While now is hardly the time for optimistic forecasts, next year could present community banks with unprecedented opportunities to add customers, loans, and talent as larger rivals repair balance sheets and integrate mergers.

It is another example of government agencies working at cross purposes: Regulatory moves designed to coax private-equity money into the banking system are being undercut by the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

By relaxing the rules governing bank holding companies, the Federal Reserve is trying to pump more private equity into the banking system.

Members of the New Jersey Bankers Association have signed off on the trade group's agreement to merge with the New Jersey League of Community Bankers, paving the way for the deal to close by Jan. 1.

Throughout the credit crisis bank supervisors — federal and state — have strayed from their usual remedial practices.

CapitalSouth Bancorp in Birmingham, Ala., is considering putting itself up for sale after a plan to raise capital failed to pique investor interest.

A handful of community banks in Pennsylvania are using capital they received from the Treasury Department to save 9,000 local jobs threatened by a department store's bankruptcy filing.

MIDWEST

IberiaBank Corp. in Lafayette, La., is beefing up its capital base to make more acquisitions.

While federal officials move to implement programs to thaw the credit markets, they should not overlook a vital tool already serving the U.S. banking system: the Federal Home Loan banks.

Capitol Bancorp Ltd. of Lansing, Mich., is putting its cross-country expansion on hold while it sorts through credit problems at some of its Midwest banks.

NewStar Financial Inc., a Boston commercial finance company, says it wants to get a national bank charter and buy a troubled bank.

Capmark Financial Group Inc., a Horsham, Pa., real estate lender and advisory firm, has filed an application with the Federal Reserve Board to become a bank holding company, and it is seeking to convert its industrial loan bank to a Utah state-chartered bank.

With its capital depleted by heavy losses in its loan and investment portfolios, Service Bancorp Inc. in Medway, Mass., is selling itself to one of its competitors.

Penseco Financial Services Corp. in Scranton, Pa., is buying the $220 million-asset Old Forge Bank in a deal that would combine two of northeast Pennyslvania's oldest financial institutions.

Reeling from losses on construction and development loans, Frontier Financial Corp. in Everett, Wash., has overhauled its management team as part of an effort to de-emphasize commercial real estate lending.

AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn University FCU announced yesterday the opening of its new offices, which include a full service branch, located a quarter-mile from campus.

Select Bank in Grand Rapids, Mich., has been hit with a cease-and-desist order that requires it to improve underwriting, boost loan-loss provisions, and reduce its reliance on brokered deposits.

Kevin Cummings, the president and chief executive officer of Investors Bancorp Inc. in Short Hills, N.J., refers to his company as a start-up, even though it opened 82 years ago.