Northwest Bancorporation Inc., the Spokane-based parent of Inland Northwest Bank, has reported second-quarter net income available to common shareholders of $1 million, or 33 cents a diluted share, up from about $120,000, or 4 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.

The company said the results marked its sixth consecutive quarter of profitability.

INB's net loans stood at $277.8 million on June 30, up 11 percent compared with $250.6 million in loans a year earlier.

Randy Fewel, company and bank president and CEO, says the increase in loans reflects increased commercial lending activity.

"Commercial lending is an area where we are focused on making improvements," Fewel says. "Commercial loan demand was still fairly tepid in the second quarter, but the bank hired two new commercial loan officers."

INB now has eight commercial loan officers in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area, he says.

"They are working hard to build a pipeline of quality commercial loans, and we are starting to see that effort pay off," he says.

Total assets at the bank increased slightly to $391.2 million as of June 30, up less than 1 percent compared with $388.7 million one year earlier.

Total deposits fell 3 percent, to $324.1 million on June 30 from $334.3 million a year earlier.

INB continued to pare back its nonperforming assets, which are defined as loans on which the bank has stopped accruing interest and foreclosed real estate. At the end of the second quarter, the bank had $8.9 million in nonperforming assets, or 2.3 percent of total assets. That's down from nonperforming assets of $15.5 million, or 4 percent of total assets, at end of the 2012 second quarter.

"The trend in NPAs continues to be headed in the right direction," Fewel says. 'We anticipate NPAs will be below 2 percent of assets by year end."

Founded in 1989, INB currently operates 11 branches in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.