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UCFC reports $3M loss in 1st quarter
By GRACE WYLER
youngstown
Home Savings and Loan Co. continues to be troubled by bad loans, even as the economy appears to be on the mend.
United Community Financial Corp., the Youngstown-based parent company of Home Savings & Loan, reported Wednesday a $3 million loss for the first quarter of 2010.
UCFC recorded a net income of $3.3 million in the first quarter of 2009, but the gain was largely the result of the sale of Butler Wick Trust.
Nonperforming loans continued to rise in the first three months of 2010.
In the first quarter, nonperforming loans reached 138,564, up from 102,177 over the same period last year.
The company was forced to set aside $10.9 million for loan losses in the first quarter of 2010, up from $8.4 million for the first quarter of 2009.
The primary reasons for the loss were these weakness in the company’s loan portfolio, particularly in commercial real-estate loans, said James Reske, the company’s chief financial officer.
“One of the ways you get out of this is you pay for it,” Reske said. “You see these losses coming, and you make provisions for that.”
The first-quarter earnings report was consistent with the bank’s expectations, Reske said, and even showed some signs of improvement.
UCFC’s losses decreased in the first quarter, down from a $16.26 million loss in the last quarter of 2009.
The bank also has maintained capital ratios above 8 percent, Reske said.
“I am really hesitant to say that the worst is behind us,” Reske said. “We do not want to say that we have turned the corner yet, but we are turning the corner.”