It has been three years since community banks started feeling the effects of the economic downturn, and as losses have piled up, so have deferred tax assets.

Weststar Financial Services Corp. in Asheville, N.C., has reported a $14 million second-quarter loss, compared with net income of $434,000 a year earlier.

F.N.B. Corp. in Hermitage, Pa., is selling its bond and transfer agent business to U.S. Bancorp. The $8.6 billion-asset company said in a statement last week that it decided to exit the business because growing administrative costs had become prohibitive for a regional trust company.

Heritage Financial Group in Albany, Ga., said Monday that it will revise its accounting treatment of problem loans acquired in a failed-bank deal last year.

Shareholders of Farmers Banc National Corp. in Canfield, Ohio, rejected two key proposals at the company's annual meeting, the company said Friday.

The deal structure allowed the group that bought ShoreBank's deposits and nearly all its assets to sidestep a politically sensitive subject: open-bank assistance.

Two of the three community banks in Fall River, Mass., are planning to combine. The $694.7 million-asset Citizens-Union Savings Bank announced a deal Monday to acquire the $163 million-asset Bank of Fall River. The combined mutual savings bank would have about $861 million in assets, edging out the $700.2 million-asset Bank Five, the other bank based in the city.

The Center for Financial Services Innovation, a nonprofit organization that focuses on financial services for underbanked consumers, will continue to operate as usual, despite the Aug. 20 failure of its affiliate bank, ShoreBank Corp.

ShoreBank, the country's first community development bank, failed Friday night after months of struggling to find a way to stay afloat. However, it will continue in a different form.

First Security Inc. in Owensboro, Ky., decided on the latter last week when it decided to call off a deal to buy three Indiana branches and a pool of loans from the struggling, $3 billion-asset Integra Bank Corp.

ShoreBank, the country's first community development bank, failed Friday night after months of struggling to find a way to stay afloat. However, it will continue in a different form.

Sterling Financial Corp. of Spokane has found a way to raise $730 million in fresh capital, including an expansion of its investments from the private-equity firms Warburg Pincus LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP.

Sterling Financial Corp. of Spokane has found a way to raise $730 million in fresh capital, including an expansion of its investments from the private-equity firms Warburg Pincus LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP.

While many banks have watched their earnings erode in recent years, Greater Hudson Bank in Middletown, N.Y., is bucking the trend — it first became profitable last year and has reported its fifth consecutive quarterly profit.

PAB Bankshares Inc. in Valdosta, Ga., said late Wednesday that it had withdrawn plans to raise $80 million in a common stock offering "due to changing market conditions."

Western Alliance Bancorp. on Thursday priced its public offering of 7 million shares at $6.25 a share, an 8.5% discount to Wednesday's closing price.

One major question about First Niagara's deal to buy NewAlliance remains unanswered: what role Peyton Patterson, the seller's chief executive and one of the most prominent bankers in New England, will play in the post-merger company.

Sitting on a pile of cash from an initial public offering six years ago, NewAlliance Bancshares seemed poised to make a big acquisition. So it came as a surprise to many in the banking world Thursday when the company announced that it is being acquired by First Niagara Financial Group for $1.5 billion in a deal that would create one of the top 25 U.S.-based commercial banks.

First Niagara said NewAlliance's extensive branch network will serve as a foundation for the Buffalo-based bank's growth in New England.

First Niagara Financial Group Inc. agreed to acquire New Alliance Bancshares Inc. for some $1.5 billion in stock, giving the Buffalo-based bank a foothold in New England.