Aug. 4--Bank of the West reported a $143.1 million loss for its second quarter of 2009, extending a sour year for the San Francisco-based bank.

The loss for the Bank of the West, which has a major corporate and employment presence in the East Bay, was driven to a great extent by the company setting aside significant sums to cover losses on bad loans. The red ink was detailed in a regulatory filing by the bank with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., or FDIC.

The $143.1 million loss for the quarter that ended in June comes on top of $85 million in losses that Bank of the West reported for its first quarter of 2009 ending in March.

"That is a disturbing number," said Michael Yoshikami, president and chief investment strategist with Walnut Creek-based YCMNET Advisors, a financial services firm. "You have to wonder if this is the beginning of more trouble."

Officials with Bank of the West declined to comment. The bank is in a quiet period ahead of an upcoming earnings report by France-based BNP Paribas, one of whose subsidiaries, BancWest Corp., owns Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank.

Bank of the West during the April-June quarter set aside $342 million in provisions for loan losses, the regulatory filing showed. That was on top of $341 million the bank set aside for such provisions in the January-March.

These are considered significant because it shows the bank is seeking to harbor sufficient cash as a buffer and precaution against

delinquent loans.

Besides the provisions for loan losses, the bank also experienced some one-time items related to taxes that contributed to the red ink. In addition, this year, the FDIC is charging banks certain one-time assessments that can be considerable sums of cash.

Bank of the West also reported a significant amount of bad, or nonperforming, loans that are officially called nonaccrual loans because they no longer accrue interest or provide revenue for the bank.

During the second quarter, the bank's nonaccrual loans totaled $1.27 billion. That was up about 14 percent from the $1.11 billion in nonaccrual loans for the first quarter, the regulatory filing showed.

Commercial real estate mortgages appear to be a growing part of the bad loan problems at Bank of the West.

During the second quarter, the bank had $219 million nonperforming loans for "nonfarm, nonresidential" properties, also defined as commercial real estate. That was up 22 percent from the first quarter of 2009.

"More banks are going to feel the pressure from commercial real estate defaults," said Brad Kemp, director of regional research for Beacon Economics, which tracks regional economies. "There is no question that commercial real estate is becoming more of a problem."

In contrast, the difficulties in residential real estate could be easing somewhat for Bank of the West.

In the second quarter, the bank had $265.9 million in nonperforming loans that had been used to construct single-family homes and other residences. That was down 18.5 percent from the first quarter.

And Bank of the West can rely on considerable deposits. The the bank at the end of June had $37.96 billion in total deposits. That was down 0.5 percent from the bank's deposits at the end of March.

"You are going to see these medium- and small-sized banks falling into two categories," Yoshikami said. "One category is banks that were very conservative in their lending practices. Then you will have banks that were trying to expand their loan base and may have taken on some risky loans."

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