Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of John Pancari of JPMorgan.
John Pancari - JPMorgan
Good morning.
David J. Kaye
Hi, John.
Timothy L. Vaill
Hi, good morning John
John Pancari - JP Morgan
Can you talk a little bit more about the credit trends more recently that you are seeing in Northern California as well as New England, delinquencies perhaps by loan type, just wanted to get an idea of how well things are holding there I know you indicated they are holding up, I wanted to get a better idea of that?
David J. Kaye
Hi, John I am happy too. We identified some time ago that the commercial real estate and C&I books would be under some stress and strain as we move forward. Hence we have seen in New England, we have seen some smaller businesses that have experienced some decreased revenues that has put pressure on their budgets and their cash flow, but the delinquencies in New England have been under control in fact at the end of the fourth quarter, we had one past due loan, in the commercial loan portfolio at Boston Private Bank & Trust Company. As a result of anticipating some slowdown in privately owned businesses and some degradation of value and increased vacancies in commercial real estate, we have done stress testing in that portfolio and we have identified situations where we need to look for credit enhancements or just solidify the relationships with the guarantors. And so, we feel the portfolio, we know it very well, its accurately risk rated, we are totally on top of the portfolio and as I said we had one past due loan in the commercial loan portfolio at Boston Private at the end of the fourth quarter. The portfolio in Northern California again we've got an experienced team on the ground there that has been monitoring the regional economy very closely, we do expect that commercial real estate will be challenge as we move forward as it will, across our nation, we had a little bit of activity as you saw with non-accruals in the fourth quarter, but again we have done some significant stress testing there. We have got the loan portfolio in Northern California I have mentioned before perhaps, you have heard me say it, has probably the most conservative loan policy and they generally restrict their loan to value to 65%, which covers a lot of ills especially in a market, where real estate values are dropping. At the end of the quarter, the fourth quarter they had three past due loan for $5 million, which is an increase from the prior period, which had one past due loan of $350,000.
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