With this week marking the start of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, the American Bankers Association has unveiled policy recommendations from its task force on hurricane preparedness.

Laredo National Bank’s newest mortgage program is targeting soon-to-be-retiring baby boomers who dream of owning resort property along Mexico’s beaches.

First Farmers Bank and Trust of Converse, Ind., has agreed to acquire three branches from the $107 billion-asset Fifth Third Bancorp, of Cincinnati.

Jose A. Infante resigned this week as the chairman, president, and chief executive of the $225 million-asset Community Shores Bank Corp. of Muskegon, Mich., and joined Independent Bank West Michigan of Grand Rapids as a senior vice president.

Glacier Bancorp Inc. in Kalispell, Mont., has made its first deal for a Utah bank.

The National Credit Union Administration’s abrupt decision to delay the release of a highly anticipated final rule underscores the agency’s awkward position in the debate over credit union expansion into underserved areas.

Mercantile Bancorp Inc. of Quincy, Ill., said it had agreed to buy Royal Palm Bancorp Inc. of Naples, Fla., for $44.4 million in cash.

NEW ENGLAND

America's Community Bankers said it has added 15 banking stocks to its Nasdaq bank index.

Here's an unusual way to capture the attention of potential customers: Advertise without mentioning your bank's name.

First Mariner Bancorp in Baltimore took a chance on a business line that many other banking companies were exiting when it established its consumer finance unit, Finance Maryland, in 2002.

Gateway Financial Holdings Inc. in Elizabeth City, N.C., is counting on its new mortgage unit to boost its sluggish performance ratios.

People's Bank of Bridgeport, Conn., touched off a rally in its stock Friday by saying it will file for a federal thrift charter to position itself for growth outside its home state.

Marshall BankFirst Corp. of Minneapolis, which has built a business on making commercial real estate loans, now wants to diversify its portfolio by more than doubling its commercial and industrial loans over the next year.

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. - John M. Eggemeyer 3d, the chairman of First Community Bancorp here, is well known in banking circles for rolling up six southern California banks into Western Bancorp in the 1990s and then selling Western in 1999 for 4.4 times its book value.

The $6 billion-asset Alabama National BanCorp. in Birmingham has agreed to buy PB Financial Services Corp. of Duluth, Ga., for $130 million in stock.

Hurricane Rita spared it last year, but American Bank in Corpus Christi isn't taking chances.

SOUTHEAST Carolina National Corp. of Columbia, S.C., has hired Harry R. Brown as the chief financial officer of the company and its $165 million-asset Carolina National Bank and Trust Co.