CapStar Bank earned $1.1 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, a period marked primarily by its acquisition of American Security Bank & Trust in Sumner County. That deal, which grew CapStar's branch network to five, lifted assets to $928 million.

CapStar's financials reflect the costs of the acquisition: Noninterest expenses for the quarter were $5.1 million after averaging about $4 million in the first two quarters of the year. President and CEO Claire Tucker said most of that increase came from one-time legal expenses while higher processing costs also contributed.

Four-year-old CapStar ended the quarter with a loan portfolio of more than $560 million. Tucker said that, excluding the addition of American Security's book of business, loan growth at CapStar would have been 6 percent during the quarter.

 
Avenue Bank posted a third-quarter profit of $932,000, helped by a lower loan loss provision and a rise in fee income. Assets at the five-year-old bank climbed more than 2 percent during the quarter to $687 million.

The loan portfolio at Avenue fell slightly to $406 million at the end of the quarter, but Chairman and CEO Ron Samuels said that was due to a number of large commercial real estate loans being paid off, a drop that was offset by $41 million in new loans. The loan loss provision for the quarter was just $148,000 after averaging almost $600,000 in the first two quarters of the year.

Samuels said the lending market has improved in recent weeks after being tepid coming out of the summer.

"Our loan pipeline has been strong and loans are up in October and November," he wrote in an email to NashvillePost.com.