NRDC Acquisition Corp. is looking to inject as much as $400 million into a community bank that commits to using the added capital to turbocharge its commercial real estate lending.

The faltering economy has sunk yet another banking merger.

Consumers and business owners have historically based decisions about where to bank on access, convenience, and the price of products and services, but with the economy in a tailspin, customers above all want to be sure their money is safe and that their bank is not in danger of failing.

Hanmi Financial Corp. in Los Angeles said it has applied for $105 million from the Treasury Department's Capital Purchase Program and said that if the application is approved it would use the funds to increase its lending to small and midsize businesses.

Greensfork Township State Bank, a two-branch bank in rural Lynn, Ind., is moving into the state's largest market with a deal to acquire the $57 million-asset Symphony Bank in Indianapolis.

In a deal that would nearly double its deposits in its home state's largest metropolitan market, Old National Bancorp in Evansville is buying all the Indiana branches of Citizens Financial Group Inc.

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.