JLL Partners Fund FCH LP, a New York private-equity firm, has agreed to invest up to $150 million in FC Holdings Inc. of Houston, which said it would use the money to fund acquisitions and expand its subsidiary banks.

Two banks in organization plan to target business customers that many banks would not touch with a 10-foot pole: check cashers and other money-services businesses.

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Cowlitz Bancorp of Longview, Wash., said its board unanimously rejected an unsolicited offer from the Bellevue private-equity firm Crescent Capital VI LLC to buy the company.

Nara Bancorp of Los Angeles said Thursday that it had made a deal to buy a branch in Brick Township, N.J., from a New Jersey bank.

An Alexandria, Va., company formed last year to buy community banks says it has struck its first deal.

At most banks relationship managers receive a salary and commission for bringing in loans and deposits and are not penalized when customers take their business elsewhere.

NEW ENGLAND

Ameriana Bancorp in New Castle, Ind., has resolved a long-running legal battle related to a pool of leases it acquired that turned out to be fraudulent.

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida's earnings, stock price, and credit quality have suffered during a statewide housing slump, but Dennis S. Hudson 3rd, its chairman and chief executive, says he is not rattled.

First Federal Bankshares Inc. of Sioux City, Iowa, has renamed its First Federal Bank subsidiary Vantus Bank.

Until a few weeks ago St. Martin Bank and Trust in St. Martinville, La., expected to use trust-preferred securities to finance its most recent buyout deal.

The federal government has taken over three financially troubled credit unions this year, and data shows two of them had violated regulatory limits on business lending.

Canandaigua National Corp. in Canandaigua, N.Y., has agreed to buy Genesee Valley Trust Co. in Pittsford, N.Y., for an undisclosed amount.

Texas Capital Bank in Dallas has started an initiative to lend to small businesses in low- and moderate-income areas.

SCBT Financial Corp. in Columbia, S.C., said Thursday that it has a deal that would give it entry into North Carolina.

Susquehanna Bancshares in Lititz, Pa., has expanded its potential borrowings from a Federal Home Loan bank by 67%, to $1 billion, simply by switching one of its bank charters to another state.

The average salary for chief executive officers at community banks rose 5.2% this year, to $213,000, according to the annual compensation and benefits survey America's Community Bankers released Wednesday.