• Net income of $22.3 million for the first quarter of 2012, compared to $16.6 million for the first quarter of 2011.
• Combined net income for the past four fiscal quarters totaled $87.4 million, or $0.83 per diluted share, annualized.
• Allowance for credit losses represented 2.89% of total Citizens Business Bank (“CBB”) non-covered loans & leases at March 31, 2012.
• Non-performing loans decreased to $55.3 million, compared to $62.7 million at December 31, 2011, and was 1.74% of total CBB non-covered loans and leases.
• Non-interest bearing deposits totaled $2.12 billion (45% of total deposits) at March 31, 2012, an increase of $92.5 million from $2.03 billion at December 31, 2011.

Company Website: http://www.cbbank.com
ONTARIO, Calif. -- (Business Wire)

CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF) and its subsidiary, Citizens Business Bank (“the Company”), announced earnings for the first quarter of 2012.

CVB Financial Corp. reported net income of $22.3 million for the first quarter of 2012. This represents an increase of $5.7 million, or 34.14%, when compared with net income of $16.6 million for the first quarter of 2011. Diluted earnings per share were $0.21 for the first quarter of 2012. This was up $0.05, or 31.25%, from diluted earnings per share of $0.16 for the same period last year.

Chris Myers, President and CEO, commented, “We are pleased with our financial results for the first quarter of 2012 and the consistency of our earnings over the past four quarters. During the first quarter, we saw a continued decline in our non-performing asset portfolio, solid growth in our non-interest bearing deposit portfolio, and a significant reduction in non-interest expense.”

Net income for the first quarter of 2012 produced an annualized return on beginning equity of 12.53%, an annualized return on average equity of 12.27% and an annualized return on average assets of 1.37%. The efficiency ratio, excluding the provision for credit losses, was 47.31% for the quarter. Non-interest expense, as a percentage of average assets, was 1.83%.

Interest income and fees on loans for the first quarter of 2012 totaled $50.7 million, which includes $4.7 million of discount accretion from accelerated principal reductions and improved credit loss experience on covered loans acquired from San Joaquin Bank (“SJB”). This represented a decrease of $591,000, or 1.15%, when compared to interest income on loans of $51.3 million for the same period last year.

Non-interest income was $5.3 million for the first quarter of 2012, compared with $10.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2011. Non-interest income for the first quarter of 2012 was reduced by a $2.9 million net decrease in the FDIC loss sharing asset and a $1.2 million impairment charge for a large held-for-sale note included in other non-interest income. The decrease in the loss sharing asset in 2012 was primarily due to the improved credit loss experienced in our covered loan portfolio. Non-interest income for the fourth quarter of 2011 was improved by a $1.3 million increase in the FDIC loss sharing asset. If these three items are excluded, non-interest income was flat at $9.4 million, quarter-over-quarter.

Non-interest expense for the first quarter of 2012 was $30.2 million, a decrease of $4.5 million from $34.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, and a $6.1 million decrease from $36.3 million for the first quarter of 2011.

Our efficiency ratio improved to 47.31% for the first quarter of 2012, compared with 52.64% for the fourth quarter of 2011, and 54.12% for the first quarter of 2011.

Decreases in non-interest expense and a lower cost of funds were the main reasons for improvement in our efficiency ratio.

Net Interest Income and Net Interest Margin

Net interest income, before the provision for credit losses, totaled $58.6 million for the three months ending March 31, 2012. Net interest income for the first quarter of 2012 increased $1.5 million, or 2.61%, compared to the same period in 2011.

Excluding the impact of the yield adjustment on covered loans, net interest margin (tax equivalent) increased from 3.62% for the fourth quarter of 2011 to 3.69% for the first quarter of 2012. Total average earning asset yields increased from 4.14% for the fourth quarter of 2011 to 4.16% for the first quarter of 2012. Total cost of funds decreased from 0.56% for the fourth quarter of 2011 to 0.52% for the first quarter of 2012.

Excluding the impact of the yield adjustment on covered loans, net interest margin (tax equivalent) decreased from 3.78% for the first quarter of 2011 to 3.69% for the first quarter of 2012. Total average earning asset yields decreased from 4.39% for the first quarter of 2011 to 4.16% for the first quarter of 2012. Total cost of funds decreased from 0.65% for the first quarter of 2011 to 0.52% for the first quarter of 2012.

Assets

The Company reported total assets of $6.51 billion at March 31, 2012. This represents an increase of $23.2 million, or 0.36%, from total assets of $6.48 billion at December 31, 2011. Earning assets totaled $6.12 billion at March 31, 2012, a decrease of $10.76 million, or 0.18%, when compared with earning assets of $6.13 billion at December 31, 2011. The decrease in earning assets was due to a decrease in the loan portfolio, partially offset by an increase in the investment portfolio.

Investment Securities

Investment securities totaled $2.38 billion at March 31, 2012. This is up from $2.20 billion at December 31, 2011. Our investment portfolio continues to perform well. As of March 31, 2012 we had a pretax unrealized gain of $71.4 million of which $41.6 million is attributed to our municipal securities portfolio and $29.6 million is attributed to our mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”) portfolio.

