Less than three weeks after joining Taylor Capital Group Inc. of Rosemont, Ill., as its executive vice president and chief operating officer, Randall T. Conte is taking on the role of chief financial officer.

Community development banks caught a break in the Treasury Department's rescue plan when they alone were exempted from issuing warrants to the government in exchange for capital injections, and they intend to take full advantage.

While visiting my old hometown in southern Louisiana recently, I came across what became my favorite advertising piece of the year. As I stopped at an intersection, I noticed a billboard for a real estate agent named Panky. (I kid you not.)

Gordon Fong resigned as the chief financial officer of Vineyard National Bancorp of Corona, Calif., which has been battered over the last year by mounting credit problems.

Territorial Savings Bank in Honolulu is planning to go public, and Community Bank in Brockton, Mass., is calling off its offering for now, in what has been a choppy market for mutual thrift conversions.

NEW ENGLAND

Since it opened for business in late 2006, American Momentum Bank in Tampa has been sitting on much of the record-setting $100 million of capital it raised.

Less than three months after joining Republic Bancorp Inc. as head of the Louisville company's acquisitions and corporate strategy, former National City Corp. executive Ted Parker has resigned to "pursue other opportunities."

Iberiabank Corp. in Lafayette, La., said Tuesday that after "extensive and careful consideration" it has decided to participate in the Treasury Department's Capital Purchase Program.

First Coweta Bank in Newnan, Ga., said its problem loans more than tripled from a year earlier in the third quarter, to $14.2 million, resulting in a loss of $484,000 for the three months.

Nearly four years after turning in its thrift charter, Ocwen Financial Corp. has reconsidered the merits of federal regulation and has applied to convert to a bank holding company and buy a tiny Texas bank.

Glacier Bancorp Inc. of Kalispell, Mont., said Monday that it has completed its acquisition of Bank of the San Juans in Durango, Colo.

NRDC Acquisition Corp. is looking to inject as much as $400 million into a community bank that commits to using the added capital to turbocharge its commercial real estate lending.

The faltering economy has sunk yet another banking merger.

Consumers and business owners have historically based decisions about where to bank on access, convenience, and the price of products and services, but with the economy in a tailspin, customers above all want to be sure their money is safe and that their bank is not in danger of failing.

Hanmi Financial Corp. in Los Angeles said it has applied for $105 million from the Treasury Department's Capital Purchase Program and said that if the application is approved it would use the funds to increase its lending to small and midsize businesses.

Greensfork Township State Bank, a two-branch bank in rural Lynn, Ind., is moving into the state's largest market with a deal to acquire the $57 million-asset Symphony Bank in Indianapolis.

In a deal that would nearly double its deposits in its home state's largest metropolitan market, Old National Bancorp in Evansville is buying all the Indiana branches of Citizens Financial Group Inc.

No longer wary of the stigma of receiving capital injections from the federal government, privately held community banks are lining up to participate in the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.