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Florida First City Banks Inc. said this week it had suspended an effort to raise up to $14 million after potential investors began backing away. Their reason: Worries about the potential consequences for banks as oil washes up on Panhandle beaches.

The $3.5 billion-asset company was grappling with a regulatory order and coping with deteriorating credit in its slow-growth southern New Jersey market when it secured a $100 million investment last week, half of it from billionaire Wilbur Ross' private-equity group.

The Jasper, Ga., bank holding company said Monday that it plans to file its delisting with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was notified in April that it did not meet the minimum requirements of Nasdaq's listing rule.

Five months after raising capital by selling two banks, Mercantile Bancorp Inc. in Quincy, Ill., is turning to shareholders for more.

Bank of Ozarks Inc. said its second-quarter net income rose 14.6% from a year earlier, to $10.9 million. The Little Rock company said Monday that higher earnings stemmed from a stronger net interest margin and declines in problem loans, chargeoffs and an allowance for loan losses.

After a quarter that beat analysts' estimates, First of Long Island Corp. in Glen Head, N.Y., is raising an extra $30 million of capital.

Shares of Alliance Data Systems Corp. may be overvalued and could fall if the U.S. economic recovery stalls and the government tightens credit card regulations, according to the business newsweekly Barron's.

Commonwealth Bankshares Inc. in Norfolk, Va., has entered into a written agreement with state and federal regulators. The $1.2 billion-asset company did not disclose details in a press release Friday, but said it had consented to strengthen the bank's financial condition and "maintain effective control over and supervision of" major operations.

Bank of South Carolina Corp. in Charleston posted a 6% year-over-year increase in second-quarter net earnings, largely because of a wide net interest margin spread.

North Dallas Bank and Trust Co. reported that earnings jumped more than 33% in the second quarter from a year earlier. The bank said Friday that it posted net earnings of $1.5 million, or 58 cents a share, for the quarter, up from $1.1 million, or 44 cents a share, a year earlier.

Capitol Federal Financial in Topeka, Kan., said Monday that it plans to raise up to $1.96 billion by converting from a mutual holding company to a stock company.

The $170 million-asset company said late Thursday that it plans to become a full stock company through a second-step conversion. It completed the first step in January 2005, giving its mutual holding company a 63.8% ownership stake.

Central Pacific Financial Corp. in Honolulu has entered into an agreement with state and federal regulators requiring it to submit a capital restoration plan within 60 days.

Bankers in this climate recognize that in order to get capital, they often have to give a little something first. Still, offering a 9% annual interest rate for a decade is a cost only a handful of bankers are willing to bear.

Hovde Acquisitions, a Washington private equity firm, used a shelf charter to pick up the $282 million-asset Bay National Bank in Baltimore, which was closed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and was one of four failures on Friday.

Hovde Acquisitions, a Washington private equity firm, used a shelf charter to pick up the $282 million-asset Bay National Bank in Baltimore, which was closed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and was one of four failures on Friday.

Second Federal Savings and Loan in Chicago views itself as the ShoreBank for its surrounding Hispanic community and hopes prospective investors will see it that way, too.

NBH Holdings took the first step this week in its quest to build a $12 billion-asset community banking network by agreeing to acquire Bank Midwest in Kansas City, Mo.

North Carolina banking titan and civic leader John Arthur Forlines Jr. died Tuesday. He was 92.

Sun Bancorp Inc. of Vineland, N.J. said Thursday that it will raise $100 million via private-equity funds affiliated with WL Ross & Co. LLC and shareholders of the bank's founding Brown family.