No longer wary of the stigma of receiving capital injections from the federal government, privately held community banks are lining up to participate in the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Shares of E-Trade Financial Corp. soared Tuesday after the online brokerage and banking firm said that it "remains optimistic" about its chances to get a large capital injection from the Treasury Department.

In the failure of PFF Bancorp Inc. of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., lies the wreckage of another deal.

U.S. Bancorp's efforts to bulk up in several of its markets got off to a rousing start with the acquisition of two failed California thrifts.

Add Team Financial Inc. of Paola, Kan., to the growing list of banking companies that have publicly declared they may fail.

A Massachusetts merger of a bank and a credit union has won regulatory approval.

As a longtime executive at Wachovia Corp. and its predecessor, First Union Corp., Kent Ellert was instrumental in helping the Charlotte company integrate its Florida acquisitions. Now he wants to use his market knowledge and his connections to build his own banking company.

WASHINGTON — Though the Treasury Department quickly approved scores of institutions' requests for capital injections, many others seeking a share of the government funds have been waiting weeks for an answer, and their investors are getting nervous.

Less than a year after it was spun off from the timber company Temple-Inland Inc., Guaranty Financial Group Inc. of Austin is searching for a replacement for its longtime chief executive.

SOUTHWEST

WASHINGTON — The Community Bank, a $681 million-asset institution in Loganville, Ga., became the industry's 20th failed bank of the year.

The National Council of La Raza is getting into the check-cashing business as part of a plan to get more people with low to moderate income into the financial mainstream.

Another life insurance company is planning to buy a troubled banking company to qualify for government capital.

Like many of the community banks they serve, bankers' banks have hit a rough patch.

ELIZABETHTOWN, N.Y. – Ticonderoga FCU provided a $300 donation to the local food bank, as well as a drawing for a $1,200 "Economic Stimulus Package," double the amount provided by the federal government last summer, as part of the opening of its new branch here this week.

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Credit Union West has acquired a local office building, known as The Technology Center, from a private trust for $3.6 million, or about $100 per square foot.

LYNN, Mass. – Lynn Teachers CU has obtained approval to move out of its tiny offices in the local junior/senior high school into new offices in the vocational and technical annex.

Vineyard National Bancorp in Corona, Calif., reported a loss of $28.6 million for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, bringing its total loss for the first nine months of the year to $109.8 million.

Capital Corp. of the West, which last week warned that its future could be in doubt if it failed to raise capital, said late Monday that it had lost $54.6 million in the third quarter, compared to a profit of $6 million the year earlier.

Privately held and thinly traded banking companies that participate in the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program would face tighter restrictions than publicly traded ones, particularly when it comes to paying dividends and redeeming trust-preferred securities.