After trying to expand the unit, MainSource Financial Group of Greensburg, Ind., has shrunk MainSource Insurance by selling its property and casualty and health insurance books.

If a bank's new account production is falling off, the institution might feel fine at the moment. Yet experienced bankers know that, without action, serious problems are imminent.

Two years on, it is clear the Troubled Asset Relief Program put the nation's largest financial firms on sounder footing. But for community banks the program's legacy is far more mixed.

The repeal of Regulation Q, which prohibited banks from paying interest on business checking balances, would allow banks to offer their customers fairer value for their deposits.

Early government data indicates that overall portfolios contracted apace in the third quarter, but that C&I lending came close to a turnaround.

Warburg Pincus has agreed to invest $150 million in National Penn Bancshares, buying a 16% stake at a 5% discount to Tuesday's closing price.

With a new line of products, Flagstar Bancorp in Troy, Mich., is following through with a plan to increase its commercial business.

The $7.8 billion-asset company in Itasca, Ill., announced late Monday that the bank's president and chief executive, Thomas J. Schwartz, plans to step down from those positions at the end of the year.

Adding to the recent string of small-bank acquisitions, German American Bancorp Inc. in Jasper, Ind., is purchasing American Community Bancorp Inc.

Nexity Financial Corp. in Birmingham, Ala., which has been operating under bankruptcy court protection, is shedding its wealth management division.

Monterey County Bank settled with the FDIC over allegations that certain credit and debit practices were "deceptive," the agency said Tuesday.

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Community banks are slogging through the muck, making some progress toward recovery and hoping that things don't get much worse.

Fair-value accounting for trading instruments makes sense. But introducing these accounting methods for traditional products held in banks' portfolios is irrational and will provide no benefit to the industry, consumers or regulators.

Senator Carl Levin thinks that banks should be forced to allow consumers to "opt in" to any type of overdraft program because of what he perceives as abusive overdraft programs.

Saehan Bank, a unit of Saehan Bancorp, has agreed to pay $2.2 million to the United States to settle allegations that it misrepresented or withheld information to get the Small Business Administration to fund loans.