Parent of beach bank branches to merge

Shares of Staunton-based banking company Community Financial Corp. soared Friday, a day after it announced it will be bought out by Charleston, W.Va.-based City Holding Co. Community Financial has 11 Community Bank branches, with two in Virginia Beach.

Community Financial shares closed up 41 percent in trading Friday, while City Holding shares rose 3 percent. The companies agreed to a stock-swap merger, valued at $25 million, in which Community shareholders will get 0.1753 shares of City common stock for every share of Community stock they own. Community Financial's Beach branches hold $89 million in deposits, which ranks it 20th locally among financial institutions, according to a regulatory filing.

- Dave Mayfield, The Pilot U.S. probes mortgage insurance deals

The government's consumer finance watchdog is investigating deals that transferred billions in premiums charged to borrowers from mortgage-insurance companies to banks that made the loans.

The deals amounted to kickbacks, because the banks pressured insurers into them in exchange for the banks' mortgage-insurance business, according to civil lawsuits filed by borrowers and legal experts. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has served subpoenas to American International Group, MGIC Investment, Genworth Financial and Radian Group, the companies said in public filings.

Borrowers with down payments less than 20 percent typically must buy private mortgage insurance to protect the bank in case of default.

Toyota gains speed, profit surges

TOKYO | Toyota raised its sales target for this year to a record 9.76 million vehicles and reported a strong recovery in quarterly profit Friday, underlining its bounce back from a disaster plagued 2011.

Toyota Motor Corp. said April-June profit zoomed to 290.3 billion yen ($3.7 billion) from 1.1 billion yen the year before. Its new sales target would represent a 23 percent increase from the 7.95 million vehicles sold in 2011, and is 180,000 vehicles more than Toyota's last forecast in February.

The car maker's quarterly sales soared nearly 60 percent to 5.5 trillion yen ($70.5 billion), rebounding from a sales crash that all Japanese automakers suffered after the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in March last year.

cabinet plant to shut, leave 335 out of jobs

MARTINSVILLE | A Martinsville cabinet plant will close next week, putting 335 people out of work. MasterBrand Cabinets' last day of shipments for the plant will be Friday, according to Robert Jacobs, the company's vice president for human resources.

Employees were told Friday about the closing. The plant's closure comes about eight years after Virginia officials announced its arrival in the economically distressed southwestern portion of the state. The plant produces semi-custom cabinets, which means they are made only when ordered. Low demand had meant staffers were working shortened schedules. Jacobs said closing the Martinsville plant may mean workers at three others can work a full schedule.

Treasury to sell $4.5B in AIG shares

WASHINGTON | The U.S. government said it plans to sell $4.5 billion worth of shares of American International Group stock, the latest effort to recoup taxpayer money spent on the largest bailout of the 2008 financial crisis.

The Treasury Department announced the fourth round of AIG stock sales Friday. The insurance company has indicated it intends to purchase up to $3 billion of the stock being offered in this sale.

The Treasury and the Federal Reserve stepped in with $182 billion to rescue New York-based AIG from collapse in September 2008.

AIG still owes taxpayers $30 billion on the initial investment. The Treasury still owns about 61 percent of AIG's common stock.

- From Pilot and wire reports