In an attempt to avoid the stigma of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, President Obama announced Tuesday a separate $30 billion program to help small businesses receive loans from community banks.

Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc. in Flint, Mich., announced Monday that it has agreed to sell its F&M Bank subsidiary in Des Moines for $50 million in cash to Great Western Bank, a Sioux Falls, S.D., unit of National Australia Bank.

WASHINGTON — Though President Obama has pledged to divert billions into community banks willing to make small-business loans, many financial institutions say loans to smaller firms are falling into delinquency at a high rate.

Fourth-quarter earnings reports from small and midsize banking companies showcase some favorable trends, notably that credit deterioration appears to be stabilizing and deposits have bloomed on many balance sheets.

President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget proposal would provide $994 million for the Small Business Administration, a 21% increase over the 2010 enacted level.

A Colorado community bank has found success in wealth management using a most unusual model.

Over the past 20 years, a range of companies have been steadily making a grab for businesses that had once been the purview of banks.

Two small New England banks are moving into a line of business few their size have tried. Is this the future of community banking?

The Huffington Post's viral campaign urging people to move deposits from large banks to community banks has generated considerable buzz since it was launched in late December. But will it succeed in helping small banks generate more deposits?

By playing up how they can help create jobs, credit unions are gaining momentum with their effort to increase the cap on member business lending.

Understanding that they are only as healthy as the communities they serve, banks are using their marketing prowess to help clients sell everything from burgers to bikes.

WASHINGTON — For the second Friday in a row, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. relied on new-bank capital to find homes for the operations of failed institutions.

Glacier Bancorp Inc. of Kalispell, Mont., said Friday that its fourth-quarter net earnings fell 44% from a year earlier, to $9.5 million.

Harleysville National Corp. of Pennsylvania announced Friday that its fourth-quarter net income fell 26% year over year, to $2.8 million.

The $11 billion-asset company reported a net loss available to shareholders of $15.7 million, compared with a $69.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2008.

Loan sales helped a growing number of community banks push some of their problems out the door in the fourth quarter.

Loan sales helped a growing number of community banks push some of their problems out the door in the fourth quarter.

Details for a planned $30 billion program to help community banks lend to small businesses are still being worked on, but the Obama administration is leaning toward removing the strings that have scared institutions away from other capital programs.

The $14.8 billion-asset thrift company announced late Wednesday that MatlinPatterson Global Advisors LLC, a New York private-equity firm, injected $300 million into Flagstar as part of a rights offering announced late last year.