Israel's First Intl Bank doubles Q4 loss estimate

TEL AVIV, March 22 (Reuters) - First International Bank of Israel (FIBI) FTIN5.TA, the country's fifth-largest bank, warned on Sunday it expects an 80 million shekel ($19.9 million) loss in the fourth quarter, double its previous estimate.

Last month FIBI predicted it would lose 40 million shekels in the quarter.

For all of 2008, FIBI now estimates it had a net profit of 160 million shekels, down from its previous forecast of 200 million, the bank said in a statement.

It attributed the revision mainly to a decline in value of certain mortgage-backed securities. The remainder of its MBS portfolio as of Dec. 31 totalled 280 million shekels, which represents 1.6 percent of its securities portfolio, FIBI said.

The bank said its capital adequacy ratio remains above 12 percent.

Three other top Israeli banks have forecast losses in the fourth quarter.

Bank Leumi (LUMI.TA) last week revised its estimate to a loss of 1.16 billion shekels from a previous forecast for a loss of between 700 million shekels and 800 million. Leumi is Israel's biggest commercial lender by market value.

Israeli banks will report full fourth-quarter results by March 31.

($1 = 4.02 shekels)

(Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Kim Coghill)