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Avista Corp. is proposing a settlement with Washington state regulators that will raise customers' electricity rates by 7.2 percent and gas rates by 3.2 percent.

If approved by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC), the Spokane utility's (NASDAQ: AVA) annual electric revenues would increase by $29.5 million and gas revenues by $4.6 million.

Earlier this year, Avista had filed for an electricity hike of 13 instant personal loans guaranteed.4 percent, or $55.3 million in increased annual electric revenues, and a gas hike of 6 percent, or $8.5 million. If approved by the WUTC, Avista said it wouldn't bring another rate hike request to the state until April 2011.

Here's a link to the Avista release.

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Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) bounced back from a loss of $39.9 million, or 26 cents per share, during the second quarter last year to a profit of $9.1 million, or 6 cents per share, this past quarter, the company announced Monday night.

Total revenue for the quarter was $224.8 million, a 25 percent increase from the comparable period last year.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Range has its regional base in Canonsburg, Pa., and is one of the most active drillers in the Marcellus Shale. According to the earnings release, by the end of June the company “had drilled 146 horizontal Marcellus wells to date of which 29 are awaiting completion and four are awaiting pipeline hook up easy payday loans.”

The company stated that Marcellus production “continues to exceed expectations.”

“Drilling rigs are becoming more efficient as are completions and production operations,” the report stated. “These efficiencies, coupled with being ahead of schedule on production volumes, are allowing us to add an additional $210 million of capital to the Marcellus project in 2010.”

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BNY Mellon, New York City, Tuesday reported second quarter net income of $658 million, or 54 cents per diluted share, nearly four times its second-quarter profit of $176 million, or 15 cents a year ago.

That was spot-on with the average estimate by 15 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, whose range for BNY Mellon (NYSE:BK) was 50 cents to 58 cents.

For the six-month period ended June 30, BNY Mellon earned $1.2 billion, or $1 per share, compared to $498 million or 43 cents a year ago.

Second-quarter net income from continuing operations was $668 million, or 55 cents, compared to $267 million or 23 cents last year.

“Our focus on winning new business and providing exceptional client service resulted in solid growth in securities servicing fees and continued long-term asset inflows for our asset and wealth management businesses,” Chairman and CEO Robert Kelly said in a prepared statement. “Our conservative risk profile is reflected in our excellent credit quality and strong capital generation.”

BNY Mellon, Pittsburgh’s third-largest bank according to deposits, employed 7,143 here at the end of the second quarter.

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Sam’s Club, the members-only wholesaler owned by Wal-Mart, is testing out an online program to offer discounted loans to its small business customers.

The program is essentially a white-label arrangement with Superior Financial Group, the nation’s most active Small Business Administration lender. Superior Financial, based in Walnut Creek, Calif., specializes in loans of $5,000 and $25,000, often made through the SBA’s "express" program for smaller loans.

By applying for the loan through Sam’s Club as a member, small businesses will get $100 off Superior Financial’s loan packaging fee (typically $350 to $450, after the discount) and 0.25% off the market interest rate. Sam’s Club gets a $50 referral fee for each loan funded.

The new Sam Club’s venture launches amid a bleak credit landscape for small companies. Banks have slashed their lending portfolios and credit lines, leaving many companies scrambling to find the capital they need to operate. "Unable to find credit, many small businesses have had to shut their doors, and some of the survivors are still struggling to find adequate financing," a recent government study concluded.

That’s one motive for Sam’s Club to wade into the lending market: If customers are strapped for cash, they don’t shop.

Small businesses "are a big portion of our business, so if we can help small business, that helps us," said Hiren Patel, director of financial services at Sam’s Club low rates payday advance.

Rival wholesaler Costco has tried three times to pair up with small business lenders. "The results have been underwhelming in each iteration," said Joel Benoliel, senior vice president at Costco (COST, Fortune 500). Costco linked up with Key Bank in 2000, American Express in 2003 and Capital One 2007.

"The assumption is that there is this big need, and we are all about small business as our members, so we have really, really tried over the past decade," Benoliel said. "In each case, the main problem was the same: we had low member approval rates."

Businesses that already have an established relationship with their bank tend to apply for loans with that bank. Those looking to apply for a loan through an alternate avenue aren’t typically the most attractive customers.

