Shares of Home BancShares Inc. fell Friday after the Conway, Ark., company said it expects to report a loss of $9.4 million for the fourth quarter, primarily because of the weak Florida housing market.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has put the brakes on approvals for new banks in several states hard hit by the real estate crisis, according to consultants and attorneys who advise investors trying to charter new banks.

Community Trust Bancorp Inc. of Pikeville, Ky., said Friday that it expects to report its fourth-quarter earnings per share fell roughly a third from a year earlier, to a range of 38 to 40 cents.

To bolster its capital, United Community Financial Corp. of Youngstown, Ohio, said Thursday that it plans to sell the trust company of its Butler Wick Corp. to Farmers National Banc Corp. of Canfield.

A number of insurance companies and specialty lenders that aim to become bank or thrift holding companies — most of them so they can qualify for government capital — are still waiting for their holding company applications to be approved.

Mechanics Bank in Richmond, Calif., is testing the Treasury Department's flexibility for banks participating in the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The outlook for Peoples Community Bancorp Inc. in West Chester, Ohio, appears increasingly grim after a second deal to sell itself collapsed.

Heritage Community Bancorp Inc. in Glenwood, Ill., is once again looking for a lifeline after an agreement to receive a cash infusion from First Community Financial Partners of Joliet expired Dec. 31.

NEW ENGLAND

MANITOWOC, Wis. – UnitedOne CU plans to open a new student-run branch inside Lincoln High School later this month, the credit union’s third in-school branch.

With the secondary market for Small Business Administration loans frozen, Temecula Valley Bancorp Inc., one of the nation's most active SBA lenders, stopped taking applications for those loans Monday.

As bigger lenders tighten credit, small and midsize businesses are warming conceptually to striking relationships with community banks — and the banks appear receptive.

A struggling Ohio banking company is back on the market after a second deal to sell itself fell through.

The case for fiscal and monetary stimulus has never been greater since the administration of Franklin Roosevelt. The difficult question is not whether but how to structure interventionist federal assistance.

Cascade Bancorp Inc. in Bend, Ore., restated its second- and third-quarter results because of a miscalculation that understated its loan-loss reserves.

Southern National Bancorp of Virginia Inc. said Monday that it has moved its bank subsidiary's headquarters from Charlottesville to McLean and switched from a national to a state charter.

Banks are facing yet another challenge to profits: a slew of downgrades on trust-preferred securities in their investment portfolios.

Dearborn Bancorp Inc. in Michigan said it plans to take nearly $40 million in noncash pretax impairment charges for last year's fourth quarter to better align its book value with its tangible book value.