While much of the nation’s economy is sputtering, the agricultural sector — thanks to soaring commodity prices — is booming, and bankers are eager to meet what they expect to be abundant demand for operational loans.

Westsound Bank in Bremerton, Wash., has been slapped with a cease-and-desist order that requires it to strengthen its lending practices and replace its chief executive officer.

MIDWEST

The Texas Department of Banking issued a cease-and-desist order Tuesday against Houston Petroleum Bank Inc., an unlicensed company that claimed to be a bank and had been soliciting deposits.

Baltimore County Savings Bank said the Office of Thrift Supervision has lifted the supervisory agreement under which it has been operating since December 2005.

While much of the nation's economy is sputtering, the agricultural sector — thanks to soaring commodity prices — is booming, and bankers are eager to meet what they expect to be abundant demand for operational loans.

First Community Bancorp in San Diego is planning to reincorporate in Delaware and rename itself PacWest Bancorp.

HomeTown Bank of Roanoke, Va., plans to open a branch in Christiansburg, Va., teaming up with the former dissident shareholders of FNB Corp.

BankLiberty in Liberty, Mo., has agreed to buy nearly all the banking operations, assets, and deposits of Farley State Bank in Parkville.

After six years as the chief executive of Central Pacific Financial Corp. in Honolulu, Clint Arnoldus announced he will retire Dec. 31.

A little more than a year after becoming Eastern Bank Corp.'s chairman and chief executive officer, Richard E. Holbrook has struck his first big deal for the Boston company.

With Maryland's largest bank on the hook for millions of dollars in fees it charged borrowers who prepaid their loans, state legislators are moving quickly to protect other banks by revising the statute on prepayment charges.

Shares of Tennessee Commerce Bancorp Inc. in Franklin plummeted Monday after the company said it had found "material weaknesses" with its internal controls and had put its chief financial officer on paid leave.

Village Bank and Trust Financial Corp. of Midlothian, Va., said Monday that it has a deal to buy River City Bank in Mechanicsville for $20.2 million in cash and stock.

As Texas’ new commissioner of savings and mortgage lending, Doug Foster does not appear to have the same industry pressures as regulators elsewhere.

American Community Bank in Monroe, N.C., has hired William Mark DeMarcus as its chief banking officer.

Unable to find a buyer after it was ordered by its regulator to sell itself, Universal Savings Bank in Milwaukee will liquidate its assets and deposits voluntarily, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Friday.

Federal and state regulators said Friday that they have shut down the $18.7 million-asset Hume Bank in Missouri, the second bank to fail this year.

First Citizens Bancorp Inc. in Columbia, S.C., is expanding its reach in Georgia with a deal to buy the $145 million-asset Merchants and Farmers Bank of Comer for $37 million.