Ventura County Freed From OCC Restriction

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has terminated its formal agreement with Ventura County National Bancorp's principal subsidiary, Ventura County National Bank.

The Dec. 1 announcement ended nearly three years of work for the Oxnard, Calif.-based bank, which was placed under restrictions largely because of heavy loan losses in Southern California.

Simone Lagomarsino, chief financial officer for Ventura County National Bancorp, said the holding company's other subsidiary, Frontier Bank, is still under an OCC agreement, but has been making progress.

"As a result of the downturn in the economy and in the real estate market, we lost quite a bit of money. We had $12 million in losses in 1993 and a much smaller loss in 1994," Ms. Lagomarsino said. "We've turned things around since then, and have a profit of $1.44 million through the third quarter of 1995."

Ventura County National Bank reported capital ratios well above those required for a well-capitalized bank. The bank had a leverage capital ratio of 10.28% and a Tier 1 capital ratio of 16.35% as of Sept. 30.