Vineyard National Bancorp's losses continue to pile up as a result of rapidly declining real estate values in California's Inland Empire.

FirstBank Holding Co., the largest locally owned banking company in Colorado, is privately held and relatively low-profile.

An accounting firm that questioned Peoples Community Bancorp's ability to survive as an independent company has resigned as the West Chester, Ohio, thrift company's accountant.

AUSTIN — One bad quarter can sure set a bank's growth plan back, particularly if it's the only quarter the bank has to show for itself.

PFF Bancorp Inc. in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., said late Wednesday that it expects to record a loss of about $159 million for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended March 31, in part because of an estimated $196 million provision for losses on residential construction loans.

Wintrust Financial Corp. in Lake Forest, Ill., has weathered the real estate downturn in part by specializing in the business of financing insurance premiums, and now it wants to free up capital for more traditional lending by securitizing premium-finance loans on its books.

First Clover Leaf Financial Corp. in Edwardsville, Ill., said Thursday that it plans to buy Partners Financial Holdings Inc. of Glen Carbon for $20.7 million in cash and stock.

There is a visual prompt that I often encourage branch managers to place behind their teller windows, new account desks, and drive-up windows. It is this: "Is your line worth waiting in?"

FirstFed Financial Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif., said Wednesday that it had lost $69.8 million in the first quarter after taking a $150.3 million provision for losses on its option adjustable-rate mortgages.

NEW ENGLAND

Taylor Capital Group Inc. said Wednesday that it lost $3.8 million, or 37 cents per share, in the first quarter due to a rise in its loan-loss provision and higher expenses for hiring at its Cole Taylor Bank subsidiary.

Silver State Bancorp in Henderson, Nev., said Wednesday that it lost $14.4 million in the first quarter as a result of taking a $31 million provision for losses on residential construction and land development loans.

Plagued by bad residential construction loans in California, Central Pacific Financial Corp. in Honolulu said Wednesday that its first-quarter profit dropped more than 90% from a year earlier, to $1.7 million.

Sometimes it's all in the delivery.

With $200 million of fresh funding, East West Bancorp Inc. in Pasadena, Calif., has given itself a line of defense against future losses if California's housing market does not recover soon.

George Jones Jr., who is set to take over as chief executive officer of Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. in Dallas next month at the age of 64, didn’t have an easy start to his banking career.

BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc., still hampered by the real estate downturn, reported a first-quarter net loss of $23.4 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with net income of $5.7 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier.

Pacific Capital Bancorp of Santa Barbara, Calif., said its tax refund anticipation loan business more than offset a drop in core banking earnings and helped first-quarter net income rise 43% from a year earlier, to $72.5 million.