NEW ENGLAND

Even if the line to buy failed banks grows longer, Tom C. Nichols and Don E. Cosby say they'll stay on it.

When brainstorming over the winter about potential mascots for a children's savings program, First Arkansas Bank and Trust's marketing team considered the usual suspects: superheroes, Barney the dinosaur, cartoon characters and the like.

Heritage Commerce Corp. in San Jose said it no longer intends to buy two branches from Wells Fargo & Co.

Hanmi Financial Corp. in Los Angeles has withdrawn its application to participate in the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program after conferring with its regulators.

Some well-known Texas bankers say that they plan to start bidding on failed institutions now that they have a shelf charter from the Office of the Comptroller of Currency.

A year after announcing plans to pair a specialty finance business with a Chicago banking company, Castle Creek Capital LLC is giving up on the deal.

The future-of-branching debate — "brick-and-mortar is dead!" "no, expansion is near!" — is back on, but the two sides have more in common than they might think.

OKLAHOMA CITY — It's high noon for Frontier State Bank.

Carolina Trust Bank in Lincolntown, N.C., has a deal to buy Carolina Commerce Bank in Gastonia, N.C., for $5.5 million in stock.

Colony Capital LLC, a firm owned by the billionaire Thomas Barrack, and Stephen Ross' Related Cos. may seek to buy the assets of Corus Bankshares Inc., the Chicago lender facing a regulatory deadline to boost capital, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Recently, a bank has been running a national ad campaign that has strengthened my distaste of negative advertising.

Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., became the first banking company to make a partial repayment of Treasury Department funds, slicing the government's investment by a quarter Wednesday.

MIDWEST

First Financial Bancorp is to offer $90 million of stock this week, $10 million less than the Ohio bank had expected when it priced its offering two weeks ago.

Temecula Valley Bancorp Inc. has gone from hanging on by a thread to getting a lifeline.

Silicon Valley Bank said Tuesday that it has teamed up with GW & Wade LLC to offer wealth and tax planning services.

After being jilted by two would-be buyers, Peoples Community Bancorp Inc. of West Chester, Ohio, now finds itself in a position to pick partners — at least for its branches.