OTS Grants Charter for Web Bank in Fla.
WASHINGTON - The Office of Thrift Supervision on Friday granted a federal thrift charter to the start-up holding company 1st Virtual Inc. to open VirtualBank, an Internet bank based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.The approval is contingent on VirtualBank's having initial capitalization of $36.5 million, a level the OTS approval noted that it had already attained.
VirtualBank will conduct a full range of loan and deposit products, including mortgage and home equity loans, and checking and savings accounts. However, it will have only a single branch location, at which no cash transactions will take place. VirtualBank is the sixth Internet-based institution to which the OTS has issued a charter.
Also on Friday, the Federal Reserve Board approved an application by Kookmin Bank of Seoul to open a branch in New York City. The branch will hold a state charter. Kookmin is the second-largest bank in South Korea, with consolidated assets in excess of $68 billion. Kookmin already has a marketing office in New York as well as foreign branches in Argentina, Japan, and New Zealand.
- Rob Garver
Autos Drove January Rise in Retail Sales
WASHINGTON - U.S. retail sales rose in January as purchases of automobiles, clothes, and gasoline increased, according to government figures released Friday.Excluding autos, however, sales were down 0.3% in January - the largest decrease since a 0.9% plunge in April 1997 - as food-store sales had their biggest decline in 17 years. In December, sales excluding autos rose 1.9%.
Retail sales overall in January were up 0.3%, to $262.2 billion, after a 1.7% December increase, the Commerce Department said. It had set the December gain at 1.2%.
Analysts expected January's tally would be about $261.5 billion, which would have been a 0.7% increase from the original December estimate.
"Looking at the average of the two months suggests very strong sales,'' said Steven Wood, an economist at Banc of America Securities in San Francisco.
Georgia Bank Has Second Deal in 2 Days
BLAIRSVILLE, Ga. - Striking its second deal in as many days, United Community Banks Inc. said Thursday that it would buy Independent Bancshares in Powder Springs, Ga., for about $32 million in stock.Under the pooling-of-interests agreement, $2.1 billion-asset United would pay 2.4 times Independent's book value and 18.8 times trailing earnings. United would swap 0.4211 shares of its stock for each share of Independent. The merger is expected to close in the second quarter.
On Wednesday, said it would acquire North Point Bancshares in Dawsonville, Ga. for about $36.4 million in stock.
Independent has $145 million of assets; North Point has $111 million.
United operates 34 branches in north Georgia and western North Carolina,
- Matt Andrejczak
