COMMUNITY banks, which Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke calls a key link between financial markets and the United States economy, face a longer wait for government aid than their bigger competitors.

The US Treasury is urging small and regional banks to contact their primary regulator for details on how to access US$125 billion in funds ?? half of a US$250-billion sum set aside to recapitalize the nation's lenders.

Five federal regulators are waiting for more guidance from the Treasury.

"I don't think that when they rolled this out they understood there would be all these problems," former Treasury official Wayne Abernathy, now an executive vice president at the American Bankers Association in Washington, told Bloomberg News. "The sooner they can get the details out, the better."

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's aides are working to standardize procedures for putting capital into thousands of banks of varying size, charter and health.

Smaller banks must decide by November 14 whether they want to participate in the Treasury bailout program, said Camden Fine, chief executive of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

"Many banks can't step through the corporate hoops," Fine said. The "Treasury is willing to make some accommodation along that line, but we haven't heard definitively."

Some community bankers said they don't have enough information yet to decide whether to participate in the government bailout.

Central Virginia Bank, a state bank with about US$500 million in assets, is in search of new capital to replace a US$18-million investment in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred shares, said Larry Lyons, the bank's president.