EVERETT, Wash., Feb. 29, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Cascade Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:CASB), parent company of Cascade Bank, today announced plans to participate in a Pacific Northwest Bank Panel at the Sandler O'Neill & Partners 2008 West Coast Financial Services Conference. Carol K. Nelson, President and CEO, and the rest of the panel will present on Tuesday, March 11, at 11:15 a.m. PST.
The conference, which begins on the evening of March 10 and concludes on March 12 at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, will be available in its entirety, both live and via 30-day replay, at www.sandleroneill.com.
About Cascade Financial
Established in 1916, Cascade Bank, the only operating subsidiary of Cascade Financial Corporation, is a state chartered commercial bank headquartered in Everett, Washington. Cascade Bank has proudly served the Puget Sound region for over 90 years and operates 20 full service branches in Everett, Lynnwood, Marysville, Mukilteo, Shoreline, Smokey Point, Issaquah, Clearview, Woodinville, Lake Stevens, Bellevue, Snohomish and North Bend. Cascade Bank currently operates a loan production office in Burlington, Washington and will expand its service in Skagit County by opening a full service branch in mid 2008.
In July 2007, Cascade was named to Sandler O'Neill's Bank and Thrift Sm-All Stars - Class of 2007, which recognized Cascade as one of the top 24 best performing small capitalization institutions from a field of 610 publicly traded banks and thrifts in the U.S. with market capitalizations less than $2 billion. In making their selections, Sandler focused on growth, profitability, credit quality and capital strength.
In January 2008 Cascade was ranked #10 on Washington CEO magazine's list of Top 25 Washington Banks. In September 2007, U.S. Banker magazine named President and CEO Carol Nelson one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking. In June 2007, Cascade was ranked #44 on the Seattle Times' Northwest 100, a list of public companies. In September 2006, Ryan Beck & Co. ranked CASB #56 on its list of top performing bank stocks nationally, based on a five-year total return.
About Sandler O'Neill
Sandler O'Neill is a full-service investment banking firm to the financial industry. The firm is a market-maker in hundreds of financial stocks and publishes equity and fixed income research focused on selected banks, thrifts and insurance companies, including equity research coverage on CASB. Additional information can be found on their website at www.sandleroneill.com.