NEW MONEY.(for five new community banks)(Brief Article)

Five new community banks continue their push to raise capital as the economy downshifts

Organizers of five new banks in the Puget Sound region are pushing ahead with raising capital despite the troubled economy, stock-market jitters and the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"We refuse to give up," declared Mike Luiten, who's been struggling to raise capital for Eastside Commercial Bank, in Bellevue.

"I'm not sure what else fortune can throw at us," the bank president said, "but we remain determined nonetheless."

Besides Eastside Commercial, other banks in formation include Seattle-based Pacific International Bank and Regal Financial Bank, Lakewood-based Washington …