
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993                   TAG: 9307160111
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CRESTAR DOUBLES ITS EARNINGS

Crestar Financial Corp. more than doubled its earnings during the second quarter. The bank reported net income of $33.7 million, or 88 cents a share, vs. last year's $16.8 million, or 50 cents a share. That's a gain of just over 100 percent.

For the first six months, income totaled $64.6 million, or $1.71 a share, against $30.4 million, or 90 cents, a year ago. That increase was 112 percent.

Chairman Richard Tilghman said the increases "clearly reflect continuing improvement in credit quality." He also cited strong growth in income despite the "slow-growth economic environment."

Charge-offs for bad loans declined, along with the bank's quarterly provision for loan losses. But it said the reduction was offset by one-time charges to sell foreclosed properties and holding of a significant reserve "intended to shield the corporation from future losses on the disposal" of other foreclosed properties.

Crestar had assets of $13.2 billion and total deposits of $10 billion. Loans were up 14 percent to $7.2 billion. The increase was due largely to the May 14 acquisition of CFS Financial Corp., a savings bank headquartered at Fairfax. - Staff report

by CNB