Ventura County National Bancorp’s Loss Swells

Ventura County National Bancorp, the Oxnard-based parent of Ventura County National Bank and Frontier Bank, said its third-quarter loss widened to $4.3 million from $640,000 a year earlier because of the area’s continuing weakness in the real estate market. In the latest quarter, the company said it added $6.06 million in loan-loss reserves.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company’s loss totaled $8.5 million, compared with a profit of $263,000 in the same period a year earlier.

As of Sept. 30, the company’s assets totaled $370.4 million, down 11% from a year earlier. More troubling were the company’s non-performing assets, which doubled to $20.7 million as of Sept. 30 from $10 million a year earlier.