Banner Corporation Discovers Irregularities.Business Editors WALLA WALLA Walla Walla (wŏl`ə wŏl`ə), city (1990 pop. 26,478), seat of Walla Walla co., SE Wash., at the junction of the Walla Walla River and Mill Creek, near the Oregon line; inc. 1862. , Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 17, 2001 Banner Corporation (Nasdaq:BANR BANR Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources ) announced that it has become aware of irregularities associated with a former senior lending officer. The irregularities include a check kiting scheme of a single commercial loan customer of Banner Bank Banner Bank is a Washington financial institution based in Walla Walla. Originally known as First Federal Savings And Loan Of Walla Walla, it was the oldest Savings and Loan institution in the state of Washington. , as well as activities designed to conceal credit weaknesses of several loan customers. The Company estimates the loss relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc the check kiting scheme is approximately $5.4 million, after tax. Further, as a result of additional reviews of specific loan customers, the Company expects to add an additional loan loss provision of approximately $1.3 million, after tax, for the quarter ended June 30, 2001. Using preliminary revised figures, non-performing assets as a percentage of total assets as of June 30, 2001, will increase from 0.47% to approximately 0.56%. The Bank continues to investigate these matters and it is likely that these losses will result in restatement Restatement A revision in a company's earlier financial statements. Notes: The need for restating financial figures can result from fraud, misrepresentation, or a simple clerical error. to prior financial statements. While the Company continues to aggressively pursue collection of the check kiting loss from the customer, there is also the possible recovery from insurance policies. The recovery process is expected to require an extended period of time to resolve. The Company has examined all deposit accounts with more than a minimal negative balance and believes it does not have a risk of additional material check kiting losses at this time. The Company believes its policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental regarding prevention and detection of check kiting have met industry standards. However, it has developed and implemented additional procedures to detect check kiting that it believes will further reduce the risk of future check kiting losses. Employee training regarding the additional procedures has begun. Banner Corporation is the parent of Banner Bank, a Washington state chartered commercial bank. It operates a total of 38 branch offices and six loan offices in 18 counties in Washington This is a list of counties in Washington. There are thirty-nine counties in the U.S. state of Washington. Certain residents of Snohomish County consider themselves to be part of Freedom County. , Oregon and Idaho. Statements concerning future performance, developments or events, expectations for earnings, growth and market forecasts, and any other guidance on future periods, constitute forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. , which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that are beyond the Company's control and might cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations and stated objectives. These factors include but are not limited to: the amount of the loss that may be incurred from the check kiting and credit manipulation issues discussed above and the amount of insurance proceeds that are received by the Company. Banner undertakes no responsibility to update or revise any forward-looking statements. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion