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Capitol Bancorp Ltd. has completed another divestiture — this time of its 51% stake in the $64 million-asset USNY Bank in Geneva, N.Y.

Iberiabank Corp. in Lafayette, La., said it will consolidate its federally chartered thrift subsidiary into its commercial banking subsidiary by early October as a result of "sweeping changes" in the banking industry.

After four consecutive months of increased sales, the market hit the skids in July, according to the local Realtor group.

MetLife Inc.'s home loan unit has hired two former executives from Sovereign Bank to manage its new warehouse lending division.

Weststar Financial Services Corp. in Asheville, N.C., has reported a $14 million second-quarter loss, compared with net income of $434,000 a year earlier.

F.N.B. Corp. in Hermitage, Pa., is selling its bond and transfer agent business to U.S. Bancorp. The $8.6 billion-asset company said in a statement last week that it decided to exit the business because growing administrative costs had become prohibitive for a regional trust company.

Heritage Financial Group in Albany, Ga., said Monday that it will revise its accounting treatment of problem loans acquired in a failed-bank deal last year.

Shareholders of Farmers Banc National Corp. in Canfield, Ohio, rejected two key proposals at the company's annual meeting, the company said Friday.

A Houston mortgage brokerage with 200 branches nationwide said it agreed to pay a $38,000 fine to settle alleged violations of Federal Housing Administration branching rules.

ShoreBank, the country's first community development bank, failed Friday night after months of struggling to find a way to stay afloat. However, it will continue in a different form.

First Security Inc. in Owensboro, Ky., decided on the latter last week when it decided to call off a deal to buy three Indiana branches and a pool of loans from the struggling, $3 billion-asset Integra Bank Corp.

ShoreBank, the country's first community development bank, failed Friday night after months of struggling to find a way to stay afloat. However, it will continue in a different form.

Sterling Financial Corp. of Spokane has found a way to raise $730 million in fresh capital, including an expansion of its investments from the private-equity firms Warburg Pincus LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP.

While many banks have watched their earnings erode in recent years, Greater Hudson Bank in Middletown, N.Y., is bucking the trend — it first became profitable last year and has reported its fifth consecutive quarterly profit.

PAB Bankshares Inc. in Valdosta, Ga., said late Wednesday that it had withdrawn plans to raise $80 million in a common stock offering "due to changing market conditions."

Western Alliance Bancorp. on Thursday priced its public offering of 7 million shares at $6.25 a share, an 8.5% discount to Wednesday's closing price.

One major question about First Niagara's deal to buy NewAlliance remains unanswered: what role Peyton Patterson, the seller's chief executive and one of the most prominent bankers in New England, will play in the post-merger company.

The market is only gelling for buyers and sellers that meet some rather stringent criteria.

Sitting on a pile of cash from an initial public offering six years ago, NewAlliance Bancshares seemed poised to make a big acquisition. So it came as a surprise to many in the banking world Thursday when the company announced that it is being acquired by First Niagara Financial Group for $1.5 billion in a deal that would create one of the top 25 U.S.-based commercial banks.

Grandpoint Capital Inc. struck again this week, announcing two bank deals with Capitol Bancorp Ltd., which brings to four the number of acquisitions Grandpoint has announced in the past two months.