Valley of the Temples expanding acreage
NorthStar Memorial Group, the Texas-based owner of Valley of the Temples Memorial Park, has begun expansion with construction of a 10-acre parcel named Ocean View Terrace.
The property includes land for more than 3,700 burial plots, whether for individual burials or family plots.
The property also will include what developers call a cremation garden with 1,000 spots for various types of inurnment, as well as 500 companion niches for couples wishing to be buried next to each another. A waterfall-fed stream will wend its way through the development, which will feature a Japanese garden. The expanded acreage is due to open in the winter.
Priceline tops $1,000 as online travel grows
Priceline.com Inc. closed above $1,000 a share Thursday, exceeding a dot-com bubble high and making the largest U.S. online travel site the ninth member of a club of U.S. companies trading in quadruple digits.
The Norwalk, Conn.-based company rose 0.6 percent to a record close of $1,000.62 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The bubble-era high on a split-adjusted basis was $990 in April 1999. The company’s shares are up 61 percent this year.
In reaching the milestone, Priceline is the only technology stock to join companies such as Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Seaboard Corp., Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach and five others trading at more than $1,000 a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, which tracks more than 3,000 publicly traded U.S. institutions with prices above $1.
Chase, JPMorgan to refund customers $309M
WASHINGTON » Federal regulators Thursday ordered Chase Bank and JPMorgan Chase to refund $309 million to more than 2 million customers for illegally billing them for credit monitoring services they never received.
Chase also must pay $80 million in fines, submit to an independent audit and strengthen oversight of third-party vendors who manage credit card "add-on" products that promise to protect customers from identity theft and fraud.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took action after an investigation revealed that Chase unfairly charged many customers for the add-on services without or before receiving the customers’ written authorization between October 2005 and June 2012. Some customers paid monthly fees of between $7.99 and $11.99 for several years even though the add-on services they had been promised were not performed, according to the bureau.
30-year mortgage rate dips to 4.50 percent
Average rates on fixed mortgages declined this week amid signs the economic recovery is slowing.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan fell to 4.50 percent from 4.57 percent last week.
The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage dipped to 3.54 percent from 3.59 percent last week.
The retreat in the average rate of a 30-year mortgage comes just a couple of weeks after the rate reached a two-year high of 4.58 percent Aug. 22. The average rate on a 15-year mortgage also hit a two-year high — 3.60 percent — that day. Overall, mortgage rates remain low by historical standards.
ON THE MOVE
Central Pacific Bank has promoted Kevin Yoshida to vice president and region manager on Maui, Kauai and Hawaii island. He has more than 20 years of banking experience and has been with CPB since 2000. Yoshida was previously a vice president and district manager for CPB as well as a Kaahumanu branch manager at First Hawaiian Bank on Maui prior to joining CPB.
St. Andrew’s Priory School has been awarded $50,000 from ABC Stores to support initiatives in the Office of Institutional Advancement and Alumnae Relations. The school also received $20,000 from McInerny Foundation as well as $10,000 from G.N. Wilcox Trust.
