A year ago many community banks were touting how they had adeptly lowered funding costs by deemphasizing certificates of deposit and attracting lower-cost transactional deposits.

Nearly everyone who worked for Columbia Vista Corp., a Vancouver, Wash., sawmill operator, was a renter in 2003, when HomeStreet Bank in Seattle helped it set up a mortgage program.

Midwest Bank Holdings Inc. of Melrose Park, Ill., plans to offer 2.5 million shares of common stock and use the proceeds to boost capital and fund expansion in the Chicago area.

Encouraged by a six-month pilot program, next month the Treasury Department will begin a nationwide push for Social Security recipients to use direct deposit.

When Bank of America Corp. acquired FleetBoston Financial Corp. last year, Eastern Bank Corp. in Boston figured it would attract a fair amount of runoff business - but it never expected that its new customers would include other community banks.

Though there is no evidence that any of New Jersey’s 20 state-chartered credit unions are interested in becoming thrifts, a lawmaker there is set to unveil legislation that would allow them to do so anyway.

EFC Bancorp Inc. of Elgin, Ill., said its second-quarter net income rose 15%, to $1.8 million, and cited an increase in interest-earning assets and higher fee income.

Commercial National Financial Corp. in Latrobe, Pa., is giving up its status as financial holding company — and the powers that go along with it — and will become a bank holding company.

Whitney Holding Corp. of New Orleans is clearly willing to pay top dollar to establish itself on Florida's Gulf Coast.

Banner Corp. in Walla Walla, Wash., said Thursday that strong loan growth, particularly in new markets, boosted its second-quarter earnings.

Calnet Business Bank in Sacramento invested heavily in technology when it opened in late 2001 so that it could offer sophisticated fee-based products and services, such as electronic draft processing, and would not have to rely too heavily on lending.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. of San Antonio reported Wednesday that it had second-quarter earnings of $40.7 million, 19% more than a year earlier.

MIDWEST

First Midwest Bancorp Inc. of Itasca, Ill., announced Wednesday that its second-quarter earnings rose 7%, to $26.5 million.

Fulton Financial Corp.'s deal for Columbia Bancorp has the makings of a perfect marriage.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp in Pittsfield, Mass., said Wednesday that it lost $4.6 million in the second quarter, primarily because of an $8.6 million charge it took for the previously announced termination of its employee stock ownership program.

Guaranty Bank and Trust Co. in Denver is being sued for allegedly assisting a former money manager, Will Hoover, in swindling his customers out of nearly $12 million, according to the Rocky Mountain News.