American Community Bancshares Inc. of Charlotte is consolidating its charters and merging its South Carolina subsidiary, which it acquired last year, into its lead bank.

Founders Group Inc. in Worth, Ill., is buying the $50 million-asset Vermilion Bancorp Inc. of Danville for $8.6 million in cash.

Cardinal Financial Corp.'s acquisition last year of a large mortgage company nearly doubled its assets, to $1.2 billion, but did not bring in any new deposits, which it would need to fund anticipated loan growth.

Many state lawmakers, like their counterparts in Congress, are itching to enact tough data privacy measures this year.

Center Financial Corp.'s stock fell sharply Thursday on news that the Los Angeles company had found "material weakness" in its internal controls and had requested an extension for the filing of its annual report.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Late last year the Maryland Bankers Association was looking into ways to offer its community-bank members reasonably priced brokerage services that they in turn could offer to their customers.

Fairfield County, Conn., and Westchester County, N.Y., are two of the most crowded and competitive banking markets in the country, but an investor group is gambling that there is room for another community bank.

Washington Trust Co., which agreed this week to buy a Boston-area registered investment adviser, says it may consider more deals, particularly in Florida.

Horizon Bancorp of Michigan City, Ind., announced Tuesday that it had raised the price in its previously announced deal for Alliance Financial Corp. of New Buffalo, Mich., by 12%, to $13.1 million in cash.

Thomas Gillen has a niche: teaching bank directors how to make their stock more liquid.

Two investors who only recently acquired a stake in RidgeStone Financial Services Inc. have made an unsolicited offer to buy the Brookfield, Wis., company for $17.1 million in cash.

After spending much of 2002 and 2003 consolidating its 14 charters into five and reorganizing back-office operations, First Financial Bancorp in Hamilton, Ohio, learned that cost-cutting alone does not improve performance.

The National Credit Union Administration last week approved a pilot program that allows CUNA Mutual Group to buy credit union loans, then package them into funds and sell shares in the funds to individual credit unions.

Joe McArthur has resigned as chief executive of SouthFirst Bancshares Inc. of Sylacauga, Ala., after less than four years on the job.

While at least six communities in the Chicago area are trying to keep new bank branches out, others are trying to get banks to notice them.

In its 16 months in business, Fidelity and Trust Bank of Bethesda, Md., has nearly quadrupled its assets, to $206 million, thanks largely to growth in its mortgage banking subsidiary.

Should a state be permitted to deposit funds in a bank in which the governor holds stock?

Mark W. Kehoe, an analyst with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in New York, initiated coverage last week for 14 small and midsize banking companies, mostly in California and the Midwest.