Bank of South Carolina reports modest profit for 2011

The Bank of South Carolina Corp. closed the books on 2011 with flat fourth-quarter earnings and a slight profit gain for the entire year.

The Charleston-based lender on Thursday reported net income of about $835,000, or 19 cents a share, for the three months ending Dec. 31. That was virtually unchanged compared to the same period of 2010.

Profits for all of last year totaled nearly $3.2 million, or 72 cents a share, up 2.5 percent.

“We were pleased with 2011 earnings, which were the third best in our company’s history,” said Hugh C. Lane Jr., president and chief executive officer.

Lane said loan growth was up and down during the year.

One of the key highlights at Bank of South Carolina was strong growth in new deposits, which increased more than 20 percent to about $301 million during 2011.

“In the final analysis, that’s the basic raw material of a community bank,” Lane said.

Lane said the economy seems to be slowly but steadily gaining traction after a prolonged business slump.

“I think it’s behind us, and we’re starting to go up,” he said. “The problem is that the slope isn’t very steep.”

The lender was the first among the locally based, publicly traded banks to report earnings for the most recently completed quarter.

Based in downtown Charleston, Bank of South Carolina has four offices. Its shares rose a penny Thursday to close at $10.11.