The directors of the Louisiana Bankers Association and the Community Bankers of Louisiana have agreed to merge into a single trade group to represent all banks in the Bayou State.

F.N.B. Corp. of Hermitage, Pa., announced a balance-sheet restructuring Thursday that it said will result in an $11.2 million charge against fourth-quarter earnings.

Former shareholders of Napa Community Bank in California are suing the bank's parent, Capitol Bancorp Ltd. of Lansing, Mich., claiming Capitol paid too little for their shares when it acquired them in June.

Looking back on nearly 28 years as a bank trade group executive, Samuel J. Damiano says the high point came early on.

Like many other community banks, the $139 million-asset Cattaraugus County Bank in Little Valley, N.Y., devotes a healthy amount of resources to currency-transaction reports.

Responding to a shareholder's request for a sale, Carroll C. Markley, the chairman and chief executive of Millennium Bankshares Corp. of Reston, Va., said it remains strong and is conducting "strategic initiatives" to improve profitability.

Trying to pinpoint the next acquisition target in the banking sector is something of a sport on Wall Street and on Wednesday two investment banking companies weighed in with their choices.

NEW ENGLANDBank Rhode Island of Providence has hired Jeffrey W. Angus as its chief operating officer.

Banner Corp. in Walla Walla, Wash., has been able to build core deposits so well through branch-building that it is vastly reducing its reliance on more costly Federal Home Loan Bank advances.

Though its latest acquisition deal is its biggest ever, Wintrust Financial Corp. of Lake Forest, Ill., is not looking for even bigger targets, its chief executive says.

Intermountain Community Bancorp in Sandpoint, Idaho, is planning to use its nearly $12 million of net proceeds from a recent oversubscribed stock offering to open branches in new markets and make more loans.

TrustCo Bank Corp NY has not acquired a bank since July 2000, but not for lack of effort.

America's Community Bankers announced Monday that its for-profit subsidiary, ACB Business Partners Inc., has endorsed Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. as the exclusive investment bank for ACB members.

Banks looking for new customers and more deposits might be able to find them in low-income neighborhoods mostly served by check cashers, payday lenders, and other fringe financial institutions, a study by the National Community Investment Fund says.

Woodforest National Bank, which has more branches in Wal-Mart Inc. stores in Texas - 114 - than any other bank, is now racing into Wal-Marts in the Southeast.

Two San Francisco-area banks have come up with a new twist on an old loan product that they say will allow more residents to afford apartment homes in one of the nation's most expensive cities.

Another community banking company, Intrust Financial Corp. of Wichita, is getting out of proprietary fund management - and blaming escalating regulatory restrictions and costs.

North Shore Bank in Brookfield, Wis., has hit on a strategy that could let it use other banks to expand its lending statewide without opening any branches or loan production offices.

A savings program sponsored by the Financial Service Centers of America, the country’s largest check-cashing trade group, has generated $5 million of deposits in its first six months.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC