LOCAL : First Interstate Reports Loss

First Interstate Bancorp today reported a fourth-quarter loss of $344.3 million and a loss for the year after the eighth-largest bank holding company put aside $454.1 million to cover possible loan losses, mainly in real estate.

Investors had been expecting losses as Los Angeles-based First Interstate warned last month of a probable $400-million addition to reserves.

The fourth-quarter loss compared to net income of $144.0 million for the same period in 1988. The loss for all of 1989 totaled $124.5 million, against a profit of $129.4 million the prior year.

First Interstate has been plagued with problem real estate loans in Texas and Arizona.