Illinois

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.

Mercantile Bancorp Inc. is shedding half its banks in a series of deals that illustrates the financial contortions some companies need to survive the recession.

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

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.

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.

Donald Marron, whose Lightyear Capital LLC agreed to inject $40 million into Cascade, said that his team has met with roughly 150 management teams at midsize community banks in the past year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. dusted off rarely used authority to charge the banks for the resolution costs of the other seven insolvencies — ultimately causing the $4.7 billion-asset Park National in Oak Park, Ill., and the $118 million-asset Citizens National Bank in Teague, Texas, to fail as well.

Over a year after being hit hard by the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, FBOP Corp.'s nine banks totaling $19B in assets were closed by the government Friday night.

In reporting the loss of $156.4 million — by far the largest of its seven consecutive quarterly losses — William R. McManaman, Amcore's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a press release that a stock offering would be unlikely to succeed but that it continues to pursue other options for raising capital.

Suprisingly sharp deterioration of its commercial real estate loans forced PrivateBancorp Inc. in Chicago to a $31.2 million loss in the third quarter and sent its stock tumbling Monday.

Failures in 2009 shot past the 100-mark late Friday as regulators swooped into seven community banks in the Midwest and southeast.