Banc of California in Irvine reported a quarterly loss after selling underwater securities.
The $33.4 billion-asset company said in a press release that it lost $1.2 million in the third quarter.
The company sold $742 million of available-for-sale securities for a pretax loss of $60 million. It used proceeds to buy higher-yielding securities in a move that should increase interest income by about $4.8 million each quarter.
Banc of California also said it sold nearly $2 billion of Civic loans in July for net proceeds of $1.9 billion. The company also closed 12 branches in the third quarter.
“We strengthened our franchise through several strategic balance sheet repositioning actions including completing the sale of … Civic loans, which had a positive impact on our capital and liquidity,” Jared Wolff, the company’s president and CEO, said in the release.
“With these major balance sheet and operational initiatives behind us, Banc of California is now at an inflection point, shifting our focus from transforming our internal infrastructure to external growth,” Wolff added.