	texas commerce tcb sees improvement in texas commerce bancshares inc said that relatively stable oil prices and the bank s planned merger with chemical new york corp chl would help ings increase from last year s profits of mln dlrs texas commerce chairman ben love in an interview with reuters did not elaborate on how much the bank expected ings to increase we would anticipate that this year would be an improvement over last because we are stronger love said referring to texas commerce s pending billion dlr merger with chemical the merger which may be finalized as early as may will lower texas commerce s cost of funding by an estimated to basis points love said the texas commerce chemical merger is the only acquisition by a major out of state bank since texas lawmakers approved interstate banking effective january hard hit by loan losses in energy and real estate in texas struggling economy the only major texas banks able to report profits in were texas commerce and republicbank which ed mln dlrs allied bancshares inc albn lost mln dlrs mcorp m lost mln dlrs interfirst lost mln dlrs and first city bancorporation fbt which is actively seeking a merger or other form of new capital lost mln dlrs love said texas commerce had turned the corner on its energy loan portfolio problems but added that the bank s nonperforming real estate loans may increase during i think the tidal wave in energy has passed over us he said the fact that the real estate market is still moving away suggests there could be some continuing growth of nonperforming loans in about pct of texas commerce s net loan losses related to real estate lending and pct was due to energy loan losses that compares to when only pct of the bank s losses were in real estate and energy accounted for pct more than half of texas commerce s nonperforming loans which totaled mln dlrs at yearend up from mln dlrs the year before were in real estate love said he believed the real estate loan problems for texas commerce and other major state banks would peak by the third or fourth quarter of absorption of empty office buildings in houston which has a current vacancy rate of about pct will be a gradual process that could take up to four years he said i think we may be beginning to stabilize this economy oil at dlrs a barrel brings much more confidence than dlrs a barrel he said texas commerce will retain its name as a separate subsidiary of chemical and plans to aggressively expand its holdings throughout texas offering additional products to build up its consumer banking business love said we are resuming what we did best for years an offensive position he said in january texas commerce acquired a failed bank in montgomery county adjacent to the houston metropolitan area and earlier this month opened a new bank in san antonio texas commerce plans to add more banks in san antonio and in the dallas fort worth area where it currently has only member banks he said one day after the texas commerce acquisition was announced in december interfirst corp ifc and republicbank corp rpt both headquartered in dallas agreed to merge in a deal valued at mln dlrs the combination of former archrivals republicbank and interfirst giving the two banks a virtual lock on the dallas banking market has not changed texas commerce s expansion plans for the state s second largest city love said we think we can try to get a little part of their roost he said the chemical partnership will also give texas commerce an edge in developing new consumer products he said we have always been a wholesale bank but we have more than one million customers all over the state chemical will show us how to take advantage of enhancing our consumer products he said referring to expansion of such existing products as credit cards and investment banking reuter 
