I have delivered hundreds of addresses before banking groups over the years, including talks before every state bankers association in the nation. These meetings are where I met the bankers who taught me most of what I have written about in this column, and who told me the stories that added flesh to the bones of banking for my students at Rutgers.

After one of the bitterest hostile takeovers in community banking, observers are questioning whether Central Pacific Financial Corp. of Honolulu can keep its promises and still achieve earnings projections for 2005.

Republic First Bancorp Inc.’s plan to spin off its profitable but higher-risk First Bank of Delaware could make its lead bank, the $650 million-asset Republic First Bank, more attractive to investors and potential acquirers, analysts say.

Alabama National Bancorp plans to consolidate five of its bank subsidiaries into two to provide better service to customers in north-central Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Most banks aiming to reach Hispanics are doing things like making branches more colorful and posting signs in Spanish, but a North Carolina bank is taking a different approach: setting up shop in the small grocery stores known as bodegas.

Less than six months after announcing plans to open four branches on Long Island, Hudson City Bancorp Inc. of Paramus, N.J., says it plans to expand further in New York.

C. John Hipp 3d, the president and chief executive officer of SCBT Financial Corp. of Columbia, S.C., has resigned, saying he did so for personal reasons.

Wintrust Financial Corp. of Lake Forest, Ill., has been growing fast in the past year, mainly through acquisitions, and the $5.8 billion-asset multibank holding company has no plans to slow down.

A day after reiterating its interest in doing deals in Florida, North Carolina, and the Georgia coast, South Financial Group Inc. followed through.

Carver Bancorp Inc. of New York, said Thursday that net income for its second quarter, which ended Sept. 30, fell 69%, to $434,000, largely because of expenses related to its failed attempt to buy Washington's Independence Federal Bancorp.

Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Ind., reported Thursday that third-quarter earnings were 54% higher than a year earlier, at $18.2 million.

Maryland community banks finally have a bankers' bank to call their own.

Tompkins Trustco Inc., a three-bank holding company in Ithaca, N.Y., said Wednesday that net income in the third quarter was up 9.8% from a year earlier, to $6.8 million.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. in San Antonio reported third-quarter profit up 9.8% from a year earlier, to $36 million,.

Aid to a newly bought company and a summer hiring spree combined to make North Fork Bancorp miss Wall Street's target for third-quarter earnings by a penny.

Frustrated that its town had nary a bank branch, a citizens committee in Patoka, Ind., earlier this year invited Casey State Bank in Illinois to open an office in a branch vacated by Union Planters Corp. in 2001.

MIDWEST

Prosperity Bancshares Inc.'s $135.7 million, all-stock deal for FirstCapital Bankers Inc. of Corpus Christi links a cost-cutting buyer with a target that has plenty to cut, according to analysts.