Bank of George to maintain capital levels

By Las Vegas Sun Staff (contact)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 | 5:27 p.m.

The Bank of George, a small Las Vegas bank, said Tuesday it signed a consent order with regulators, agreeing to maintain capital levels.

The bank said the agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Nevada Financial Institutions Division requires it to raise the required Tier 1 leverage ratio slightly to 9 percent and to maintain a risk-based capital ratio at or above 12 percent (it was 13.77 percent as of Dec. 31).

The bank must continue to maintain an adequate allowance for loan and lease losses; to formulate and implement a plan to address profits and reduce the bank’s exposure to bad loans and other "adversely classified assets," to reduce the bank’s exposure to commercial real estate loans; and to eliminate any reliance upon brokered deposits — currently at 4.58 percent of deposits.

Also, the bank said it raised $3.2 million of capital in 2010 with $1.3 million infused from the Board of Directors.

Chairman of the Board Edward Nigro said in a statement: “The capital was raised primarily from our existing Southern Nevada shareholders which is indicative of the confidence and strength of our shareholder base. We shall continue our capital raise in 2011 in keeping with our business plan for increased capital in order to provide additional loan growth and bank profitability as our community recovers from its severely stressed economy.”

The bank said it earned $80,000 in the fourth quarter.

Separately, Bank of North Las Vegas President James York announced plans for future valley-wide branch expansion and plans to change the bank’s name to Valley Bank of Nevada.