calif., which has raised $168.9 million of common equity in the past several weeks, is trying to bring in more.

Capital has been hard to come by for many banking companies, but that is not dimming the optimism of several former executives from Signet Banking Corp. for a significant start-up effort in their Virginia environs.