Silver State Schools Credit Union posts quarterly loss

Silver State Schools Credit Union, one of the state's largest credit unions, has slipped back into the red.

The credit union reported a $90,000 profit in the first quarter, but said Wednesday it lost $2.9 million in the second quarter.

The first-quarter profit reversed a string of nine quarterly losses. For the first six months of 2011, Silver State lost $2.8 million, a dramatic decline from the $13.4 million loss for the same period last year.

Silver State President and CEO Andy Hunter attributed the second-quarter loss to an increase in reserves set aside for potential loan losses.

As of June 30, the credit union's allowance for loan losses was
$28 million, up from $22.5 million.

Hunter said the increase in reserves didn't reflect deterioration in the credit union's loan portfolio, but was the result of a "more sophisticated ... and ultimately more conservative process of evaluating our loan portfolio.