Eagle Bancorp Inc. in Bethesda, Md., has announced plans to buy hometown rival Fidelity and Trust Corp. for $48.8 million of stock.

Shares of Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. fell Monday, after the Lititz, Pa., company disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday that it will boost its loan-loss provision by $11.1 million this quarter.

The Federal Housing Finance Board has appointed three experienced directors for three-year terms at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas. The Dallas bank announced Friday that its vice chairman, Mary E. Ceverha of Dallas, and Bobby L. Chain of Hattiesburg, Miss., will serve another term. And Patricia P. Brister of St. Tammany Parish, La., who was vice chairman before leaving in 2004 at the end of her first three-year term, is to return to the board. The Dallas bank announced merger discussions with the Home Loan Bank of Chicago in August after American Banker learned of the talks. In October the Finance Board gave the merger discussions more momentum when it completed a cease-and-desist order against the Chicago bank, imposing capital requirements and dividend restrictions. The talks could result in a combination as soon as early 2008, observers say.

Millennium Bancshares Corp. in Reston, Va., said Monday that it plans to sell its two branches in the Richmond area to EVB, the banking unit of Eastern Virginia Bankshares in Tappahannock.

It was only a matter of time before Nicholas S. Schorsch started buying branch and office properties from banks again.

Shareholders of TierOne Corp. of Lincoln, Neb., have approved its deal to be sold to the real estate investment trust CapitalSource Inc., but the banking company's board still plans to renegotiate the terms if the buyer's stock continues to trade down.

Morrill Bankshares Inc. of Merriam, Kan., is getting out of the Texas banking market and the family-owned Austin Bank of Jacksonville, Tex., is entering new markets in the first bank acquisition deal in Texas announced this quarter.

Meta Financial Group Inc. in Storm Lake, Iowa, has agreed to sell its smallest subsidiary, the $39 million-asset MetBank West Central, to Anita Bancorp. in Atlantic, Iowa, for $8.3 million in stock.

Century Bank in Parma, Ohio, has agreed to acquire Liberty Bank in Beachwood for $35.9 million in cash and stock and intends to go public to fund the deal.

First Financial Northwest Inc. of Renton, Wash., intends to increase its loan-loss provision by $4.5 million this quarter, because of problem residential construction loans.

Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. in Lititz, Pa., said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday that it expects its loan losses to rise in the fourth quarter and that it will boost its loss provision by $11.1 million.

TierOne Corp. shareholders approved an agreement late Thursday to sell the Lincoln, Neb., company, despite opposition from its largest shareholder.

Seven years after selling its U.S. banking arm to one Dutch company, National Australia Bank Ltd. is returning with what looks like a page from another Dutch lender's playbook.

Efforts to improve financial options for the unbanked are getting a boost from local and state governments.

The Bankers Bank in Atlanta has outgrown its name.

The Chicago private-equity firm GTCR Golder Rauner LLC has pledged to invest $100 million in another Chicago company, PrivateBancorp Inc., to help it expand.

TierOne Corp. shareholders are to vote today on a proposed acquisition by a Maryland real estate investment trust, and indications are that the vote could be close.

Regulators have postponed approval of Washington Federal Savings Inc.'s deal to buy a nearby thrift, because of unresolved compliance issues at the Seattle buyer.

MIDWEST

First Financial Northwest Inc. of Renton, Wash., said Wednesday that it would increase its loan-loss provision by $4.5 million this quarter, because of problem residential construction loans.