Housing troubles in Colorado and Arizona caused CoBiz Financial Inc. to swing to an $8.6 million loss in the fourth quarter, from a $5.5 million profit a year earlier.
The $2.7 billion-asset Denver company said late Wednesday that its nonperforming assets shot up over twelvefold from a year earlier and 52% from the third quarter, to $47 million, or 1.75% of its total assets.
As a result, CoBiz increased its provision for loan losses fourteenfold from a year earlier and 340% from the third quarter, to $23.4 million.
"While the Colorado economy has outperformed the majority of other metropolitan areas nationally over the last year, it began to show increasing signs of weakness during the fourth quarter," CoBiz said. "The Arizona market continues to work through the issues related to a severely depressed residential housing market."
The fourth-quarter results also included a $2.2 million writedown on other real estate owned, as well as a $1.2 million impairment charge on a trust-preferred security.
Despite the credit quality challenges, CoBiz said its loan portfolio grew 10% from a year earlier, to $2 billion.
