Forget the pile of nonperforming assets, eight consecutive quarterly losses and the cancellation of a similar rights offering a year ago; BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. is again asking shareholders to double down.

Regulators closed two community banks in Florida, and one in Oregon, Friday evening to bring the year's failure total to 72.

Bankers and consultants alike report a quiet and continuing migration of seasoned talent away from the nation's major banks and into the calmer offices of smaller regional lenders.

IMGCAP(1)]

UCBH Holdings Inc. is forecasting a provision for loan losses of $300 million to $350 million for the second quarter, up roughly tenfold from a year earlier.

On the heels of reporting a $63.9 million second-quarter loss, Seacoast Banking Corp. in Florida has initiated a public offering. The $2.1 billion-asset Stuart company plans to sell 34.5 million shares of common stock and, if demand is strong enough, an additional 5.2 million shares.

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.

IMGCAP(1)]

MIDWEST

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.