THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100341
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Despite reduced overhead and greater auto-finance activity, First Virginia Banks Inc. said Tuesday that its first-quarter net income advanced only 4 percent from the comparable three months in 1995.
Meanwhile, two Virginia Beach community banks - Bank of Tidewater and Resource Bank - reported robust increases in earnings for the January-through-March period. Both banks registered significant growth in loans and other earning assets since the end of the 1995 first quarter.
First Virginia Banks, parent of First Virginia Bank of Tidewater, said it earned $28.38 million for the three months through March, up from $27.2 million in the year-earlier quarter. Per-share earnings were 84 cents, compared with 80 cents.
``Despite adverse weather that slowed automobile sales early in the quarter, new loan production volume in this area was up 40 percent compared to a year ago,'' Barry J. Fitzpatrick, First Virginia's chairman, president and chief executive officer, said.
The Falls Church-based company, which concentrates on retail lending, said its first-quarter earnings also were helped by a one-time gain on the sale of investment securities, lower premiums for federal deposit insurance, and tight control of its non-interest expenses.
At Bank of Tidewater, first-quarter net income totaled $564,177, a 42 percent increase from $397,355 in the year-earlier period.
Earnings per share were 40 cents, up from 29 cents for the comparable three months of 1995.
The bank attributed the improvement in earnings to higher net interest income and control of non-interest expenses.
Bank of Tidewater's loans at the end of March totaled $89.45 million, a 14 percent increase from a year earlier, while its securities were up 30 percent to $35.47 million.
Resource Bank said it earned $353,037 for the three months ended March 31. That was more than double the $170,387 earned in the first quarter of 1995. Resource attributed the improvement to a higher level of earning assets and increased activity at its mortgage-banking unit. Its net interest income for the recent quarter totaled $784,377, up 40 percent. by CNB