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Northern Trust widens lead as Florida’s largest bank

Date: Monday, August 1, 2011, 2:12pm EDT..

Northern Trust, N.A., grew its assets to $13.2 billion on June 30 from $12.8 billion on March 31.

Northern Trust, N.A. widened its lead as the largest bank chartered in Florida, but it won’t hold that title much longer.

The Miami-chartered bank, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Northern Trust Corp .. . (NASDAQ: NTRS), grew its assets to $13.2 billion on June 30 from $12.8 billion on March 31. That will, once again, put it ahead of Jacksonville-based EverBank and Miami Lakes-based BankUnited .. (NYSE: BKU) as the largest bank chartered in the state.

However, Northern Trust Corp. has announced plans to merge Northern Trust, N.A. into its larger Chicago-based bank and its Michigan-based bank to create a $94 billion institution based out of Chicago. The South Florida operations of the bank would not be impacted, the company has said.

Northern Trust, N.A. has been among the most profitable banks in Florida. It earned $33.4 million in the second quarter, up from earnings of $28.5 million in the first quarter. Its net interest income and non-interest income (mostly from fiduciary activities) remained nearly unchanged, at $82 million and $60.6 million, respectively. The improvement came on the credit side, as the bank took a $10.1 million expense to reserve for future loan losses, down from a $21.7 million expense in the first quarter.

The bank’s noncurrent loans declined slightly to $174.9 million, or 1.6 percent of total loans, on June 30. Its holdings of repossessed property fell to $28.4 million from $48.6 million on March 31.

Northern Trust, N.A. grew its deposits to $10.5 billion on June 30 from $10.2 billion on March 31. Yet, its loans declined to $10.8 billion from $11 billion.