Wheatland Bank, of Spokane, says it posted net income of slightly more than $1 million last year, down about $75,000 from $1.1 million in 2010, while it had strong increases in deposits and assets.

Susan Horton, president, CEO, and chairwoman of both the bank and its holding company, Community Financial Group Inc., says the bank had budgeted for net income of $934,000, which it exceeded by almost 10 percent.

"Over the past five years throughout this entire downturn, Wheatland Bank has maintained its profitability," she says. "We've been well capitalized throughout. We've had no regulatory problems. We've taken no federal bailouts."

Looking ahead, she says the bank is starting to see positive trends emerging with the economy, and it's projecting a strong increase in net income and 20 percent loan growth in 2012.

"We're projecting $1.4 million net income for 2012, and we are projecting aggressive loan growth, which we do think is achievable based on what we have in our pipeline already and our other strategies we plan to deploy in 2012."

She adds, "A significant portion of that is expected to come from the Spokane market. The next largest component is expected to come from our new Central Washington market."

In 2008, Wheatland Bank opened its first locations in Wenatchee, Yakima, Ellensburg, and Chelan.

Wheatland Bank's total deposits climbed 6.9 percent last year, to $238.6 million as of Dec. 31. Horton says this growth came in checking, money market, and savings account balances.

"Our checking accounts were up 14.3 percent," Horton says. "We had $78 million in checking accounts. If you add in money market and savings, we were actually at about $200 million, and that's an increase from $181 million a year ago."

Its total loans were up only about 0.5 percent to $161.9 million last year, she says. Meanwhile, the bank's total assets grew 4.9 percent, to $274.8 million.

One factor that affects loan activity is the bank's strong history as an agricultural lender, she adds. "Due to the extremely strong ag sector, and record crops and yields and good prices, the farmers have been so strong that they haven't really needed to borrow at the same levels as prior years."

Horton adds that the bank has demonstrated excellent loan quality, and that its loan delinquency percentage, which is delinquent loans divided by total loans, was at 1.2 percent as of year-end. The state average among peer banks was 5.4 percent, she says.

She adds that the bank's net loan charge-offs as a percentage of average loans was less than 1 percent, and it's never exceeded that amount.

"Some banks have been over concentrated in construction and development lending; others in commercial real estate lending," Horton says. "Wheatland Bank has always been well diversified in our loan portfolio."

She says Wheatland Bank has little debt and its total capital increased to $26.7 million, up about 4 percent from a year earlier.

The 32-year-old bank, founded in Davenport, Wash., operates 13 branches, but Horton says that the bank expects to continue expansion once it sees more stability in the economy and a full turnaround. The bank hasn't budgeted to build or add any new branches in 2012, however.

"We are hiring right now. We just hired a new commercial loan officer and are planning to hire a couple more," Horton adds.