A three-decade friendship between the heads of two Tennessee banks has led to a merger of equals.

Is Fidelity Bankshares Inc. in play?

FirstCity Financial Corp., a Waco, Tex., company that buys nonperforming loans from community banks, announced Monday that it plans to charter an industrial bank in Utah so it can begin buying good loans.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp in Pittsfield, Mass., has hired Thomas C. Crowley, a veteran Albany-area banker, as the president of its New York region.

Texas United Bancshares Inc. in La Grange has agreed to buy the $125 million-asset Northwest Bancshares of Roanoke, Tex.

Rabobank Group has no retail operations in the Midwest, but just the thought of the world's largest agricultural lender moving into the nation's heartland is making community bankers there a little nervous.

The pending merger of the New York Bankers Association and the Community Bankers Association of New York State would be the eighth between state bank and thrift trade groups since 2000.

After years of alerting consumers to the dangers of high-cost credit products such as payday loans and fee-based overdraft protection, the Consumer Federation of America is sounding the alarm on a new threat: car title loans.

Commercial Capital Corp. bought Hawthorne Financial Corp. in June 2004 largely for Hawthorne's deposits, but an investment bank's recent analysis of deposit trends at California banks and thrifts suggests that the acquisition has not worked out as well as planned.

WASHINGTON - The Senate and House last week approved legislation to boost the federal flood insurance program's borrowing authority to $18.5 billion. President Bush is expected to sign the measure shortly.

At a hearing this month, House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas rejected banks' calls to make big credit unions pay federal income tax, but he criticized credit unions' federal regulator for not collecting data showing how well the industry serves people with modest incomes.

Prosperity Bancshares Inc.'s biggest deal ever could be its most challenging too.

University Bancorp Inc. in Ann Arbor, Mich., will move next month to a new headquarters building that is more than double the size of its current one - and the upgrade is costing it only $700,000.

Hundreds of community banks make Small Business Administration loans, but for the vast majority they are little more than a sideline.

When interest rates were hovering at or near record lows, agricultural banks were generally able to fund variable-rate farmland loans with certificates of deposit.

Northwest Bancorp Inc. of Warren, Pa., announced an acquisition deal that would double its branch count in the Baltimore area.

Between 1997 and 2004, Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. of Lititz, Pa., focused its expansion efforts within its home state, buying banks in Pottstown, York, Everett, and Bryn Mawr. Now it is looking farther afield.

Provident Bankshares Corp. in Baltimore announced revised earnings data Tuesday for the first, second, and third quarters of this year and all of 2004.

KNBT Bancorp Inc. of Bethlehem, Pa., announced Tuesday that it is acquiring Paragon Group Inc. of Allentown, Pa., which owns Trust Co. of Lehigh Valley.