Citing improved credit quality, FirstMerit Corp. of Akron said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter earnings more than quadrupled from a year earlier, to $31.5 million.

First Community Bancorp of San Diego said Tuesday that fourth-quarter earnings fell 25.1% from a year earlier, to $17 million, mainly because of a loan-loss provision and a decline in loan yields.

Capital City Bank Group Inc. of Tallahassee, Fla., said Tuesday that a spike in chargeoffs contributed to a 13.5% decline in its fourth-quarter net income, to $7.7 million.

With deep-pocketed owners and a posse of aggressive bankers on its payroll, First Chicago Bank and Trust in Itasca, Ill., says it is on a fast track to at least triple in size over the next five years.

Cape Savings Bank's plan to go public and buy Boardwalk Bancorp Inc. is turning into a nail-biter.

Community Bankshares Inc. in Orangeburg, S.C., said Friday that its Community Resource Bank is shuttering its wholesale mortgage brokerage business.

Republic Bancorp Inc. in Louisville reported Friday that its fourth-quarter net income rose 8% from a year earlier, to $6.4 million.

First Financial Holdings Inc. in Charleston, S.C., said Thursday that earnings for its fiscal 2008 first quarter fell 50%, to $2.9 million, because of costs associated with a new early-retirement program and higher loan-loss reserves.

The $4.5 billion-asset Westamerica Bancorp in San Rafael, Calif., said its fourth-quarter earnings fell 8.9% from a year earlier, to $21.8 million, because of a decline in average earning assets and legal fees connected with litigation against Visa Inc.

In rural parts of central Oregon, it is tough for poor people to get jobs in bigger towns such as Bend or Redmond if they do not have cars to get to work.

Despite a large chargeoff, Lakeland Bancorp Inc.'s strong loan and deposit growth fueled a 57% increase in its fourth-quarter profits from a year earlier, to $3.3 million.

Banks have flocked to northwest Arkansas in recent years because it has been the fastest-growing region of an otherwise slow-growing state.

PFF Bancorp Inc. executives certainly have their hands full these days.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Colony Bankcorp Inc. in Fitzgerald, Ga., said its fourth-quarter earnings fell 71% from a year earlier, to $752,000, missing analysts' expectations by a wide margin.

State-chartered banks in South Dakota could soon get the same authority to branch as freely within the state as their national bank counterparts.

Macatawa Bank Corp. in Holland, Mich., lost nearly as much money in the fourth quarter of 2007 as it made in the year-earlier period.

Suffolk Bancorp in Riverhead, N.Y., said Tuesday that fourth-quarter and 2007 earnings were basically flat when compared with the year earlier.

The decision by several large banks to boost automated teller machine fees charged to noncustomers has prompted a widespread reconsideration by community banks of their own ATM policies.