State Financial Services Corp. of Milwaukee is buying 80% of m2 Lease Funds LLC of Madison, Wis.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management says it plans to expand its mutual fund business by acquiring small fund families from banks looking to quit the proprietary fund business.

Hanmi Financial Corp. in Los Angeles said that Dong Il Kim will resign this week as the chief credit officer of its Hanmi Bank.

The Small Business Administration's flagship 7(a) program guaranteed $3.56 billion of loans - 23,197 of them - in the first quarter of the government's 2005 fiscal year.

NEW ENGLAND

A year-old Ohio law letting more people carry concealed guns has ignited a debate there over whether banks posting "no guns" signs in branch windows may attract would-be robbers rather than deter them.

Emigrant Launches Web Bank

Citizens First Financial Corp. of Bloomington, Ill., announced Wednesday that an enforcement order under which it had been operating for nearly a year has been terminated.

The Sacramento area's torrid growth has helped Placer Sierra Bank more than double its assets in five years, to $1.5 billion. Now it aims to replicate that success in the nation's fastest-growing region, southern California's Inland Empire.

Valley National Bancorp's first deals in nearly four years have come in response to a growing competitive threat from more aggressive rivals, some analysts say.

After failing to buy back enough shares to go private, Wells Financial Corp. of Wells, Minn., plans to conduct a reverse stock split by the end of the quarter with a goal of getting its shareholder count below 300.

The private banking unit of Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. says it plans to move beyond the city with a couple of acquisitions in New England this year.

Columbia University economics professor Charles Calomiris is well known in industry circles for his books on banking and as a member of Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee, a group of academics who critique banking regulation.

QCR Holding Inc., of Moline, Ill., said Tuesday that it has launched Rockford Bank and Trust Co.

Many banks fail to take advantage of a great resource: nearby colleges and high schools.

Another small community bank has announced plans to deregister its stock, extending a trend that emerged after passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002.

Prompted by recent acquisitions in Texas and encouraged by rebounding crop values, Hibernia Corp. in New Orleans is ramping up its agricultural lending.

Six months after it began offering late-night hours at a Miami branch, BankAtlantic Bancorp of Fort Lauderdale has extended the service to four more branches.

Centrue Financial Corp. in Kankakee, Ill., closed 2004 with the announcement that it was buying a small bank in southern Illinois.