PFF Bancorp Inc. in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., reported third-quarter earnings Monday of $14 million, up 4.5% from the third quarter of 2005. Earnings per share increased 3.7%, to 56 cents.

Four months after signaling that it was ready to start buying banks again, Old National Bancorp of Evansville, Ind., has struck a deal that would take it into northern Indiana for the first time.

Washington Trust Bancorp Inc. in Westerly, R.I., said Monday that it earned $6.6 million in the third quarter, a 13% increase from a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 5 cents, to 48 cents.

Wintrust Financial Corp., said Monday that its third-quarter earnings fell 25% from last year's third quarter, to $14.9 million. Per-share earnings fell 30%, to 56 cents, 5 cents below estimates from analysts at Ryan Beck & Co.

Shares of BancorpSouth Inc. fell 2% Monday after the Tupelo, Miss., company was downgraded by a Merrill Lynch analyst.

Jeanette Muldoon's experience in a hospital waiting room a year ago inspired an idea for a way to provide better service to non-English-speaking customers at Investors Savings Bank in Short Hills, N.J.

Despite strong deposit and loan growth, Pennsylvania Commerce Bancorp Inc. said its third-quarter net income fell 29% from a year earlier, to $1.6 million, or 26 cents a share.

American Banker will honor three individuals — John M. Eggemeyer 3rd, Jerry Williams, and Luz Lopez Urrutia — as its 2006 Community Bankers of the Year.

Investors obviously were pleased with Taylor Capital Group Inc.'s third-quarter earnings report, but analysts were a little more cautious in their assessments.

AmericanWest Bancorp in Spokane is speeding up its Utah expansion with a deal to buy the $405 million-asset Far West Bancorp in Provo for about $150 million in cash and stock.

Slower net growth in low-cost deposits and a $4.8 million loss at its investment banking subsidiary Ryan Beck & Co. led to disappointing third-quarter earnings for BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc.

With its $6 billion deal to acquire Mercantile Bankshares Corp. of Baltimore, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. would gain about 240 branches stretching from Fredericksburg, Va., to Baltimore, instantly establishing the Pittsburgh company as one of the region's major players.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Republic Bancorp Inc. in Ann Arbor, Mich., announced Tuesday that it had third-quarter earnings of $16.2 million, down 6% from last year's third quarter. Diluted earnings per share were flat at 22 cents.

Corus Bankshares Inc. of Chicago reported third-quarter earnings Tuesday of $51.1 million, up 28% from a year earlier and 8 cents above the average of analysts' estimates. Diluted earnings per share were 88 cents, also up 28%.

Earl D. McVicker studied engineering in at Kansas State University, but thoughts of a career in that field quickly faded after he graduated and got a job as a bookkeeper and loan officer trainee at a small Kansas bank.

Virginia Financial Group Inc. in Culpeper is merging two of its separately branded banks into one to improve efficiency.

Peoples Financial Corp. in Biloxi, Miss., reported a $2.7 million profit in the third quarter, a marked improvement over the year earlier, when Hurricane Katrina wiped out its earnings.

Texas Regional Bancshares Inc. in McAllen said Monday that its third-quarter earnings fell about 17.5% from the year earlier, to $16.4 million, due largely to an increase in its provision for loan losses. Per-share earnings fell 16.7%, to 30 cents.