East West Bancorp Inc. late Tuesday said it turned to a profit in its fourth quarter, boosted by the government-assisted acquisition of a failed bank. The company also announced that its chief financial officer had resigned and a replacement named.

After the market closed, the Pasadena holding company of East West Bank reported net income of nearly $253 million ($1.96 per share), compared with a net loss of $3.02 million (-5 cents) a year earlier.

The quarter included a pre-tax gain of $471 million from the FDIC-assisted acquisition of United Commercial Bank, offset by a $140 million provision for loan losses and a $45.8 million impairment loss on investment securities

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters on average expected the bank to report a per-share loss 26 cents.

Net interest income, before provision for loan losses, grew 129 percent to more than $219 million. Non-interest income was more than $420 million, compared with a loss of $863,000 a year earlier. Deposits increased 73 percent to $6.3 billion, due primarily to the UCB acquisition. Organic deposit growth was nearly $217 million.

For the full year 2009, net income was $76.6 million, compared with a $49.6 million loss in 2008.

“We believe that for East West, the credit cycle peaked in the third quarter of 2009 and that as we enter the new year, the worst is behind us,” said Chief Executive Dominic Ng in a press release.

East West said it promoted Irene Oh to executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective immediately. Oh, who joined the company in 2005 and was director of corporate finance, succeeds Thomas Tolda, whom the company said resigned for personal reasons.

Earlier, shares closed down 25 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $17.18 on the Nasdaq.