Pinnacle Service Enhancements: Get approved for merchant services or we will offer you a $50 gift card. Stop by any location and see a branch manager for details.


Letter to Shareholders – October 18, 2010

On October 22nd, 2010, posted in: News by showcase

Dear Shareholders,

The third quarter of 2010 ended much as it began, with a lot of uncertainty and too many families and businesses in our community still suffering. As additional signs of the times, we saw two more S.C. banks taken over by the FDIC during the third quarter. While there were areas of improvement, great improvement won’t happen until the employment picture improves. Credit problems continue to be a major issue. Pinnacle Bank is certainly not immune as we have seen a few of our best customers struggle during this economic crisis.

As was to be expected, our loan portfolio has seen an increase in past dues. In response, we have increased our loan loss reserve to even higher levels to protect the bank. We are aggressively working each troubled loan, and in many cases we have been able to restructure loans to help borrowers continue to make payments. Our strong capital position has allowed us this flexibility whereas many banks have had to foreclose and liquidate the collateral at low values just to survive. This positions us to minimize losses. Year-to-date, our loan losses have been very low and compare very favorably to most banks in the upstate; however, we will continue to closely monitor our slower paying loans to determine if any additional loan loss reserve is needed.

Even with these challenges, I am pleased to tell you that we were still able to record a consolidated profit of $248,000 through the third quarter. I invite you to read over the attached financial summary. We are pleased that our net interest income remains strong and well above most banks in our peer group. Our mortgage operation continues to produce very good results for us generating an average of $30,000 a month in origination fees and bringing in new customers to the bank. We expect this to continue given the near-record-low mortgage rates. If you would be interested in refinancing your home or purchasing a new one, please give our Mortgage Director Kevin Jones a call at 335-1013.

Recently our board held its annual strategic planning session. Even as much uncertainty abounds, our board enthusiastically looks to the future and the opportunities that we believe will be available to our bank because of our strong capital position and our commitment to our community bank model. Clearly there will be challenges from the economy and from additional costs associated with new banking regulation, but we believe that there will be opportunities for Pinnacle Bank to grow by attracting new customers and additional banking talent. We are committed to finding new ways to serve our customers and creating more value for your investment.

As always, I thank you for your business and ask you to help us by referring other business to us. Please let me know if you have questions or if I can be of assistance to you personally.

David Barnett
CEO, Pinnacle Bank

Click here to download PDF of Shareholder Letter and Financial Statement »

No Responses to “Letter to Shareholders – October 18, 2010”

Leave a Reply

Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree