Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Business in brief: CdA chamber has new leader

From Staff And Wire Reports

The former president of the Centralia- Chehalis Chamber of Commerce will take over as leader of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce in January.

Todd Christensen was selected recently from among 50 applicants to fill the position vacated in September when Jonathan Coe departed for a job leading the Santa Rosa, Calif., chamber of commerce.

Christensen was president and CEO of the Centralia-Chehalis chamber for about seven years before leaving to work as vice president and marketing director for Bank of the Pacific, a commercial bank operating in Washington and Idaho.

During his tenure as chamber president in Centralia-Chehalis, membership grew from 450 to 900, a Coeur d’Alene chamber news release said. He was selected from a pool of applicants compiled by Waverly Partners LLC, a national recruiting firm.

Christensen will relocate to Coeur d’Alene with his wife, Pamela, and four children, the release said.

Alison Boggs

Loan servicers put on notice

WASHINGTON – Faced with sluggish progress in its foreclosure-prevention effort, the Obama administration will spend the coming weeks cracking down on mortgage companies that aren’t doing enough to help borrowers at risk of losing their homes.

Treasury Department officials said Monday they will step up pressure on the 71 companies participating in the government’s $75 billion effort to stem the foreclosure crisis.

They will start this week by sending three-person “SWAT teams” to monitor the eight largest companies’ work and requesting twice-daily reports on their progress.

The mortgage companies, also known as loan servicers, have had a hard time getting borrowers to complete the needed paperwork for the administration’s loan modification program.

Fed to employ reverse repos

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve is fine-tuning a strategy to reel in some of the unprecedented amount of money that’s been pumped into the economy during the financial crisis.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Monday that investors and others shouldn’t conclude anything about when the central bank will reverse course and start boosting interest rates and removing other supports to fend off inflation.

The upcoming operations will involve so-called reverse repurchase agreements. That’s when the Fed sells securities from its portfolio, with an agreement to buy them back later.

Reverse repos are one tool the Fed can use to drain some money it has plowed into the economy to ease financial troubles.