A small Utah start-up seems to be establishing a new business model for the industrial loan company charter.

The District Court of Kansas has dismissed Gold Bank's lawsuit against the Farm Service Agency and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, Gold's parent company said Thursday.

East West Bancorp, which became the nation's largest Chinese-American-owned banking company in September when it bought a smaller rival, would pull further ahead with a deal announced Wednesday.

Cascade Bancorp's deal for F&M Holding Co. gave Patricia L. Moss something she has been after for a long time: an entry point into one of the West's fastest-growing metropolitan markets.

MIDWEST

Cardinal Financial Corp. in Tysons Corner, Va., ended a self-imposed 18-month exile from investor conferences last month, when its chairman and chief executive made a presentation at the Mid-Atlantic Super Community Bank Conference in Philadelphia.

A major shareholder in Placer Sierra Bancshares, which has built itself up over the past few years by buying and consolidating a number of banks, is further reducing its stake in the Sacramento company.

Under a supervisory agreement, the $803 million-asset Baltimore County Savings Bank must review and revise if necessary its policies on compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the Flood Disaster Protection Act and on underwriting indirect automobile loans.

Since becoming Community Bancshares Inc.'s chairman and chief executive nearly three years ago, Patrick M. Frawley has resolved a slew of lawsuits and disposed of tens of millions of dollars in problem loans.

UCBH Holdings Inc. of San Francisco announced Friday that it had received regulatory approvals from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and California Department of Financial Institutions to complete its deal for the $310 million-asset Great Eastern Bank in New York.

A group of senators is pressing the Treasury to decide how banks structured as limited-liability companies should be taxed.

American Founders Bancorp Inc. in Frankfort, Ky., said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it has a deal to buy First Security Bancorp Inc. in Lexington, Ky., for about $38.5 million in cash.

Southwest Bancorp Inc.'s stock plummeted Friday after the Stillwater, Okla., company said that its fourth-quarter earnings could be down by as much as 10% from a year ago.

One of the nation's oldest mutual holding companies is planning a second-step conversion.

Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act became law in 2002, dozens of small publicly traded banks have gone private to rid themselves of the costs and compliance burdens of registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bank of Granite Corp. chairman John Forlines is retiring after more than a half century with the Granite Falls, N.C., company.

Flushing Financial Corp. of Lake Success, N.Y., has agreed to buy Atlantic Liberty Financial Corp. of Brooklyn for $41.9 million in cash and stock.

In its second deal in as many months, Marshall & Ilsley Corp. of Milwaukee has agreed to buy Trustcorp Financial Inc. of St. Louis for roughly $181 million in a cash-and-stock transaction.

Harvest Community Bank in Pennsville, N.J., plans to continue fighting Penn Bancshares' attempt to increase its 4.89% stake in the $141 million-asset Harvest to nearly 25%.