Customers Bank keeps killing deals

Customers Bancorp, the Wyomissing bank that's been stringing an East Coast franchise together under former Sovereign Bancorp boss Jay Sidhu, has frozen or kiilled three planned investments in the past nine months. That doesn't seem to have spooked investors, who keep bidding up the shares amid a cyclical bull market for financial stocks. Customers shares remain above $20, up from the mid-$16s in November.

Last month, Customers cancelled plans to buy Mount Vernon, NY-based CMS Bancorp and to invest another $31 million in Religare, India's third-most-valuable publicly-traded financial services company. In April, Customers cancelled plans to buy Virginia-based Acacia Federal Savings. The company has also had to contend with a federal investigation of its racial lending profile. Boenning & Scattergood analyst Matthew Schultheis had predicted the CMS deal was in trouble after Customers disclosed the federal fair-lending investigation last summer.

CMS shares, which briefly topped $10 in December, have slipped to around $9.25. Religare shares have fallen to just over 300 rupees, down from a peak above 360 in October. Customers invested $23 million in Religare last year.