Bank Firm’s 1st-Quarter Earnings Slide 68%

Ventura County National Bancorp, the Oxnard-based parent of Ventura County National Bank and Frontier Bank, said its profit for the first quarter ended March 31 fell 68%, to $236,000 from $731,000 a year ago, mainly because of a $400,000 increase in the amount of money the bank put aside during the quarter to cover possible loan losses.

Most of that increase in the bank’s loan-loss provision came because of a single bad loan at Frontier Bank, according to William E. McAleer, chief executive of Ventura.

The bank’s assets increased 13% to $383.7 million as of March 31, compared with $340.7 million a year earlier.