A proxy fight is brewing at Vineyard National Bancorp — and the antagonist is the Corona, Calif., company's former chief executive officer.

After Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans in August 2005, the future for Liberty Bank and Trust Co. appeared uncertain.

Kenneth E. Edge, who was credited with transforming Amcore Financial Inc. of Rockford, Ill., from a local to a regional player in northern Illinois, has retired as its chief executive officer.

Central Bancompany in Jefferson City, Mo., plans to merge two of its banks to create the ninth-largest bank in the Kansas City market.

Shares of Cascade Bancorp fell sharply Friday after the Bend, Ore., company announced it had revised fourth-quarter and 2007 earnings to reflect growing weakness in its portfolio of construction and land development loans.

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First of Long Island Corp. in Glen Head, N.Y., said Friday that its fourth-quarter net income rose 10.6% from a year earlier, to $3 million. Earnings per share rose 11%, to 40 cents.

Exchange Bancshares of Moore Inc. in Moore, Okla., said it has agreed to sell itself for $16.1 million, minus some items, to an investor group led by a Michigan physician.

Don't tell TriState Capital Bank's president, Bill Schenck, that loan demand is weak these days.

Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc.'s stock plunged Thursday, after the company warned that its fourth-quarter loss would be higher than the previously announced $20.4 million, due to a significant increase in its loan-loss provision.

The banking industry’s image has suffered as fees have jumped and foreclosures have spiked, so bankers in Utah are trying to change the public’s perception.

Investors and analysts who listened to CapitalSource Inc.'s earnings conference call early Thursday morning expecting to gain more insight on the Maryland real estate investment trust's pending acquisition of TierOne Corp. were disappointed.

Cascade Bancorp in Bend, Ore., said Thursday after the market closed that it earned $5 million less in the fourth quarter than it first reported last month due to deterioration in its portfolio of construction and land development loans.

Flagstar Bancorp Inc. of Troy, Mich., said it will not pay a shareholder dividend for the first quarter to preserve capital.

As a passive investor in Southside Bancshares Inc., First National Bank Group Inc. in Edinburg, Tex., did not have much say in Southside's decisions to buy a bank in Fort Worth or enter the business of buying pools of car loans.

MIDWEST

Sometime in the next five years the $1.2 billion-asset Bank of Granite Corp. in Granite Falls, N.C., intends to expand into neighboring markets by buying another bank, says R. Scott Anderson, its chief executive officer.

ORLANDO — Bank examiners’ emphasis on commercial real estate loans has become much greater in the past year, community bankers say.