Feb. 17--Mounting real estate woes are weighing heavily on parts of Kansas City's banking industry. And some banks are reporting sizable net losses from foreclosed properties and delinquent real estate loans.

Dealing with those problems has taken bankers away from the business of finding good borrowers. Management members have been booted. Owners have pumped capital into banks to make them more buoyant amid a sea of troubles.

For at least six area banks, these problem assets have grown to be larger than the bank's own equity.

Their shared situation surfaced during a review of about two dozen area banks' year-end financial reports.

"It's the Kansas City market," said Richard Ciemny, who was promoted in January to president and chief executive officer of First National Bank of Johnson County. "Kansas City has not been good to this bank."

The bank is based in Anthony, Kan., southwest of Wichita, and goes by its formal name, First National Bank of Anthony, outside the Kansas City area. It moved into the Johnson County market with loan offices in Overland Park and Olathe, then converted them to branches.

Ciemny, who had run the Wichita branch, said he is wary of this market's future.

"I don't foresee that it's going to get better very soon," he said.

These six banks aren't the only ones among the two dozen that are dealing with real estate loan problems. And other banks, whose reports The Kansas City Star has not yet reviewed, may face a similar situation.

But their common link -- showing more problem assets than equity -- reveals the breadth of the local industry's struggle with real estate.

Banking consultants have said that when a bank's problem assets reach at least half the bank's equity, regulators likely have the bank under greater scrutiny. The amount of attention from regulators can vary, but at four of these banks it has led to formal public actions by their regulators.

Here's a look at the six banks' situations.

American Sterling

Problem loans and foreclosed properties at American Sterling Bank equaled roughly 1.5 times its equity at the end of December, its financial statement showed. But conditions are tighter than that.

American Sterling's owners pumped $20.5 million into the Sugar Creek-based savings bank last year, then saw most of it absorbed by loan problems and other costs.

Its regulatory capital, which excludes some items that generally accepted accounting principles include in equity, has been exhausted, its financial statement showed.

That led the Office of Thrift Supervision to issue a prompt corrective action directive against the bank in mid-January.