The IHOP Corp., best known for its International House of Pancakes chain of restaurants, has agreed to pay $11 million in taxes and interest to settle a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service concerning its federal income taxes between 2000 and 2003.
The dispute is related to the tax on franchise fee income. IHOP executives will pay $7.7 million in federal income taxes and $3.3 million in interest.

The Sierra Club’s mutual fund investment arm has launched an index that will track the 100 largest companies that have implemented environmental preservation measures.
The Forward Progressive Large Cap 100 Index includes companies that meet more than 20 environmental criteria, including five exclusionary criteria that consist of tobacco, drilling, mining and military weaponry.

Community banks cater their lending services to local businesses. They’re oftentimes privately owned and don’t have the resources that the nation’s giant, mega banks have at their disposal.
But that’s not stopping community banks from making technology strides.

J.P. Morgan Chase chairman William Harrison has announced that he plans to retire from the nation’s third-biggest bank at the end of the year, and he’s expected to hand the post to CEO Jamie Dimon.
Harrison, 63, will leave on Dec. 31 after spending his entire career at the New York-based bank. The 50-year-old Dimon succeeded him as CEO in January.

You may not have known it, but last week was National Save for Retirement Week.
There weren’t any televised tickertape parades, and no one was likely given a paid day off work — the wages to be deposited directly into a 401(k), of course.
Congress passed the special resolution last week.

With nearly twice the number of deposits as its closest competitor, Wells Fargo once again outranked other Colorado banks last year.
That’s according to annual statistics from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that were released last week.
The numbers also show U.S. Bank slid from the No. 2 spot on the list – a spot now claimed by Lakewood-based FirstBank, which increased deposits by 9 percent. U.S. Bank’s deposits dropped by nearly 2 percent.

Bank and insurance company Web sites could be getting their organizations some unwanted attention.
Financial services consultant Les Abromovitz told bankers at a conference last month that while Web sites increase a bank’s visibility to potential clients, they also attract the attention of regulators.

Ent Federal Credit Union opened the city’s first financial services branch on a college campus on Oct. 2.
The branch at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is the 21st service center for Ent, the region’s largest financial institution.
In what has become a trend, a number of banks and credit unions are establishing college campus branches. The school branches are seen as a way to capture future customers.

It’s not uncommon that when taxes become too high, a business moves to a more favorable climate.
And it now appears that the world of rock ’n’ roll has embraced the principal.
Irish rock star Bono and his band U2 recently moved their business empire from Ireland to Holland to avoid paying the new, higher tax rates that target music royalties.

Citigroup Inc., the largest U.S. bank, lost $20 million buying and selling gold and silver in 2002 and 2003, after a trader hid contracts and reported bogus prices, according to a New York Stock Exchange report.
A good portion of those losses can be attributed to Citigroup trader Gail Edmonds.