"Maybe they will have success where we didn’t," Benoliel said of the new Sam’s Club venture. "The lending environment is entirely different since the last time we tried this in 2007."

The Sam’s Club arrangement is an open-ended pilot program. "We will monitor on a monthly basis, report back to our executives on a quarterly basis, and see where we want to go with this," Patel said. 

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If embattled BP chief executive Tony Hayward leaves the company, he is not likely to walk with a massive windfall, compensation experts said.

While his departure is not imminent, speculation is rampant that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will cost Hayward his job. According to a prediction market run by Intrade, there is a 70% chance Hayward will be gone before the year is out.

That raises the question of how much severance he could receive if he steps down.

BP spokesman David Nicholas would not comment when asked about a possible severance plan, adding that Hayward remains the company’s chief executive.

But experts say Hayward will probably not get a lucrative package of bonus money and stock awards that many U.S. companies give to outgoing CEOs as so-called golden parachutes.

"He will be lucky to get a single year’s salary," said Paul Hodgson, a senior researcher at The Corporate Library, a governance group. "And even that could be mitigated in certain circumstances."

Hayward’s salary last year was just over 1 million British pounds, or $1.5 million, according to BP’s annual report. He also received a bonus worth more than $3 million and stock valued at nearly $1 million in 2009, the report said.

Given his recent track record, however, Hayward will probably not get a bonus this year, Hodgson said. It is also unlikely that he will receive much in the way of stock awards, which are often the most lucrative part of a severance package.

According to BP’s annual report, Hayward stands to gain nearly 1.2 million "performance shares" under a deferred compensation plan for company directors. But those shares, which would vest in 2011, are contingent on "an assessment of safety and environmental sustainability," the report said.

"If there are shares that are unvested, such as the performance shares, they are unlikely to vest," said Hodgson. "Shareholder return is not going to look good, and the performance condition won’t be met."

Shares of BP’s U online payday loans.S.-listed stock have plunged 50% in the weeks since the April 20 disaster and shareholder groups are threatening to sue BP for damages.

The sell-off could also hit Hayward, who owned over 500,000 options to buy U.K.-listed shares of BP at the end of last year, according to the company’s annual report. Those options, which are set to expire in 2011 or 2012, are currently worthless. But they could have some value if the stock recovers.

To be sure, Hayward will not be destitute if he leaves BP. In his 28 years of service, he has amassed a pension worth over $16 million, according to the annual report.

"Retirement is really the bulk of what he will see," said Julie Davidson, a consultant at Cogent Compensation Partners. But it is not clear whether the 53-year old executive will be eligible for retirement benefits before he turns 60, she added.

Davidson said BP’s board appears to have more discretion over severance payments than companies in the United States - particularly when performance is lacking.

"This is a contrast to what you see in the U.S.," she said. "He’s probably not going to get very much."

The average severance package for the chief executive of a major U.S. corporation is three times annual salary, plus bonus and stock awards, according to Hodgson.

These types of golden parachutes were intensely criticized last year after a number of chief executives at financial firms were awarded billions of dollars in compensation despite exceptionally poor performance.

Hodgson, who previously worked for the London-based publication Executive Compensation Review, said that few U.K. companies award severance packages comparable to their U.S. counterparts.

"In the U.K., compensation committees tend to have a little bit more muscle and shareholders have more say when it comes to poor performance," he said. 

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A proposed rule to stop financial firms from shopping for credit ratings will instead be postponed and studied, under an agreement finalized Wednesday by lawmakers negotiating a final Wall Street reform package.

The deal calls for a two-year study but then would mandate that the Securities and Exchange Commission adopt a system to independently match ratings agencies with firms that want securities rated.

The change is among the most controversial so far in two days of meetings of hammering out differences between House and Senate bills. Later on Wednesday, lawmakers also came to an agreement on new congressional reviews of the Federal Reserve.

The nation’s largest ratings agencies — Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch — have been under fire for their role in the financial crisis. The agencies gave top ratings to toxic financial products, like bonds backed by subprime mortgages. Lawmakers are most concerned with preventing financial firms from fishing for top-notch ratings.

Lawmakers, particularly Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., were concerned that the credit rating agency curb, which passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, would be tough to carry out. The measure originally required the SEC to appoint an independent panel tasked with creating a random process that matched rating agencies with financial firms.

