Community Trust Bancorp Inc. of Pikeville, Ky., is buying the $102 million-asset Heritage Community Bank and Trust of Danville, Ky., for $12.2 million in cash.

Two years ago Jeff Woodard of First Farmers State Bank in Minier, Ill., was one of the first bankers to pass a new test to become an official "Certified Community Lender."

The dollar's slide should come as no surprise. For years we have been operating with record budget and balance of payments deficits and counting on foreigners to finance them by buying American securities.

Israel's biggest banking company has called its investment in the 4-year-old Signature Bank one of its most successful foreign ventures ever, but now the New York bank is growing so fast that it is straining Bank Hapoalim's resources.

Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., included a disclaimer in its annual report hinting that sooner or later it could be hearing from regulators about its Bank Secrecy Act compliance.

The Banc Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., is selling a host of luxuries acquired by its former management - an airplane, antiques, and art and car collections - and will spend the money on branch openings in its best markets.

WASHINGTON - Promontory Interfinancial Network LLC is teaming up with the online certificate of deposit giant QwickRate to expand Promontory's popular Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service.

PSB Bancorp Inc.'s stock price soared 11% on Friday on news that the Philadelphia company had hired an investment banker to explore its possible sale.

Jackson W. Moore, the president and chief executive-designate at Regions Financial Corp., of Birmingham, Ala., is undergoing therapy near Memphis after being hospitalized for a ruptured blood vessel near his brain.

It is too early to predict how many new banks will be organized in Florida this year, but the pace so far suggests a record total.

MainSource Financial Group, of Greensburg, Ind., announced Thursday it had agreed to acquire Madison Bank and Trust Co. from the $145 billion-asset National City Corp. of Cleveland.

Riggs National Corp. has made Tony Terracciano its chairman and Lawrence I. Hebert its president and chief executive officer.

For 10 years out-of-state banks have been able to enter Washington State without buying a bank there or applying for a commercial charter first - even though most come from more stand-offish states.

Bank merger action has been slower this year than last, but some analysts believe there is still room for consolidation in the thrift sector.

MIDWEST

Banks' campaign to abolish credit unions' tax exemption has not won many converts in Congress or the Bush administration, but it did get an unlikely boost last week from a nonprofit think tank.

Regulatory issues and profit uncertainty have pushed the stock of Hudson United Bancorp Inc. down more than 13% since a peak last November, but one analyst thinks the selloff may be near an end.

NewAlliance Bancshares Inc. in New Haven said Wednesday that it has a deal to buy a Hartford trust company for $19.3 million in cash and stock.

Mutual thrifts fear that an accounting change the Financial Accounting Standards Board is considering would make it next to impossible for them to merge with other mutuals.