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With its bank unit low on capital, PremierWest Bancorp in Medford, Ore., is planning to raise up to $36 million in a rights offering.

Bank of Florida in Naples, which is under regulatory pressure to raise capital, has postponed a $135 million stock offering, saying market conditions have deteriorated.

When it comes to pristine loan portfolios, Malaga Financial is among the truly elite. It had zero nonperforming loans at the end of the third quarter, a distinction shared by only 6.5% of banks and thrifts nationwide.

Westamerica Bancorp. bought back the remaining preferred shares sold to the Treasury Department in February, becoming the latest banking company to redeem its funding under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In a bid to get its bank unit adequately capitalized, Horizon Bancorp. Inc. in Bradenton, Fla., is trying to raise $5 million in a private placement of convertible preferred stock.

A new group formed to buy failing banks plans to use its recent deal for tiny, well-capitalized Palisades National Bank as a springboard for further acquisitions.

CFS Bancorp in Munster, Ind., is exploring its strategic options, including the possibility of selling itself.

SVB Financial Group in Santa Clara, Calif., says it plans to raise $300 million in a sale of common stock and use most of the proceeds to repay all of its government-issued capital.

In what would be the biggest purchase of bank branches by a credit union, Royal Credit Union said it had agreed to buy 11 offices from the troubled Anchor BanCorp.

The $186 million-asset Wooster company, which warned this spring that it might fail, announced Monday that it has agreed to sell a majority stake to Excel Financial LLC of St. Clairsville, Ohio, for $15 million.

If you don't like the rules, change them. That's what one blank-check company did when a looming deadline threatened its plans to buy a Nevada bank.

Improved technology and growing interest in cost cutting have prompted some financial companies to install videoconferencing systems to serve people in the branch, replacing tellers in some cases or providing immediate access to specialists who might be working at another location.

Two failures in Florida, including the collapse of Naples-based Orion Bank, and another in California late Friday brought the year's total to 123.

In a move that should help stressed banks avoid public relations fiascoes, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has toned down the harsh wording of orders it issues to such institutions.

Sun National Bank's wealth management business is off to a slow start thanks to the recession, but executives at the Vineland, N.J., bank say they remain committed to the business.

Harrington West Financial Group Inc. is courting potential investors as the next step in recapitalizing itself, Craig J. Cerny, its chairman and chief executive officer, said in an interview Thursday.

Another round of writedowns on pooled trust-preferred securities has left Rainier Pacific Financial Group Inc. and its bank unit significantly undercapitalized.

Selling its Kansas branches helped Harrington West Financial Group Inc. hit a capital deadline this month. But the Solvang, Calif., company is far from mended.

The significantly undercapitalized Amcore Financial Inc. is warning that its bank might fail if it cannot come up with an acceptable capital plan within a few weeks.

Because of accounting errors, VIST Financial Corp. in Wyomissing, Pa., is revising its results for the past four quarters.