No end seen to banking boom

Coming off a terrific 2002, northern

Nevada bankers think their industry will

do even better in 2003.

How good was this year? Try some of

these numbers reported to the Federal

Deposit Insurance Corp. at the end of

the third quarter:

* Reno-based 1st National Bank

reported net income of $9.3 million for

the first nine months of the year, up sixfold

from its profits a year earlier.

* First Independent Bank, another

Reno-based institution, reported net

income of $793,000, more than double

the $353,000 it earned in the first three

quarters of 2001.

* Heritage Bank, a young independent

bank based in Reno, earned $539,000

compared with $313,000 a year earlier.

* Northern Nevada Bank turned the

corner of profitability, earning $31,000

after losing $849,000 as a start-up during

early 2001.

While the percentage gains posted by

smaller independent banks are tough to

replicate at big institutions,Well Fargo

Bank of Nevada reported profits for the

first three quarters of this year of $300.7

million, an increase of more than $33

million over the same period a year ago.

Bankers have to squint hard to see

any dark clouds on the horizon during

2003.

Kirk Clausen, regional president of

Wells Fargo Bank of Nevada, said his

bank projects that its results in northern

Nevada in 2003 probably will top the

record-setting pace established in 2002

even if the national economy slides sideways.

"We see a very vibrant, very buck-thetrend

economy in northern Nevada," he

said.

The region continues to post job

growth perhaps not as fast as the

boom years of the late 1990s, but solid

nonetheless and Clausen said a key to

the region's economic success has been

upward movement in average salaries.

"It's absolutely incredible how the

average salary continues to work itself

up," Clausen said. "We seem to attract

good jobs."

At the region's newest bank, Nevada

Security Bank, President Dave Funk sees

signs that industrial development is

beginning to arouse from its year-long

slumber in northern Nevada. That's a key

part of the construction lending business

in the region.

"Northern Nevada will continue to

grow just good, quality, steady

growth," said Funk.

When the FDIC last week released its

outlook for the region's banks, about the

only cloud it could see on the horizon in

Nevada is a bankruptcy rate increasing

twice as fast as the national average.