A few years ago the banking profession was riding high. People respected banks, and banking was a career that was well regarded.

SAN DIMAS, Calif. – Financial Service Centers Cooperative has unveiled a locator service for shared service centers, identifying the location of 5,700 shared branches nationwide whether it’s traditional branches, self-service kiosks, or 7-Eleven stores.

As large institutions race to repay government capital, the Treasury Department is offering smaller ones another chance to take the money.

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PITTSTON, Penn. – UFCW FCU celebrated the grand opening of its new branch inside Quinn’s Market with a drawing for a three-minute shopping spree.

SHREVPORT, La. – Pelican State CU said it has purchased the CU Service Center in Shreveport from CU Cooperative Branching, LLC.

Shares of Cadence Financial Corp. in Starkville, Miss., fell Tuesday after the $2.1 billion-asset bank said that its first-quarter loss would be significantly higher than it previously estimated.

Another banking company has tallied the impact of Silverton Bank's failure on its bottom line.

Though credit quality continued to be an issue at its Kansas and Florida banks, Mercantile Bancorp Inc. of Quincy, Ill., nearly halved its first-quarter loss compared with a year earlier.

Nonperforming assets at City Bank in Lynwood, Wash., have ballooned to 44.3% of its total, but the company said Monday that it is encouraged by its success in securing home sales.

Sterling Bancorp in New York said Monday that its first-quarter earnings fell 43% from a year earlier, to $2.8 million, or 15 cents a share.

Finding the bottom line has become a little trickier with banking companies that received government infusions.

HOUSTON – Smart Financial CU has opened a new branch, just east of Interstate 45, on the same property as the company’s previous branch.

MINNEAPOLIS – Teacher FCU, the state’s fifth largest credit union, announced it is changing its name to TruStone Financial FCU in June 1, as part of a rebranding to expand membership.

Robert Gandy 4th, a third-generation Texas banker who has worked in the industry since childhood, said he "always wanted to build something on my own, start something from the bottom up."

Regulators have ordered a $14 million-asset mutual thrift in Pittsburgh to raise capital, citing improper automated clearing house transactions that resulted in large losses.

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Columbia CU’s new Washougal branch was awarded one of the highest certificates of environmental and energy efficient design by the U.S. Green Building Council last week.

SAN ANTONIO — When the going gets tough, the truly tough get growing.

ST. LOUIS — Upheaval in the financial sector and the economy as a whole is creating new short- and long-term trends in facility development.

MILWAUKEE — Financial institutions are scrambling to re-evaluate their facilities expansion plans as the economy stumbles, but putting plans on hold may mean missing out on big opportunities as building prices are falling.