Frontier Financial Corp. of Everett, Wash., swung to a loss of $89.5 million, or $1.90 a share, in the fourth quarter, from an $18 million profit a year earlier.
To preserve capital, the $4.1 billion-asset Frontier said Thursday that it is suspending its dividend starting this quarter.
Frontier's loss was more than 10 times the average estimate from analysts.
The bulk of the loss was related to a $77 million goodwill impairment charge and a $44.4 million provision for loan losses in the real estate construction and land development portfolios.
Nonperforming assets more than doubled from the third quarter and rose more than 20-fold from a year earlier, to $446 million, or 10.87% of total assets.
Frontier's Tier 1 capital ratio declined 49 basis points from a year earlier, to 9.64%. Its total risk-based capital ratio fell 47 basis points, to 10.91%.
The goodwill charge covers all the recorded goodwill from previous acquisitions, Frontier said.
