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.

Commercial Federal Corp. has started offering a money transfer service and an educational video geared to the Hispanic market.

Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. is moving the headquarters of one of its subsidiaries to a city that has not had its own bank in more than two decades: Camden, N.J.

A California consumer group is urging banks and thrifts to stop financing payday lenders and instead develop products and services that meet the needs of low-income consumers.

North Fork Bancorp. Inc. of Melville, N.Y., has added itself to a growing list of banks that have cut ties to money service businesses.

The chairman, chief executive, and president of Leesport Financial Corp. in Wyomissing, Pa., resigned unexpectedly Wednesday.

MIDWEST

East West Bancorp in San Marino, Calif., has landed a celebrity endorser — the Olympic figure skating champion Michelle Kwan.

Sterling Bancorp Inc. of New York said Wednesday that it would restate results for the past three years to correct errors in accounting for employee benefit expenses and to reflect the impact of a lawsuit it settled in February.

Community Trust Bancorp Inc. of Pikeville, Ky., is buying the $102 million-asset Heritage Community Bank and Trust of Danville, Ky., for $12.2 million in cash.

Two years ago Jeff Woodard of First Farmers State Bank in Minier, Ill., was one of the first bankers to pass a new test to become an official "Certified Community Lender."

The dollar's slide should come as no surprise. For years we have been operating with record budget and balance of payments deficits and counting on foreigners to finance them by buying American securities.

Israel's biggest banking company has called its investment in the 4-year-old Signature Bank one of its most successful foreign ventures ever, but now the New York bank is growing so fast that it is straining Bank Hapoalim's resources.

Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., included a disclaimer in its annual report hinting that sooner or later it could be hearing from regulators about its Bank Secrecy Act compliance.

The Banc Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., is selling a host of luxuries acquired by its former management - an airplane, antiques, and art and car collections - and will spend the money on branch openings in its best markets.

WASHINGTON - Promontory Interfinancial Network LLC is teaming up with the online certificate of deposit giant QwickRate to expand Promontory's popular Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service.

PSB Bancorp Inc.'s stock price soared 11% on Friday on news that the Philadelphia company had hired an investment banker to explore its possible sale.

Jackson W. Moore, the president and chief executive-designate at Regions Financial Corp., of Birmingham, Ala., is undergoing therapy near Memphis after being hospitalized for a ruptured blood vessel near his brain.

It is too early to predict how many new banks will be organized in Florida this year, but the pace so far suggests a record total.