With its credit problems deepening, Old Second Bancorp Inc. of Aurora, Ill., is slashing expenses and its dividend in an attempt to return to profitability and boost its tangible common equity ratio.

Sterling Bancorp of New York announced a deal Monday that it said would "substantially expand" its asset-based lending business.

The 10 largest portfolios of home equity loans at community banks. (To see the full ranking of 150 community banks by home equity loans, click here. To see how credit unions stack up, click here.)

With its survival on the line, CIB Marine Bancshares Inc. in Pewaukee, Wis., said it is willing to extend the deadline for investors to vote on a proposed restructuring of its trust-preferred securities.

First Community Bancshares Inc. of Bluefield, Va., plans to make its second acquisition in North Carolina in less than a year.

Centra Financial Holdings Inc. of Morgantown, W.Va., has become the fifth banking company to return its government capital.

Newnan Coweta Bancshares Inc. in Georgia said its auditor might issue a warning about its ability to survive.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. is infusing $20 million into a troubled Florida thrift to keep it afloat, buying time in hopes the Treasury Department will allow insurers to participate in the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Appalachian Bancshares Inc. in Ellijay, Ga., said it will restate its fourth-quarter results to show a bigger net loss after a routine Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. examination found additional loan problems.

Eastern Virginia Bankshares Inc. of Tappahannock said Friday that it has agreed to buy First Capital Bancorp Inc. of Glen Allen, Va., for $27 million in stock.

I recently kidded with manager groups that one small positive from the present economy is that it has turned "customer appreciation" from a catch phrase into an honest-to-goodness fact for many businesses.

Protective Life Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., has lost its deal for a struggling Florida banking company.

Peoples Community Bancorp in West Chester, Ohio, blamed the local economy and its nonperforming assets for its inability to meet the April 1 deadline for filing its annual report.

The shareholder votes needed for Yadkin Valley Financial Corp. of Elkin, N.C., to complete its acquisition of American Community Bancshares Inc. in Charlotte are back on.

More banking companies are warning they might not survive.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

At least four banking companies announced Tuesday that they had returned the government's capital.

The deal announced Monday by Union Bankshares Corp. of Bowling Green, Va., to buy First Market Bank in Richmond for $105.4 million in stock is the largest of the year by far.

For Bank of the Wichitas in Snyder, Okla., picking a handle for its new Internet bank was not as simple as attaching "direct" to the end of its own name, because the owners wanted a unique name that would play both inside and outside its home state.