Illinois

Midwest Banc Holdings Inc. has won one round in its battle for recapitalization. The $3.5 billion-asset company in Melrose Park, Ill., announced Friday that it persuaded 82% of its Series A preferred shareholders to convert to common shareholders.

WASHINGTON — In an unusual congressional hearing, regulators were essentially put on trial Thursday for having closed a Chicago-based chain of community banks last fall.

The government seized banks in three states late Friday, bringing the failure total in the new year to four.

Bank consultants say the double denial could signal that the significantly undercapitalized Amcore is running out of options and that without dramatic action to restore its languishing capital the bank's days could be numbered.

First Midwest Bancorp Inc. in Itasca, Ill., on Thursday announced the pricing of its public offering, of 16.4 million shares of common stock.

The $4 billion-asset company in Rockford, Ill., announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rejected the company's Dec. 4 capital plan for its Amcore Bank unit, saying it was not based on realistic assumptions.

A bank holding company based in Chicago has agreed not to declare or pay dividends without Federal Reserve approval.

Midwest Banc Holdings Inc. in Melrose Park, Ill., said credit quality continued to deteriorate at its subsidiary bank in the fourth quarter, and warned the bank's capital ratios are expected to fall from a well-capitalized level at the end of the third quarter to undercapitalized for the fourth quarter.

Upon disclosing its third and largest branch deal Tuesday, Amcore Financial Inc. made another announcement: its capital ratios are finally headed in the right direction.

An Illinois banking company has agreed to submit a plan designed to improve the condition of the lender, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

The main culprit in last week's demise of Independent Bankers' Bank in Springfield, Ill., was not an ailing loan portfolio but poorly performing investments in other banks.

President Obama is due to meet today with 11 chief executives of community banks, following up on a meeting with the heads of larger institutions last week.

Shares of Amcore Financial in Rockford, Ill., rose Monday on roughly four times their average volume, extending a rally that began after the banking company amended a credit facility.

Seven failed banks holding a combined $14 billion in assets failed Friday in what was yet another busy night for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The troubled Amcore Financial Inc. in Rockford, Ill., announced Monday that it sold $135 million of loans. The now $4 billion-asset company said in a press release that the loans were not strategic or relationship oriented.

MB Financial Inc. in Chicago said it has approved large salary increases for its two highest-paid employees, because as a participant in the Troubled Asset Relief Program it cannot continue to pay them bonuses.

Midwest Banc Holdings Inc. is the second company in less than a week to suggest there could be some government relief forthcoming for those that received funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, but are now struggling.

A fresh shot of capital has moved Mercantile Bancorp Inc.'s Florida unit back into regulators' good graces.

The Federal Reserve is ordering Bank of Illinois in Normal to raise its capital ratios.

Though it is weighed down by bad construction loans and short on capital, Baytree National Bank and Trust in Lake Forest, Ill., is engineering a rescue.