The budget for the Small Business Administration would authorize the agency to provide $28 billion of loan guarantees to small businesses next fiscal year, under a budget proposal the Bush administration released Monday.

First Niagara Financial Group Inc. in Lockport, N.Y., said Monday that it has hired J. Lanier "Lanny" Little as its executive vice president of consumer banking.

Richard P. Chapman, Brookline Bancorp’s chairman and chief executive officer, is not going to let one bumpy quarter sour him on automobile lending.

Capitol Federal Financial of Topeka, Kan., said Monday that earnings for its fiscal first quarter, which ended Dec. 31, fell 10.7% from a year earlier, to $9.1 million.

First Financial Bankshares Inc. in Abilene announced Monday that it has changed the name of its $127 million-asset First National Bank of Sweetwater to First Financial Bank.

For much of the past half-century Bank of Granite Corp. in Granite Falls, N.C., was a rock-solid performer.

In terminating its deal to buy Peoples Community Bancorp Inc. of West Chester, Ohio, Integra Bank Corp. in Evansville, Ind., might have gotten itself back into the good graces of its investors.

Shares of Franklin Bank Corp. plunged Friday after the beleaguered Houston company reported that it lost $66 million, or $2.64 a share, in the fourth quarter as a result of a $65 million goodwill impairment charge and a $23.5 million increase in its loan-loss allowance.

Branch sales boosted First Niagara Financial Group Inc.'s fourth-quarter net income by 33% from the year earlier, to $27.8 million, the company said Thursday.

With commercial real estate markets deteriorating, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan urged bankers Thursday to take proactive steps — or face harsh treatment from examiners.

A recent conversation with the owner of an independent toy store reminded me of why we ask our branch managers to "act like owners" when running their businesses.

For more information on this data, visit Novantas LLC and Market Rates Insight.

Signature Bank Corp. in New York says it is postponing its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings report because it needs more time to determine the market value of asset-backed securities in its investment portfolio.

(The reader is responding to "Banks Urged to Take CRE Loan Initiative," which ran on Feb. 1, 2008)

For the first time since the early 1990s, an outsider is at the helm of the family-run Taylor Capital Group.

NEW ENGLAND

Looking to trim overhead amid mounting credit-quality troubles, BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is scaling back its expansion plans and said it is considering leaving the Orlando market entirely.

Centennial Bank Holdings Inc. in Denver, which has bought four banks since 2004, has reported that it lost $138.2 million, or $2.68 per share, in the fourth quarter because of a goodwill impairment charge on its acquisitions.

A Wisconsin credit union is pressuring the Internal Revenue Service to take a stand on whether income from sales of insurance products should be taxed.

Defying a difficult market, Cape Bancorp Inc. in Cape May Court House, N.J., announced late Monday that it has sold the minimum number of shares required to close its initial public offering.