Main Street Trust Inc. of Champaign, Ill., announced Monday that it had agreed to buy Citizens First Financial Corp. of Bloomington, Ill., for $52 million in stock and cash.

California's largest banking trade group, which is hoping to improve relations with a Legislature that it says has not been overly friendly to banks, plans to get closer to the lawmakers.

Old radicals and new crossed paths in Chicago Thursday at the Bankers Association for Finance Trade's annual conference.

Webster Financial Corp. of Waterbury, Conn., announced Thursday that it had appointed Nancy Scirocco as the business development officer of its new not-for-profit commercial banking department.

Central Bancorp Inc. in Somerville, Mass., said legal and professional fees connected to its buyout of a disgruntled shareholder group cut into its fiscal second-quarter profit.

Despite the disruption of business in south Florida as a result of numerous hurricane evacuations, third-quarter net income at TIB Financial Corp. in Naples rose 15%, to $1.3 million.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland has lifted its 4-year-old enforcement order against Citizens Deposit Bank of Vanceburg, Ky.

The American Bankers Association sponsored a telephone educational seminar for bank directors Wednesday, and if some of the questions that were asked are any indication, the directors needed it.

Only one New York credit union has ever converted to a mutual savings bank, but that could change now that Gov. George E. Pataki has signed legislation making it easier for state-chartered credit unions to switch.

Shareholder activism and boardroom maneuvering played a large part in Pointe Financial Corp.'s decision to seek a buyer.

WASHINGTON - When the Independent Community Bankers of America began polling members in 2001 on their top technology concerns, systems security was barely on their radar screens.

I have delivered hundreds of addresses before banking groups over the years, including talks before every state bankers association in the nation. These meetings are where I met the bankers who taught me most of what I have written about in this column, and who told me the stories that added flesh to the bones of banking for my students at Rutgers.

After one of the bitterest hostile takeovers in community banking, observers are questioning whether Central Pacific Financial Corp. of Honolulu can keep its promises and still achieve earnings projections for 2005.

Republic First Bancorp Inc.’s plan to spin off its profitable but higher-risk First Bank of Delaware could make its lead bank, the $650 million-asset Republic First Bank, more attractive to investors and potential acquirers, analysts say.

Alabama National Bancorp plans to consolidate five of its bank subsidiaries into two to provide better service to customers in north-central Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Most banks aiming to reach Hispanics are doing things like making branches more colorful and posting signs in Spanish, but a North Carolina bank is taking a different approach: setting up shop in the small grocery stores known as bodegas.

Less than six months after announcing plans to open four branches on Long Island, Hudson City Bancorp Inc. of Paramus, N.J., says it plans to expand further in New York.

C. John Hipp 3d, the president and chief executive officer of SCBT Financial Corp. of Columbia, S.C., has resigned, saying he did so for personal reasons.