Wintrust Financial Corp. in Lake Forest, Ill., has weathered the real estate downturn in part by specializing in the business of financing insurance premiums, and now it wants to free up capital for more traditional lending by securitizing premium-finance loans on its books.

First Clover Leaf Financial Corp. in Edwardsville, Ill., said Thursday that it plans to buy Partners Financial Holdings Inc. of Glen Carbon for $20.7 million in cash and stock.

There is a visual prompt that I often encourage branch managers to place behind their teller windows, new account desks, and drive-up windows. It is this: "Is your line worth waiting in?"

FirstFed Financial Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif., said Wednesday that it had lost $69.8 million in the first quarter after taking a $150.3 million provision for losses on its option adjustable-rate mortgages.

NEW ENGLAND

Taylor Capital Group Inc. said Wednesday that it lost $3.8 million, or 37 cents per share, in the first quarter due to a rise in its loan-loss provision and higher expenses for hiring at its Cole Taylor Bank subsidiary.

Silver State Bancorp in Henderson, Nev., said Wednesday that it lost $14.4 million in the first quarter as a result of taking a $31 million provision for losses on residential construction and land development loans.

Plagued by bad residential construction loans in California, Central Pacific Financial Corp. in Honolulu said Wednesday that its first-quarter profit dropped more than 90% from a year earlier, to $1.7 million.

Sometimes it's all in the delivery.

With $200 million of fresh funding, East West Bancorp Inc. in Pasadena, Calif., has given itself a line of defense against future losses if California's housing market does not recover soon.

George Jones Jr., who is set to take over as chief executive officer of Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. in Dallas next month at the age of 64, didn’t have an easy start to his banking career.

BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc., still hampered by the real estate downturn, reported a first-quarter net loss of $23.4 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with net income of $5.7 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier.

Pacific Capital Bancorp of Santa Barbara, Calif., said its tax refund anticipation loan business more than offset a drop in core banking earnings and helped first-quarter net income rise 43% from a year earlier, to $72.5 million.

North Valley Bancorp in Redding, Calif., facing an onset of credit problems, reported first-quarter earnings of $280,000, down 87% from a year earlier.

Greater Atlantic Bank in Reston, Va., said Tuesday that it has received a cease-and-desist order from the Office of Thrift Supervision requiring it to boost capital levels and prohibiting it from accepting brokered deposits and making certain loans without the agency's approval.

PrivateBancorp Inc. in Chicago announced Monday that it lost $8.9 million in the first quarter, nearly the same amount it earned a year earlier.

Stung by large losses in its commercial real estate portfolio and operating under a strict enforcement order from its regulators, Integrity Bank in Alpaharetta, Ga., is trying to raise capital or find a buyer.

Shares of Old National Bancorp of Evansville, Ind., rose 7.7% Monday, to close at $17.02, after the company reported first-quarter earnings that handily beat Wall Street estimates.