A thrift has found a resourceful way to raise some badly needed capital, one that institutions across the country could replicate: unwinding its employee stock ownership plan.

While many financial advisers continue to seek either the comforts of a megafirm or the independence of a registered investment advisory group, Adam Sherman, David Fleisher and their team have found a cozy home in the community banking channel.

COLONIE, N.Y. – Capital Communications FCU has purchased the site of a former auto dealership in Troy, N.Y., where it plans to build its 10th branch.

The Independent Community Bankers of America sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Wednesday asking that a broad pool of community banks be made eligible for a proposed $30 billion small-business lending program.

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Tamalpais Bancorp said late Tuesday that it was in a negative capital position, with a total risk-based capital ratio of minus-0.11% at Dec. 31.

Though other banks have worked out deals with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that improved their capital positions through payments to take over a failed bank, few private deals have had such a dramatic effect on a company's capital as Everbank's purchase of Tygris, industry watchers said.

WASHINGTON — Joseph Smith, the North Carolina commissioner of banks, said federal regulators should ease restrictions on private-equity capital to help the recovery of community banks.

The average credit score for U.S. consumers dropped two points to 669 at the end of January from 671 at the start of the year, according to a report released today by Credit Karma Inc., a San Francisco-based company that tracks national credit scores. The average score is down eight points from just two months ago. Credit Karma pulled its new data from 100,500 users.

The portion of small businesses that told a trade group that their recent borrowing needs had not been satisfied increased 3 percentage points from the month prior, to 11% in January.

WSFS Financial Corp. of Wilmington, Del., has made James Mazarakis chief technology officer of its WSFS Bank subsidiary, which provides a range of financial services with an emphasis on trust and wealth management.

Associated Banc-Corp. in Green Bay, Wis., is working on a plan to expand its warehouse lending platform by midyear, according to executives familiar with the matter.

Horizon Bank in Austin said Tuesday that it has hired Kelli Click to run the Waco, Texas, office of a Horizon unit that helps investors roll over retirement assets into individual retirement accounts.

Despite shrinking assets by a fifth in 2009, Saehan Bancorp in Los Angeles reported that its bank unit was significantly undercapitalized at the end of the fourth quarter.

OKLAHOMA CITY – WEOKIE CU plans to break ground next month on a new, 22,000-square-foot operations center that will house the credit union’s mortgage servicing, accounting, collections, marketing and call center.

For even the healthiest of community banks looking to buy a failed peer, wishing won't necessarily make it so. Community banks face a fair number of obstacles, observers say. They must prove to skeptical regulators that they're qualified, have enough staff and expertise to beat out bigger rivals, and be able to afford prices that are rising due to competition from private equity firms.

With chargeoffs historically high, debt volumes up and liquidation rates down, choosing whether to invest in technology or stand pat has taken on grave importance.

Asset Acquisition Group LLC, a debt buyer in Denver, purchased a $240 million loan portfolio from a large national bank. It is one of the largest purchases for the company since it opened in 1992, according to Donna J. Meier, president and chief executive, who added that the deal is part of an "amplified acquisition plan for 2010."

The Treasury Department said Friday that Monarch Financial Holdings Inc. repurchased $260,000 in stock warrants, clearing the company's slate with the government.

LAKELAND, Fla. – MidFlorida FCU has agreed to renovate the 90-year-old federal building here.