Consider this simple question: Why does the government restrict the ability of pension funds, mutual funds and other kinds of institutional investors to invest in most banks? Banks are an industry in which "capital is king." Institutional investors control most of the world's capital. Their interests do not inherently conflict with banks'. So why put barriers between them?

An Idaho start-up bank has called off a private-equity deal that it had hoped would help it reach profitability.

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At least seven community banks have taken the Treasury Department up on its offer to make bigger capital injections under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Still in a capital pinch, AmTrust Financial Corp. of Cleveland is selling more of its Ohio branches.

SAN FRANCISCO – 1st Pacific CU has sold a downtown office building at 131 Franklin St. for $3 million.

OSHKOSH, Wis. – CitizensFirst CU began construction yesterday on a new 30,000 square-foot green headquarters.

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida is preparing to raise capital through a common stock offering, with one goal being to resume paying dividends on its government infusion.

Yadkin Valley Financial Corp. has benefited from a serendipitous turn of events.

Regulators are threatening to seize the critically undercapitalized Community National Bank of Sarasota County in Venice, Fla.

Shares of First California Financial Group Inc. dropped Monday after the $1.47 billion-asset Westlake Village company said that higher loan losses caused it to revise its first-quarter results and swing to a loss.

Cherokee Bank in Canton, Ga., must boost its capital and reduce its problem assets to satisfy a regulatory order.

Imagine looking up at seven cents on the dollar.

As Jay S. Sidhu takes the helm of a small bank in the Philadelphia suburbs, he aims to recreate some of what he achieved at Sovereign Bancorp Inc.

LIHU’E, Hi. – Kaua’i Community FCU broke ground last week on a new administration offices that will be powered by photovoltaic solar panels and use recycled water.

South Financial Group Inc. is about to find out just how much of the market's confidence the banking industry has regained.

New Century Bank in Phoenixville, Pa., said Thursday that it has appointed Jay S. Sidhu as its chairman and chief executive officer.

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More than a year after going public, Danvers Bancorp Inc. has agreed to buy a nearby Massachusetts banking company in a deal that one analyst said would leave it with the capital to do more.