The capital-strapped Harrington West Financial Group Inc. in Solvang, Calif., has decided to leave Kansas. The $1.16 billion-asset company said late Thursday that it agreed to sell its Kansas City operations to Arvest Bank in Fayetteville, Ark.

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.

Georgian Bancorp. is still seeking to raise at least $25M after a tenfold jump in bad loans in six months.

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

CapitalSource reported Thursday that it swung to a $247M loss in the 2Q, from a profit of $62M a year earlier, as credit quality continued to worsen.

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.

It's often the basic and simple good will gestures that generate the kind of awareness and positive personal impressions that "marketing campaigns" can seldom deliver.

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With no capital left, Irwin Financial Corp. is pinning its hopes for survival on a new program from the Treasury Department that may not even exist. The $3.4 billion-asset company reported Wednesday that, after seven quarters of losses, its total risk-based capital has dipped below zero. Though both Irwin's bank and its thrift remained adequately capitalized at the end of the second quarter, regulators have given the thrift until Aug. 31 to boost its capital or face a forced sale or liquidation.

Umpqua Holdings Corp. plans to aggressively expand its private banking unit as other, smaller banks divest such businesses. Donna Huntsman, who was hired Monday to be a senior vice president of private banking, said she expects the Roseburg, Ore., company to have at least $900 million of private banking assets under management in three years.

The $3.8 billion-asset First Financial missed out on the boom years, spending the middle part of the decade quitting unprofitable business lines and markets, and shedding employees.

We need a diverse industry held accountable by able state and federal authorities armed with the legal and statutory tools necessary to provide effective consumer protection.

The Federal Reserve Board ordered Michigan's troubled Warren Bank to quickly boost capital or find a buyer.

After a consent order from its regulators landed it in default on a line of credit, Amcore Financial Inc. in Rockford, Ill., has paid down some of the debt and gotten an extension to repay the rest.

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.

The survival of the fittest has definitely played out among banks competing for middle-market business customers, according to more than 6,000 such companies.

With public sentiment running so hard against the banking industry these days the story of Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association, a $13.4 million minority-controlled mutual in Pittsburgh, is nothing short of amazing.Community leaders have rallied around the thrift for the past few months after cyber thieves took more than $3 million through fraudulent automated clearing house transactions, leaving the thrift with a $1 million capital hole.

MADISON, Wis. – UW CU said yesterday it has agreed to purchase a 14,00-square-foot building in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa from AMCORE Bank, which the credit union will turn into its third branch in Milwaukee.