BancorpSouth Inc. of Tupelo, Miss., is acquiring the $347 million-asset American State Bank Corp. of Jonesboro, Ark.

Determining which bank will be the next to sell is a favorite guessing game among investors and analysts. A sudden stock price spike, an alarming drop in deposit share, or a crippling enforcement order could all be signs of an imminent takeover.

First BancTrust Corp., of Paris, Ill., said Tuesday that its second-quarter net income rose 23%, to $400,000. Diluted earnings per share rose 31%, to 17 cents.

Talk about long courtships.

Pacific Capital Bancorp executives may have thought they had good explanations for why the company reported a 12% drop in its second-quarter earnings and lowered its full-year earnings estimates, but investors were not moved.

Heritage Commerce Corp. in San Jose, Calif., said its second-quarter profits more than quadrupled from the year-earlier period, a gain it attributed to its lower overhead.

Pacific Premier Bancorp of Costa Mesa, Calif., plans to open a branch in Cypress as part of a plan to expand in Orange County.

Citizens Bancshares Corp. in Atlanta has appointed Cynthia Day as a senior vice president and the chief operating officer.

When executives at Commercial Capital Bancorp Inc. in Irvine, Calif., learned that a top deposit generator at Comerica Inc. was looking for a new home, they jumped at an opportunity to bring in a rainmaker - and his team - who would help the fast-growing company lower its funding costs.

(From The Credit Union Journal)

The Internet-only American Bank Inc. of Allentown, Pa., is thinking about buying PSB Bancorp Inc. of Philadelphia, which put itself on the block this year.

Online account access may seem a standard feature of 21st century banking, but many small banks still see no need to offer it.

Nara Bancorp Inc.'s stock fell nearly 9% Friday, a day after the Los Angeles company disclosed that it would be forbidden from paying dividends without approval from regulators.

Two weeks after nearly two-dozen Comerica Inc. employees in California defected to it, Commercial Capital Bancorp Inc. of Irvine, Calif., has been barred from soliciting Comerica's customers or hiring more of its employees.

Competition is fierce among Asian-American banking companies in California, so a number of them are stepping up expansion efforts in other markets with sizable Asian-American communities.

Capitol Federal Financial of Topeka, Kan., announced Thursday that it had earned $16.2 million in the quarter that ended June 30, 70% more than a year earlier.

Provident Bank in Montebello, N.Y., is committing $26 million to reviving three decaying industrial cities in what is otherwise New York’s fastest-growing county.

Center Financial Corp. in Los Angeles said Thursday that it would restate prior years' earnings because of accounting errors.

NEW ENGLAND

First Federal Bankshares Inc. of Sioux City, Iowa, said its plunged 85% from the year earlier in the June quarter, to $172,000.