Credit union to open new office

Horizon Credit Union will occupy the top floor of the Mansfield Crossing building at Mirabeau Park, the company announced in a news release.

Various administrative departments of the credit union will take up about 15,000 square feet of space in the three-story building.

The company will move into the space in the fourth quarter of 2007, the release said.

Existing services and administration at the branch building on Trent Avenue will not be disrupted. Mansfield Crossing is at 13224 E. Mansfield Ave., near the YMCA and next to the Centennial Trail.

Horizon Credit Union, a full-service financial institution, has more than 35,000 members and $340 million in assets.

It operates 18 branches in the Pacific Northwest.

The building is owned by Cowles Co., and space is being leased by its wholly owned subsidiary, Centennial Property Management Co.

The Cowles Co. also publishes The Spokesman-Review.

OLYMPIA

Insurer ordered to stop giving gifts

Title insurer Stewart Title Guaranty Co. has been ordered by the Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner to stop giving gifts and incentives to real estate agents and brokerages to influence business referrals.

The cease-and-desist order follows an investigation into the widespread practice within the title insurance industry, according to a news release from the insurance commissioner. Stewart Title, a publicly traded company based in Houston, has three offices in Spokane.

Stewart Title’s Snohomish County office was among six investigated for illegal gifts, gratuities, junkets and other incentives. Among the problems alleged at Stewart’s Snohomish offices were donations to auctions and Christmas funds of real estate brokerages. Also alleged were “desk fees,” in which Stewart paid brokerages a fee, often $1,000 a month, to keep a desk at an office though Stewart employees rarely, if ever, sat at the desks.

The state investigation is ongoing at several other title companies, according to the release.

From staff reports