Greater Community Bancorp's deal to sell itself to Oritani Financial Corp. had left investors in both companies so dissatisfied that executives feared it might fail to win shareholder approval.

Past generations have seen all this before. That is why for nearly three decades the Independent Community Bankers of America has warned that our financial system was becoming dangerously over-concentrated and that there would be ruinous consequences.

Capital Corp. of the West of Merced, Calif., is looking for a new chief executive officer and has hired an investment bank to help it evaluate its strategic options.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

With southwest Florida's battered real estate market not expected to recover until at least 2009, TIB Financial Corp. in Naples has picked a good time to expand into the wealth management business.

Shares of Capital Corp. of the West lost more than half their value Wednesday after the Merced, Calif., company warned that it expects to report a fourth-quarter loss of $15 million and that it would miss a deadline for filing the results because of "material weaknesses" found in its lending and accounting functions.

The Small Business Administration has given its standard operating procedure handbook an extreme makeover as part of its mission to make its loan programs easier to use.

Several years ago Pennsylvania Rep. Dwight Evans championed an initiative to bring grocery stores to low-income neighborhoods across the state, and now he hopes to do the same with banks.

Shares of Beverly Hills Bancorp Inc. plunged Tuesday after the Calabasas, Calif., company announced that it had lost $6.6 million in the fourth quarter, and that it would preserve its capital instead of paying cash dividends.

The Maryland Senate approved legislation that would let state-chartered banks collect fees they initially waived if borrowers prepay their mortgages or home equity loans.

While community bankers accept that the Federal Reserve Board's indirect rescue of Bear Stearns Cos. was necessary to calm financial markets, some are worried about broader implications.

Franklin Bank Corp.'s stock price fell 20.6% Monday, to $2.28 a share, after the Houston company announced it is conducting an internal accounting investigation and might have to revise last year's earnings.

Westsound Bank in Bremerton, Wash., is searching for a new chief executive officer after its former CEO was forced out by regulators amid an investigation into possible mortgage fraud.

CapitalSouth Bancorp Inc. in Birmingham, Ala., said Friday that it lost $17.2 million in the fourth quarter, largely because of a $17 million charge it took for impaired goodwill in connection with its September acquisition of Monticello Bancshares Inc. in Jacksonville, Fla.

Wisconsin's state-chartered credit unions scored a small victory when the state Legislature adjourned for the year Thursday without considering a bill that would have required some of them to prove to regulators that they adequately serve people of modest means.

Six weeks after reporting a fourth-quarter loss of $16 million, or 35 cents a share, Irwin Financial Corp. of Columbus, Ind., has revised its results because of an increase to its loan-loss allowance and now says it lost $26 million, or 56 cents a share.

Security Bank Corp. of Macon, Ga., announced Friday that it has raised $28 million in a stock offering and plans to use the proceeds to reduce its borrowings and to maintain healthy capital levels at its bank subsidiaries.

Laconia Savings Bank in New Hampshire has hired Mark Primeau as its president and chief executive officer.

As banking lobbyists stick mainly to the sidelines, credit union groups are pushing state legislatures to enact laws holding merchants accountable when they fail to protect consumers’ data.

UCBH Holdings Inc. has switched accountants.