The Bank Holdings posts loss

The Bank Holdings, the Reno-based parent of Nevada Security Bank, said last week that it lost $45.5 million in 2009.

This compares with a loss of $37.4 million in 2008 for the company, which has been hit hard by the declining real estate market in northern Nevada and northern California.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said that it had $79.3 million in non-performing loans on its books at the end of the year, up from $29.4 million at the end of 2008. (Non-performing loans include those more than 90 days delinquent and those in which the bank has taken back the collateral.)

The bank set aside $26 million for potential bad loans during 2009, and it charged off $20.6 million in loans during the year. It said it's aggressively collecting past-due accounts and working hard to sell the assets that it's taken in foreclosure.

The SEC filing showed, too, that the bank continues to shrink its lending. It had $357.4 million in loans on its books at the end of the year, down about $117 million from the level two years earlier.

Nevada Security Bank's deposits stood at $480.7 million at the end of 2009, up from $466 million a year earlier. The bank's management said in the SEC filing that competition for deposits is fierce, and that's squeezing the margin between the amount the bank pays for deposits and the amount it collects from borrowers.

Total assets at year-end were $496.7 million compared with $556 million a year earlier.

The company said it's struggled to regain its footing.

"The northern Nevada and northern California markets have continued to suffer increased unemployment, business closings and commercial real estate vacancies, each of which has hampered our efforts," it said in the SEC filing.

The company's shares, which traded for nearly $20 in early 2007, last week sold for 10 cents.