Dr. Stephen Liu likes to compare the bank he co-founded six years ago to a tomato.

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In a prelude to going public, Encore Bank in Houston plans to switch from a federal thrift to a federal bank charter.

Carver Bancorp Inc. said Thursday that earnings for its fiscal first quarter, which ended June 30, fell 4.5% from a year earlier, to $802,000, and diluted earnings per share fell 6%, to 31 cents.

AUSTIN - A drought stretching from the Rio Grande Valley to the top of the Panhandle is frying Texas' cotton, and with about 30% of the crop already lost, experts expect the yield to drop by about half this year.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Iberiabank Corp. of Lafayette, La., is wasting no time beefing up in Arkansas.

One of the largest community banking companies in southern California is consolidating banks and switching to a state charter to save costs.

Millennium Bankshares Corp. has reached an apparent cease-fire with a shareholder group that had been agitating for the Reston, Va., company's sale.

Confronted with fierce competition for deposits, several banking companies are assigning executives the specific task of bringing in more.

Cadence Financial Corp. in Starkville, Miss., said Monday that it does not expect the sudden departure of Seasons Bancshares Inc.'s president to delay the closing of its deal to buy the Blairsville, Ga., company.

Northeast Bancorp in Lewiston, Maine, said Monday that earnings in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended June 30, slipped about 1.4% from a year earlier, to just over $1 million.

With its deal for Piedmont Bancshares Inc. of Atlanta, PrivateBancorp Inc. is following through on its pledge to expand outside the Midwest and into fast-growing southern and western markets.

Five banks in Florida are putting up $385,000 to help fund an ambitious effort to create for-profit community development corporations to redevelop poor areas.

Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin Inc. on Monday reported a 9% year-over-year drop in earnings for its fiscal first quarter, to $10.6 million.

Most start-up banks are having little trouble raising money these days, but some banks targeting African-Americans are proving to be tough sells.

Capitol Federal Financial of Topeka, Kan., said earnings for its fiscal third quarter, which ended June 30, fell 30% from a year earlier, to $11.3 million.

Many banks have sought to attract customers by opening branches in department stores and supermarkets, but one Kentucky banking company is putting a new spin on that old model by building a store in its branch.

PrivateBancorp Inc. of Chicago has agreed to buy the $217 million-asset Piedmont Bancshares Inc. in Atlanta for $46.6 million in cash and stock.

Community Bank System Inc. in DeWitt, N.Y., has a deal to buy ONB Corp. in Clifton Springs for $15.7 million in cash.