With more bank failures expected in the Pacific Northwest, Umpqua Holdings Corp. in Portland, Ore., announced late Tuesday that it plans to raise $215 million in new equity that could be used to buy failed banks.

WEST

Talk about a strange brew. Cathay General Bancorp in Los Angeles was hit by an enforcement action in December, tapped the equity markets this week and is now contemplating expansion.

CompuCredit Corp., an Atlanta financial services company, confirmed it will lay off more than 300 collection agents and supervisors in two Atlanta area collection call centers that will be closed by March 31, a spokesperson said late today.

While regional and national banks with large portfolios have workout departments that take over distressed commercial loans, community banks do not.

The continuing collapse in bank lending has been of a piece with the severity of the Great Recession, but it has relatively recent precedent.

Household balance sheets may be in shambles, and lenders badly wounded by the banking crisis, but, compared with some previous downturns, the recent contraction in consumer credit appears to have been middling so far.

East Texas Financial Services Inc. in Tyler has agreed to be acquired for $23.5 million by a company owned by one of its board members.

WASHINGTON — Billions of dollars of losses accruing among corporate credit unions, a network of bankers' banks that aggregate the savings of tens of millions of credit union members, are being passed down the three-tiered credit union system to the bottom — the nation's 7,800 regular credit unions.

ANDERSON, Ind. – Madison County FCU said it has opened a new service facility in the parking lot of the local Wal-Mart, replacing its downtown branch.

CHANDLER, Ariz. – First CU, one of several large Arizona credit unions suffering big losses, this week said it will close two branches, one in Flagstaff, ending a 23-year presence in that city.

WASHINGTON — Though lawmakers said Tuesday they support the goal of President Obama's $30 billion program to spur small-business lending, many sharply criticized the proposal, arguing it either would not work or could be done more directly.

After three consecutive years of losses directly related to residential real estate, Flagstar Bancorp Inc. of Troy, Mich., is looking to diversify its portfolio in 2010.

In an attempt to avoid the stigma of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, President Obama announced Tuesday a separate $30 billion program to help small businesses receive loans from community banks.

Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc. in Flint, Mich., announced Monday that it has agreed to sell its F&M Bank subsidiary in Des Moines for $50 million in cash to Great Western Bank, a Sioux Falls, S.D., unit of National Australia Bank.

WASHINGTON — Though President Obama has pledged to divert billions into community banks willing to make small-business loans, many financial institutions say loans to smaller firms are falling into delinquency at a high rate.

FORSYTH, Ga. – Robins FCU, based in nearby Warner Robins, has acquired a branch from Piedmont Community Bank that is slated for closing.

Fourth-quarter earnings reports from small and midsize banking companies showcase some favorable trends, notably that credit deterioration appears to be stabilizing and deposits have bloomed on many balance sheets.

President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget proposal would provide $994 million for the Small Business Administration, a 21% increase over the 2010 enacted level.

Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc., a Norfolk, Va. debt buyer, announced this afternoon a "mutually agreeable resolution" to a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a former executive.