LOCAL BUSINESS
Central Federal income falls
Officials with Central Federal Corp., parent company of CFBank, said the company is continuing to “right size” the organization. The Fairlawn company with branches in Fairlawn, Worthington, Calcutta and Wellsville was purchased by a group of investors last August after posting losses every year since 2003 except 2008. The bank said it had troubled loans and had been a victim of the recession. The bank is now led by Timothy T. O’Dell, former chief executive of Fifth Third Bank’s Columbus operations.
The bank said its first-quarter net interest income was down 6.4 percent or $81,000 to $1.2 million, compared to about $1.3 million a year ago. However, the net interest income for the three months ended March 31 increased $161,000 or 15.7 percent over the previous quarter.
The company said it saw a 12 percent drop in “nonperforming” or uncollectible loans since Dec. 31, 2012, and that it had made $10.8 million in new commercial loans.
The bank’s assets totaled $216.4 million at the end of the quarter and increased $1.4 million or 0.7 percent from $215 million at the end of December.
— Betty Lin-Fisher
ENERGY
New drilling rules proposed
Gas drillers using hydraulic fracturing on federal lands would be able to use an industry-sponsored website to disclose the chemicals they use and won’t need to perform cement tests on each well, according to a revised proposal from the Interior Department.
Drillers will be permitted to use a variety of methods to test the integrity of their wells, according to a fact sheet from the Interior Department.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Honda to help Formula One
Honda Motor Co. will return to Formula One as an engine supplier to help develop its technology after exiting the racing series in 2008.
The maker of Acura NSX sportscar will provide motors to its former F1 racing partner McLaren Automotive Ltd. starting in 2015, said Takanobu Ito, president of the Tokyo-based automaker. He declined to comment on how much the automaker intends to spend on the effort.
Honda previously owned F1 teams and won 15 of 16 races in 1988 as a supplier to the McLaren team including three-time world champion driver Ayrton Senna.
The automaker’s role as an engine supplier for a team to be renamed McLaren Honda comes after it took over the British American Racing team in 2005, only to drop out three years later to cut costs amid the global financial crisis.
REAL ESTATE
Mortgage rates rise slightly
Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose this week but stayed near their historic lows. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said the average rate for the 30-year loan increased to 3.51 percent from 3.42 percent last week. That’s still near the average of 3.31 percent reached in November, the lowest on records dating to 1971. The average on the 15-year loan rose to 2.69 percent. That’s up from 2.61 percent last week, which was the lowest on records going back to 1991.
WALL STREET
Dow Jones falls 42 points
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 42.47 points to 15,233.22, a loss of 0.3 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 8.31 points to 1,650.47, or 0.5 percent. Both indexes closed at record highs the day before. It was only the third drop for the S&P this month. The Nasdaq composite index lost 6.37 points to 3,465.24, a drop of 0.2 percent.
Gold fell $9.30 to $1,386.90 an ounce. Crude oil rose 86 cents to $95.16 a barrel.
Compiled from staff and wire reports