Washington Trust Bank, of Spokane, has reported net income of about $16.2 million for last year, up substantially from earnings of $9.1 million in 2010 and $3 million 2009.

Jack Heath, the bank's chairman and chief operating officer, says, "I was really happy with our results for 2011 and incrementally increasing our profits over the last three years."

Being able to do so during "the most challenging economic cycle we've ever seen" was "a big accomplishment," Heath says.

As of Dec. 31, Washington Trust had total loans of about $2.6 billion, down slightly from a year earlier and marking the fourth straight year of declines, but Heath says, "We felt our underwriting held up, customers were resilient, and we think we're real well-positioned for the economy to turn."

Part of the reason for the bank's strong earnings growth despite the decline in loans was that its wealth-management group had "a great year" and its home loan center had good growth in mortgage banking, Health says.

Meanwhile, the bank showed total deposits of $3.5 billion at the end of last year, rebounding from $3.3 billion in 2010 and $3.4 billion in 2009.

Washington Trust's total assets on Dec. 31 stood at $4.2 billion, up from just over $4 billion a year earlier.

Health says the bank ended the year with a loan loss reserve of $70 million, up slightly from $69 million a year earlier, "so we basically continued to grow our reserve even though we had a slight contraction in loans."

He says the loans-to-deposits ratio at the end of last year was 72.3 percent, down from 83.7 percent a year earlier, showing that the bank had a good inflow of deposits during the year, leaving it with lots of liquidity and a strong desire to make loans.

Although low interest rates will continue to put pressure on all banks' margins, Heath says, "We anticipate 2012 to be a better year than 2011 and to kind of see the incremental progress that we've seen over the last few years."

Founded in 1902, Washington Trust Bank has 20 branches in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area and 42 overall, including operations in Idaho, Oregon, and Utah. It employs about 785 people in all.

It announced last fall that it had secured a location for its first full-service branch in Pullman, Wash., and it since then has opened a branch in a temporary location there. Heath says it now is finalizing construction plans for the permanent branch and expects to open it around the middle of this year.

WTB Financial Corp., the Spokane parent of Washington Trust, reported last fall that it had received an $89.1 million infusion from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Small Business Lending Fund. It was one of five community banks based in Washington state to receive money through that federal lending fund and the only Spokane-based bank to do so.

Heath said at that time, "The hope is we'll be able to make more loans to those key small businesses and create more job growth."

He said the bank expects to lend that money over about the next four years and that the loans, generally speaking, would go to companies with less than $50 million in annual revenue that are borrowing less than $10 million.