Earnings at Sturgis Bancorp Inc. fell 35% last year, to $1.7 million, the Michigan company said Wednesday.

More and more banks are clamoring for market share in the small towns of the West, where populations are exploding amid a continued exodus from expensive coastal cities.

BankAtlantic Bancorp said Wednesday that it would extend hours at most of its 74 branches.

NEW ENGLAND

Many of your key employees may be looking to move elsewhere.

Michael M. Ciaburri is certain that New London, Conn.’s resurgence will attract regional and money-center banks sooner or later, which is why his 4-year-old Southern Connecticut Bancorp is acting now.

Bank Hapoalim said Tuesday that it had priced its 59% stake in New York's Signature Bank at $26.40 a share, or $457 million.

Horizon Bank in Bellingham, Wash., will convert from a state savings bank to a state commercial charter, its parent said this week.

Trustmark Corp. in Jackson, Miss., has bought the naming rights for a new, minor league baseball stadium that will be the home of the Class AA Mississippi Braves.

American Community Bancshares Inc. of Charlotte is consolidating its charters and merging its South Carolina subsidiary, which it acquired last year, into its lead bank.

Founders Group Inc. in Worth, Ill., is buying the $50 million-asset Vermilion Bancorp Inc. of Danville for $8.6 million in cash.

Cardinal Financial Corp.'s acquisition last year of a large mortgage company nearly doubled its assets, to $1.2 billion, but did not bring in any new deposits, which it would need to fund anticipated loan growth.

Many state lawmakers, like their counterparts in Congress, are itching to enact tough data privacy measures this year.

Center Financial Corp.'s stock fell sharply Thursday on news that the Los Angeles company had found "material weakness" in its internal controls and had requested an extension for the filing of its annual report.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Late last year the Maryland Bankers Association was looking into ways to offer its community-bank members reasonably priced brokerage services that they in turn could offer to their customers.

Fairfield County, Conn., and Westchester County, N.Y., are two of the most crowded and competitive banking markets in the country, but an investor group is gambling that there is room for another community bank.