Like so many others, East Carolina Bank in Englehard, N.C., wants to increase revenue and market share. But it is going about it in a new way.

WASHINGTON — Regulators closed three more banks Friday evening to bring the year's failure total to 133.

Central Pacific Bank is quitting California. The Honolulu unit of Central Pacific Financial Corp., which has suffered heavy losses on West Coast construction loans, said Thursday that it would wind down operations there by 2012.

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NEW ENGLAND

Getting through regulatory hurdles is a tough slog for many private-equity firms that want to buy or start banks, but some have found that having former banking regulators by their side can smooth the way.

A provision tucked in the massive regulatory reform bill by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank would require regulators to consider thrift deposits when calculating whether a merger violates the federal ban on any one institution from controlling more than 10% of the nation's deposits.

When a group of would-be bank organizers recently landed a small Florida institution, they were foreshadowing the near-term future of industry M&A.

Bank of Miami said Wednesday that it has gained more than $11 million of capital this quarter. The $608 million-asset bank in Coral Gables, Fla., said it sold $2.5 million of trust-preferred securities in a private placement with its shareholders and realized a $9 million tax benefit.

MB Financial Inc. in Chicago said it has approved large salary increases for its two highest-paid employees, because as a participant in the Troubled Asset Relief Program it cannot continue to pay them bonuses.

Starting Jan. 1 institutions that are less than well-capitalized must comply with new restrictions on deposit rates. They will not be allowed to pay more than 75 basis points over a national average calculated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Now, in the name of reform, this bill would impose new requirements and penalties on the Home Loan banks that would make them less effective no matter what the economic climate.

On Tuesday, the $1.5 billion-asset company filed a registration statement that would allow it to raise up to $20 million by extending rights to its shareholders to buy new common shares.

First Niagara Financial Group will lend up to $50 million as part of a recapitalization plan that will make Harleysville National Corp. and its bank subsidiary well-capitalized.

A month after announcing plans to raise $20 million, Emclaire Financial Corp. in Emlenton, Pa., has called off its stock offering.

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Midwest Banc Holdings Inc. is the second company in less than a week to suggest there could be some government relief forthcoming for those that received funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, but are now struggling.

Less than a week after its parent's bankruptcy filing, Cleveland-based AmTrust Bank failed Friday at a cost of $2 billion to the government.

Less than a week after its parent's bankruptcy filing, Cleveland-based AmTrust Bank failed Friday at a cost of $2 billion to the government.

Though the market for trust-preferred securities remains strained, the warm reception for an offering from City National Corp. is expected to persuade others to consider this option for a capital boost.