In what came as a relief for investors, the SunTrust Bank Inc. (STB) posted a lower than past losses for the first quarter. The decrease happened since the bank began the write-downs a year earlier than it should have.

Talking about the results, STB said that the losses have happened because of the lingering of the recession.

But even after this, James M. Wells III, Chairman and Chief Executive of the bank showed his optimism and said that the current level of the operations are going to make the future better.

He added that the bank has seen an increase in the soft revenue and also that the demand for loans has weakened. Because of the recession, the commercial as well as the consumer segment has seen a fall in demand.

The Atlanta-based bank saw the losses become $161 million as against $815 million in the last quarter. That means that the loss per share has become 46 cents. The revenue of the bank went down by 14 per cent to become $1.9 billion.

While it may seem a small change, but one should not forget that STB was operating in the area of real estate.