NEW ENGLAND

A day after financial companies banded together to rescue ShoreBank in Chicago with a $140 million investment, two Republican lawmakers are asking President Obama about his involvement.

Charter Financial Corp. of West Point, Ga., has opted for a road less traveled after shareholders balked at its plan to convert to a fully public company.

The Treasury Department said it expects to make $5.4 million from the sale of warrants to purchase common stock of Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J.

WASHINGTON — Financial institutions are sounding the alarm over an amendment to the Senate bill that many initially deemed harmless but now see as threatening a key source of capital: trust-preferred securities.

Quicken Loans of Livonia, Mich., is jumping into the private-label origination business, offering its services to community banks and credit unions.

Cowlitz Bancorp. in Longview, Wash., posted a first-quarter loss that was six times higher than a year earlier.

Two already troubled community banks recorded additional first-quarter losses this week in revising their results after re-evaluating problem loans.

The administration's plan to spur small-business lending hit a big snag Tuesday as House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank acknowledged the program has no funding source.

The lifeline that ShoreBank in Chicago has been thrown by some of the nation's largest financial companies could turn out to have benefits for other community development banks.

ShoreBank in Chicago succeeded Monday night in pulling together the necessary private investment commitments to secure a lifeline from the Treasury Department.

The Treasury Department said Monday it has launched an offering of warrants to buy equity in Valley National Bancorp.

California lender Pacific Capital Bancorp can't pay dividends without Federal Reserve approval, the Fed said.

As a similarly named neighbor was being taken over by regulators, First Midwest Bancorp Inc. decided to assert its strength.

Following its acquisition of Midwest Bank and Trust Co., FirstMerit Corp. is looking to beef up capital.

After Toronto-Dominion Bank agreed Monday to buy South Financial Group Inc. and bought three failed banks in Florida last month, the natural question is: What next?

State supervision of nonbank mortgage lenders — an industry group that was a key part of the "shadow" financial system widely blamed for the crisis — is becoming as tough as federal oversight of depositories. And in some ways, tougher.

Months after it was considered dead on arrival, a push to create a $30 billion small-business lending fund for community banks has found new life.

The secondary public offering of 2.5 million warrants for common stock of Valley National is part of Treasury's effort to recoup part of the $700 billion financial-sector bailout.

For the second time in a month, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada's second-largest bank by assets, scooped up a troubled U.S. bank, enabling it to expand its footprint in the U.S. southeast.