MOBILE
Sterling Financial to cut 6 percent of workforce
February 21, 2012 12:54 p.m. - Updated: February 22, 1 p.m.
Sterling Financial Corp. is laying off 6 percent of its employees this winter.
The Spokane-based holding company of Sterling Savings Bank anticipates saving $12 million in payroll and will charge off $3 million in severance pay. The bank has about 175 branches, including 71 in Washington.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sterling chief executive officer Greg Seibly noted the bank has is now smaller.
“Given the challenging interest rate environment and the uncertain economic outlook, Sterling must position itself for continued success, including lowering its operating expenses,” he said. “Sterling has fewer assets today than it did just a few years ago and, although this has been a difficult decision, the bank needs to appropriately reflect that reality,”
Sterling remains among the largest banks in the Pacific Northwest with $9.2 billion in loans and other assets, and deposits of $6.5 billion.
It is purchasing Vancouver, Wash.-based First Independent Bank. The deal, expected to close by Feb. 29, will bolster Sterling’s presence in the Portland area.
The company has not detailed where the layoffs occurred.
Spokeswoman Cara Coon said Tuesday that layoffs affected many divisions with the exception of positions such as customer service.
“It’s the reality of being a smaller bank,” Coon said. “It’s unfortunate this had to happen.”
About 150 jobs will be cut. The company has more than 600 employees in Spokane and about 2,500 across all areas it serves.
In its filing, Sterling also announced it will drop the “Savings” from its bank name as part of a $3.5 million rebranding effort. It will now be Sterling Bank.
Oh the poor dears. Mustn’t be making enough dough speculating on oil futures…..
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
I say shrink the financial sector until it can fit in a bath tub.
Then drown it.
Either that, or the economy just isnt as grand as we are being told on this election year.
Or maybe Sterling was managed into the ground, took bailout money, screwed all the shareholders and now they are making cuts in order to survive. Not everything has a connection to something you can blame on the President, but thanks for playing.
BTW, you have to be pretty stupid to fail at banking. There is literally no easier business, if you are not greedy…but nooooo bankers spend all their time whining about “regulations” and how they “can’t compete” which is all right wing nonsense. Every time there is a major roll back of regulations guess what.
That would be our money Sterling got a do over with, so they better be making some cuts.
Hmm, didn’t Sterling just post a 39 million dollar profit?
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jan/26/sterling-posts-39-million-profit/
And now, they are going to lay off 150 people!
What’s wrong with this picture folks?
WHS
http://insiders.morningstar.com/trading/executive-compensation.action?t=STSA®ion=USA&culture=en_US
Just find this interesting…
A $39 million profit doesn’t mean they are out of the red. If they have identified a true cost savings by leaning out their staff, then as unfortunate as it may be to those losing their jobs it may very well be necessary. Sometimes you have to do anything and everything possible to cut overhead and recover.
Sorry that flies in the face of everyone’s “all banks are evil” theory. Banks are still a business, and business concepts apply.
Nothing to worry about here! Those employees that are let go need to sent their resumes to Obama…he will make it right. After all, there are a lot of banks across the land and somewhere they are hiring.
Sterling damn near went T.U. They replaced much of top mgt, and of course, previous poobahs got some nice golden parachutes.
Still like to see an honest evaluator [they’re almost all gone] take a deep look at Sterling’s balance sheet, find out how bad they’re still overstating assets including loan performance, stability and profitability.
@green - you’re right. In addition, the current new poohbahs got huge pay increases a few months ago.
As far as the balance sheet goes, the future will bring that out in the open one way or the other.