Even in a market as fiercely competitive as Florida, Orion Bancorp Inc. stands out.

Woodforest National Bank in Texas will ride Wal-Mart's coattails into 70 Ohio stores beginning next month.

Officials at Centrue Financial Corp. and UnionBancorp Inc. offer a pretty simple explanation for merging the two Illinois companies: being able to operate more efficiently and having deeper pockets to expand.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Continuing its aggressive expansion in its home state, Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. of San Antonio announced Monday that it had agreed to buy the $1.1 billion-asset Summit Bancshares Inc. of Fort Worth for about $366 million in cash and stock.

F.N.B. Corp. in Hermitage, Pa., announced Friday that its president and chief executive, Stephen J. Gurgovits, will step down Dec. 31, 2008.

Best known as a mortgage lender, Flagstar Bancorp Inc. in Troy, Mich., is trying to make a bigger name for itself in retail banking.

BCSB Bankcorp Inc. of Baltimore announced that it would take an after-tax charge of $6.9 million, or $1.18 a share, for its fiscal third quarter, which ended Friday, because of losses from a check-kiting scheme.

Old National Bancorp, which has not bought a bank since 2000, is embracing the time-tested acquisition strategy of courting potential targets.

‘Career Plaintiff’ at the Ready for Telemarketers

(From The Credit Union Journal)

Castle Creek Capital LLC, a merchant banking organization in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., has agreed to buy The Bank in Melbourne, Fla., for about $45 million.

AUSTIN - Texas legislators are studying the idea of merging the state's bank, thrift, credit union, and consumer credit supervisors into a single agency.

Community Banks Inc. wants to significantly expand the trust and wealth management services in its Pennsylvania footprint as it looks to eclipse $1 billion of assets under management.

Corus Bankshares Inc. appears to be taking a breather from lending to condominium developers.

The National Credit Union Administration’s vice chairman entered hostile territory this week, offering an olive branch to a group of North Carolina bankers.

Leesport Financial Corp. in Wyomissing, Pa., announced Thursday that it is eliminating 14 jobs to trim overhead and improve efficiency.