The new measure leaves the door open for the SEC to figure out a better way to match rating agencies with financial firms. But if it can’t, the SEC is required to follow the original plan proposed by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., in two years.

Lawmakers on the negotiating committee said Franken indicated he could live with the agreement.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said the House agreed to the measure on Wednesday.

The provision is not the only one in the Wall Street bill aimed at credit rating agencies. The final legislation is also expected to strip federal law of any provisions that suggest credit rating agencies’ seal of approval is necessary.

Auditing the Fed: The House bill subjected the Fed to ongoing audits, while the Senate had ordered a one-time audit of the central bank’s loans during the financial crisis.

The compromise lawmakers are agreeing to would subject the Fed to ongoing audits. But the audits would only review the Fed’s emergency and cheap loans, as well as open market transactions.

Also, the compromise may force the Fed to publicly disclose who it makes loans to, after two years.

Also, Senate negotiators are leaning toward dropping a measure they had wanted that would have made the head of the New York Fed presidentially appointed, instead of chosen by New York banks. 

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SEATTLE — After a series of leaked prototypes, it’s almost a given that Apple Inc. will unveil a new version of the iPhone at its annual software developers conference that opens Monday in San Francisco.

The revelation of a splashy new iPhone would clear up one of the highest-profile Apple mysteries of the year. Yet it would leave another unknown simmering at Apple, one with far-reaching implications for how we listen to music.

First, let’s talk iPhone.

Apple won’t comment on its plans, but it has used this conference to launch the last two generations of its smart phone. In April, Gizmodo, a tech blog, paid $5,000 to obtain a working iPhone prototype that was lost by an Apple engineer in a Silicon Valley bar. Apple didn’t say the prototype represented the next model of the iPhone, but if the descriptions posted online are accurate, the device will be getting a clearer display, longer battery life and a front-facing camera that could be used for videoconferencing. It’s also likely to have the updated iPhone software Apple previewed in April that makes it easier for users to run more than one program at a time.

In addition to the new iPhone, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to talk more about, if not release, a new operating system for the iPhone that will allow multitasking with third-party software.

What may not make an appearance during Jobs’ presentation Monday, but what Apple is also probably working on, is a service that could change the way many of us think about buying and listening to music.

The success of the iPod and the iTunes store has made Apple the world’s largest music retailer, but now there’s another revolution stirring in the digital song business.

As Apple’s iPhone and other smart phones became more popular, several new services started sending music over the Internet straight to the devices, letting users skip the step of plugging in and transferring songs from a computer as iTunes still requires. Such services, including Rhapsody and Spotify, which operates in Europe, give people access to just about every song imaginable, for a monthly fee.

Forrester Research analyst Sonal Gandhi said these streaming services were still too small to lure Apple into directly competing. But Apple does need to keep an eye on Google Inc., which is building music-streaming technology into its increasingly popular Android phones. Google acquired a company called Simplify Media this year and said in May that it planned to build a desktop program that can beam people’s iTunes libraries over the Internet to Android phones.

Apple may be cooking up something similar. In late 2009, Apple bought Lala.com, which gave customers a way to listen to songs online, anywhere, if they had already purchased and stored the tracks on their own computers. Lala users could add new songs to their mix, paying 10 cents per song for an unlimited number of plays online or more if they also wanted to download the song to a device. Lala had built an iPhone application, but Apple bought the company before the app was made available to consumers.

Apple shuttered Lala’s service in May, and technology analysts believe that was a temporary step before Apple transforms the service into a way for iTunes shoppers to access music from the Web, the iPhone and other Apple devices.

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World Vision is launching a microfinance site that allows donors to lend directly to small borrowers in developing nations.

The Federal Way, Wash.-based international charity has created World Vision Micro, a website that allows donors to give to entrepreneurs in developing nations who are seeking capital to start or expand their businesses.

The model is similar to Kiva.org, a San Francisco-based organization that connects individual lenders with individual borrowers. The microfinance industry actually uses several models, including Seattle’s Global Partnerships, which allocates investor or philanthropic capital to nonprofit lenders in developing nations that then distribute microloans or other financial services.

