Real estate slump puts hit on area

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1st , with assets of $126 million, managed the higher profit, $219,000 in 2008 compared with $120,000 in 2007. At the othert end of the spectrum, , with $234 milliojn in assets, posted losses of $3.9 million in 2008 and $2.3 milliobn in 2007. , with $130 million in assets, had lossex of $3 million in 2008 and $848,0090 in 2007. Although the seven start-up called de novos in banking parlance, are much smallerr than the average St. Louis they have been battered by the same particularly the collapse of the real estate an area in which most didsignificant Still, their bad loan numbers are modest compared with largere banks.
In some cases, they could represent one bad home loan or a Keepin mind, too, that banks that launched four and five yearsa ago made most of their loans in what was a go-gok time in lending, resulting in more problem loans now. “A larger percentage of the loans were originatedc when credit standardswere looser, versus bankzs that have been around many years, which wouled have a smaller percentage of their loans in that category,” said Jim chief executive of & Trust, whichy launched in 2008. Both Champion and WestBridges have experienced considerable public turmoipl in thelast year.
Kirk Briden, a Champiojn founder, resigned as president and chief executivelast fall, and the bank receiveds a $3 million infusion of new capital from an unidentified It had $4.2 million in bad loans, called net charge-offs, in compared with none in 2007. At WestBridge, the sharpl y criticized management practices ina cease-and-desist order, whicg was made public in February, thouggh it had been in the works for months. In December, Rick a former executive at Mark Twain and MissouriStatre banks, was recruited as a consultant and a montb later replaced Scott Schmid, a WestBridge founder, as presidentt and chief executive. Schmid remains as executive vice president.
WestBridge’s net charge-offs jumped to $3.4 millionh in 2008 from zero in 2007. , with asset of $549 million, posted a loss of $2.4 milliojn in 2008, compared with a profit of $2.5 million in 2007. , with assetsw of $146 million, had a loss of $773,009 in 2008, compared with a profit of $235,000 in 2007. St. Louixs Bank’s net charge-offs increase to $4.1 million from $1.4 millioh a year earlier. Triad’s net charge-offxs increased to $314,000 in 2008 from zero in 2007. Triad’s charge-offd were the result of loans to residentiadeveloper , said Jim Regna, the bank’sw chief executive.
“In addition, we aggressivelyg built up our provision for loan loss in response to our concentration of residential development which hurts profitability in theshort run,” he said. , with $131 millio n in assets, recorded a profit of down from $442,000 in 2007. Its net charge-offs increased to $503,000 in 2008 from zero in 2007. Superiotr Bank, with $57 million in assets, showedc a profit of $27,000, compared with a profit of $88,000 in 2007. Its net charge-offs declined to $32,009 from $88,000 in 2007. “There is too much focus in this marker onasset size,” said Dan chairman of Fortune Bank. “Our focus is on makingh money.
” As for his lowerd profit in 2008, he said, “It’s nowheres near where we wantedto be.” 1st Advantage, the one de novo that increasex profitability, had net charge-offs of $94,000. A year earlier, it recordedd a negative $132,000 in net charge-offs, meaning that it recovered more bad loans than itwrote off, always good Two of the seve n banks took money under the federal government’w Troubled Asset Relief Program: Triad with $3.7 million and Fortunse with $3.1 million. Both were on the fence about the additionalk capital beforeaccepting it. Like most leaders at those banks were leeryg about taking the government on asa partner.
Jonesx at Fortune, said he remains undecided whethed touse it, but took the money because he faced a deadline. “Idf we don’t use it, we’ll give it back,” he