Experts predict that the already swift rate of conversions to Subchapter S corporations could accelerate as banks move to take advantage of looser federal laws.

Joseph W. Kiley 3d plans to resign as the president and chief executive of First Bank of Beverly Hills.

Mercantile Bancorp Inc. of Quincy, Ill., said Thursday that it stands to make $4 million on First Charter Corp.'s recently announced acquisition of GBC Bancorp Inc.

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Heavily criticized for its response to last year's Gulf Coast hurricanes, the Small Business Administration has added some bench strength to help get it through future disasters.

Alliance Bank of Broomhall, Pa., plans to pursue a partial second-step conversion, stopping short of a full public offering.

NEW ENGLAND

Banner Corp. of Walla Walla, Wash., announced Wednesday that it will receive a $5.5 million insurance settlement related to a check-kiting scheme involving a former senior lending officer.

For a company that has struggled with credit-quality problems in the past, Citizens Banking Corp. of Flint, Mich., has no reservations about moving into the risky business of asset-based lending.

Community bank advocates are pressing federal regulators to count contracts for core deposits as capital just the way they let larger banks count other intangible assets such as purchase mortgage servicing rights and purchase credit card receivables.

After a search that lasted months, the New Jersey League of Community Bankers named one of its own, executive vice president James R. Silkensen, to replace its longtime president.

Bank trade groups are asking federal regulators to clarify a provision in regulatory-relief legislation that could hold bank directors responsible for recapitalizing troubled banks.

Taylor Capital Group of Rosemont, Ill., has hired seven commercial lenders away from four of its competitors.

M&T Bank Corp. of Buffalo has applied for a bank charter in New Jersey.

FirstBank NW Corp.'s rejection of a private investment group's unsolicited $112 million offer so it could shop for higher bids paid off handsomely when the Clarkston, Wash., company struck a deal that would pay its shareholders 51% more.

Hamstrung by state limits on the amount of municipal deposits a state-chartered thrift can accept, Bank of Greene County in Catskill plans to convert to a federal charter.

With its deal for GBC Bancorp Inc. in suburban Atlanta, First Charter Corp. of Charlotte is taking a big step toward building a regional franchise stretching from Virginia to Georgia.

The 100-year-old Labe Bank in Chicago has taken pride in being an urban bank that speaks the languages of its immigrant customers.

Citizens First Corp. of Bowling Green, Ky., has agreed to buy the $110 million-asset Kentucky Banking Centers Inc. of Glasgow for $20 million in cash.