A private investor group that includes a former chief executive of Nara Bancorp in Los Angeles plans to buy the $100 million-asset Innovative Bancorp in Oakland.

BOK Financial Corp. in Tulsa said Tuesday that it is buying the $152 million-asset Valley Commerce Bancorp Ltd. of Phoenix for $32 million in cash.

Franklin Bank Corp. of Houston, which has bought four Texas banking companies since early last year, announced a deal for a fifth on Tuesday. Its $58.3 million cash and stock deal for the $215 million-asset First National Bank of Athens, Tex., is expected to close in the second quarter.

In a city with dozens of retail banks, including some of the nation’s largest, Austin Bank of Chicago has found that some of its toughest competition has come from payday lenders.

The meeting was important for the students, 10 finance majors working for their MBAs.

Peoples Community Bancorp Inc. of West Chester, Ohio, has agreed to buy American State Corp., of Lawrenceburg, Ind., for about $7.7 million.

Center Bancorp Inc. of Union, N.J., is buying a 5-year-old Morristown, N.J., community bank for $26.3 million in cash and stock.

As he was about to begin a recent interview, Howard P. Milstein, a co-chairman and the president and chief executive officer of Emigrant Bancorp in New York, took a phone call.

Complaints by a growing number of banks about nonbanks’ unauthorized use of their names and logos in marketing materials have more states enacting stiffer penalties for such crimes.

With its first bank acquisition deal in more than a decade, the $1.3 billion-asset Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. of Pittsfield, Mass., is heading for bigger things, its chief executive and president says.

Now that the question of whether Hudson City Bancorp’s much-anticipated second-step conversion will take place has been answered, speculation has shifted to what the Paramus, N.J., company will do with all that money.

SCBT Financial Corp. of Columbia, S.C., announced Friday that it would buy the $94 million-asset New Commerce BanCorp of Greenville, S.C., for $20 million in cash.

Umpqua Holdings Corp. in Portland, Ore., has named Brian Timm, the chief financial officer of Columbia Sportswear Co., to its board of directors.

Banknorth Group Inc.'s largest shareholder, which had been hinting that it might vote against Toronto-Dominion Bank's offer to buy a 51% stake in Banknorth, is now throwing its support behind the offer.

Glacier Bancorp Inc. of Kalispell, Mont., has a deal to buy the $110 million-asset Citizens Community Bank in Pocatello, Idaho, for $17 million in cash and stock.

Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. said Thursday that Robert J. Whelan had joined it as chief financial officer.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

National Credit Union Administration Chairman JoAnn Johnson defended her agency after a federal judge in Utah said last week that it had acted improperly in letting a credit union expand its community charter to six counties.

Illinois banks and credit unions, angry with the governor for raising examination fees last year to help balance the budget, are fighting back.