LR bank posts $13.7 million loss

Metropolitan National Bank, the sixth-largest Arkansas-based bank, lost $13.7 million in the third quarter, the Little Rock institution said Friday.

Including losses the bank had in the first two quarters, it has lost almost $55 million through September.

“While this year has been particularly tough for many financial institutions, including Metropolitan, we have been fortunate to have the capital to cover these losses,” Lunsford Bridges, the bank’s president and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. “Although we are by no means satisfied with our results for the third quarter, we have made an improvement over our second quarter numbers. In addition, we anticipate that the bank will return to profitability in 2010 and beyond.”

In the ...