A month after expanding into Connecticut with its acquisition of a Hartford bank, Berkshire Hills Bancorp (BHLB) in Pittsfield, Mass., has added one of the state's most famous citizens to its board of directors.

I was surprised and disappointed by Jim Well's BankThink piece"Are Small Banks Big Banks' Pawns in Assault on Dodd-Frank?". As chair of the American Bankers Association's Community Bankers Council, I have the honor and responsibility of being a spokesperson for the community banking industry. I take this job seriously, and took great care to report on the growing regulatory burden that is suffocating our nation's small — but vital — financial institutions.

On YouTube, puppet shows are fine for consumers, but to appeal to businesses many banks are taking a more serious tone — and putting their own clients in the spotlight.

Possible violations of state and federal laws could jeopardize Costco's mortgage partnership program with several small banks. Some lawyers believe Costco should become a registered mortgage broker to comply with existing regulations.

Central Bank in Stillwater, Minn., is buying another distressed bank. It has a deal to buy the struggling Bank of Naples in Florida.

First Federal Savings Bank in Elizabethtown, Ky., is planning to sell four more of its branches as part of its ongoing effort to beef up its capital levels.

MetroCorp Bancshares (MCBI) in Houston has commenced a public stock offering to raise $40 million of common equity.

At least two bank advisory firms are structuring pools of nonperforming assets for community banks. The pools give the sellers a better chance of attracting buyers, who generally prefer buying assets in bigger lots.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will give its next update on the health of the banking industry on May 24.

On the whole, large banks appear to have primed their books for a rebound in rates: levels of short-term assets relative to short-term liabilities are now higher than they have been during roughly the past decade. The postures of individual institutions vary widely, however.

Grand Bankshares in West Palm Beach, Fla., has been ordered by the Federal Reserve Board to serve as a source of strength for its struggling bank subsidiary.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Elizabeth Duke outlined a number of factors — such as the mortgage servicer settlement, the huge number of underwater borrowers and the failure to reform the GSEs — that are working to limit mortgage credit to healthy borrowers.

Bradley S. Everly, the chief financial officer at the ailing Orrstown Financial Services in Shippensburg, Pa., has resigned after 14 years on the job.

CEOs at smaller banks have mixed views about the shocking $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan Chase. Some view it as justification for regulating small banks differently than bigger institutions, while others viewed the fallout as yet another assault on their industry.

Naugatuck Valley Financial in Connecticut swung to a loss in the quarter that ended March 31 following its discovery that it had been underpaying interest on certain customers’ certificate-of-deposit accounts.

IMGCAP(1)]

Institutional Shareholder Service backs the Renton, Wash., company's director nominees. Dissident shareholder Joseph Stilwell is trying to get his general counsel added to the board.

StellarOne (STEL) in Charlottesville, Va., is planning to eliminate about 4% of its workforce, or 34 full-time jobs, as part of an overall cost-cutting effort that it says would save the company up to $2.4 million a year.

Sometimes there are more ways to pay for a bank than in cash or stock. Just ask Citizens South, which extracted job protections and a charitable donation for its local community before agreeing to sell to Park Sterling.

A big trading loss at Chase has some community bank CEOs discussing a second tier of regulation for small banks. Other CEOs believe the snafu is yet another black eye for the banking industry. And some point out that the loss is fairly insignificant to the New York company.