Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc. of Nashville, the fastest-growing bank in Tennessee, announced its first acquisition deal Monday - an agreement to buy Cavalry Bancorp Inc. of Murfreesboro, Tenn., for $175 million.

Community banks typically welcome investments from other banks, but one small New Jersey bank's bid to buy a nearly 25% stake in a hometown rival has turned out to be anything but friendly.

Most people do not want banks to share their personal information with third-party brokers, insurance agents, or firms that might sell it to telemarketers, but they do not mind if banks give information to affiliates if they could get specially tailored advice as a result.

When Guy Williams, the chief executive officer of Gulf Coast Bank and Trust, first saw the bank's main branch in downtown New Orleans a week after Hurricane Katrina hit, he was shocked to find it in the same condition in which he'd left it.

In what it is calling the largest mortgage lending program ever by an African-American-owned financial institution, OneUnited Bank plans to make $200 million of home loans to inner-city borrowers in Miami, Los Angeles, and its hometown of Boston over the next 15 months.

NEW ENGLAND

Like most banks, Yardville National Bank in Hamilton, N.J., has historically treated branch openings as festive affairs focused on raising awareness, not opening accounts.

S&T Bancorp, a Pennsylvania community banking company, has started an investment advice subsidiary and says it plans to buck conventional wisdom by launching a proprietary mutual fund next year.

AmeriServ Financial Inc. in Johnstown, Pa., will take a charge of $10 million to $11 million this quarter, because of penalties associated with prepaying Federal Home Loan Bank advances.

A Denver certificate of deposit broker is trying to pair investors with banks in hurricane-ravaged areas that could use the money, but so far it has been slow going.

Community Bancorp of Nevada said it has closed a $20 million private placement of trust-preferred securities.

Northway Financial Inc. in Berlin, N.H., plans to merge its two banking subsidiaries and name the combined entity Northway Bank.

Fidelity Investments says it plans to expand distribution of its 401(k) services through better penetration with advisers at banks.

CCF Holding Co. of Jonesboro, Ga., announced Monday that it would take an $835,000 charge this quarter because a property in its real-estate-owned holdings lost value.

The one-branch Paragon Commercial Corp. of Raleigh plans to open its second branch 170 miles away, in Richmond, Va.

Despite a victory in the early rounds of a debate over Michigan's corporate taxes, bankers are keeping a wary eye on the capital as the governor and the Legislature negotiate a compromise.

In 2003, right after Gold Banc Corp. announced that it wanted to sell 12 branches in central Kansas, Leonard Wolfe received two phone calls.

Tower Bancorp Inc. of Greencastle, Pa., has agreed to buy FNB Financial Corp. of McConnellsburg for $31.2 million in cash and stock.

After Hurricane Katrina leveled much of the Gulf Coast, bankers in the hardest-hit areas cited the inability to communicate with key employees as one of the biggest obstacles to getting banks up and running again.