Story raises a question: How stable is Blue Ridge Savings Bank?

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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This Charlotte Observer story notes that the Bank of Granite is cutting jobs and slashing dividends because of bad loans with the whole real estate mess we’re going through. The story notes that the Bank of Granite Corp. was second in North Carolina in terms of “non-performing assets,” behind Blue  Ridge Savings Bank in Asheville. That’s the bank owned by former U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor of Brevard.

So the question is — is Blue Ridge Savings Bank suffering at all?

Here’s part of the story:

Bank of Granite Corp., rocked in recent months by troubled real estate loans, said this afternoon that it will cut jobs and suspend its dividend payout to shareholders.
The news is a low point for the Granite Falls bank, a century-old stalwart that has remained independent even as many of its peers were gobbled up by larger players. Bank of Granite, which has paid a dividend for more than 50 straight years, said today that suspending the quarterly, 13 cent payout would save $2 million each quarter. Scott Anderson, the chief executive since January, declined to predict when the bank might reintroduce the dividend but said he expects it to be reinstated “as conditions normalize and our credit costs decline.”

The bank also said it expects to cut expenses by $1.5 million in 2009 by cutting jobs and other overhead expenses, and by combining its mortgage subsidiary with the bank. In an interview, Anderson said the bank has not determined the number of jobs it will have to cut, but is trying to do most of the cuts through attrition. At the end of 2007, the bank had 292 employees; the mortgage subsidiary, Granite Mortgage, had 66. Combining those units, the bank said, will increase capital in the bank and provide more funding for the mortgage operations.

The bank also announced a 5-for-4 stock split today, which means that shareholders will get one additional share for every four they already hold. “When the stock comes back, shareholders will have more of it,” said Anderson, the chief executive since January. “We don’t feel good about suspending the dividend, but that’s what we had to do.”

Bank of Granite lost $3.36 million in the second quarter, largely due to its $42 million in troubled loans — up 46 percent from the year before. According to data compiled by SNL Financial, Bank of Granite had the second highest proportion of nonperforming assets in the state, behind only Blue Ridge Savings Bank Inc. in Asheville.