Strong Profits Continue at O.C. Independent Banks : Lenders: The combined net income of the county’s 38 institutions is $11.6 million for the first quarter. Just five such banks report losses.

Unlike their sickly cousins in the thrift industry, Orange County’s independent banks continued showing a healthy face in the first quarter, with combined net income of $11.6 million.

Of the 38 banks with headquarters in the county, just five reported losses--a total of $727,000--for the three months ended March 31, according to data compiled by Alex Sheshunoff & Co., a financial institutions analysis firm in Austin, Tex.

Sheshunoff said bank profits remained strong nationally. While first-quarter earnings were lower than in the same period a year ago, the decline was expected because of a gradual weakening in the economy in the last six months, he said.

He warned that bankers face several hurdles in coming months, including the “increasing certainty” of a national recession and the weakening of real estate values in several areas.

The county’s banking industry was devastated in the early 1980s when property values dropped sharply, forcing lenders to take huge writedowns on construction and development loans.

From 1982 to 1987, 10 independent banks in the county were declared insolvent and seized by federal regulators. More banks failed nationally during the period than at any time since the Depression.

Local banks are not facing that kind of crunch again, said industry consultant Edward Carpenter, head of the Southport/Carpenter Group in Santa Ana.

But he doesn’t anticipate 1990 or 1991 being sterling years for bank profits, either.

“So far this year, we are seeing carry-over profits based on the momentum of the last two years,” Carpenter said. “But we don’t see a great deal of new and highly profitable business being generated, and the regulators are holding banks to very high audit standards, which keeps earning down.”

The Middle East crisis, however, could have a positive impact on bank earnings.

“We have just completed a study that shows that independent banks did well in the first three years of the Vietnam War and the first two years of the last energy crisis,” Carpenter said. “The banks that were hurt were the ones with heavy consumer loan portfolios and a lot of first-trust-deed and home-remodeling loans.”

Most independent banks locally are business banks with few consumer loans.

The 10 largest county banks in the first quarter and their assets and earnings--or losses--for the three-month period were:

* CommerceBank; $321.9 million in assets; $851,000 earnings.

* National Bank of Southern California; $312.3 million in assets; $846,000 earnings.

* Security Pacific State Bank; $304.7 million in assets; $1.48 million earnings.

* Eldorado Bank; $283.6 million in assets; $1.03 million earnings.

* Sunwest Bank; $283.3 million in assets; $690,000 earnings.

* Commercial Center Bank; $270.2 million in assets; $94,000 loss.

* Bank of Newport; $269.7 million in assets; $601,000 earnings.

* Far Western Bank; $199.1 million in assets; $361,000 loss.

* Landmark Bank; $176.5 million in assets; $472,000 earnings.

* Pioneer Bank; $171.7 million assets; $508,000 earnings.