Central Virginia Bank is offering a below-market interest rate of 4.363 percent on 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loans up to $534,000. But the rate is available only on the purchase of speculative homes financed by the Powhatan County-based bank, any pre-sold home that will be built on a lot financed by the bank and any bank-owned residential real estate.

About the time the U.S. Treasury was breaking out the taxpayer checkbook, Eastern Virginia Bank was breaking out the dark-green-and-white banners: “EVB has money to lend,“ they say. Even before a January phone call from Washington—followed by reams of paperwork—announcing the Tappahannock-based bank’s $24 million capital infusion, President and Chief Executive Joe A. Shearin was doing everything he could to get the word out that he wanted to lend money.