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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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BAC Florida Bank grew its loan portfolio by 7 percent during the second quarter as it eked out another profit.

The Coral Gables-based bank had $742.5 million in loans as of June 30, up from $694.6 million in loans as of March 31. The bank is mostly a residential lender, although it also makes a lot of loans to foreign banks.

The bank appears committed to South Florida. In June, it signed a 12-year lease extension for its headquarters in the BAC Colonnade office building.

BAC Florida Bank earned $115,000 in the second quarter, up from $10,000 in the first quarter, according to its federal financial report. With all those new loans, the bank’s net interest income climbed to $6.2 million from $5.8 million over that period.

However, the bank took increased charges from bad loans. BAC Florida Bank recorded a $3.3 million expense to reserve for future loan losses in the second quarter, up from a $2.9 million expense in the first quarter.

When more than half of a bank’s net interest income is gobbled up by bad loan charges, it’s tough to make a significant profit.

As of June 30, BAC Florida Bank had $32.3 million in late or unpaid loans, representing 4.28 percent of its total loans, plus $4.3 million in repossessed properties. That’s up from $32 million in noncurrent loans, representing 4.54 percent, and $2.8 million in repossessed properties as of March 31.

The bank’s $11.6 million reserve for future loan losses covered about one-third of its noncurrent loans at mid-year.

BAC Florida Bank was the 15th-largest bank chartered in South Florida as of March 31, with $994 million in assets. As of June 30, it had $1.05 billion in assets. The bank’s deposits grew to $741 million from $713 million.

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There are various ways on how to get free credit report online; but there is only one official website that is mandated by the government as your certified source for your annual credit report for free.

Procter & Gamble Co. said Monday that it has closed on the acquisition of Sara Lee Corp.’s Ambi Pur brand.

P&G first announced the acquisition in December. It paid 320 million euros, or about $402 million, for the line of air freshener products, which are marketed in Europe and the United Kingdom.

“The acquisition of Ambi Pur strengthens P&G’s global leadership in home care and specifically air care by extending our reach to serve more consumers in more parts of the world more completely,” said David Taylor, P&G group president, global home care, in a news release payday loan companies.

The company said previously the acquisition will not have a material impact on its fiscal 2010 results. P&G’s fiscal year ended June 30.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), headquartered in Cincinnati, develops, manufactures and markets consumer products and pharmaceuticals. Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE) is headquartered in Downers Grove, Ill.

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Intel Corp. said Monday that it is in talks with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on a possible settlement of the government's antitrust case against the giant chipmaker.

The Santa Clara-based company (NASDAQ:INTC) said in a regulatory filing that both sides have filed a motion to suspend proceedings until July 22 in the antitrust trial while both sides work on the potential settlement.

The FTC sued in December, saying Intel had illegally stifled competition for a decade. The action came after Intel settled similar charges in a civil case brought by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD) and was fined by the European Union in a separate antitrust case.

A settlement with the FTC is expected to prompt another one with Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), which also claims that Intel has illegally used its dominant market position to cut off competition.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has also filed antitrust allegations against Intel.

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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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US Airways Group Inc. has begun service from its Charlotte hub to Ottawa, Ontario.

US Airways Express partner Air Wisconsin will operate the daily service on 50-seat CRJ-200 regional jets.

“The new service to Ottawa, Canada’s capital, from Charlotte complements a growing choice of destinations from our largest hub,” says Jason Reisinger, US Airways director of route planning. “We’re now able to offer flights to and from Ottawa from both Philadelphia and Charlotte, providing flexible travel options for customers in those cities and abroad no fax payday advances.”

Ottawa joins five other destinations that have been added from Charlotte in the past 18 months, including service to Rome and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

US Airways (NYSE:LCC), based in Tempe, Ariz., offers more than 3,000 flights per day to 190 destinations.

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Florissant Mayor Robert Lowery Sr. said the 2,000 permanent jobs and thousands more construction jobs tied to the proposed $350 million Riverview Casino in Spanish Lake are economic stimulus St. Louis County cannot afford to lose.

“With so many carpenters, ironworkers, pipefitters, sheet metal workers, electricians, plumbers and laborers out of work in this dire recession, the North County casino project would be a lifeline to thousands of North County families,” Lowery said in a statement this week. “The permanent jobs are also attractive with unemployment remaining so high in the region.”

Last week, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley came out against the casino, citing environmental and flooding concerns, a move trumpeted by residents who had protested against the project.

Applications for the 13th and final Missouri casino license are due Sept. 1. The state’s last gaming license will become available in July when Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment (NYSE: PNK) closes the President Casino on the Mississippi River at the foot of Laclede’s Landing in downtown St. Louis.