Under its new service, World Vision will approve applicants and pay their loans up front. Then the loan is posted on the website where donors can select it and pay for it; that money that is used to repay World Vision. Donors can search loans based on business type, gender of the borrower, location and size. Once the entrepreneur pays back the loan, the capital is recycled to pay for future loans.

World Vision already has a broad portfolio of microloans worth about $346 million, but the new site aims to enable individuals to make direct microloans. According to World Vision, the new microloan site has funded more than 850 loans worth a combined $230,000.

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Greece requested its first round of international funding on Tuesday. Now comes the really hard part: The Greeks will have to tighten their belts to bring the nation’s finances in line.

The initial loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund should allow Greece — at least for now — to stave off financial collapse.

But the debt agreement also sets into motion a raft of austerity measures to bring the national finances into compliance.

The measures are designed to rein in a country that has been living beyond its means.

"These are very, very serious and very, very rapid cuts," said Mitchell Orenstein, professor of European studies at Johns Hopkins University.

The austerity measures fall heavily on public workers, who will receive pay cuts and have to postpone retirement until later in life, and pensioners, who will have their pensions reduced.

"The current pension system is unsustainable and will become insolvent if responsible measures are not taken to place it on a sound footing," read an IMF document detailing the austerity measures.

Here are some of the details agreed upon by the Greek government, which hopes to reduce its annual deficit to 8.1% of its gross domestic product this year, compared to 13.6% in 2009:

Salaries: Wages will be cut to save the government € 1.1 billion in 2010. A spokeswoman for the Greek Finance Ministry declined to provide a flat percentage, because the cuts will vary depending on a worker’s salary. Two rounds of wage cuts have already occurred this year.

Retirement: Pensions will also be cut, except for those in the lowest income bracket. The retirement age will be set at 65. This is quite a contrast from the current system, which allows some workers to retire at 61. The government will toughen eligibility for disability, and for any other type of early retirement.

Sales taxes: The nation’s value-added tax will be increased by a tenth, meaning that a 10% tax will get notched up to 11%, and a 21% tax will be increased to 23%, to use examples provided by the IMF. This is expected to save the government € 800 million in 2010.

Excise taxes: Special taxes will be imposed on fuel and cigarettes, each of which will provide estimated revenue of € 200 million this year.

A tax will also be imposed on alcohol (including the traditional Greek liquor ouzo), providing estimated revenue of € 50 million in 2010. And the government will slap an excise tax on luxury items, such as yachts and private jets.

This luxury tax targets the wealthy, said Orenstein. But that doesn’t help the fact that the working and middle classes will bear the brunt of the hardship, he said.

The looming era of austerity fanned the flames of last week’s protests in Athens. Lower income workers see themselves as paying the price for tax-dodging fat cats, whom they blame for causing the problem.

"The Greek context is one in which there’s been a lot of tax evasion," said Orenstein. "It seems to me that people who can’t hide their income — public workers, teachers — are the ones who are going to pay the price. That’s the downside of the austerity program."

CNNMoney.com staff reporter Blake Ellis contributed to this article. 

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Southwest Airlines is boosting the frequency of nine of its routes from Denver International Airport for the summer season as of Sunday.

The Dallas-based airline (NYSE: LUV) announced these DIA schedule additions:

• Denver-Baltimore, from three flights a day to four.

• Denver-New Orleans, from one flight to two.

• Denver-Oakland, Calif., from three flights to four.

• Denver-Portland, Ore., from two flights to three.

• Denver-Sacramento, Calif., from two flights to three.

• Denver-Seattle, from two flights to three.

• Denver-Spokane, Wash., from one flight to two.

• Denver-Tampa Bay, Fla., from one flight to two.

• Denver to Tulsa, Okla pay day loan lenders., from two flights to three.

After Sunday's schedule additions, Southwest said it will operate 129 daily flights out of DIA, and expects to have 144 daily nonstops to and from the Denver airport by August.

Southwest carried 16 percent of DIA passengers in the first two months of 2010, according to airport statistics, making it the airport's No. 3 carrier, after United Airlines and Frontier Airlines, by passenger volume. Its share of total passengers has grown rapidly since the airline arrived at DIA in 2006.

Click here to download a full list of Southwest's system-wide schedule changes.

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