Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, March 27, 1997
Hawaii's two biggest banks today raised their prime lending rate to 8.5 percent, from 8.25 percent. Isles top banks
raise prime rate to 8.5%The quarter-point increase by Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank followed the Federal Reserve's increase in short-term interest rates Tuesday. Major U.S. banks, including Bank of America, raised their prime rate yesterday.
The prime rate is the rate the banks charge their best customers for short-term loans. Many business and consumer loan rates are pegged to the prime rate. Consumer credit rates, such as auto loan and credit card interest, are expected to rise.
Cyanotech Corp. will double the size of its microalgae farming and processing operation in Kona by leasing 88 additional acres in the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park. Cyanotech to double size
of algae farmThe company said it will use the acres for production of natural astaxanthin, a red pigment used to add pink color to the flesh of pen-raised fish and shrimp. Cyanotech is calling the new product NatuRose.
The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau has hired a 30-year veteran of Japan Airlines to be its vice president for Japan. Japan Air exec to run
HVCB's Tokyo officeKiyoshi Mukumoto, who will join the HVCB April 10, will direct a staff of six in Tokyo and Osaka and report to Kazumasa Tamura, HVCB vice president for the Asia-Pacific region.
Mukumoto's most recent position with JAL has been vice president in the airline's Tokyo regional sales office.
WASHINGTON -- Thirty-year fixed-rate home mortgage rates rose this week to 7.97 percent from 7.94 percent last week, according to national survey released today by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. The average adjustable mortgage rate remained unchanged at 5.71 percent from a week earlier. Fifteen-year mortgage rates averaged 7.48 percent, up from last week's 7.45 percent, according to Bloomberg News. 30-year mortgages rise
to 7.97 percent