Pacific Capital Bancorp, parent company of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust and the largest banking company in the Tri-Counties, said April 30 that it saw a net loss of $7.9 million, or 17 cents per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2009. In the same period last year, the company raked in a profit of $72.5 million, or $1.56 per share.

Earnings widely missed analyst expectations of 57 cents per share, according to Reuters. After the announcement, Pacific Capital shares dropped about 10 percent to $6.96; a year ago the stock traded near the $19.50 mark.

The earnings report comes a little more than a month after Pacific Capital said it plans to slash about 22 percent of its workforce.

During the company’s April 30 shareholder meeting in Santa Barbara, President and Chief Executive Officer George Leis said that, to date, 277 jobs have been identified for elimination, which will save the company an estimated $17.8 million.

Driving the losses were the same factors that brought down earnings in 2008, the bank said, including high charge-offs in its residential construction loan portfolio and a compression in net interest margin.

“We believe that we must make significant structural changes to the core bank in order to return to our goal of being a high-performing bank,” Leis said in a press release announcing the earnings.

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