Umpqua Holdings Corp. plans to aggressively expand its private banking unit as other, smaller banks divest such businesses. Donna Huntsman, who was hired Monday to be a senior vice president of private banking, said she expects the Roseburg, Ore., company to have at least $900 million of private banking assets under management in three years.

The $3.8 billion-asset First Financial missed out on the boom years, spending the middle part of the decade quitting unprofitable business lines and markets, and shedding employees.

We need a diverse industry held accountable by able state and federal authorities armed with the legal and statutory tools necessary to provide effective consumer protection.

The Federal Reserve Board ordered Michigan's troubled Warren Bank to quickly boost capital or find a buyer.

After a consent order from its regulators landed it in default on a line of credit, Amcore Financial Inc. in Rockford, Ill., has paid down some of the debt and gotten an extension to repay the rest.

Hampton Roads Bankshares in Norfolk, Va., swung to a loss for the second quarter, suspended its common share dividend and said it plans to offer stock.

The survival of the fittest has definitely played out among banks competing for middle-market business customers, according to more than 6,000 such companies.

With public sentiment running so hard against the banking industry these days the story of Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association, a $13.4 million minority-controlled mutual in Pittsburgh, is nothing short of amazing.Community leaders have rallied around the thrift for the past few months after cyber thieves took more than $3 million through fraudulent automated clearing house transactions, leaving the thrift with a $1 million capital hole.

Regulators closed institutions in five states late Friday, bringing the year's toll to 69 and leaving the FDIC with almost $1 billion more in losses.

SP Acquisition Holdings Inc., a blank check company with $429 million to spend, has agreed to buy the $4 billion-asset Frontier through a share exchange and then recapitalize its bank.

As FSI Group LLC prepared to pour $40 million into Security Bank Corp. last year, it considered what it thought would be the worst-case scenario.

Though the seizure of Security Bank Corp.'s six banks did nothing to change Georgia's reputation as a failure hub, many are calling the resolution the best thing to happen to the state's banking market in years.

A year after posting its first loss, Corus Bankshares is out of capital and out of options. The $7 billion-asset Chicago company reported Friday that it lost $487.3 million in the second quarter, leaving its bank unit with a capital deficit of $157 million.

Despite a second-quarter loss of $43.9 million that left it with a capital shortfall, Integra Bank Corp. in Evansville, Ind., said Friday that it has made progress in dealing with its souring credit quality.

A bill introduced in Congress this week would expand the powers of credit unions to make business loans.

Though its nonperforming loans grew dramatically in the second quarter, Appalachian Bancshares Inc. in Ellijay, Ga., said Thursday that it expects to bring in enough capital to satisfy a regulatory order.

For a year and a half, Taylor Capital Group in Rosemont, Ill., has tried to distinguish the growth of its commercial and industrial lending from the credit problems in its residential real estate portfolio.

After posting its fifth consecutive quarterly loss and falling out of compliance with a regulatory order, Pacific Capital Bancorp said it is weighing "strategic alternatives" — which usually means a company is on the sales block.

The moment a bank anticipates, or sees, signs of nonperformance, it is absolutely essential to meet with the borrower in person and ask the tough questions.

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