MIDWEST

One Main Street LLC, an investment fund in New York City, has announced an agreement to buy the tiny Liberty Bank Inc. in Salt Lake City with a plan to expand it into a regional bank.

Call me nuts, but in an increasingly competitive and commoditized industry, "friend" seems like a strategically good place to be. What will you and your team do to make friends (and future customers) this week?

Midwest Banc Holdings Inc. has won another round in its battle for recapitalization, as a result of an unusual move by the Treasury Department.

Credit Bureau Collection Services, a Columbus, Ohio collection agency, will pay a civil fine of $1.1 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated federal law by inaccurately reporting credit information and pushing consumers to pay debts they often did not owe, FTC officials said today.

The longtime chairman of Brookline Bancorp in Massachusetts resigned late last month after his board voted to reject a buyout offer, but he did not leave quietly.

Valley Commerce Bancorp of Visalia, Calif., said it lost $2.1 million in the fourth quarter, compared with earnings of $417,000 a year earlier.

Camco Financial Corp. of Cambridge, Ohio, said it narrowed its fourth-quarter loss by $4 million from a year earlier, to $11.8 million.

While the Obama administration's efforts to boost small-business lending languish on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are pressing an alternative.

Iberiabank in Lafayette, La., is reloading with heavier artillery. The $9.7 billion-asset company announced plans Tuesday to raise another $300 million, plus a 15% option for underwriters.

A Washington, D.C. lawyer, accused late last year of collecting more than $1.2 million from homeowners with false promises to arrange loan modifications, has been charged with bank fraud after depositing $2.4 million in counterfeit checks at several banks.

TransUnion reports that customers at least 60 days past due on their mortgage payments rose to a new record in the fourth quarter.

California United Bank in Encino on Monday announced a 63% decline in profits for 2009 compared with 2008.

PHH Corp., best known for originating mortgages behind the scenes for household names like Charles Schwab Corp. and Merrill Lynch, plans to expand other home lending channels as industrywide volume tanks.

Mercantile Bank Corp. in Grand Rapids has revised its fourth-quarter results to reflect a 65% increase in its provision for loan losses.

On the eve of a hearing on credit and small-business lending, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said Monday that regulators and banks must err on the side of protecting safety and soundness over encouraging credit availability.

Reversing a trend of the past two years, more mutual thrift companies are announcing plans to sell shares and convert to stock companies.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – State chartered credit unions may dedicate branches to specific select groups with signs and other promotions, as long as they make clear the operation is a unit of the credit union, according to a new legal opinion issued last week by the Department of Financial Institutions’ Division of CUs.

Legal collection giant Mann Bracken LLP, at the firm's request, will be placed into receivership and liquidated rather than filing for bankruptcy protection, according to Montgomery County (Md.) Circuit Court officials.

State regulators shut two banks on Friday, bringing the year's total failures to 22. The failures are expected to cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $103.1 million.