CU Bancorp Reports Profit for 4th Quarter

CU Bancorp, the Encino-based holding company for California United Bank, said its fourth-quarter profit of $1.3 million was nearly unchanged from a year earlier.

But for the full year ended Dec. 31, CU Bancorp posted a $3.64-million loss, contrasted with earnings of $5.86 million the previous year.

The loss, CU Bancorp’s first since its founding in 1982, was expected because the company increased its reserves for problem loans to $14.3 million in the third quarter, compared with a $3.65-million provision for loan losses a year earlier.

The fourth-quarter results signaled “a return to the bank’s normal operating profitability,” said CU Bancorp, whose assets as of Dec. 31 totaled $498 million, up 5% from $476.2 million a year earlier.