After seven years as a public company, KS Bancorp Inc. in Smithfield, N.C., is planning to deregister its stock and go private.

Rabobank International, thwar-ted in its attempt to buy one of the nation's largest Farm Credit System lenders, is taking another tack to raise its profile with farmers.

Score two for bankers and one for credit unions in the latest battles over fields of membership.

Like many community development banks, Native American Bank in Browning, Mont., relies heavily on deposits from corporations to support its mission - but rarely do they exceed the $100,000 covered by federal deposit insurance.

NEW ENGLAND

Sky Financial Group in Bowling Green, Ohio, is buying the $297 million-asset Belmont Bancorp of Bridgeport for $69.2 million.

Sometimes two problems add up to one solution.

A private investor group that includes a former chief executive of Nara Bancorp in Los Angeles plans to buy the $100 million-asset Innovative Bancorp in Oakland.

BOK Financial Corp. in Tulsa said Tuesday that it is buying the $152 million-asset Valley Commerce Bancorp Ltd. of Phoenix for $32 million in cash.

Franklin Bank Corp. of Houston, which has bought four Texas banking companies since early last year, announced a deal for a fifth on Tuesday. Its $58.3 million cash and stock deal for the $215 million-asset First National Bank of Athens, Tex., is expected to close in the second quarter.

In a city with dozens of retail banks, including some of the nation’s largest, Austin Bank of Chicago has found that some of its toughest competition has come from payday lenders.

The meeting was important for the students, 10 finance majors working for their MBAs.

Peoples Community Bancorp Inc. of West Chester, Ohio, has agreed to buy American State Corp., of Lawrenceburg, Ind., for about $7.7 million.

Center Bancorp Inc. of Union, N.J., is buying a 5-year-old Morristown, N.J., community bank for $26.3 million in cash and stock.

As he was about to begin a recent interview, Howard P. Milstein, a co-chairman and the president and chief executive officer of Emigrant Bancorp in New York, took a phone call.

Complaints by a growing number of banks about nonbanks’ unauthorized use of their names and logos in marketing materials have more states enacting stiffer penalties for such crimes.

With its first bank acquisition deal in more than a decade, the $1.3 billion-asset Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. of Pittsfield, Mass., is heading for bigger things, its chief executive and president says.

Now that the question of whether Hudson City Bancorp’s much-anticipated second-step conversion will take place has been answered, speculation has shifted to what the Paramus, N.J., company will do with all that money.

SCBT Financial Corp. of Columbia, S.C., announced Friday that it would buy the $94 million-asset New Commerce BanCorp of Greenville, S.C., for $20 million in cash.