Banking & Finance

Playing catch-up: retirement planning dilemmas for women

Longer life expectancy, less pay contribute to female retirement anxiety

April 24, 2014

Kathleen Cavender, 61, a part-time jazz singer and full-time artist in Spokane, had been married to her husband Mike for nearly 30 years when he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an autoimmune disease that turns the lungs to scar tissue.

STCU enhances its mortgage rate-lock policy

Homebuyers can secure rate before picking house

April 24, 2014

Katie Ross

Spokane Teachers Credit Union, the Spokane area's largest credit union, has modified its home mortgage interest rate lock policy for conventional loans to make it more borrower-friendly, says Jeff Mularksi, STCU's real estate manager for origination a

Ignore all of the uproar over high-frequency trading

Individual investors benefit from tech-boosted system

April 24, 2014

Michael Maehl

By the time this piece is published, it shall have been about a month since Michael Lewis went on 60 Minutes to flog his latest Wall Street-oriented book. This one is called 'Flash Boys.â€ The boys, in this case, are those who oversee and administer th

Inland Northwest Bank parent posts ninth straight profitable quarter

Bank's net loans increased $41.3 million year over year

April 24, 2014

Katie Ross

Northwest Bancorporation Inc., the Spokane-based parent company of Inland Northwest Bank, has reported first-quarter net income of $588,000, up from $436,000 in the year-earlier period. The company reported earnings per diluted share of 14 cents for th

Seattle-based brokerage set to join global conglomerate

Spokane branch office could gain from merger

April 24, 2014

Staff Report

McAdams Wright Ragen Inc., a prominent Seattle-based financial services company that opened a branch office in Spokane two years ago, says it has signed a definitive agreement to merge with Baird, an international employee-owned conglomerate with more tha

Firefighters Credit Union's growth smolders

Firefighters CU focuses on consumer loans for its 2,000-some members

April 24, 2014

Judith Spitzer

Founded in 1934, the Spokane Firefighters Credit Union is celebrating 80 years in business this year, serving more than 2,000 area firefighters and their families, says Todd Powell, CEO for the past 10 years and a full-time firefighter with the city of Sp

SNAP Financial Access opens Women's Business Center

Program will offer planning assistance, training classes

April 24, 2014

Katie Ross

SNAP Financial Access has launched a Women's Business Center here that's intended to be a resource for female business owners or women who want to start a business, says Laurie Roth, manager of the center. The center opened earlier this month in the

Umpqua Bank has changes in 'store'

Bank espouses commitment to community, to roll out its retail brand

April 24, 2014

Mike McLean

Portland-based Umpqua Holdings Corp. now is operating Spokane-founded Sterling Bank under the Umpqua Bank name following a shareholder-approved acquisition that cleared its last regulatory hurdle Friday, April 18. Umpqua has started changing out Sterl

Inland Power reports rise in net margins for 2013

Inland enacted 4.5 percent rate hike earlier this month

April 10, 2014

Judith Spitzer

Inland Power & Light Co., the Spokane-based electric cooperative, has posted net margins of $3.8 million for 2013, up from $2.1 million in 2012. Also, as it had indicated previously, the cooperative implemented a 4.5 percent rate increase as of the begi

Inland Northwest stock index rises slightly in first quarter

Market cap, however, declines during period

April 10, 2014

Judith Spitzer

Hart Capital Management Inc., a Spokane-based investment firm, says the stock value of 14 publicly traded Inland Northwest companies, as measured in an overall index it compiles, rose 0.5 percent percent in the first quarter of 2014, lagging behind the St