After initially warning investors that it expected to report a loss of $4.6 million in the second quarter, Wilshire Bancorp in Los Angeles now says that it turned a $2.1 million profit.
The $2.7 billion-asset company said Monday that it adjusted its earnings after re-evaluating its East Coast branch operations. In late July, Wilshire announced that it would write off $6.7 million of goodwill related to branches it acquired in New York and New Jersey, but said Monday that after further review management determined that the goodwill was not impaired.
Wilshire had been battered in recent quarters by defaults on real estate loans, reporting a loss of $52 million in the first quarter and a loss of nearly $4.6 million in last year's second quarter.
The company attributed the turnaround in this year's second quarter largely to improved credit quality, which allowed it to reduce its provision for loan losses by 77% from the first quarter, to $10.3 million.
In a statement, Wilshire's President and Chief Executive Officer Jae Whan Woo, said that he expects profits to steadily increase over the next several quarters.
