Americas

Hanmi Financial Corp.'s on-again, off-again relationship with South Korean banking giant Woori Finance Holdings Co. is back on again.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., has received regulatory approval to buy Cascade Financial Corp. in Everett, Wash.

Bank of the Carolinas Corp. said it has retained Hutchison Co., an investment bank in North Carolina, to help it look at strategic options to enhance shareholder value.

Georgia state regulators shut $103.7 million-asset Mountain Heritage Bank in Clayton on Friday, making it the 48th bank to fail so far this year and 14th failure in Georgia.

MB Financial Inc. in Chicago is selling the bulk of its problem real estate and construction loans to a California investment group that has been an active acquirer of failed-bank assets.

A major investor in Meta Financial Group has grown impatient with the company's sagging stock price and is urging the Storm Lake, Iowa, bank holding company to sell itself.

With five completed acquisitions and one pending, North American Financial Holdings Inc. is set to go public.

CSB Bancorp in Millersburg, Ohio, announced Friday that it is acquiring two branches in Wooster, Ohio, from Premier Bank & Trust.

Rejected by the Office of Thrift Supervision in its bid to become a 100% stock-owned company, New Jersey mutual holding company Clifton Savings Bancorp is taking its chances with its new regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The state's banking market is still seriously impaired, but foreign banks are increasingly attracted to it for the same reason — and their arrival may feed the turnaround.