MBS totaled $1.68 billion at March 31, 2012. Virtually all of our mortgage-backed securities are issued by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, which have the implied guarantee of the U.S. Government. We have one private-label mortgage-backed security that has impairment. This Alt-A bond, with a book value of $2.3 million as of March 31, 2012, has had $1.8 million in net impairment loss to date since it was purchased in early 2008, with no additional impairment recorded in the first quarter of 2012.

Our municipal securities, totaling $646.7 million, are located in 28 states, with approximately $15.6 million, or 6.0%, located within the state of California. Our largest holdings are in New Jersey at 14.3%, Michigan at 12.1% and Illinois at 11.5%. All municipal bond securities are performing.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, we purchased and now hold $10.5 million in trust preferred securities at March 31, 2012.

We continue to reinvest our cash flows from the investment portfolio. During the first quarter of 2012, we purchased $318.2 million in MBS with an average yield of 1.82% and $13.1 million in municipal securities with an average tax-equivalent yield of 3.58%. MBS purchased during the first quarter have an average duration of about 4 years. One of the objectives of our purchasing strategy is to minimize extension risk as interest rates rise.

Loans

Total loans and leases, net of deferred fees and discount, of $3.43 billion at March 31, 2012, decreased by $50.2 million, or 1.44%, from $3.48 billion at December 31, 2011. We attribute this decrease to the following:

• $57.7 million to the non-covered dairy and livestock portfolio. Historically, our dairy and livestock customers have seasonal borrowing patterns and tend to draw down on available lines of credit in the fourth quarter and repay these advances in the first quarter.
• $8.8 million decline in non-covered construction loans.
• $8.3 million decline in purchased mortgage pools.

Construction loans and purchased mortgage pools are considered non-core lending niches. Our core lending strategy is focused on commercial & industrial business lending, dairy, livestock, and agribusiness lending and commercial real estate loans.

Deposits & Customer Repurchase Agreements

Total deposits of $4.68 billion and customer repurchase agreements of $477.6 million totaled $5.16 billion at March 31, 2012. This represents an increase of $43.8 million, or 0.86%, when compared with total deposits and customer repurchase agreements of $5.11 billion at December 31, 2011.

Non-interest bearing deposits were $2.12 billion at March 31, 2012, an increase of $92.5 million, or 4.56%, compared to $2.03 billion at December 31, 2011. At March 31, 2012, non-interest bearing deposits were 45.31% of total deposits, up from 44.04% at December 31, 2011 and 40.53% at March 31, 2011.

Our average cost of total deposits was 0.14% for the three months ending March 31, 2012, compared to our cost of total deposits of 0.25% for the same period last year. Our cost of total deposits including customer repurchase agreements was 0.17% for the three months ended March 31, 2012.

Borrowings

At March 31, 2012, we had $448.7 million in borrowings, compared to borrowings of $448.7 million at December 31, 2011. On January 7, 2012, we consummated the redemption of all outstanding debentures and trust preferred securities issued by First Coast Capital Trust II for total consideration of approximately $6.8 million.

Asset Quality

We have separated the discussion of asset quality into two sections: non-covered loans and covered loans. The non-covered loans represent the legacy Citizens Business Bank loans and exclude all loans acquired in the SJB acquisition. The SJB loans are “covered” loans as defined in the loss sharing agreement with the FDIC. These loans were marked to fair value at the acquisition date.

Citizens Business Bank Asset Quality (Non-covered loans)

The allowance for credit losses decreased from $94.0 million at December 31, 2011 to $91.9 million at March 31, 2012. The decrease was due to net loan charge-offs of $2.0 million during the first three months of 2012. The allowance for credit losses was 2.89% and 2.92% of total non-covered loans and leases outstanding at March 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, respectively. There was zero provision for credit losses for the first quarter of 2012.

We had $55.3 million in non-performing loans at March 31, 2012, or 1.74% of total loans. This compares to non-performing loans of $62.7 million at December 31, 2011. The $55.3 million in non-performing loans for the first quarter is summarized as follows: $8.4 million in commercial construction, $13.1 million in residential mortgages, $27.2 million in commercial real estate, $4.1 million in commercial and industrial, $1.2 million in dairy & livestock loans, and $1.3 million in other loans.

At March 31, 2012, we had $11.4 million in Other Real Estate Owned (“OREO”), a decrease of $2.4 million from OREO of $13.8 million at December 31, 2011. At December 31, 2011, we had eleven OREO properties. During the first three months of 2012, we added one property for a total of $294,000 to OREO. We sold three properties with an OREO value of $2.6 million at a gain of $15,000. We now have nine OREO properties.

At March 31, 2012, we had loans delinquent 30 to 89 days of $11.2 million. This compares to delinquent loans of $5.5 million at December 31, 2011. As a percentage of total loans, delinquencies, excluding non-accruals, were 0.35% at March 31, 2012 and 0.17% at December 31, 2011. All loans delinquent 90 days or more were categorized as non-performing.

