When Woodforest National Bank in Houston started putting branches in Wal-Mart stores in 2001, it decided to embrace its own version of the "Wal-Mart way."

First Defiance Financial Corp., of Defiance, Ohio, says it has taken a $1.9 million charge for the third quarter to settle a dispute that arose after the sale of its mortgage subsidiary more than two years ago.

On the same day it closed one deal, Wintrust Financial Corp. of Lake Forest, Ill., announced another.

American River Bancshares has posted its 83rd straight quarter of profitability.

After determining that growth potential is limited in many of its markets, F.N.B. Corp. of Hermitage, Pa., has been on a mission to bulk up in the Pittsburgh area.

Is this the last hurrah for pooled trust-preferred securities?

First Charter Corp.'s third-quarter earnings rose 28% from the same period a year earlier, to $11.4 million.

First Defiance Financial Corp. of Ohio has agreed to buy Genoa Savings and Loan Co. for $11 million in cash.

Oak Hill Financial Inc. of Jackson, Ohio, has agreed to buy Lawrence Financial Holdings Inc. of Ironton.

In the past two years IronStone Bank of Fort Myers, Fla., has devoted much of its resources to expanding into far-flung markets — from Austin to Sacramento to Portland, Ore. — but it plans to spend 2005 settling down.

Whitney Holding Corp. said Wednesday that it is buying Destin Bancshares Inc., a move that will bolster the New Orleans company’s operations in the fast-growing Florida Panhandle.

MIDWEST

Sandy Spring Bancorp said Tuesday that it has appointed Philip J. Mantua as its chief financial officer.

Once the final terms have been agreed to, bank merger and acquisition deals rarely fall through. But lately there has been a flurry of second thoughts.

Two years after entering the United States, R&G Financial Corp. of San Juan said Tuesday that it would more than double its mainland operations by buying 18 branches from SouthTrust Corp.

Though Gold Banc Corp.’s deal to sell to a Kansas investment group has collapsed, the Leawood, Kan., company still seems likely to sell itself within the next year.

Texas Regional Bancshares Inc. plans to acquire a three-branch Dallas thrift.

Federal banking regulators are objecting to a Securities and Exchange Commission proposal that would implement the broker-dealer provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

The Kansas investor group that called off its deal for Gold Banc Corp. has submitted a lower offer to Gold's board, which was expected to consider it over the weekend, according to sources familiar with the deal.

WASHINGTON — A strange thing is happening in the credit union business: Just when the government is making it easier for people to join the cooperatives, membership growth rates are slowing.