Idaho investors look for more angels 
POSTED: Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 05:20 PM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: Boise Angel Alliance, Boise Angel Fund, Loon Creek Capital Group, RAIN Source Capital
The co-founder of Idaho’s first angel investment fund wants to create another half dozen million-dollar pots of cash over the next few years in a bid to transform the financing infrastructure for early-stage companies in the state.
Kevin Learned, co-founder of the Boise Angel Fund, and Denise Dunlap-Taylor, former CEO of The Network Group, launched Loon [...]
Sterling Financial completes $730M capital infusion
POSTED: Friday, August 27, 2010 at 01:49 PM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: banking, Financial Services, Sterling Financial Corp.
Sterling Financial Corp. appears ready to get out from under the thumb of federal regulators now that it’s finished raising $730 million from investors.
The Spokane-based holding company, parent of Sterling Savings Bank, has raised more money than regulators wanted under a consent order and has boosted its capital ratio above the minimum threshold to be [...]
Wells Fargo CEO: Don’t blame banks for not lending
POSTED: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 11:12 AM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce's CEO Speaker Series, John Stumpf, Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf says banks shouldn’t take the blame for not loaning money even though his bank’s total loan values have been tumbling.
He told a Boise audience Aug. 17 that the problem is a lack of demand.
“We can’t find qualified borrowers who want to borrow money,” he said during the Boise Metro Chamber [...]
Sterling Savings completes merger with Golf Savings
POSTED: Friday, August 6, 2010 at 08:10 AM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: Golf Savings Bank, Sterling Financial Corp., Sterling Savings Bank
Sister banks Sterling Savings and Golf Savings are merging, parent company Sterling Financial Corp. announced Aug. 4.
Sterling Financial, a Spokane-based holding company that has been rocked by failing loans to residential and commercial developers over the past two years, said the merger was effective Aug. 2 and that Golf branches would be switched to the [...]
Home Federal buys second failing Oregon bank
POSTED: Monday, August 2, 2010 at 02:12 PM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: banking, Community First Bank, FDIC, Home Federal, LibertyBank
Home Federal Bank of Nampa expanded its reach into Oregon with the July 30 purchase of the company’s second failing bank in less than a year.
The bank agreed to buy LibertyBank of Eugene, Ore., in a deal driven by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which will cover 80 percent of the losses on loans and [...]
Tamarack survives bankruptcy; questions remain a year later
POSTED: Monday, August 2, 2010 at 07:43 AM PTBY: Jennifer Gonzalez
Tags: bankruptcy, Tamarack Resort
Cyndi Bonetti is amazed at the number of times she’s asked about the status of Tamarack resort.
“People walk in and automatically assume because the resort is going through bankruptcy that the place is full of weeds and mothballed,” she said.
Bonetti is the owner of Valet Vacation rentals, and manages vacation rentals and property management services [...]
Boise ice cream company files for bankruptcy
POSTED: Friday, July 30, 2010 at 02:55 PM PTBY: Jennifer Gonzalez
Tags: Business, Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, Ice Cream, MGI
Novelty ice cream producer Matterhorn Group Inc., with Idaho ties, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to court documents, the case was filed on July 26, in Sacramento, Calif.
In 2005, the Caldwell-based Matterhorn Ice Cream Company merged with Deluxe Ice Cream of Salem, Ore., and Vitafreeze Frozen Confections of Sacramento to form MGI. Nearly [...]
Minnick crafts bill to avert commercial loan collapse
POSTED: Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 02:24 PM PTBY: Simon Shifrin
Tags: finance, Walt Minnick
Idaho Rep. Walt Minnick, hoping to fend off a looming wave of commercial loan defaults and a continuing decline in real estate prices, was preparing to introduce a bill July 22 that aims to avoid catastrophe for banks, property owners and small businesses with a new federal program.
The first-term Democrat, who has earned credibility in [...]
Lender-turned builder Hopkins puts dent in lot supply
POSTED: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 09:36 AM PTBY: Brad Carlson
Tags: HFS Homes, Hopkins Financial Services, Hubble Homes
Randy Hopkins, a private money lender since 1983, didn’t set out to become a homebuilder.
But the Hopkins Financial Services principal did it anyway, launching HFS Homes LLC in mid-2009 despite southwest Idaho’s sagging housing market.
The goal: Lose less money.
“It’s not something we want to be doing, but it’s something we need to be doing on [...]
SBA loans jump through June but lose momentum
POSTED: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 10:19 AM PTBY: Brad Carlson
Tags: Hazel Asphalt, Idaho Independent Bank, loans, SBA
Hazel Asphalt LLC is the kind of business that banks are looking to finance with a U.S. Small Business Administration-backed loan. The recently sold Nampa business has a long track record, an experienced operator, and assets that work well as collateral.
But many types of businesses - older, newer and with different types of markets and [...]
