SANTA ROSA -- Summit State Bank (Nasdaq: SSBI) said it had record profits for the second quarter as a growing number of Bay Area customers entrusted their checking deposits to the Santa Rosa bank and it used the influx to make more loans and investments.
Earnings for the three months ended June 30 were $1.3 million, up 24 percent from the same period in 2013 and up 6 percent from this year's first quarter. For the first six months of this year, profits were $2.5 million, up from $2 million a year ago.
Checking deposits reached $118 million at the end of June, down slightly from March but up 17 percent over 12 months and almost five times 2009 levels.
"We've really been concentrating on trying to build those kinds of deposits and had some very good success," Chief Financial Officer Dennis Kelley told the Business Journal. Nonprofit customers, a focus of the bank, have increased to 130 at the start of this year, up from just eight in 2009.
On the loan side, demand isn't robust but it's picking up as some business customers start to expand, Kelley said. Loans were up 8 percent over the year, to $294 million.
"We're looking at business loans, some agriculture, vineyard, farming-type loans, commercial real estate, the categories our bank predominantly concentrates on," he said.
Total assets at June 30 were $464 million, up from $460 million in March and $432 million in June 2013.
Loan quality improved in the second quarter, as troubled loans fell from 1.84 percent of all loans at the end of March to 1.52 percent three months later. Summit exceeded regulators' safety standards by using $13.40 of its own money for every $100 in assets, compared to the $5 that regulators require.
Summit has 66 employees and five branches in Sonoma County. It serves customers in Napa, San Francisco and Marin counties via mobile and Internet banking. Its directors approved an 11-cent quarterly dividend.
