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Merger has bank near top: Huntington a big player after acquisition of Sky

Huntington Bancshares Inc. entered the Indianapolis market in 1986 and since has led a relatively unassuming existence, barely cracking the top 10 in local deposit amounts and operating just a few dozen branches. So, the Columbus, Ohio-based bank is entering uncharted territory following its $3.6 billion acquisition of fellow Buckeye bank Sky Financial Group Inc. in Bowling Green. Huntington completed its purchase of Sky on July 2, making it the 24th-largest domestic bank in the United States in terms of…

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Housing advocate seeing upswing: Mortgage market woes boost INHP participation

Al Smith of Chase Bank doesn’t know Patricia Wells, but he is glad he was able to help the Indianapolis mother of five, if only indirectly. Wells closed on the purchase of a house on East Washington Street three months ago, thanks in no small part to two programs of the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership, a two-decade-old not-for-profit that has helped hundreds of families realize the American Dream of homeownership. “I’m a single mother with five kids and I didn’t…

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Chase donating gifts it hopes will be noticed

Not-for-profits that banked on consistent support from the banker down the street can no longer count on a tip of the top
hat, thanks to ever-larger mergers among institutions that have changed the dynamic of their charitable giving.

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Huntington consolidates downtown office space: Bank leaving Capital Center after merger with Sky

Huntington Bancshares is giving up its local headquarters in Capital Center downtown now that it has completed its $3.6 billion purchase of Sky Financial Group. The 100 employees based at Capital Center, 201 N. Illinois St., will move to a Sky-owned office building at 45 N. Pennsylvania St. Sky bought the building last year as part of its $321 million purchase of locally based Union Federal Savings Bank. Bowling Green, Ohio-based Sky announced it was being purchased by Columbus, Ohio-based…

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CEOs’ friendship helped pave M&I’s way for First Indiana buyout

If First Indiana Corp. was looking to pull off a sale quickly, Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp. was a natural place
to turn. First Indiana CEO Robert B. Warrington had been doing deals with the bank since he took the helm from Marni McKinney
in 2006. Warrington also is a friend and golfing buddy of M&I CEO Mark Furlong.

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As barriers drop, even small firms go global: Local company pushed its blood monitor worldwide

Here’s one way to send your company’s revenue through the roof: Push your product into 70 countries around the world. That’s easier said than done, of course. But it’s exactly the path Polymer Technology Systems Inc. took to help quadruple sales of its cholesterol-checking device in the last three years. How Indianapolis-based PTS pulled off the feat shows how even small companies in Middle America can become global enterprises in today’s economy. In fact, the possibility of worldwide expansion is…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Will state’s job growth always trail nation’s?

You usually have to swallow your pride when it comes time to forecast the growth of the Indiana economy. That’s because no matter what your heart says, your head tells you what the best forecast will be. That is the one that pulls up well short of growth in the rest of the country. There are a lot of talented people working hard around the state trying to change that. And if the full truth be told, most of our…

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Star Financial is betting big on Indianapolis: Fort Wayne bank plans hub office, 4 new branches

Undeterred by stepped-up competition and tough margins, Fort Wayne-based Star Financial Bank is building an Indianapolis regional hub and has lined up land for four new locations. The privately held bank launched an Indianapolis-area expansion effort in 2001, and now has seven offices here-including three in Fishers, one in Carmel and one in Noblesville. The latest expansion salvo includes 25,000 square feet of leased space within an office building under construction at Keystone at the Crossing, next door to the…

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Classic Niche: Local insurer riding wave of classic-car enthusiasm

In 1993, Dan Yogodnik started a business with a friend that leased out exotic cars for special occasions. The biggest hurdle the partners encountered was lining up insurance for the cars. That experience spurred Yogodnik, who had been working in the banking industry, to start his own insurance firm. “If we had our own insurance agency, then we wouldn’t have to chase all over the country [for the niche policies],” he said. What started out as a side business targeting…

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Banks lose patience with iffy borrowers:

The dreaded bank workout department isn’t what it used to be for marginal borrowers, say two Indianapolis veterans who have watched the industry for decades. Until a couple of years ago, banks still were willing to help struggling companies through tough patches by restructuring loans and offering guidance in finding their way out of the woods. Now, banks are much quicker to cut off borrowers, said Dave Hamernik, a partner in Hamernik LLC. Hamernik, one of the region’s most seasoned…

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NOTIONS: Beyond election reform, electorate re-engagement

