Less than a year after it was spun off from the timber company Temple-Inland Inc., Guaranty Financial Group Inc. of Austin is searching for a replacement for its longtime chief executive.

SOUTHWEST

WASHINGTON — The Community Bank, a $681 million-asset institution in Loganville, Ga., became the industry's 20th failed bank of the year.

The National Council of La Raza is getting into the check-cashing business as part of a plan to get more people with low to moderate income into the financial mainstream.

Another life insurance company is planning to buy a troubled banking company to qualify for government capital.

Like many of the community banks they serve, bankers' banks have hit a rough patch.

Vineyard National Bancorp in Corona, Calif., reported a loss of $28.6 million for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, bringing its total loss for the first nine months of the year to $109.8 million.

Capital Corp. of the West, which last week warned that its future could be in doubt if it failed to raise capital, said late Monday that it had lost $54.6 million in the third quarter, compared to a profit of $6 million the year earlier.

Privately held and thinly traded banking companies that participate in the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program would face tighter restrictions than publicly traded ones, particularly when it comes to paying dividends and redeeming trust-preferred securities.

WASHINGTON — In a matter of hours Friday, four large insurance companies announced marriages with troubled thrift companies, and the Office of Thrift Supervision played the role of matchmaker, according to industry sources.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department announced Monday that privately held banks and thrifts are now eligible for direct capital injections from the government.

The government agency that guarantees loans to farmers is tightening the guidelines on the interest rates that may be charged, because the current policy is so vague that it has exposed lenders to lawsuits.

Graystone Financial Corp. in Harrisburg has been one of Pennsylvania's fastest-growing banking companies since it was founded three years ago.

The chairman of Vineyard Bancorp has assembled a group of investors to buy the Corona, Calif., company, but questions remain whether he can raise enough capital to restore the badly hobbled company to health.

MIDWEST

Dragged down by a weak final quarter, Magyar Bancorp in New Brunswick, N.J., posted a $2.9 million loss for its fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.

The Texas Finance Commission said Wednesday that Charles G. Cooper will become the state's banking commissioner Dec. 1.

As Prosperity Bancshares Inc. in Houston was rolling up small Texas banks in recent years, it often bumped up against Franklin Bank Corp., another acquisitive company in its hometown that on several occasions frustrated Prosperity by outbidding it.

Signature Bank in New York said Wednesday that it has opened its first branch on Staten Island and hired two teams of bankers from SI Bank and Trust to serve customers there.

Umpqua Holdings Corp. of Portland, Ore., has launched a low-interest financing program for businesses and homeowners who want to install solar energy systems or make other energy-saving improvements.