COUNTYWIDE : Levy Bancorp Posts 1st-Quarter Loss

Levy Bancorp, parent of Ventura County’s largest locally owned bank, Bank of A. Levy, had a loss of $790,000 in this year’s first quarter, the company announced Tuesday at its annual shareholders meeting.

The loss contrasts with a net profit of $1.6 million in the first three months of 1992, and follows a loss of $237,000 in 1992’s final quarter.

Marshall Milligan, president and chief executive of both the Ventura-based holding company and the bank, blamed the deficit on loan losses and loan loss reserves, mostly involving construction financing and business loans backed by real estate.

“We haven’t yet seen a significant recovery in Ventura County,” Milligan said in an interview following the holding company’s shareholders meeting at Ventura’s Doubletree Hotel. “I look for a very gradual upturn. It will probably be a couple of years before our economy returns to normal.”

A total of $3.8 million was set aside during the first quarter for problem loans, Milligan said, bringing the bank’s accumulated loan loss reserve to $13 million.

Still, he said, “the quarter played out pretty much as anticipated.”

As in the previous three months, Levy Bancorp did not pay a quarterly dividend. Until last year, the company paid a regular quarterly dividend of 10 cents a share.

Through March 31, the bank’s interest and non-interest income totaled $11.2 million, but these were more than offset by operating costs and expenses related to problem loans.

Bank of A. Levy, with 20 branches, is the county’s largest independently owned bank.