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.

M&F Bancorp Inc. in Durham, N.C., said its second-quarter earnings rose 21% from the same period a year earlier, to $290,000.

After years of torrid loan growth, Vineyard National Bancorp in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is playing catch-up on the deposit side.

Center Financial Corp. of Los Angeles is in danger of having its stock delisted, because it has not certified its second-quarter earnings statement.

Guaranty Bank of Milwaukee plans to enter the Atlanta retail banking market by opening 11 supermarket branches there.

Pacific Continental Corp. in Eugene, Ore., plans to enter Washington by buying the $143 million-asset NWB Financial Corp. of Seattle for $39 million.