Rabobank Group’s deal to buy one of the largest lenders in the Farm Credit System is causing a fair amount of anxiety in rural America.

In deal-crazy Florida, BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. has largely avoided buying banks in recent years.

One of the most valuable assets any bank can have is loyalty - loyalty of customers and loyalty of employees.

F.N.B. Corp. of Hermitage, Pa., entered Florida long after Fifth Third Bancorp, but the much smaller F.N.B. was far more aggressive in building assets and deposits there.

Fifth Third Bancorp has made no secret about its ambitions in the Southeast, and it unveiled a deal Monday — for First National Bankshares of Florida Inc. — that would significantly strengthen it there.

The slogan Colorado East Bank and Trust in Lamar uses to attract customers, "Helping make dreams come true," has certainly excited a group of bankers from the Republic of Moldova.

IndyMac Bancorp Inc. said its second-quarter earnings dropped 44%, to $23 million, because of a change in its accounting for interest rate locks.

First Ipswich Bancorp has completed a stock offering that began May 13, raising $3.9 million.

William C. McGarry has been told that his Ridgewood Savings Bank in Queens, N.Y., could raise as much as $2 billion if it went public.

An Internet filter that picked up a seemingly routine press release about a bank’s electing a new director dragged it into the abortion debate.

Midwest Banc Holdings Inc.'s second-quarter earnings fell 59% from the same quarter last year, to $3.2 million.

East West Bank of San Marino, Calif., reported an impressive 29% increase in deposits for the second quarter, but it still was not enough to keep pace with a 47% jump in loans.

MIDWEST

The images on Nova Savings Bank’s Web site include a retired couple driving carefree in a convertible, a father fishing with his young son, and a middle-aged couple talking about finances at a kitchen table.

Westamerica Bancorp in San Rafael, Calif., continues to pump out record earnings - despite a shrinking loan portfolio.

Analysts are using words like “tough” and “lackluster” to describe community banks’ second-quarter earnings, but they expect that rising interest rates and an expanding economy will lead to an upturn sometime this year or in early 2005.

After years of limited expansion BankUnited Financial Corp. of Coral Gables, Fla., has opened four branches in nine months and hopes to keep up the pace into next year.

Commercial Capital Bancorp Inc. of Irvine, Calif., said Monday that second-quarter earnings more than doubled because of continued record originations of apartment loans throughout the state.