Premier Bank

The holding company for Sherman Oaks-based Trans-World Bank has signed a preliminary agreement to buy the Thousand Oaks office of Premier Bank--a move that would give TransWorld its 10th branch while reducing Premier to two offices. Officials of the banks, both of which concentrate on serving small and medium-sized businesses, declined to disclose the purchase price.

After months of bickering, a main political rival of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki named a candidate to head the next Iraqi government, a move that poses a new obstacle to the incumbent and is likely to further complicate formation of the government. Maliki has been banking on disagreements among his competitors to allow him to win a second term. But the Iraqi National Alliance coalition named a current vice president, Adel Abdul Mehdi, as its choice. The alliance includes two of the country's main Shiite Muslim political factions, Mehdi's Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and cleric Muqtada Sadr's movement.

Peter Steinmann, president and chief executive of Premier Bank since the Northridge-based financial institution opened five years ago, has resigned. He is the second senior executive to quit during the past two months at the bank, which lost $69,000 the first half of 1986. The leading candidate to replace Steinmann is Robert Giacobbe, who was Premier's chief financial officer and executive vice president until being named acting president upon Steinmann's resignation on Sept. 19.

Regulators have ordered American Premier Bank of Arcadia to strengthen its management and board of directors, raise additional capital and increase its reserves for loan losses, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said. In a case disclosed this week, the FDIC said American Premier had agreed to a cease-and-desist order without admitting or denying the allegations of unsafe banking practices.

Premier Bank said its profit for the first quarter ended March 31 climbed 30% from a year earlier, to $317,722 from $244,308. The Northridge-based bank, which also has offices in Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks, said the higher earnings partly reflected its control of overhead costs.

Premier Bank in Northridge said it plans to put off the expiration date of its stock purchase warrants from June 30, 1990, to June 30, 1991, and increased the exercise price to $3.95 per share. Warrants issued in 1987 now have an exercise price of $3.50 and warrants issued in 1988 have a current exercise price of $3.85.

Premier Bank in Northridge said its net income for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 rose 25% to $210,837 from $168,812 a year before. The bank's assets as of Dec. 31 increased 20% to $84.6 million from $70.4 million a year earlier. For the full year 1989, Premier's net income increased about fifteen-fold to $843,241 from $56,023 in 1988. Premier has three offices.

Premier Bank said its third-quarter profit slipped 5% from a year earlier, to $211,008 from $222,816. Despite the decline, the Northridge-based bank said its earnings for the first nine months of 1991 were up 17%, to $802,382 from $686,888 in the year-earlier period. Premier, which also has branches in Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks, said its assets as of Sept. 30 totaled $89.8 million, down 8% from $97.7 million a year earlier.

The No. 3 executive at Northridge-based Premier Bank has quit and been replaced by a former president of Valley State Bank. The executive who resigned, John F. Fischette, was Premier's senior loan officer and a senior vice president. He joined Premier as a branch manager when it was founded in November, 1981, as Northridge Bank.

Premier Bank reported a profit of $195,029 for the third period that ended September 30, compared to a loss of $145,220 for the same period a year ago. The Northridge bank said its assets increased 18% to about $76 million as of September 30, compared to about $64 million a year earlier.

* Bank of America has named Kim Burdick as Premier Banking executive for California and Doug Sawyer as small-business executive for California. Burdick, who is based in Orange County, will oversee a team of more than 450 specialists dedicated to providing enhanced personal service for the bank's affluent clients. He has headed the bank's Premier Banking program in Southern California since October 1998.

* Bank of America has named Sharon Devaney as market executive of its Premier Banking Group in Southern California. Devaney, who had been at the bank's commercial banking group, will lead the newly formed commercial partnership division within the Premier group. * Richard W. Stanton has been named senior vice president and chief operations officer of the Los Angeles Times. He will be responsible for the newspaper's production, printing, distribution and customer service operations. James D.

The holding company for Sherman Oaks-based Trans-World Bank has signed a preliminary agreement to buy the Thousand Oaks office of Premier Bank--a move that would give TransWorld its 10th branch while reducing Premier to two offices. Officials of the banks, both of which concentrate on serving small and medium-sized businesses, declined to disclose the purchase price.

Premier Bank, a three-branch bank with headquarters in Northridge, said it narrowed its loss in the fourth quarter to $129,000 from $512,000 a year earlier. For the full year ended Dec. 31, Premier's net profit jumped to $746,000 from $174,000 in 1990, the bank said. The bank said deposits declined 11% to $77 million in 1991 because of the poor economy and dropping interest rates. Total assets at year-end were down nearly 10% to $84.7 million from $93.8 million at the end of 1990.

Premier Bank said its third-quarter profit slipped 5% from a year earlier, to $211,008 from $222,816. Despite the decline, the Northridge-based bank said its earnings for the first nine months of 1991 were up 17%, to $802,382 from $686,888 in the year-earlier period. Premier, which also has branches in Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks, said its assets as of Sept. 30 totaled $89.8 million, down 8% from $97.7 million a year earlier.

Premier Bank, a Northridge-based bank that also has offices in Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks, said its profit for the first half of 1991 climbed 27% from a year earlier, to $591,374 from $464,072. The bank's assets as of June 30 totaled $90.6 million, down 2% from $92.7 million a year earlier.

Premier Bank posted a $48,080 profit for its first quarter that ended March 31, against a loss of $64,844 a year earlier. Robert N. Giacobbe, president and chief executive of the Northridge bank, attributed the improvement to cost-cutting efforts, aggressive marketing and increased loan activity. Premier, with assets of $59 million, has offices in Northridge, Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks.

It started out as a more or less typical partnership breakup, with one partner accusing the other of embezzlement after their company suffered an unexplained cash shortage. The case involves a building subcontractor called Marshall's Design Inc. in Westlake Village that claims it was looted of more than $500,000 between 1988 and 1990.

Bank of Boston Corp. and Shawmut National Corp. are close to a merger that would create the largest bank in New England, a source close to the negotiations said Friday. Talks between the banks have been going on for some time, but spokesmen for both declined to comment. "A merger is imminent," the sources said. "It could be two weeks away." Earlier this year, Fleet Norstar Financial Group of Providence, R.I.