At March 31, 2012, we had $41.9 million in performing troubled debt restructured loans (“TDR”), an increase of $3.3 million from performing TDRs of $38.6 million at December 31, 2011. In terms of number of loans, we had sixteen performing TDRs at December 31, 2011, compared to twenty-one performing TDRs at March 31, 2012.

In total, non-performing assets, defined as non-covered non-accrual loans and other real estate owned, have decreased over the past several quarters and totaled $66.7 million at March 31, 2012, $76.5 million at December 31, 2011, $81.2 million at September 30, 2011, $88.8 million at June 30, 2011, and $114.4 million at March 31, 2011.

We have also made substantial progress in reducing our classified loans on a year-over-year basis. Classified loans are loans that are graded “substandard” or worse. At March 31, 2012, classified loans totaled $334.1 million, a decrease of $25.1 million from $359.2 million at December 31, 2011 and a decrease of $254.5 million from March 31, 2011.

San Joaquin Bank Asset Quality (Covered loans)

At March 31, 2012, we had $305.0 million in gross loans from SJB with a carrying value of $245.7 million, compared to $330.4 million of gross loans at December 31, 2011 and $262.5 million in carrying value. Of the gross loans, we have $73.5 million in non-performing loans as of March 31, 2012, or 24.09%, compared to $83.7 million in non-performing loans at December 31, 2011. We have 14 properties in OREO totaling $6.4 million, compared to 16 properties totaling $9.8 million at December 31, 2011.

CitizensTrust

CitizensTrust has approximately $2.11 billion in assets under administration, including $1.7 billion in assets under management, as of March 31, 2012. Revenues of $2.2 million for the first quarter of 2012 were flat year-over-year. CitizensTrust provides trust, investment and brokerage related services, as well as financial, estate and business succession planning.

Conference Call

Management will hold a conference call at 7:30 a.m. Pacific time/10:30 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow, April 19, 2012, to discuss the Company’s first quarter 2012 financial results.

To listen to the conference call, please dial (877) 317-6789. A taped replay will be made available approximately one hour after the conclusion of the call and will remain available through May 4, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time. To access the replay, please dial (877) 344-7529, passcode 10011996.

The conference call will also be simultaneously webcast over the Internet; please visit the Company’s website at www.cbbank.com and click on the CVB Investor tab to access the call from the site. Access the website 15 minutes prior to the call to download any necessary audio software. This webcast will be recorded and available for replay on the Company’s website approximately two hours after the conclusion of the conference call, and will be available on the website for twelve months.

Corporate Overview

CVB Financial Corp. is the holding company for Citizens Business Bank, a $6.5 billion financial services company based in Ontario, California. Citizens Business Bank serves 40 cities with 42 Business Financial Centers, five Commercial Banking Centers and two trust office locations in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles County, Orange County, and the Central Valley areas of California.

Shares of CVB Financial Corp. common stock are listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol of CVBF. For investor information on CVB Financial Corp., visit our Citizens Business Bank website at www.cbbank.com and click on the CVB Investor tab.

Safe Harbor

Certain matters set forth herein (including the exhibits hereto) constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including forward-looking statements relating to the Company's current business plan and expectations regarding future operating results. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, local, regional, national and international economic conditions and events and the impact they may have on us and our customers; ability to attract deposits and other sources of liquidity; oversupply of inventory and continued deterioration in values of California real estate, both residential and commercial; a prolonged slowdown in construction activity; changes in the financial performance and/or condition of our borrowers; changes in the level of non-performing assets and charge-offs; the effect of changes in laws and regulations (including laws and regulations concerning taxes, banking, securities, executive compensation and insurance) with which we and our subsidiaries must comply; changes in estimates of future reserve requirements based upon the periodic review thereof under relevant regulatory and accounting requirements; inflation, interest rate, securities market and monetary fluctuations; political instability; acts of war or terrorism, or natural disasters, such as earthquakes, or the effects of pandemic flu; the timely development and acceptance of new banking products and services and perceived overall value of these products and services by users; changes in consumer spending, borrowing and savings habits; technological changes; cyber-security threats including loss of system functionality or theft or loss of data; the ability to increase market share and control expenses; changes in the competitive environment among financial and bank holding companies and other financial service providers; continued volatility in the credit and equity markets and its effect on the general economy; the effect of changes in accounting policies and practices, as may be adopted by the regulatory agencies, as well as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and other accounting standard setters; changes in our organization, management, compensation and benefit plans; the costs and effects of legal and regulatory developments including the resolution of legal proceedings or regulatory or other governmental inquiries and the results of regulatory examinations or reviews; our success at managing the risks involved in the foregoing items and other factors set forth in the Company's public reports including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, and particularly the discussion of risk factors within that document. The Company does not undertake, and specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect occurrences or unanticipated events or circumstances after the date of such statements except as required by law.

Contacts:

CVB Financial Corp.
Christopher D. Myers
President and CEO
(909) 980-4030

Source: CVB Financial Corp.