Heritage Bank posts a profit for 2009

Heritage Bank of Nevada earned $4.58 million in 2009, including income of $1.16 million in the fourth quarter.

The company's assets stood at $402.2 million at the end of the year, an increase of 33.5 percent over a year earlier. Deposits rose 21.25 percent during 2009 and stood at $361.8 million at the end of the year. Loans totaled $290.5 million at the end of the year.

The Reno-based company reported earnings of $4.6 million in 2008, and Heritage President Stan Wilmoth had cautioned a year ago that 2009 would be difficult for the bank as its customers felt the pressures of the recession.

Heritage Bank last month assumed substantially all of the deposits and assets of the failed Carson River Community Bank in Douglas County and opened the failed bank's headquarters as a Heritage Bank branch.