BATON ROUGE, La. – KeyPoint FCU plans to expand next year in Ascension Parish with a new branch in Prairieville.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – ESL FCU will enter Genesee County with a branch in Batavia to open in late 2010, officials announced Thursday.

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NEW ENGLAND

Getting through regulatory hurdles is a tough slog for many private-equity firms that want to buy or start banks, but some have found that having former banking regulators by their side can smooth the way.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Students at Fowler High School will open an adjunct branch of Syracuse Cooperative FCU today.

CUMBERLAND, Penn. – AmeriChoice FCU opened its latest student-run branch Friday in the Cumberland Valley School District.

A provision tucked in the massive regulatory reform bill by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank would require regulators to consider thrift deposits when calculating whether a merger violates the federal ban on any one institution from controlling more than 10% of the nation's deposits.

When a group of would-be bank organizers recently landed a small Florida institution, they were foreshadowing the near-term future of industry M&A.

Bank of Miami said Wednesday that it has gained more than $11 million of capital this quarter. The $608 million-asset bank in Coral Gables, Fla., said it sold $2.5 million of trust-preferred securities in a private placement with its shareholders and realized a $9 million tax benefit.

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.

Starting Jan. 1 institutions that are less than well-capitalized must comply with new restrictions on deposit rates. They will not be allowed to pay more than 75 basis points over a national average calculated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Fast-growing Gesa CU opened its new corporate offices Monday, in a newly constructed four-story, 76,000 square-foot building downtown.

PHOENIX – Arizona FCU, which has been fighting one of the worst economies in the country, said yesterday it plans to close eight more branches in 2010 to help cut expenses.

Now, in the name of reform, this bill would impose new requirements and penalties on the Home Loan banks that would make them less effective no matter what the economic climate.

On Tuesday, the $1.5 billion-asset company filed a registration statement that would allow it to raise up to $20 million by extending rights to its shareholders to buy new common shares.

First Niagara Financial Group will lend up to $50 million as part of a recapitalization plan that will make Harleysville National Corp. and its bank subsidiary well-capitalized.

A month after announcing plans to raise $20 million, Emclaire Financial Corp. in Emlenton, Pa., has called off its stock offering.

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