Berkshire Hills Bancorp in Pittsfield, Mass., moved closer Tuesday to its goal of becoming a regional banking company with a deal to enter Vermont.

Danversbank in Massachusetts caters to business owners, but many of those customers have personal accounts elsewhere, often at online banks that pay high rates on savings accounts.

Baylake Corp. of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., said Monday that it lost $2.3 million in the first quarter after it was forced to boost its loan-loss provision to nearly $6 million.

First Keystone Corp. in Berwick, Pa., said Friday that it has a deal to buy the $133.6 million-asset Pocono Community Bank in Stroudsburg for about $33.6 million in cash and stock.

Mid-Wisconsin Financial Services Inc. of Medford said it would take an after-tax charge of 22 cents a share this quarter, because of bad loans.

Even bank trade groups concede that a bill being proposed in New York to tax federally charted credit unions could not override a federal law granting the tax exemption.

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The tornado that destroyed most of Greensburg, Kan., last week also leveled two of the town's three bank branches.

San Antonio postal workers who deliver mail to USAA Federal Savings Bank are carrying lighter loads these days.

MIDWEST

BancTrust Financial Group Inc. in Alabama entered Florida in 2002 to take advantage of booming growth there, and for more than two years the Florida operation drove its profits.

Atlantic Coast Federal Corp. of Waycross, Ga., plans to convert from a mutual holding company structure to a fully public company.

When bankers sought to recover costs associated with the 2004 data breach at BJ's Wholesale Club Inc., they pinned their case on a breach of contract argument.

Columbia Bancorp in The Dalles, Ore., said it would charge off $2.1 million this quarter because of a bad loan to a potato farmer.

Center Bancorp Inc. in Union, N.J., announced Monday that it has hired an investment bank to help it review its strategic options, including a possible sale.

Irwin Financial Corp. of Columbus, Ind., reported a first-quarter loss Monday of $10.1 million, or 36 cents per diluted share, compared with a loss of $1.9 million, or 6 cents a share, a year earlier.

Amcore Financial Inc. of Rockford, Ill., is looking to two executives it hired last month to help it make the most of the branch building it has done over the past few years.

The $4.3 billion-asset Sterling Bancshares of Houston said Friday it has a deal to buy MBM Advisors Inc., a Houston investment firm that manages about $700 million of assets.

Sterling Bancorp in New York said first-quarter profits fell 46% from a year earlier, to $3.5 million, because of a tax-related gain it recorded in the first quarter of last year.