Enterprise Financial Services Corp. in St. Louis announced Wednesday that it plans to sell its Great American Bank subsidiary to First Financial Bancshares Inc. in Lawrence, Kan.

MIDWEST

One indication of how low expectations have fallen in the area of bank and thrift acquisitions is that the slowest January in recent memory struck some observers as surprisingly brisk.

The planned merger of FNB Corp. in Christiansburg, Va., and Virginia Financial Group Inc. in Culpeper has gotten a thumbs-up from two independent proxy advisory firms.

The housing market's collapse has forced First National Bank of Georgia in Carrollton to change its approach to lending.

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)