UPDATE 1-Nigeria's FCMB swings to loss in half year to Oct

(Adds outlook)

LAGOS, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Nigeria's First City Monument Bank (FCMB) (FCMB.LG) said on Monday it had swung to a pre-tax loss of 479 million naira ($3.2 million) in the six months to the end of October but pledged a return to profitability next year.

Gross earnings in the period dropped to 35.21 billion naira from 40.79 billion a year earlier, the bank said in a filing to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The bank attributed the drop in earnings to the slow down and suspension of interest income on non-performing loans.

"With the special audit and provisions now behind (us), the bank will continue its recovery drive on provisioned accounts which is expected to yield further positive results and resume profitable volume growth in 2010," it said in a statement.

The central bank has injected around 600 billion naira ($4 billion) into the banking system since mid-August after its auditors found nine institutions had built up bad loans which left them too weakly capitalised to sustain operations.

It has since demanded all of Nigeria's 24 banks publish accounts as at the end of September detailing full provisioning for loan losses.

FCMB said it had recovered about 5.2 billion naira in bad debts and made all the provisions recommended by the regulator.

(Reporting by Oludare Mayowa)