- WIB PH
CEO Melanie Dressel has set an ambitious goal for herself as she engineers this expansion: to remain personally involved with each one of its branches.
September 22 -
Liberty Bank in New Orleans reached agreement a year ago to acquire First Tuskegee Bank in Alabama. But the deal has remained in limbo ever since, and it shows that buyers and sellers can take little for granted in bank M&A.
August 1 -
Columbia Banking System in Tacoma, Wash., has agreed to buy Intermountain Community Bancorp in Sandpoint, Idaho. The $7.2 billion-asset Columbia will pay $121.5 million, or $18.22 a share, in cash and stock for the $911 million-asset Intermountain.
July 24
Columbia Banking System in Tacoma, Wash., reported higher quarterly profits that featured lower costs.
The $7.3 billion-asset company reported that its earnings rose 63% from a year earlier, to $21.6 million. Earnings per share of 41 cents were 11 cents below the average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Columbia's net interest income actually fell 5%, to $76 million. Total loans rose 5%, to $4.8 billion, but the net interest margin compressed by 52 basis points, to 4.85%.
Noninterest income doubled, to $16 million, due in part to smaller-than-expected costs tied to failed banks the company bought from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Columbia also sold three branches to Sound Community Bancorp for $565,000.
Noninterest expenses shrank by 7%, to $60 million, because of lower-than-anticipated expenses related to Columbia's purchase of West Coast Bancorp.
