WASHINGTON - In response to rising demand from large depositors, Promontory Interfinancial Network is once again raising the level of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage it offers to customers of its member banks.

Roger Moyer, Sterling Financial Corp.'s president and chief executive, knew Sterling was getting a profitable company when it paid $30 million in stock and cash for Equipment Finance Inc. in February 2002.

After it dissolved its thrift charter and sold its branches, Bay View Capital Corp. of San Mateo, Calif., had planned a complete liquidation, but instead it wants to be a community bank again.

In the face of opposition from the Bush administration, a bipartisan group of lawmakers failed in their bid to extend a law that temporarily halved most of the fees that lenders pay to participate in the Small Business Administration's 7(a) loan program.

Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. of Lititz, Pa., is merging its eight community banks into three, all bearing the holding company's name.

Rabobank Group's deal to buy a Farm Credit System lender has prompted Congress to consider the first changes to the Farm Credit Act in more than 30 years.

Wells Financial Corp. of Wells, Minn., is planning to go private to get out from under the regulatory requirements of being a public company.

Bancshares of Florida Inc. in Naples has canceled its deal to buy Horizon Financial Corp. of Pembroke Pines.

A Georgia bank credits equipment it installed a year and a half ago for the customers who are flocking to its branches.

What can business executives and students learn from community banks?

Iberiabank Corp. of Lafayette, La., is acquiring the $265 million-asset American Horizons Bancorp Inc. of Monroe for $48 million in cash and stock.

Midwest Banc Holdings Inc. of Melrose Park, Ill., has announced that Brad A. Luecke, its president and chief executive officer, will retire Oct. 6.

SOUTHEAST

Even before Robert H. Warrington became First Indiana Corp.'s president in June, the struggling Indianapolis company was showing signs of a recovery.

Its headquarters are still in Alabama, but Colonial BancGroup Inc.'s latest deal makes it very much a Florida company.

At my class reunion at Brown a few years ago I was asked to participate in an ethics panel. I started out with a joke, of course.

WesBanco Inc.'s February 2001 announcement that it was acquiring the $660 million-asset American Bancorp was supposed to signal the start of a major out-of-state expansion for the Wheeling, W.Va., company.

BankFinancial Corp., of Olympia Fields, Ill., plans to raise as much as $196 million in a full conversion to public ownership.

AF Financial Group of West Jefferson, N.C., has settled a dispute with the chief executive officer it fired in July.