This year is shaping up to be a slow one for bank openings as organizing groups wait for the economy to rebound and regulators take more time than usual to approve charter applications.

Tennessee Commerce Bancorp Inc. in Franklin said in a Tuesday Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it has fired its chief financial officer, George W. Fort, about two months after putting him on paid leave.

Seven months after its deal to sell itself to a Little Rock banking company fell through, Union Bancshares Inc. in Benton, Ark., has found another buyer.

Empire Bank Buying in Southwest Mo.Empire Bank of Springfield, Mo., is expanding in southwest Missouri with a deal to buy Greene County Bank.

AmericasBank Corp. of Towson, Md., said Monday that it has dismissed Mark H. Anders as its president and chief executive officer and appointed A. Gary Rever as the acting CEO of the company and its AmericasBank.

Suddenly, slow and steady is in.

WSFS Financial Corp. in Wilmington, Del., has bought a majority stake in a reverse mortgage company, 1st Reverse Financial Services LLC in Westmont, Ill.

Franklin Bank Corp. in Houston gave a glimpse of what its 2007 earnings report might look like, and investors did not like what they saw.

Vineyard National Bancorp's losses continue to pile up as a result of rapidly declining real estate values in California's Inland Empire.

FirstBank Holding Co., the largest locally owned banking company in Colorado, is privately held and relatively low-profile.

An accounting firm that questioned Peoples Community Bancorp's ability to survive as an independent company has resigned as the West Chester, Ohio, thrift company's accountant.

AUSTIN — One bad quarter can sure set a bank's growth plan back, particularly if it's the only quarter the bank has to show for itself.

PFF Bancorp Inc. in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., said late Wednesday that it expects to record a loss of about $159 million for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended March 31, in part because of an estimated $196 million provision for losses on residential construction loans.

Wintrust Financial Corp. in Lake Forest, Ill., has weathered the real estate downturn in part by specializing in the business of financing insurance premiums, and now it wants to free up capital for more traditional lending by securitizing premium-finance loans on its books.

First Clover Leaf Financial Corp. in Edwardsville, Ill., said Thursday that it plans to buy Partners Financial Holdings Inc. of Glen Carbon for $20.7 million in cash and stock.

There is a visual prompt that I often encourage branch managers to place behind their teller windows, new account desks, and drive-up windows. It is this: "Is your line worth waiting in?"

FirstFed Financial Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif., said Wednesday that it had lost $69.8 million in the first quarter after taking a $150.3 million provision for losses on its option adjustable-rate mortgages.

NEW ENGLAND

Taylor Capital Group Inc. said Wednesday that it lost $3.8 million, or 37 cents per share, in the first quarter due to a rise in its loan-loss provision and higher expenses for hiring at its Cole Taylor Bank subsidiary.