Even a flurry of profit warnings from Oregon banks in the last week could not prepare investors and analysts for the bomb West Coast Bancorp dropped late Tuesday.

Mercantile Bank Corp. in Grand Rapids, Mich., announced Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings fell nearly 98% due largely to an increase in nonperforming assets.

View the top 150 community banks with the largest portfolios of home equity loans.

A Cape Fear Bank Corp. investor who had been pressuring it to sell itself to another banking company has identified a potential buyer: himself.

MutualFirst Financial Inc. in Muncie, Ind., announced Tuesday that it has agreed to buy the $510 million-asset MFB Corp. of Mishawaka, Ind., for $52.7 million in cash and stock.

Iberiabank Corp. of Lafayette, La., said Tuesday that its nonperforming loans surged in the fourth quarter, largely because of weakness in the housing markets served by its Arkansas bank.

For the second time in six months, credit unions have found themselves defending their tax-exempt status to Bush administration officials who are examining the impact of corporate tax breaks on the nation's global competitiveness.

Pacific Continental Corp. in Eugene, Ore., said Monday that it expects to post fourth-quarter earnings of 28 cents a share, or 2 cents shy of the average of analysts' estimates, because of problem residential construction loans.

IronStone Bank, a Fort Myers, Fla., thrift subsidiary of the $16.3 billion-asset First Citizens Bancshares Inc. of Raleigh, entered the Kansas City, Mo., area last month with a loan production office it plans to turn into a branch this quarter, a spokesman said Monday.

Now that Guaranty Bank in Austin no longer turns over most of its earnings to a corporate parent, the $16 billion-asset thrift will be able to reinvest in itself.

Bradford Bancorp Inc.'s deal to buy another Maryland thrift is officially off.

Two Massachusetts mutual thrifts, Norwood Co-operative Bank and Walpole Co-operative Bank, have agreed to merge.

The dozen or so banks caught up in an alleged land development fraud in western North Carolina may not recover much of the $100 million they have lost, but some are trying to make sure that they do not get fooled again.

Cascade Bancorp's shares plunged Friday on news that the Bend, Ore., company expects to report weak fourth-quarter earnings due to losses on bad residential construction loans.

One of my favorite retailers competes in an industry not exactly known for differentiated offerings.

First Volunteer Corp. in Chattanooga, Tenn., has bought a century-old community bank in Benton, Tenn., that lost millions of dollars in an apparent loan fraud scheme.

The stock price of Oregon Pacific Bancorp Inc. soared Thursday after the Florence company announced that it plans to deregister its stock and go private.

Sun Bancorp Inc. of Vineland, N.J., said Thursday that it would take a $4.1 million fourth-quarter provision for loan losses and charge off $3.5 million of loans.

Another Michigan bank is warning about credit trouble prompted by the state's flagging economy.