City National's Profit Jumps 17% on New Business

City National Corporation (CYN) of Beverly Hills, Calif., posted net income of $55.1 million for the fourth quarter, up 17% from the same quarter a year earlier.

Earnings per share of 95 cents for the quarter missed the average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg by more than eleven cents. The $29.7 billion-asset company's earnings were weighed down by net securities losses of five cents a share.

"In spite of continuing margin pressure, as expected, from the runoff of covered assets, competitive pressures and the low-rate environment, the strong increase in net income reflects, in part, City National's continuing addition of new clients, a modest increase in loan demand across all sectors of the bank, and very sound and improving credit quality," City National Chairman and Chief Executive Russell Goldsmith said in a press release Thursday.

Net interest income climbed 1% to $211.2 million. The figure included $13.7 million from loans covered by a loss-sharing deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that were repaid or charged off, down from $17.5 million a year earlier.

Non-interest income slipped 9% to $90.5 million, primarily due to higher FDIC loss-sharing expenses, which was partly offset by higher wealth management fee income.

Noninterest expenses were relatively steady, decreasing 1% to $219 million. The net interest margin tightened 30 basis points to 2.97%.

Total net charge-offs for the fourth quarter amounted to $14.7 million, a substantial increase from $2 million a year earlier.

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