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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: oldirtybastard who wrote (149947)	2/7/2002 6:47:38 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Credit card trash gets another turn in the barrel (going over Niagra Falls, with any luck) tomorrow! biz.yahoo.com Thursday February 7, 5:24 pm Eastern Time Providian Posts Loss, Loan Defaults Rise SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Credit card issuer Providian Financial Corp. (NYSE:PVN - news) on Thursday swung to a loss in the fourth quarter loss, including almost $1 billion in charges and additional reserves as it was hit by rising loan defaults in the U.S. recession. The San Francisco-based company, which lends to people with spotty credit records, posted a loss of $395.3 million, or $1.39 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, after additions to loss reserves and charges. That compared with profits of $225.1 million, or 76 cents a share, in the 2000 quarter. Providian, which had postponed its results last month, also said banking regulators have accepted its capital plan. Providian's customers were harder hurt than most by the recession, which led to loan losses and slack demand at Providian. The company is cutting jobs and looking to unload parts of its card portfolio to boost results. It recently agreed to sell an $8.2 billion card portfolio to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Inc. (NYSE:JPM - news). The fourth quarter 2001 results include: the addition of $252 million for loan loss reserves; a $134 million charge for securitization transactions; a $303 million charge to increase the reserve for the estimated uncollectable portion of finance charges and fees posted on customer's accounts in the total managed portfolio; a $164 million charge for a change in economic and performance expectations affecting the value of its residual securitization interests; a $133 million charge from estimated losses from the devaluation of the Argentine peso and reclassification of the company's Argentine discontinued operations; a $35 million charge for closing a facility in Henderson, Nevada, and a write-down of goodwill associated with the company's 1999 purchase of GetSmart. Providian also contributed $260 million in cash to increase the regulatory capital of its subsidiary banks in the quarter. ``They threw everything into it,'' Matthew Park, an analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners, said of the quarterly results. ``They put aside a lot of money to reserves, in the anticipation of further deterioration in credit quality. But I think it was encouraging regulators approved this set of charges and their plan to grow.'' Wall Street expected Providian to earn between a profit of 10 cents a share and a loss of 51 cents a share, with a mean estimated loss of 6 cents a share, according to tracking service Thomson Financial/First Call. The stock closed at $3.46 a share on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. Providian stock was the worst performer in the Standard & Poor's 500 index last year, falling 94 percent.