Baltimore Sun

Provident Bankshares Corp. said this morning that it lost $5.4 million in the third quarter, adding that it has preliminary approval to participate in the U.S. Treasury’s capital purchase program.

Provident, which said it exceeds the guidelines of being “well capitalized,” hasn’t decided whether to participate in the program that would allow it to raise cash by selling to the government preferred stock and warrants to buy common stock.

The Baltimore-based bank holding company blamed the quarterly loss of 21 cents per share on a $24.6 million pre-tax, non-cash charge it took for the declining value of certain securities in its investment portfolio. In the third quarter last year, Provident earned $16 million, or 50 cents per share.