A Michigan banker is claiming — in court and the local press — that he was fired for criticizing his chief executive's request for a bonus.

Blue Valley Ban Corp. in Overland Park, Kan., reported late Wednesday that it lost $4.7 million in the fourth quarter, compared with a $678,000 profit a year earlier.

The National Credit Union Administration is rolling out an advertising campaign to reassure consumers that deposits in credit unions are safe.

SOUTHEAST

After a deal to buy a competitor fell apart last year, Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Shreveport, La., had to come up with another way to jump-start its growth.

Columbia Commercial Bancorp in Hillsboro, Ore., is operating under a regulatory agreement to preserve its capital, so that it can be a source of strength for its ailing bank unit.

This morning, the House Committee on Financial Services is holding a hearing exploring the balance between increasing credit availability and maintaining stringent lending standards.

Frontier Financial Corp. in Everett, Wash., said Tuesday that regulators had ordered its bank unit to boost its capital.

Coronado First Bank in California said Tom Stickel, its founder and former chairman, resigned from its board because of a disagreement over whether it should open a branch in downtown San Diego.

Credit unions will be charged higher insurance premiums to cover the $6 billion cost of taking over U.S. Central Federal Credit Union and Western Corporate Federal Credit Union, the National Credit Union Administration said.

Yadkin Valley Financial Corp. of Elkin, N.C., citing a need to preserve capital, cut its quarterly dividend by more than half, to 6 cents a share.

Building banks is almost as much a sport for Nolan Ryan's family as playing baseball.

Richard W. Wright, 80, has resigned from the boards of Temecula Valley Bancorp Inc. and its bank subsidiary for health reasons, the California company said Monday.

Guaranty Financial Group Inc., which raised $600 million in July from a group that included the financier Carl Icahn, will probably need another infusion, observers said. But finding investors will be harder this time around.

WASHINGTON — The federal government closed its sale of failed California thrift IndyMac Federal Bank (IDMCQ) to OneWestBank on Thursday, though the U.S. government will share some of the losses on the bank's single family residential loan portfolio.

It has been a while since the Independent Community Bankers of America had a chairman who can commute to Capitol Hill in 90 minutes.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Facing capital depletion, Security Bank Corp. in Macon, Ga., is working to raise more, but its auditors question if it can survive.

When controversial accounting rules effectively jeopardized a pending acquisition, Investors Bancorp Inc. in Short Hills, N.J., got angry.