MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Yielding to pressure from its largest investor, Royal Financial Inc. of Chicago named a new chairman and said that it would consider selling itself.

Cardinal Financial Corp. said a $3.5 million charge related to a disputed escrow transaction could force the $1.8 billion-asset McLean, Va., company to post a third-quarter loss.

Save "No pain, no gain" for the inspirational speeches; the cynical truth is that someone's pain is usually someone else's gain.

Monarch Community Bancorp Inc. in Coldwater, Mich., said Wednesday that a shareholder vote to take the company private was not approved and the stock will continue to be listed on the Nasdaq.

Cardinal Financial Corp. said a $3.5 million charge related to a disputed escrow transaction could force the $1.8 billion-asset McLean, Va., company to post a third-quarter loss.

PSB Group Inc. of Madison Heights, Mich., has increased its loan-loss provision in response to deteriorating credit quality, and it has postponed its plan to go private.

Shares of Security Bank Corp. plummeted 13.5% Friday, to $11.37 a share, a day after the Macon, Ga., reported another spike in nonperforming loans tied to residential construction.

Federal and state banking regulators have ordered American Metro Bank in Chicago to beef up its Bank Secrecy Act compliance procedures.

Bradley E. Rock, the incoming chairman of the American Bankers Association, says he thinks he has come up with a convincing argument for Congress to give banks some regulatory relief: onerous regulations are causing more banks to sell themselves, leaving fewer to serve consumers and creating more opportunities for unscrupulous — and unregulated — companies to fill the void.

Delinquency rates on mortgages in southern Texas were among the highest in the country as of the second quarter, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The deal Commerce Bancorp Inc. announced this week brought a measure of certainty to its own future, but for Pennsylvania Commerce Bancorp Inc. in Harrisburg, the potential ramifications could be rather unsettling.

The pending sale of Commerce Bancorp Inc. of Cherry Hill, N.J., could be good news for BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. of Fort Lauderdale — and its investors.

When a current or prospective customer phones your business, what are the odds that good will is being created?

First United Bancorp Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla., has a deal to buy the $194 million-asset Equitable Financial Group Inc. in Fort Lauderdale for $55.6 million in cash and stock, according to the investment bank Carson Medlin Co.

First Defiance Financial Corp. of Ohio plans to enter Michigan by acquiring the $291 million-asset Pavilion Bancorp Inc. of Adrian for $55.7 million in cash and stock.

Community bankers in Tennessee are lining up to invest in a new program designed to spark economic activity and job creation in underserved rural communities there.

FORT WORTH — Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan urged Texas banks with high concentrations of commercial real estate and construction loans on their books to build up their loan-loss reserves.

MIDWEST