New York

While many banks have watched their earnings erode in recent years, Greater Hudson Bank in Middletown, N.Y., is bucking the trend — it first became profitable last year and has reported its fifth consecutive quarterly profit.

The market is only gelling for buyers and sellers that meet some rather stringent criteria.

Sitting on a pile of cash from an initial public offering six years ago, NewAlliance Bancshares seemed poised to make a big acquisition. So it came as a surprise to many in the banking world Thursday when the company announced that it is being acquired by First Niagara Financial Group for $1.5 billion in a deal that would create one of the top 25 U.S.-based commercial banks.

First Niagara Financial Group Inc. in Buffalo reported a 75% increase in second-quarter net income Thursday.The $20.5 billion-asset company boosted earnings to $20 million, or 10 cents a share, from $11.4 million, or 8 cents a share, in the second quarter of 2009.

Community National Bank in Great Neck, N.Y., announced it has raised $18 million in capital in its secondary common stock offering.

People's United Financial in Bridgeport, Conn., is on a shopping spree up and down the Northeast. The $22 billion-asset company announced late Thursday that it reached agreements to buy Smithtown Bancorp in Hauppauge, N.Y. and LSB Corp. in North Andover, Mass. Both are contiguous to People's United's existing market.

Suffolk Bancorp in Riverhead, N.Y., reported Thursday that second-quarter earnings fell 16% from a year earlier, to $4.8 million.

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.

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.

Lured by the chance to raise capital and worried about the future of the Office of Thrift Supervision, a wave of mutual holding companies have received approval to convert to full stock companies.

Oneida Financial Corp. of New York said it has received conditional regulatory approval to commence its second-step conversion from a mutual to a stock company.

First Niagara Financial Corp. said Monday that its first-quarter earnings rose 51.6%, to $32.6 million.

After selling a large chunk of its nonperforming assets in the fourth quarter, State Bancorp Inc. in Jericho, N.Y., returned to profitability in the first quarter.

The sale of Harleysville National Corp. of Pennsylvania to First Niagara Financial Group of Buffalo closed Friday, though before the closing Harleysville National sold a wealth management division.

Many smaller banks say they plan to keep offering such services because demand is strong and overdraft fee income is essential.

Arrow Financial Corp. in Glens Falls, N.Y., said it has a deal to buy the area insurance firm Loomis & LaPann Inc. for an undisclosed price.

A bill that would give New York credit unions access to tens of millions of dollars in municipal deposits cleared the New York State Senate last week as part of a budget resolution, giving it momentum for a vote in the state Assembly.

Ficalora's outlook on the Westbury company's prospects is bullish, to say the least. He said the next three years could be the most promising ever for doing what NYCB does best — buying other banks and using their deposits to fund its main business of lending money to the owners of rent-controlled apartments in New York.

Sterling Bancorp in New York has priced its public offering and increased the number of shares the company will offer.