Roughly a dozen new apartment projects are adding hundreds of units in central Minnesota, the St. Cloud Times reports. It is part of the nationwide trend of more people turning to multifamily housing.

Renting outside Minneapolis and St. Paul has largely been limited to housing built decades ago, but experts say the suburbs are ripe for a new wave of apartment development. It's a trend driven by a fundamental shift in attitudes toward renting plus a growing appetite housing with urban perks.

An executive with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis says profits and the quality of loans held by Minnesota banks are almost back to their historical averages. Those still hurting are mainly Twin Cities area banks that invested in commercial real estate in outer-ring suburbs.

The Bloomington bank that's been known as First Commercial will open its doors as part of Republic Bank & Trust on Monday. Regulators shut down the bank after closing on Friday. The FDIC arranged a sale of its assets to Republic, which is based in Louisville, Kentucky. It's Minnesota fourth bank failure this year.

A group of Twin Cities Somalis are frustrated with banks no longer willing to transfer money to Somalia. In response, Somali-American customers are removing their money and closing bank accounts. They want banks to restore the wire service to Africa. Banks fear the money transfers could violate anti-terror regulations.

Maple Grove-based InterBank was among four banks in three states closed by federal regulators Friday. Great Southern Bank based in Missouri will taken over InterBanks's four branches in the Twin Cities metro starting Monday. The FDIC has now closed 21 failed U.S. banks this year.