An increasing number of banking companies are exploring ways around a tax code provision that has constricted past capital infusions.

Southern Community Financial Corp. said Thursday that it has formed a small-business division. The Winston-Salem, N.C., company will place a small-business banker in all 22 branches.

United Community Banks Inc. in Blairsville, Ga., is emerging from its credit woes with plans announced late Wednesday to raise $380 million.

Bankers are divided over the seriousness of a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act that would repeal Regulation Q and allow banks to pay rates for demand deposits.

United Community Banks Inc. said late Wednesday that it is raising $380 million through a private placement with an affiliate of Corsair Capital LLC and a group of institutional investors.

West Asset Management Inc., the debt collection unit of West Corp., has agreed to pay $2.8 million to settle charges it used aggressive collection methods that violated federal law, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The civil penalty is the largest obtained by the FTC in a collection case.

SUITLAND, Md. – Andrews FCU will open a new branch in the town of Waldorf on March 30, which will be the eighth U.S. branch for the $810 million credit union.

RALEIGH, N.C. – And on the seventh day Coastal FCU was open for business and offered teller hours.

A technology subsidiary of the holding company Rurban Financial Corp. must improve its capital position and strengthen operational oversight under a consent order with the Federal Reserve Board.

Rates for deposits have plummeted in recent years in several states that used to be among the hottest for yields in the nation.

A pair of community banks have reduced the Treasury Department's ownership stake in their companies.

Unitus Community Credit Union in Portland, Ore., pledged Tuesday to keep offering free checking and free online services such as bill pay even as many banking companies are starting to charge fees for the services.

Integra Bank Corp. in Evansville, Ind., on Tuesday reported a fourth-quarter loss of $42.8 million, half its loss in the year-earlier period.

S&T Bancorp Inc. in Indiana, Pa., said Wednesday that it was revising its fourth-quarter and full-year 2010 results to reflect a higher loan-loss provision.

TIB Financial Corp. in Naples, Fla., said late Tuesday that it returned to profitability after its new owner, North American Financial Holdings, restructured its balance sheet.

The number of banks and thrifts deferring dividends on preferred stock from the Troubled Asset Relief Program rose last month, according to a report.

The Federal Reserve granted bank holding company status Tuesday to a Japanese company that has agreed to acquire a Japanese-owned bank in New Jersey.

An eleventh-hour amendment to Dodd-Frank that repealed Reg Q could punish community banks that serve as the lifeblood for small businesses across the country.

Various e-communications solutions offer banks an easy method for identifying small-business customers within their retail customer accounts and marketing to them.

SAN ANTONIO – Firstmark CU began construction on a new Alamo branch, which will be the $700 million credit union’s 11th service center.