Ideal Federal Savings Bank has until March 31 to find a buyer, a deadline set by the Office of Thrift Supervision after the federal agency determined the small Baltimore institution was undercapitalized. The bank - which opened in 1920 to combat rampant discrimination in lending - is one of the oldest continuously operated black-owned businesses in the country, according to Creative Investment Research, an analyst of minority- and women-owned banks. But Ideal had just $6.3 million in assets at the end of last year, and borrowers were behind by 90 days or more on about 11 percent of its loans.

- Jamie Smith Hopkins