Value Financial Services gives customers bucks for their bling. Founded in 1994 by former CEO John Thedford, the company runs about 70 pawn shops in Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, and Tennessee, operating as Value Pawn and Jewelry and Check Jewelry & Loan. It makes non-recourse loans secured by customers personal items, including jewelry, electronics, and musical instruments. The average amount of the company's pawn loans is about $150; its pawn service charges range from about 188% to 300% annually. At the end of 2008 Texas-based EZCORP acquired the company after initial talks had fallen through.

The Bank of Italy is the central bank of the Republic of Italy and part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the Eurosystem. It is a public-law institution and pursues aims of general interest in monetary and financial matters: price stability, the primary objective of the Eurosystem under the Treaty establishing the European Community (the EC Treaty); the stability and efficiency of the financial system, thus implementing the principle of the protection of savings embodied in the Constitution (Article 47(1) “The Republic encourages and protects saving in all its forms, it regulates, coordinates and controls the provision of credit”); and the other duties entrusted to it by Italian law.

Banque Audi sal provides a range of private, retail, and commercial banking services to customers in Lebanon and the wider Middle East; it offers private banking services through subsidiaries in Europe and the Americas. Banque Audi has more than 130 retail branches, and also serves as a market maker for Lebanese treasury bills. The bank traces its lineage to 1830, when it began as an outgrowth of the Audi family exchange business in the Lebanese city of Sidon; the firm is still headed by members of the Audi family. Egyptian firm EFG-Hermes holds more than a quarter of Banque Audi.

Established in 1921, the Michinoku Bank is a regional bank offering financial services in the Aamori Prefecture in Japan. With about 120 branches and eight consolidated subsidiaries, Michinoku Bank offers traditional banking products, as well as real estate management and staffing supply services. With its "family bank" business approach, the company targets individual retail customers, as well as small-to-medium-sized businesses. It has key subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Michinoku Bank was also the first Japanese bank to open a subsidiary in Russia when it launched The Michinoku Bank (Moscow) Ltd. in 1999; it is now selling that operation to Mizuho Financial.

Cheviot Financial happily puts the "buck" in "Buckeye State." It is the holding company for Cheviot Savings Bank, which operates more than five branches in and around Cincinnati. The community-oriented thrift offers traditional products such as checking and savings accounts, CDs, IRAs, and credit cards. Its lending activities primarily consist of residential mortgages; construction, consumer, and commercial loans round out its loan book. Cheviot offers investment services through third-party provider Souders Financial. Cheviot Mutual Holding Company owns about 60% of Cheviot Financial, which will nearly double in size through its planned acquisition of First Franklin Corporation.

First California Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCAL) is emerging as a regional force of strength and stability in Southern California banking, celebrating 31 years of business. Operating under the First California Bank brand, the bank specializes in serving the financial needs of the commercial market, particularly small-and middle-sized businesses, professional firms and commercial real estate, development and construction companies. With a commitment to provide the best client service available in the region, First California Bank offers a full line of quality commercial banking products through 18 full-service branch offices in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. For additional information on First California Bank's products and services.

Finansbank has nearly 450 branches throughout the country offering financial services for both commercial and retail banking consumers. Finansbank also offers a network of ATMs, as well as online banking services. The number of credit cards issued by Finansbank grew from 2.3 million in 2005 to more than 3.5 million in 2008. The rapidly expanding bank, founded in 1987 as a four-branch institution by Hüsnü Özyegin, is controlled by the National Bank of Greece. The Greek bank bought more than 45% of Finansbank's stock in 2006, then raised its stake to more than 77% in 2009.

Savings bank Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Madrid (Caja Madrid) provides services from approximately 2,100 banking offices and some 5,000 ATMs throughout Spain. It offers retail, business, and private banking services and has some 7 million individual, small business, corporate, and institutional customers. As part of an alliance with MAPFRE, Caja Madrid products and services are offered through more than 300 MAPFRE offices, as well as through the insurer's agents. Caja Madrid is merging with smaller rival Bancaja. The deal will create the largest savings bank in Spain (overtaking La Caixa).

Prudential Bancorp is the holding company for Prudential Savings Bank, a thrift serving the Philadelphia area from about a half-dozen locations. Established in 1886, the bank offers traditional retail products, including checking and savings accounts, IRAs, and credit cards, as well as investments and insurance. One- to four-family residential mortgages make up about three-quarters of the company's loan portfolio; the bank also originates commercial real estate, construction, and land development loans. Prudential Mutual Holding Company owns a majority of Prudential Bancorp, which converted to a mutual holding structure in 2005.

Wing Lung Bank, founded in 1933, is among the oldest local Chinese banks in Hong Kong. The bank provides comprehensive banking services, including deposits, loans, foreign exchange, credit cards, Internet banking, and wealth management. Through subsidiaries, the bank also provides hire-purchase and leasing, trustee, futures broking, securities broking services, insurance sales, and underwriting. Wing Lung Bank has about 40 banking offices, primarily in China; it also operates through overseas branches in Los Angeles and the Cayman Islands. China Merchants Bank acquired a majority stake in Wing Lung Bank in 2008 and bought the company's remaining outstanding shares later that year.

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