First Internet Bank profit slumps

By Norm Heikens

Charge-offs on consumer loans crimped second-quarter profit for First Internet Bank, its parent, First Internet Bancorp, said yesterday.

The bank reported $437,000 in profit, down 48 percent from the same period a year earlier.

First Internet Bank charged off $343,000 in the most recent quarter and set aside an additional $767,782 for potential losses. Total provision for loan losses mounted to $1.1 million, from $129,127 in the second quarter last year.

Virtually all of the losses have come in consumer loans for cars, boats, recreational vehicles and other goods, said Nicole Lorch, vice president of marketing.

Unlike many other institutions, First Internet Bank has seen few problems with its mortgages because it avoided the subprime market and focused on central Indiana, where housing values have not declined as much as in other areas of the country.