Pacific Capital Bancorp, parent of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, said Oct. 27 that it earned $20.5 million in the third quarter of 2011, marking its first full year of profits since a team of Texas bankers recapitalized it last year.

In August 2010, Dallas-based Ford Financial Fund, led by veteran bankers Gerald Ford and Carl Webb, invested $500 million into Pacific Capital as it lurched on the edge of regulatory failure brought on by years of heavy losses and a balance sheet burdened with troubled real estate loans. A team of bankers had gone through Pacific Capital’s books and written loans down to market value, essentially cleaning up its balance sheet for the new owners and leaving losses on an old set of books.

Because of the recapitalization last August, comparisons to year-earlier quarters are difficult to make, but prior to the transaction closing the banking firm was losing money. Reported assets, now of about $5.8 billion, have declined from $6.3 billion since the end of September 2010, but Ford’s team has also seen a total of $84 million in quarterly profits since it took control of the firm.

“We’re pleased with what has been achieved in the first year since our recapitalization of this great community bank,” Webb, Pacific Capital’s CEO, said in a statement. “We’ve achieved strong earnings performance, effectively managed credit issues from the company’s legacy loan portfolio, reintroduced lending products within our footprint, and continue to grow our core deposit base.”

The bank continues to operate under a regulatory order from the Comptroller of the Currency to maintain its capital levels. At the end of the third quarter, its tier one leverage and total risked-based capital ratios were 12.1 percent and 20 percent, respectively, above the minimum regulatory requirements for it to be considered well-capitalized.