Costs high, benefits higher in saving Sterling – The successful recapitalization of Sterling Financial Corp. may well be the best economic news of 2010 for Spokane.

Thanks in part to that “bailout” we all say we hate.

In raising $730 million, the corporate parent of Sterling Savings Bank https://www.sterlingsavingsbank.com assured the retention of more than 600 local jobs. Many more were potentially in jeopardy across a five-state, 178-branch system assembled during a succession of mergers that produced $12.7 billion in assets.

But relentless expansion also took Sterling into Bend, Boise, Southern California and other markets among the hardest hit by collapsing real estate values. The set-aside of $223.8 million for loan losses pushed Sterling’s 2008 earnings into the red, snapping a streak of profitable years going back to its formation as a savings and loan in 1983.

Bert Caldwell The Spokesman-Review

Full Story: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/sep/05/costs-high-but-benefits-higher-in-saving-sterling/