Monarch Financial Holdings, Inc. serves the South Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia through Monarch Bank, Monarch Mortgage, Monarch Capital, Monarch Investment, and OBXBank. With about 10 offices, Monarch Bank offers standard services, including savings and checking accounts, IRAs, and CDS. Bank subsidiary Monarch Mortgage, formed in 2007, has about a dozen offices. Other divisions sell insurance, title, and investment products. Single-family mortgages make up the largest portion of the company's loan portfolio, which also includes commercial, construction, and land development loans. Monarch Bank division OBX Bank operates in North Carolina's Outer Banks area.

Nationwide Building Society reigns as king over the UK's dwindling number of mutual building societies. The society offers consumers standard deposit banking services as well as investment products such as pension plans, unit trusts, and ISAs (individual savings accounts). Nationwide is also one of the country's leading mortgage lenders, writing mortgages with a variety of terms and rates, along with secured and unsecured personal loans and credit cards. The company has some 800 branches and 15 million members. As other societies convert to public stock holding companies or consolidate with one another, Nationwide remains committed to staying mutual (owned by members) and has only continued to grow in size.

First Cherokee Bancshares is the holding company for First Cherokee State Bank, which operates three offices in the Georgia communities of Canton, Marietta, and Woodstock, north of Atlanta. Catering to local businesses and consumers, the bank provides checking, savings, and money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and debit cards. Commercial real estate mortgages account for the largest portion of the company's loan portfolio, followed by construction, land development, and residential mortgage loans. To a far lesser extent, the bank writes consumer, business, and farmland loans.

Bank Sarasin, one of Switzerland's largest and most reputable private banks, specializes in asset management, investment funds, securities trading, and investment counseling, catering to both private and corporate clients. The bank also offers complementary services such as corporate finance and brokerage analysis. The bank's financial services businesses are run through several subsidiaries, including Sarasin Funds Management and Sarasin Investment Management, which manages the bank's fund advisement activities in the UK. Netherlands-based Rabobank owns a majority of Bank Sarasin, which was established in 1841.

HF Financial Corp. operates as the holding company for Home Federal Bank that provides consumer and commercial banking services in the United States. The company offers various deposit accounts, such as savings accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts, and certificate accounts. Its loan portfolio includes one-to-four family residential, commercial business, multi-family, commercial real estate, construction, and agricultural loans; and consumer loans comprising automobile loans, home equity loans, loans secured by deposit accounts, and student loans. In addition, the company offers annuities, mutual funds, life insurance, and other financial products, as well as equipment leasing services. As of June 30, 2009, HF Financial Corp. owned 33 banking offices. HF Financial Corp. company was founded in 1929 and is headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The Bank of Iwate, established in 1932, as a key financial institution in Iwate Prefecture, the largest prefecture on Japan's main island of Honshu. The prefecture, which is the Bank's business base, boasts a wide range of activity, from traditional industries to advanced technology. The Bank is committed to offering all manner of products and services with an eye to the new financial age, and is boldly stepping forward together with Iwate Prefecture into the 21st century.

Zions Bancorporation originated as Keystone Insurance and Investment Co., a Utah Corporation, in April 1955. In April 1960, Keystone, together with several individual investors, acquired a 57.5 percent interest in Zions First National Bank from the LDS Church. In 1965, the name of the company was changed to Zions Bancorporation. (However, it operated as Zions Utah Bancorporation from 1966 to 1987.) The first public offering of shares in Zions Bancorporation was made in January 1966. There continued to be some minority shareholders until April 1972, when the company exchanged the remaining minority shares for common shares. Zions Bancorporation's common stock is traded on NASDAQ under the symbol ZION. The company is a member of the S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ Financial 100 Index.

Columbia Banking System, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Columbia State Bank, which provides a range of banking services to small and medium-sized businesses, professionals, and individuals in the states of Washington and Oregon. It offers checking and saving accounts, certificate of deposit accounts, and consumer and residential lending products; and remote deposit capture, cash management, commercial and industrial lending, real estate and real estate construction lending, equipment finance, and small business services. The company also provides Visa card, investment, international banking, merchant card, online banking, electronic bill pay, and private banking services. As of February 19, 2010, Columbia Banking System had 84 branch offices, including 60 branches in Washington and 24 branches in Oregon. Columbia Banking System, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Tacoma, Washington.

The Chinese economy would be nothing without the People's Bank of China. The central bank controls monetary policy, sets the exchange rate, regulates the gold market, manages the state treasury, and oversees other financial institutions. Like the Federal Reserve System in the US, the People's Bank of China lends money to commercial banks as necessary. It also issues currency. In mainland China, the reminbi is the name of the currency, and the yuan is the base unit (like the dollar). The People's Bank of China operates nine regional branches in addition to its headquarters in Beijing. The bank was established in 1948, and until 1978 it was the only bank in China. It became the country's central bank in 1983.

Fentura Financial has its hands full. Fentura Financial is the holding company for Michigan community banks The State Bank, Davison State Bank, and West Michigan Community Bank. From about 20 branch locations, the banks provide commercial and consumer banking services and products, including checking and savings accounts and loans. Commercial loans account for some two-thirds of the bank's combined loan portfolio. The State Bank, Fentura's first subsidiary, traces its origins to 1898.

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