Illinois

The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday issued written agreements against three community banks and their parent companies.

Roughly a year after announcing plans to halve itself to survive, Mercantile Bancorp Inc. in Quincy, Ill., is again in search of more capital.

Cascade Financial Corp., which received a government bailout, is among three small bank holding companies the Federal Reserve is scrutinizing.

Nearly two years after the regulator let a film crew tag along as it seized the $232 million-asset company in a segment for the news program "60 Minutes," the FDIC is going after former officers and directors. In what is expected to be the first of many professional-liability lawsuits against individuals associated with failed banks, the FDIC wants to recoup some losses sustained by its Deposit Insurance Fund in the current economic cycle.

Wintrust Financial Corp. in Lake Forest, Ill., on Wednesday reported earnings of $20.1 million for the third quarter, as interest income rose and its loan-loss provision fell dramatically.

PrivateBancorp Inc. in Chicago returned to the black in the third quarter. The $12.5 billion-asset company reported Tuesday that it earned $4.5 million, compared with a loss of $818,000 in the second quarter and a loss of $31.2 million a year earlier.

Seven banks failed Friday, bringing the total number of failures this year to within one of the number of failures in all of 2009. So far 139 banks have failed in 2010. Friday's failures are expected to cost the deposit insurance fund a collective $478 million.

MB Financial Inc. in Chicago on Friday posted a third-quarter loss of $5.4 million compared with earnings of $4.9 million a year earlier and blamed continued high credit costs.

The $7.8 billion-asset company in Itasca, Ill., announced late Monday that the bank's president and chief executive, Thomas J. Schwartz, plans to step down from those positions at the end of the year.

Nearly a year after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said it would resume revealing the losing bids for failed banks, bankers and others in the industry find its disclosures wanting.

Few would argue that it's tough to own a community bank these days. It can be even more difficult to co-own a struggling bank — fifty-fifty — with another family.

Eugene P. Heytow, chairman of Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, died Aug. 26. He was 76.

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.

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.

Community Financial Shares Inc. in Glen Ellyn, Ill., reported a steeper loss, $2.8 million, in the second quarter than the $446,000 a year earlier and blamed loss provisioning.

WASHINGTON — Illinois regulators closed the $493 million-asset Palos Bank and Trust Co. late Friday, the 110th failure of the year.

If ShoreBank is trying to get open-bank assistance, as some media outlets have reported, the undercapitalized lender's odds of success are long.

Illinois' failure tally for 2010 continued to grow late Friday with the closure of $265 million-asset Ravenswood Bank.

WASHINGTON — Illinois' failure tally for 2010 continued to grow late Friday with the closure of $265 million-asset Ravenswood Bank.

Consumers Credit Union in Waukegan, Ill., has joined the list of financial services companies using Fiserv Inc.'s Acumen account processing software.