Profits rise in 2003 for Snohomish bank

A surge of commercial lending led to increased profits for First Heritage Bank, its officers said. The Snohomish-based bank reported a yearend profit of $1.42 million for 2003, an increase of 7 percent compared to its profit of $1.35 million the year before. The bank’s fourth quarter net income was up 24 percent, to $550,000 from $424,000. The bank announced it will pay holders of its stock a 26-cent-a-share dividend. First Heritage is a closely held bank whose shares are not traded on public stock markets.

Borders Books &Music said its new store at Lynnwood’s Alderwood Mall is scheduled to open in August. The Michigan-based bookstore chain’s new 25,000-square-foot store will be located in The Villages, an open-air area being built at the mall. It will be the seventh Borders store in the Puget Sound area, according to the company.

Federal Reserve policymakers, who have promised to be patient in raising interest rates, will honor that commitment at their meeting this week, economists predicted on Monday. Analysts pointed to continued weak hiring as a primary reason that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues will leave the target for the federal funds rate, the rate that banks charge each other, at a 45-year low of 1 percent.

Safeco Corp. said Monday it had struck two deals to sell its life insurance and investment businesses for an estimated $1.44 billion. The Seattle insurer said an investor group led by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Bermuda-based White Mountains Insurance Group would buy Safeco’s life insurance, group insurance, annuities and mutual fund businesses. Safeco said the purchase price is $1.35 billion, but could increase depending on that unit’s earnings over the next few months.

The Treasury Department sold three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.945 percent, up from 0.93 percent last week. Six-month bills sold at a rate of 0.99 percent, up from 0.975 percent. The six-month rate was the highest since Feb. 23 when the rate was 0.995 percent. The new discount rates understate the return to investors – 0.961 percent for three-month bills with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,976.10 and 1.008 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,950.00. The Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills, a popular index for changing adjustable rate mortgages, fell to 1.16 percent last week.

From Herald staff

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