First Place Financial Corp. in Warren, Ohio, plans to acquire OC Financial Inc. in Dublin for $7.2 million in stock.

So much for the niceties.

View the top 150 credit unions by assets and deposits.

Few bank or thrift companies have been hit as hard by the real estate meltdown in California's Inland Empire region as PFF Bancorp Inc. in Rancho Cucamonga.

A day after reporting its fifth consecutive annual loss, CIB Marine Bancshares Inc. in Pewaukee, Wis., revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday that it has been trying to sell itself since November.

MIDWEST

Despite the unrelenting bad news about collapsing real estate values in many markets in the Southeast, community banks can still point to a few cities and regions where real estate lending remains strong.

PVF Capital Corp. of Solon, Ohio, has called off its planned sale to United Community Financial Corp. in Youngstown.

An eighth 2008 banking deal fell apart Monday when Center Financial Corp. in Los Angeles said its $65.2 million agreement to buy First Intercontinental Bank in Doraville, Ga., is off.

Capitol Bancorp Ltd., which has bet its success on an innovative model of expanding into high-growth territories, is paring back its exposure to its low-growth home turf of Michigan.

Any proposal as sweeping as the Treasury Department’s plan to revamp the financial services regulatory system stands a high likelihood of drawing sharply mixed reactions and some significant heat.

Malvern Federal Savings Bank in Paoli, Pa., said Friday that it is cutting the number of shares it plans to sell in an initial public offering by 15%, because of the declining values for thrift stocks.

Capitol Bancorp Ltd.’s most recent deal puts a different spin on cradle-to-grave service.

More than two months after reporting a fourth-quarter profit of $778,000, WGNB Corp. of Carrollton, Ga., said it actually lost roughly $3.5 million in the quarter, after it discovered more problem loans in its real estate portfolio.

Mercantile Bank Corp. in Grand Rapids is warning investors that it expects to record a loss for the first quarter after concluding that "numerous" commercial borrowers would be unable to make their loan payments.

Mutual of Omaha’s thrift unit is wasting no time following through on a pledge to build a nationwide branch network.

Activist Cape Fear Bank Corp. shareholder Maurice J. Koury fielded an alternative slate of director nominees Thursday for the $464 million-asset bank in Wilmington, N.C.

Now that its long-delayed sale to a Maryland real estate investment trust has officially been called off, TierOne Corp. is focused on getting its house back in order.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Hispanic consumers and business owners are not saving and borrowing as much as bankers had hoped.