While federal officials move to implement programs to thaw the credit markets, they should not overlook a vital tool already serving the U.S. banking system: the Federal Home Loan banks.

Capitol Bancorp Ltd. of Lansing, Mich., is putting its cross-country expansion on hold while it sorts through credit problems at some of its Midwest banks.

NewStar Financial Inc., a Boston commercial finance company, says it wants to get a national bank charter and buy a troubled bank.

Capmark Financial Group Inc., a Horsham, Pa., real estate lender and advisory firm, has filed an application with the Federal Reserve Board to become a bank holding company, and it is seeking to convert its industrial loan bank to a Utah state-chartered bank.

With its capital depleted by heavy losses in its loan and investment portfolios, Service Bancorp Inc. in Medway, Mass., is selling itself to one of its competitors.

Penseco Financial Services Corp. in Scranton, Pa., is buying the $220 million-asset Old Forge Bank in a deal that would combine two of northeast Pennyslvania's oldest financial institutions.

Reeling from losses on construction and development loans, Frontier Financial Corp. in Everett, Wash., has overhauled its management team as part of an effort to de-emphasize commercial real estate lending.

Select Bank in Grand Rapids, Mich., has been hit with a cease-and-desist order that requires it to improve underwriting, boost loan-loss provisions, and reduce its reliance on brokered deposits.

Kevin Cummings, the president and chief executive officer of Investors Bancorp Inc. in Short Hills, N.J., refers to his company as a start-up, even though it opened 82 years ago.

Less than three weeks after joining Taylor Capital Group Inc. of Rosemont, Ill., as its executive vice president and chief operating officer, Randall T. Conte is taking on the role of chief financial officer.

Community development banks caught a break in the Treasury Department's rescue plan when they alone were exempted from issuing warrants to the government in exchange for capital injections, and they intend to take full advantage.

While visiting my old hometown in southern Louisiana recently, I came across what became my favorite advertising piece of the year. As I stopped at an intersection, I noticed a billboard for a real estate agent named Panky. (I kid you not.)

Gordon Fong resigned as the chief financial officer of Vineyard National Bancorp of Corona, Calif., which has been battered over the last year by mounting credit problems.

Territorial Savings Bank in Honolulu is planning to go public, and Community Bank in Brockton, Mass., is calling off its offering for now, in what has been a choppy market for mutual thrift conversions.

NEW ENGLAND

Since it opened for business in late 2006, American Momentum Bank in Tampa has been sitting on much of the record-setting $100 million of capital it raised.

Less than three months after joining Republic Bancorp Inc. as head of the Louisville company's acquisitions and corporate strategy, former National City Corp. executive Ted Parker has resigned to "pursue other opportunities."

Iberiabank Corp. in Lafayette, La., said Tuesday that after "extensive and careful consideration" it has decided to participate in the Treasury Department's Capital Purchase Program.

First Coweta Bank in Newnan, Ga., said its problem loans more than tripled from a year earlier in the third quarter, to $14.2 million, resulting in a loss of $484,000 for the three months.