Despite reporting lackluster earnings this week, Nara Bancorp received an upgrade Wednesday on speculation that the Los Angeles company will emerge soon from a memorandum of understanding ready to spend capital.

MIDWEST

Prosperity Bancshares Inc. in Houston said it has a deal to buy Bank of Navasota, with $73 million of assets, for $17.4 million in cash and stock.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, is expected to sign into law a bill that could bring an end to lawsuits over credit union expansion.

Atlantic Coast Federal Corp. in Waycross, Ga., said Tuesday that its first-quarter net income fell 30%, to $774,000, from the year earlier.

With its deal for Community Banks Inc., Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. in Lititz, Pa., would absorb a longtime competitor and gain significant scale in markets where growth has been hard to come by.

BNC Bancorp in Thomasville, N.C., reported record earnings Tuesday for the first quarter due mainly to an increase in earning assets from a recent acquisition.

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Old National Bancorp of Evansville, Ind., said its first-quarter earnings fell 48% from the first quarter of 2006, to $10.8 million.

Superior Bancorp of Birmingham, Ala., is extending its own form of Southern hospitality to a large, foreign-owned competitor that recently moved into its home state.

Citizens Republic Bancorp of Flint, Mich., announced Monday that Dana M. Cluckey, its president and chief operating officer - and heir apparent to the chief executive - would resign May 31.

Sterling Financial Corp. in Lancaster, Pa., is known for producing consistent earnings, and its equipment-financing subsidiary has been a big part of its success, contributing roughly 40% to Sterling's bottom line over the past three years.

Flagstar Bancorp Inc. in Troy, Mich., has reported first-quarter earnings of $7.8 million, down 59% from the year earlier. Diluted earnings per share were down 59%, to 12 cents  7 cents below the average of analysts' expectations in a Thomson Financial survey.

Superior Bancorp in Birmingham, Ala., said Friday that first-quarter earnings were up 75% from the year earlier, to $2.3 million and per-share earnings rose 43%, to 7 cents.

Premier Financial Bancorp Inc. in Huntington, W.Va, said Friday that it had earned $1.8 million in the first quarter, up 31% from a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 31%, to 34 cents.

Integrity Bancshares Inc. in Alpharetta, Ga., said strong loan growth fueled a double-digit rise in first-quarter earnings but noted that credit quality had deteriorated.

ShoreBank in Chicago has set an ambitious goal of quintupling its annual community development lending over the next six years, and it is bringing in big-bank experience to help steer it through its next phase of growth.

Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. in Dallas has unloaded its insurance business and is shuttering its mortgage unit so that it can focus more on what it does best: commercial lending.