Real estate slump puts hit on area

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1st , with assets of $126 million, managed the highef profit, $219,000 in 2008 comparee with $120,000 in 2007. At the otheer end of the spectrum, , with $234 milliojn in assets, posted losses of $3.9 million in 2008 and $2.3 millio in 2007. , with $130 million in had losses of $3 millionh in 2008 and $848,000 in 2007. Although the sevenj start-up banks, called de novos in banking are much smaller than theaverage St. Louis they have been battered by thesame trends, particularl y the collapse of the real estate an area in which most did significantg lending. Still, their bad loan numbers are modest comparexd withlarger banks.
In some cases, they could represengt one bad home loan or a Keepin mind, too, that bankes that launched four and five years ago made most of their loans in what was a go-g time in lending, resulting in more problekm loans now. “A larger percentage of the loans were originatede when credit standardswere looser, versuse banks that have been arounds many years, which would have a smaller percentage of their loans in that said Jim Wagner, chief executive of & which launched in 2008.
Both Champion and WestBridge have experiencefd considerable public turmoil in the last Kirk Briden, a Champion founder, resignee as president and chief executive last fall, and the bank received a $3 millioj infusion of new capital from an unidentified It had $4.2 million in bad loans, called net in 2008, compared with none in 2007. At the sharply criticized management practices ina cease-and-desisyt order, which was made public in February, though it had been in the worksz for months. In December, Rick a former executive at Mark Twain and MissourjState banks, was recruited as a consultant and a mont h later replaced Scott Schmid, a WestBridge as president and chieft executive.
Schmid remains as executive vice president. WestBridge’sa net charge-offs jumped to $3.4 million in 2008 from zero in 2007. , with assets of $549 million, posted a loss of $2.4 million in 2008, comparedc with a profit of $2.5 million in 2007. , with assetsa of $146 million, had a loss of $773,00p in 2008, compared with a profit of $235,00p0 in 2007. St. Louis Bank’s net charge-off s increased to $4.1 million from $1.4 million a year Triad’s net charge-offs increased to $314,000 in 2008 from zero in 2007. Triad’sa charge-offs were the result of loans to residentialdevelopefr , said Jim Regna, the bank’s chief executive.
“In we aggressively built up our provision for loan loss in response to our concentrationb of residentialdevelopment loans, which hurte profitability in the short run,” he , with $131 million in recorded a profit of $149,000, down from $442,000 in 2007. Its net charge-offx increased to $503,000 in 2008 from zero in 2007. Superiord Bank, with $57 milliohn in assets, showed a profit of $27,000, compared with a profi of $88,000 in 2007. Its net charge-offs declined to $32,00 from $88,000 in 2007.
“There is too much focus in this markey onasset size,” said Dan Jones, chairman of Fortune “Our focus is on making As for his lower profit in 2008, he “It’s nowhere near where we wanted to 1st Advantage, the one de novo that increasee profitability, had net charge-offs of $94,000. A year it recorded a negative $132,000 in net charge-offs, meaning that it recoverec more bad loans than itwrotr off, always good news. Two of the sevemn banks took money under thefederal government’sd Troubled Asset Relief Program: Triad with $3.7 million and Fortune with $3.1 Both were on the fence about the additionalo capital before accepting it.
Like most bankers, leaders at those bankas were leery about taking the government on as a Jonesat Fortune, said he remains undecidesd whether to use it, but took the money becausew he faced a “If we don’t use it, we’ll give it he said.