In response to growing concern over the industry's aging work force, the National Credit Union Administration is launching a nationwide initiative to recruit the next generation of credit union executives.

First Charter Corp. of Charlotte is the latest Southeast banking company to warn of potential loan losses related to a western North Carolina real estate development under investigation by the state's attorney general.

Harleysville National Corp. hired Paul D. Geraghty as its president and chief executive officer.

First Bancorp in Troy, N.C., has agreed to acquire Great Pee Dee Bancorp Inc. of Cheraw, S.C., for $38.2 million in stock.

Legend Bancorp Inc. of Bowie, Tex., has a deal to acquire the $89 million-asset Bonstate Bancshares Inc. in Bonham.

The housing slump in California's once-booming inland valleys has caught up with PFF Bancorp Inc.

Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin Inc. of Madison has struck its first acquisition deal in six years, announcing Thursday that it has agreed to buy S&C Banco Inc. of New Richmond.

A new type of correspondent bank is set to open in Charlotte this fall.

John R. Koelmel has had a rocky seven months as the president and chief executive officer of First Niagara Financial Group Inc.

Mercantile Bank Corp. in Grand Rapids said Wednesday that its second-quarter earnings fell 57% from a year earlier, to $2.2 million.

MIDWEST

A month after warning of its exposure to an apparent real estate scheme, United Community Banks Inc. in Blairsville, Ga., is now saying that its loan losses will be higher than expected.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Paducah, Ky., was a destination for jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington; the thriving port city at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio rivers was an important stop on the "Chitlin' Circuit," a safe set of performance venues for African-Americans.

Pax Holdings Inc. has called off its deal to buy the $39 million-asset Surety Bank in Fort Worth, according to a Securities Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday by the bank's parent company.

State National Bank in Fort Worth is asking a court to prohibit a rival from soliciting its customers in western Texas.

It is a good time to be a bank in Bozeman, Mont.

The $623 million-asset WGNB Corp. of Carrollton, Ga., said Monday that its second-quarter earnings rose 13% from the same quarter last year, to $2.3 million, on the strength of double-digit loan and deposit growth.

Independent Bank Corp. in Ionia, Mich., announced Monday that it would report a loan-loss provision of $13 million to $16 million for the second quarter.

Shinhan Financial Group, Korea's second-largest banking company, wants to bulk up in the United States through acquisitions, but it is not necessarily targeting Korean-American banks.