William C. McGarry has been told that his Ridgewood Savings Bank in Queens, N.Y., could raise as much as $2 billion if it went public.

An Internet filter that picked up a seemingly routine press release about a bank’s electing a new director dragged it into the abortion debate.

Midwest Banc Holdings Inc.'s second-quarter earnings fell 59% from the same quarter last year, to $3.2 million.

East West Bank of San Marino, Calif., reported an impressive 29% increase in deposits for the second quarter, but it still was not enough to keep pace with a 47% jump in loans.

MIDWEST

The images on Nova Savings Bank’s Web site include a retired couple driving carefree in a convertible, a father fishing with his young son, and a middle-aged couple talking about finances at a kitchen table.

Westamerica Bancorp in San Rafael, Calif., continues to pump out record earnings - despite a shrinking loan portfolio.

Analysts are using words like “tough” and “lackluster” to describe community banks’ second-quarter earnings, but they expect that rising interest rates and an expanding economy will lead to an upturn sometime this year or in early 2005.

After years of limited expansion BankUnited Financial Corp. of Coral Gables, Fla., has opened four branches in nine months and hopes to keep up the pace into next year.

Commercial Capital Bancorp Inc. of Irvine, Calif., said Monday that second-quarter earnings more than doubled because of continued record originations of apartment loans throughout the state.

Capitol Federal Financial of Topeka, Kan., has refinanced $2.4 billion of its fixed-rate borrowings to boost future earnings.

This has been a busy year for credit unions converting to mutual thrifts, but if the National Credit Union Administration gets its way, the pace of future conversions could slow considerably.

Old National Bancorp’s second-quarter earnings fell 58% from the same quarter last year, to $11.3 million.

Three senators are urging the Treasury Department to let small banks adopt the tax-friendly limited liability company structure.

Four months ago it looked as if First Niagara Financial Group Inc. in Lockport, N.Y., would spend the better part of 2004 in a consolidation mode.

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Rabobank Group, which has gained a considerable share of the U.S. agricultural lending market in recent years by acquiring a small California bank and two Midwest agribusiness lenders, has apparently set its sights on one the largest lenders in the Farm Credit System.

So far this year farmers plagued by the now five-year drought throughout the West and the Great Plains have done a better job paying back their loans than they did last year.