Frontier ex-CEO takes job with Union Bank
Published 5:50 pm Friday, May 14, 2010
Former Frontier Financial Chief Executive Pat Fahey has accepted a job with the bank’s new owner.
San Francisco-based Union Bank announced Friday that it hired Fahey to be the company’s regional chairman of the Pacific Northwest.
Union Bank purchased Frontier in April in a forced sale coordinated by financial regulators.
A veteran of the Puget Sound banking industry, Fahey came out of retirement in 2008 to lead Frontier.
“We are excited that Pat will be staying on with us,” said Timothy Wennes, chief retail banking officer at Union Bank. “We hope to leverage his many years of experience in the industry to help us grow our business in Washington and Oregon. His deep knowledge and familiarity of the region will be most helpful to us.”
Fahey will work out of Everett. He will report to Wennes.
Congress set to clamp down on card fees
Congress appears poised to tighten restrictions on the fees that merchants pay when customers swipe debit cards at cash registers. An amendment that cleared the Senate late Thursday is a loss for card payment networks including Visa and MasterCard — whose stocks tumbled on Friday — as well as major banks that issue cards. But even if the amendment becomes law, it’s unclear whether savings from reductions in debit card swipe fees would trickle down to consumers in the form of lower prices, or would largely be kept by merchants.
Stocks fall over worries about Europe bailout
Stocks tumbled for a second day Friday after concerns grew that the deep spending cuts under Europe’s bailout plan would slow a global recovery. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 163 points but closed well off its lows of the day. The Dow and other indexes posted big gains for the week after rocketing higher Monday on hopes that Europe’s emergency loan package would prevent a debt crisis in Greece from spreading. Enthusiasm about the plan wore off as the week went on.
J.C. Penney reports big gains in sales, profits
J.C. Penney Co. finished a week of retail earnings reports that showed big improvements in sales and profits. Penney reported Friday that its first-quarter net income more than doubled as shoppers spent more on a variety of merchandise. The retailer also raised its full-year outlook. But wary investors still weren’t impressed, as Penney shares fell 63 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $27.54. Penney’s results mirrored a theme played out all week. Nordstrom Inc., Kohl’s Corp. and Macy’s Inc. all saw shares fall for the week after posting big profit gains
From Herald news services