I once spent a day serving as an Allen County election official. I was 20-something. I worked for Fort Wayne’s mayor. And on Election Day, the mayor expected us to work the polls. For the sake of nostalgia and monotonyinterrupting conversations, I got myself assigned to the precinct at my high school. On the appointed Tuesday, I showed up at 5:15 a.m., did my voter-watching/guardagainst-shenanigans-by-the-other-party thing for 12 hours and helped with votecounting for two hours after that. Then I…

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What’s ailing Indiana’s banks?: State-based bank stocks are trailing national peers as industry deals with tough period

Indiana bank stocks have taken a beating on Wall Street over the past year, lagging behind larger peers as the entire industry rides out an unfavorable environment. Shares of Indiana’s 16 publicly traded banks dropped an average of 3 percent from May 4, 2006, to May 4, 2007, according to research by Carmel-based banking consulting firm Renninger & Associates LLC. Meanwhile, the nationwide SNL Financial bank index was up 4.4 percent. During the same period, the Dow Jones industrial average…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: Hoosier stocks take flight, propelled by higher profits

Many Hoosier stocks are on a tear, posting year-to-date gains rivaling the numbers we saw in the frothy late 1990s, before the Internet bubble burst. But market analysts say the comparison stops there. The companies posting gains are old-line manufacturers like Cummins Inc., not dot-com startups built on hype. And the appreciation is built upon a solid foundation-rapid increases in profit. Indeed, New York-based Citigroup noted that corporate profits are up 115 percent since the last recession ended in the…

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Banking industry slowly embracing biometric security: Local tech firm rolls out keystroke authentication systems to financial institutions

The banking industry is turning to the next generation of online security to thwart cyberthieves, and an Indianapolis information technology consulting firm is trying to stay at the forefront of the movement. Locally based Catalyst Technology Group has received a contract from BioPassword Inc., a security-software company based in Issaquah, Wash., to install keystroke authentication systems at financial institutions throughout the United States. Keystroke authentication is among the latest offerings from the field of biometrics-the measurement and analysis of unique…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Court decision could change future of brokerage firms

On March 30, a U.S. Court of Appeals issued a decision that represents a tremendous victory for registered investment advisers, individual investors and a defeat for big brokerage firms such as Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney, and Goldman Sachs. The Financial Plan- Association filed the lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission, arguing that the SEC in 1999 had exceeded its authority in creating an exemption from investment adviser registration under the Investment Advisers Act for stockbrokers who charge asset-based fees…

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Web rates get banks’ attention: Some try to compete by boosting savings yields

In an effort to lure new customers, more traditional banks are beginning to emulate their Internet adversaries and offer online savings accounts boasting much higher annual yields. Customers are increasingly turning to Internet banks because they offer highyield savings accounts that don’t require massive balances. First Internet Bank of Indiana, founded in 1998 by local tech entrepreneur David Becker as the first state-chartered Internetonly bank, has seen its assets grow to more than $530 million in less than a decade…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Signs of economic trouble are beginning to surface

There is a character in an old Hunter S. Thompson novel who shows up in every scene sweating profusely. Halfway through the book, he finally explains it-sweating is normal. It’s when he stops sweating that the alarm bells should sound. It’s a little like that with bankers. Except it’s not literally sweat, but worry. Bankers are always worried-about loan quality, interestrate spreads, renewed inflation, you name it. After all, the banking business is really business in general. How we collectively…

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Interactive poised to make incentives pay: Communications software-maker to add 637 jobs

Interactive Intelligence Inc. has come full circle. On May 2, Marion County’s Metropolitan Development Commission was slated to review a 10-year property tax abatement for the communications software maker. If the incentive is approved, Interactive Intelligence plans to use it to hire 637 people at an average of $32.50 per hour. According to its filings with the city, the company also will build a $15 million, 154,000-square-foot building next door to its current headquarters near Interstate 465 and West 71st…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: Housing slowdown roils state’s mortgage industry

Home lending might sound like a staid business. But anyone weathering the changes now sweeping through the Indiana mortgage market knows otherwise. Last year, we saw the sale of two huge Indiana-based home lenders-Fort Wayne-based Waterfield Mortgage and Fishers-based Irwin Mortgage. Also sold was Carmel-based Oak Street Mortgage, which not long ago had been a high-flier poised to go public. These weren’t cases of owners cashing out at the top of the market. Quite the contrary. Irwin Mortgage had become…

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