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.

Sterling Bancshares Inc. in Houston said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter earnings rose 4.3% from a year earlier, to $13.4 million.

Buoyed by strong loan and deposit growth, Enterprise Financial Services Corp. in St. Louis reported Tuesday that its fourth-quarter profits rose 12% from a year earlier, to $4.9 million.

In what would be the first acquisition in its nine-year history, Jacksonville Bancorp Inc. in Florida has a deal to buy the $165 million-asset Heritage Bancshares Inc. in Orange Park for $30.2 million in cash and stock.

For PrivateBancorp Inc. in Chicago, hiring LaSalle Bank's former president and 56 managing directors was not cheap.

Stung by defaults in its residential construction loan portfolio, Cowlitz Bancorp. in Longview, Wash., reported a $3.1 million loss in the fourth quarter, compared with a profit of $1.2 million a year earlier.

Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Ind., said Monday that its fourth-quarter earnings rose 26% from a year earlier, to $22 million.

Despite gains in loans, deposits, and fee income, Heartland Financial USA Inc. reported a 9.3% drop in fourth-quarter earnings from a year earlier, to $6.8 million, because of an increase in its provision for loan losses.

The day after Fulton Financial Corp. in Lancaster, Pa., reported last week that its fourth-quarter earnings fell 18% and nonperforming assets more than doubled, its stock shot up roughly 14% and has held steady since.

American Bank of Commerce’s decision last year to begin offering mortgages — for the first time in about two decades — came at an opportune time.

Its portfolio ripe with nonperforming condominium construction loans, Corus Bankshares Inc. in Chicago is coming off its worst quarterly performance in years.

FirstFed Financial Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif., said Friday that fourth-quarter profits fell 75%, to $8.4 million, from the year earlier, due to mounting losses in its residential real estate loan portfolio.