“Whether you are for or against gambling, the fact is that it is legal in Missouri and there will be one more license issued,” Lowery said. “Rather than worrying about competition between casinos in the region, the region’s leaders should be concerned that these jobs will be lost to another part of the state. North County especially could use another economic engine. If we want housing values to remain high, then there have to be jobs to keep families here.”

The group backing the 377-acre casino complex is North County Development LLC, led by Wood River attorney Brad Lakin of LakinChapman LLC; his wife, Hallie Lakin; executive Kenneth Goldstein of Argo Products Co. in north St. Louis; and Wood River-based real estate investor Julie McDonald.

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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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GMAC Financial Services, the auto and mortgage lender that took three government bailouts to the tune of $16.3 billion last year, posted its first quarterly profit on Monday since receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, funds.

And that’s not all: Now the company, which was once wholly owned by General Motors, wants to change its brand, distancing itself further from the struggling automaker — at least in name. On May 10, GMAC will rebrand itself Ally Financial Inc. to reflect one of its most successful businesses, Ally Bank.

The online bank reported $231 million in income in the latest quarter. After factoring in losses from other divisions of the company, GMAC as a whole, reported first quarter earnings of $162 million, compared with a loss of $675 million in the year-ago quarter.

"We achieved profitability, our premier auto finance franchise continued to expand, the capital markets reopened to GMAC debt, we have reduced expenses, and we took several additional steps to contain and reduce risk in the mortgage business," GMAC Chief Executive Officer Michael Carpenter said in a press release.

GMAC, which finances GM and Chrysler dealers as well as car buyers and home loans, currently has a contract with General Motors to use the "GMAC" trademark until 2016.

But GMAC’s board of directors decided to scrap the name sooner.

It’s a smart move, said branding expert Jack Trout, because it solves two problems. First, it distances the company from its negative association with government bailout money, and second, it expands the name to reflect the company’s retail banking operations outside the scope of auto loans.

"GMAC was always confusing. It was a good name if you’re leasing GM cars, but once you get beyond the automobile world, it’s not good," Trout said. "If you can take advantage of what the word ‘ally’ means, you can use that word to certainly help drive a new idea in."

GMAC shares are not publicly traded, and the government holds a majority stake in it since the company took bailout money.

As of Monday, GMAC has not repaid its TARP funds, a Treasury Department spokeswoman said.

"The company is working toward the timely repayment of the U.S. Treasury’s investments," GMAC spokesman James Olecki said in an e-mail. 

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General Motors made it official on Wednesday: It is shutting down the Hummer SUV brand and offering rich rebates in a bid to move the remaining 2,200 vehicles.

Buyers can get $6,000 rebates on a 2009 model year Hummer H2 full-sized SUV or H3 mid-sized SUV.

GM is also offering $5,000 on the 2009 Hummer H3T, a pick-up version of the H3, and $4,000 on the few 2010 H3T’s that were made and remain in stock.

Buyers with good credit can also get 0% financing for six years on all Hummer models.

Hummer H3 prices start at about $31,000.

GM sold fewer than 300 Hummers last month. Hummer sales, which had been suffering anyway largely because of the vehicle’s reputation for poor fuel economy, have been hammered by uncertainty over the brand’s future.

Even a $6,000 rebate may not make a new Hummer a good deal, though, said Jeannine Fallon, a spokeswoman for the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.

Even if the H3 entirely meets your needs, buyers who may want to sell or trade in the vehicle in a few years will want to think twice, she said.

"Five years from now, who’s going to want your car?" Fallon said.

Hummer’s image has been ravaged by environmentalists, she said, and its been damaged even further by the fact that GM decided to discontinue the brand. Besides that, she said, the fuel economy of relatively light-weight crossover SUVs will continue to improve, leaving Hummers even farther behind.

Fallon may be overestimating how much people care about brand image, countered Robyn Eckard, a spokeswoman for Kelley Blue Book’s KBB.com.

"People used to care about brands and what a brand says about them," she said. "Nobody cares anymore."

Today’s car shoppers are looking for deals, she said. And the same will be true in a few years. That big rebate will only make it that much easier for Hummer owners to offer a good deal in the used car market later, she said.

"Hummer is a good deal now, and it will be a good deal five years from now," she said.

The automaker announced last year that it was letting Hummer go as part of its restructuring plan. A planned sale of Hummer to a Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer, which would have allowed production of the SUVs to continue, fell through in February.

General Motors now retains only four brands: Cadillac, Buick, GMC and Chevrolet. Of the four brands GM dropped only one, the Swedish Saab brand, was successfully sold off. It has been purchased by Dutch exotic car manufacturer Spyker.

A plan to sell Saturn to the Penske Automotive Group, an auto dealership operator, fell through after no manufacturer could be found to supply vehicles for the brand after GM stopped. GM is also closing down the Pontiac brand. No attempt was ever made to sell it. 

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