Sterling Financial

Six Spokane-area businesses and nonprofits were among 18 saluted last week by the Association for Washington Business for their outstanding commitment to employees. Companies were nominated for training, safety and compensation programs that effectively fostered innovation, met the needs of employees and their families, and showed commitment on the part of employers.

Sterling Financial Corp. will have a recapitalization plan in place, or nearly so, by the end of March, bank executives said Monday. The clock started Monday on a key step in the process, a repurchase of $238 million in bank securities, said President Ezra Eckhardt. Holders have 20 business days to respond.

Writedowns on its loan portfolio resulted in large losses for Sterling Financial Corp. in the fourth quarter and all of 2009.

Corey Deter sued Sterling Financial Corp. on Jan. 11. The suit was dismissed Jan. 21.

A former Sterling Financial Corp. employee has sued the Spokane financial institution alleging administrators of its 401(k) plan imprudently invested as much as 20 percent of plan assets in company stock that has plunged in value. The lawsuit filed by Cory Deter says Sterling officers, starting with the release of second-quarter 2008 earnings, misrepresented the losses and potential losses the company faced as its substantial portfolio of construction and real estate loans soured.

Sterling Financial Corp. on Thursday reported a huge third-quarter loss of $463.7 million as it closes out the books on almost a decade of acquisitions that made the Spokane institution the largest commercial bank based in Washington. The loss, $8.93 per common share, contrasts with a profit of $5 million, or 10 cents per share, reported for the third quarter of 2008.

Sterling Financial Corp. Thursday reported a huge third-quarter loss of $463.7 million, in the process closing out the books on almost a decade of acquisitions that made the Spokane institution the largest commercial bank based in Washington.