Central Bancorp Inc.'s move to rid itself of an insurgent investor by buying its stake for an above-market price in a privately negotiated deal has angered other institutional investors and prompted at least one, Sandler O'Neill Asset Management LLC, to dump its shares of the Massachusetts company.

Another community banking acquisition appears to be in danger of unraveling unless the seller is willing to lower its asking price significantly.

Three years ago it seemed inconceivable that a company as high-flying as Nara Bancorp Inc. could lose 20% of its market value on news that its accountant had resigned.

Whether or not it was once true that most bank presidents inherited the job, it isn’t now.

When Carver Bancorp Inc.'s $33 million deal for Independence Federal Savings Bank was announced in March, it was touted as a possible first step in creating a black-owned banking franchise stretching from New York to Washington.

First Indiana Corp. of Indianapolis said it plans to eliminate 70 jobs and consolidate all its back-office operations into one department; the moves will result in a $1.1 million charge to third-quarter earnings.

AnchorBank in Madison, Wis., has signed a cease-and-desist order with the Office of Thrift Supervision concerning its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act.

Nearly two years after it expanded into Maryland with its complex acquisition of Leeds Federal Savings Bank of Baltimore, Northwest Bancorp in Warren, Pa., has finally put its signs on Leeds' branches.

BancorpSouth Inc.'s nearly 3-year hiatus from bank acquisitions officially ended Friday, when the Tupelo, Miss., company struck a pair of deals that would move it into the fast-growing markets of Baton Rouge, La., and Nashville.

Four months after saying that it would switch to a state charter, Trustmark National Bank of Jackson, Miss., has decided to keep the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as its regulator.

A tax-shelter crackdown by Wisconsin has banks headquartered there settling in droves, though a trade group insists they have done nothing wrong.

Ever since Kearny Financial Corp. made its first acquisition in 1999, the New Jersey company has been working to transform itself from a plain-vanilla thrift into a full-fledged community bank.

BancWest Corp. and Community First Bankshares Inc. of Fargo, N.D., expect the closing date of their acquisition deal to be moved back to the fourth quarter, because they are still waiting on regulatory approval.

QCR Holdings Inc. of Moline, Ill., plans to issue 260,000 shares to certain stockholders to help fund the creation of a banking subsidiary.

Sky Financial Group Inc. of Bowling Green, Ohio, has agreed to buy Prospect Bancshares of Worthington for $46.9 million in cash and stock.

As consumer brands go, BankPlus may not have the name recognition of DirecTV or Reebok, but the three companies share a celebrity spokesman: the New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

NEW ENGLAND

Citizens Financial Group of Providence, R.I., has been ordered to change the name of its Citizens Bank in one western Pennsylvania county, because consumers are confusing it with a bank with a similar name.