American Riviera Bank Reports Rising Net Interest Margin

SANTA BARBARA, CA--(Marketwire - 07/16/09) - American Riviera Bank (OTC.BB:ARBV - News) today announced strong improvement in the net interest margin and continued growth of the Bank. As a result of efforts to deploy excess liquidity into loan growth, American Riviera Bank was able to improve the net interest margin to 3.95% for the quarter ended June 30, 2009 (2Q2009), from 3.38% for the quarter ended March 31, 2009 (1Q2009). The Bank reported total loans of $103.7 million as of 2Q2009, an increase of 33% or $25.5 million, from June 30, 2008 (2Q2008). The Bank's sustained focus on deposit growth resulted in total deposits of $103.8 million as of 2Q2009, an increase of 58% or $38.1 million, from 2Q2008.Despite the struggling economy and real estate market, the Bank continues to have no loans past due greater than 30 days, no non-accrual loans and no loan charge-offs in 2Q2009. In response to the weakness in the economy, the Bank increased its monitoring and testing of the loan portfolio by engaging an external consultant to review a significant sample of loans with particular emphasis on large dollar and real estate secured loans. Several loan relationships were identified for increased monitoring and current appraisals were ordered for all real estate secured loans in these relationships. The Bank recorded loan loss provision of $326,000 this quarter, compared to $47,000 in 1Q2009, thereby increasing the loan loss allowance to total loan ratio to 1.38% at 2Q2009 as compared to 1.20% at 1Q2009. Management believes the ...
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