The House voted 405 to 2 Tuesday for a bill designed to protect military personnel from abusive insurance and mutual fund products.

By adding coffee bars, Internet kiosks, and art exhibits to some of its branches, Umpqua Bank in Portland, Ore., has sought to create an atmosphere that customers are in no rush to leave. Ideally, someone might hang around long enough to apply for a loan or open an account.

Conventional wisdom in banking says it is cheaper to build than buy, but Interchange Financial Services Corp. of Saddle Brook, N.J., is turning that axiom on its head.

Michael P. Rose defines the “emerging affluent” as highly paid professionals who want help with financial planning but are not quite rich enough to interest traditional private banks.

Fifty years ago Ridgewood Savings Bank of Brooklyn built New York City’s first drive-through banking lanes as a convenience for busy Brooklyn and Long Island residents.

Western Sierra Bancorp in Cameron Park, Calif., and Gold Country Financial Services Inc. in Maryville have terminated their merger, originally scheduled to close in April.

With less than 1.875 million shares outstanding and fewer than 300 shareholders, Centrix Bank in Bedford, N.H., is not on many investors’ radar screens.

Like many banks that were established in the late 1990s, Falls Bank in Stow, Ohio, had hit a wall.

Members of a Plano, Tex., credit union have overwhelmingly approved its plan to convert to a mutual savings bank, setting the stage for a confrontation with the National Credit Union Administration, which has promised to reject the results.

WESTUCBH Holdings Inc. of San Francisco has reassigned Jonathan H. Downing, its chief financial officer since 1989, and hired Deloitte & Touche LP veteran Dennis Wu to succeed him as CFO.

The serial acquirer Sky Financial Group Inc. of Bowling Green, Ohio, is buying the two-branch Falls Bank of Stow, Ohio, in the growing Akron market.

Bancorp Rhode Island Inc. announced Tuesday that it has appointed Linda H. Simmons as its chief financial officer.

Franklin Bank Corp. of Houston announced Tuesday that it would buy five branches from Washington Mutual Inc. for $34 million.

The Greenlining Institute of Berkeley, Calif., is opposing legislation that would expand credit unions' business lending powers.

Mainsource Financial Group Inc. of Greensburg, Ind., said a stock offering had raised $28.6 million it will use for buying Madison Bank and Trust Co. in Madison, Ind.

Capital One Financial Corp.'s automobile financing unit is trying to enlarge its market share by partnering with community banks to provide loans the banks cannot make.

A New Mexico investor group that planned to found a bank is buying one instead, the $30 million-asset Interamerica Bank in Albuquerque.

Months after Citizens Financial Group of Providence, R.I., lost the rights to the Citizens name in two western Pennsylvania counties, the Royal Bank of Scotland unit says it will no longer have to rename its branches in the counties.

Since opening last June, Beach Business Bank has made a name for itself as a bank for doctors, taking in about $12 million of deposits from physicians in its hometown of Manhattan Beach, Calif., and around the country.