Vineyard National Bancorp of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., said Thursday that it plans to raise $15 million in a private offering, expected to close today, to certain institutional investors.

KNBT Bancorp of Bethlehem, Pa., plans to expand into three more counties in its home state by acquiring Northeast Pennsylvania Financial Corp. in Hazelton.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. downgraded Midwest Banc Holdings Inc.'s stock after the Illinois company said it would reposition its balance sheet to hedge against earnings volatility and rising interest rates.

CFS Bancorp Inc. of Munster, Ind., said it has paid $42 million of prepayment penalties to restructure its Federal Home Loan Bank borrowings.

First the Chicago suburbs put the clamps on new bank branches, and now the city is trying to do the same.

Check cashers say a growing number of banks are refusing to lend to or even accept deposits from them, and they are concerned that the trend could put many of them out of business.

MIDWEST

There have been 116 bank start-ups in 2004, slightly above the pace of the past three years.

More and more credit unions are offering customers free online bill pay, according to a recently released survey.

Wells Financial Corp.'s announcement Monday that it is buying back nearly 86,000 of its shares omitted one significant detail: The amount falls well short of the 150,000 shares it said it wanted to repurchase in order to delist its stock and go private.

"Were you born in Maine?" the judge asked.

Hudson United Bancorp of Mahwah, N.J., said Monday that it had made lump sum payments to its four top executives, including its president and chief executive officer, Kenneth T. Neilson, in exchange for their agreement to terminate change-in-control clauses in their employment contracts.

For nearly three years after it changed charters on Sept. 1, 2001, Allied First Bank of Naperville, Ill., used essentially the same strategy it had as a credit union.

This is a corrected version of an article originally published December 7, 2004.

Cardinal Financial Corp. in McLean, Va., which already added four branches this year, said Friday that it opened two more in northern Virginia last month and plans to open another Dec. 13.

Funding for a major incentive for low-income lending has been dwindling, and there is no sign it will increase soon.

Though others may feel no need for such drastic measures as Fifth Third Bancorp announced last week to prepare its balance sheet for rising rates, banking companies are clearly looking differently at their investment portfolios.

First Charter Corp., pegged by many on Wall Street as a candidate to be bought out, is talking about buying rather than selling.

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue has reached agreements with 87 banking companies concerning taxes on their out-of-state subsidiaries.

Merchants Bancshares Inc. in South Burlington, Vt., plans to return $28.1 million of capital to its investors in the form of a $4.50 a share special dividend payable Dec. 17.