WASHINGTON - Roughly 300 small banks affected by last year's Gulf Coast hurricanes would get an infusion of corporate deposits through a five-year program being unveiled in New Orleans today.

Sun American Bancorp in Miami said Friday that it had agreed to buy the $131 million-asset Independent Community Bank in Tequesta, Fla., for $41 million in cash and stock.

Charter Financial Corp. in West Point, Ga., announced plans Friday to delist its stock and become a privately held company.

Middlefield Banc Corp. in Middlefield, Ohio, has agreed to acquire Emerald Bank of Dublin for $7.3 million in cash and stock.

TIB Financial Corp. in Naples, Fla., has agreed to purchase Bank of Venice for $16 million of cash and stock.

Nearly half of community banks use credit scoring to evaluate small-business loans, but most still give more weight to other criteria, such as cash flow and collateral.

Members of Lafayette Federal Credit Union in Kensington, Md., angry over a decision to convert the credit union to a mutual savings bank, are circulating a petition aimed at ousting the nine-member board.

CenterState Banks of Florida Inc. in Winter Haven has a deal to buy the $157 million-asset Valrico Bancorp Inc. for $40.4 million of cash and stock.

A report the National Credit Union Administration released Wednesday found that 44% of all federal credit union members earn less than the median family income for their metropolitan statistical area.

Frank Mercardante's task of improving Placer Sierra Bancshares' lackluster earnings has gotten a bit harder now that the Sacramento company is about to lose a large chunk of its core deposits.

MIDWEST

Amarillo, Tex., is undergoing an economic resurgence, and banks there are among the beneficiaries.

Assabet Valley Bancorp of Hudson, Mass., said Tuesday that it has agreed to buy Westborough Bancorp in Westborough, Mass., for about $20 million in cash.

UCBH Holdings Inc. of San Francisco plans to restate its financial results for 2005 and other periods, but said the restatements would not affect earnings.

Walter B. Williams, who built a small Seattle mortgage company into what is now the $2.4 billion-asset HomeStreet Inc., died Nov. 9 at the age of 85.

The odds are against him, but if anyone can build a nationwide bank targeting African-Americans it is probably Robert L. Johnson, the man who founded Black Entertainment Television and later sold it for $3 billion.

As banks across the country struggle to scrape up deposits, FirstBank of Lexington, Tenn., is getting a sudden injection of funding that will increase its deposit base by more than a third.

Sun Bancorp Inc. in Vineland, N.J., which has said it planned to trim expenses to improve profitability, said Friday that it is selling three of its branches to three separate buyers.

Emma Allen and Frank Johnson left their banking jobs at First Charter Corp. in Charlotte last winter for what they describe as a higher calling: to preach the gospel of basic money management.