Dozens of bank branches in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were severely damaged by wind and flooding and hundreds more were still without power a day after Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast.

As Interchange Financial Services Corp. of Saddle Brook, N.J., and its largest shareholder, the activist investor Lawrence B. Seidman, continue to attack each other, predicted improvement in its performance may resolve the conflict.

Bank companies often test a new market by opening a loan production office and later converting it to a branch or even a start-up bank.

Sun Bancorp Inc. of Vineland, N.J., is buying Advantage Bank of Branchburg, N.J., for $37 million.

Talk about letting your readers down.

Encouraged by rising demand for venture capital, a team of veteran bankers led by the former head of Comerica's venture capital unit has started a bank that will lend almost exclusively to new and emerging companies.

Taylor Capital Group Inc. of in Rosemont, Ill., and the family that owned most of its stock hope the recent sale of 1.5 million shares will boost liquidity and raise its profile with investors and analysts.

Financial Institutions Inc. of Warsaw, N.Y., has hired a former Bank of America Corp. executive to turn around its struggling Wyoming County Bank there.

Mercantile Bank Corp., a Grand Rapids company founded in December 1997, has proved an exceptionally adroit commercial lender; its business-loan portfolio has increased by an average of 37% a year.

NEW ENGLANDCambridge Bancorp of Massachusetts has hired Albert R. Rietheimer as the chief financial officer and a senior vice president of the company and its $721 million-asset Cambridge Trust Co.

First Banks Inc. of St. Louis has agreed to buy First National Bank of Sachse, Tex., for $20.8 million in cash, 2.2 times the seller's book value.

Language is the biggest barrier to doing business with the fast-growing Hispanic population. To help banks overcome it, the American Bankers Association and Workplace Spanish Inc. of Roswell, Ga., have developed a program to teach front-line employees enough Spanish for basic banking transactions.

The seven Wyoming bankers who run a booth each year at a trust administrators conference in Miami get some curious looks, Pamela G. Snell says.

First Community Bancshares Inc. of Bluefield, Va., has agreed to sell its branch in Clifton Forge to Sonabank of Charlottesville for $4 million.

Never much of an acquirer, Union Bancshares Inc. of Bowling Green, Va., is scouting for targets in four Virginia markets as it seeks to double its assets in five years.

Vineyard National Bancorp of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., said Monday that it had issued $15 million of trust-preferred securities and would use the proceeds to support the growth of its Vineyard Bank.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has updated its handbook on what national banks may do.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has approved plans by Southern Connecticut Bancorp of New Haven to open a bank in New London.

Community Bancorp Inc. of Escondido, Calif., has completed its $27.9 million acquisition of Rancho Bernardo Community Bank.