Twelve individuals who worked for a group of Buffalo, N.Y. area collection agencies were charged yesterday with grand larceny after allegedly posing as law enforcement officials and threatening debtors with jail if they did not pay their bills, according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

To the Editor:
The article from Sept. 25 on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s agreement with First Financial Bank to take over the Irwin banks ["Acquirer Impresses with Terms Won in Failure Buy"] fails to capture how the process works.

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When Larry Brown, the chief executive at Bank of Little Rock, first heard the name Kasasa, he thought the conversation had turned from rewards checking to what's for dinner.

The Federal Reserve Board has ordered Bankers' Bancorp Inc. in Springfield, Ill., and its subsidiary Independent Bankers' Bank, to improve accounting practices.

LOWELL, Mass.–Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union has opened a new 53,000-square-foot coporate headquarters here. The new building is at One Tremont Place, the site of the historic Tremont Yard & Mills. To mark the opening, the $735-million credit union hosted a gala that included numerous local dignitaries. The credit union has a long history in the town and is among the nation’s oldest, having been founded in 1912.

KleinBank's new CEO already has a deal to buy a struggling one-branch competitor, and industry observers say more companies could start eyeing similar small deals.

Eager to bolster its capital ratios, Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc. in Flint, Mich., said Monday that it will more than triple the number of shares it has outstanding, as part of a deal to exchange subordinated debt and trust-preferred securities for common stock.

American Home Bank in West Chester, Pa., is looking to buy seasoned, high-quality residential mortgage loans from financial institutions.

PVF Capital Corp. in Solon, Ohio, cited a steep increase in its loan-loss provision in reporting that the net loss for its fiscal fourth quarter widened 192% from the year earlier, to $7.9 million.

The president and chief executive officer of Royal Asian Bank in Philadelphia is leading a group of investors that struck a deal to buy it.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – APCO Employees CU broke ground last week on a new three-story office project that will triple its current office space.

Last week a handful of struggling companies either closed on capital raises or announced plans to raise capital despite pending or expected agreements with regulators.

Regulators closed the $2 billion-asset Georgian Bank in Atlanta on Friday, the industry's 95th failure of the year. Despite its relatively small size, regulators estimated it would take a heavy toll on the Deposit Insurance Fund, costing $892 million.

When it bought the failed bank and thrift units of Irwin Financial Corp. from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. last week, First Financial managed to get terms so attractive that others are taking notice.

A small Florida bank raised $70 million through an initial public offering Wednesday, in what is believed to be the first such deal in the banking sector in two years.

With as much as $196.6 million headed to its war chest, Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Ind., could be striking deals for failed banks soon.

SOUTHEAST