Stung by hundreds of millions of dollars in stock losses, some investors in Cincinnati's two largest banks are biting back in court.

Lawyers for shareholders of the parents of Fifth Third and Provident banks have filed at least 12 class-action suits against the banks. The suits say internal accounting problems at both in recent months have dramatically reduced their stock values.

According to Bloomberg News, at least 10 lawsuits have targeted Provident Financial Group Inc. since it first reported its problem March 5, while just two lawsuits - last week - have been filed against Fifth Third Bancorp even though its disclosure came last fall.

The lawsuits against Provident began trickling in after the bank said it would restate profits for the past six years because of accounting errors tied to auto-lease transactions. Provident said it overstated earnings by $70 million since 1997.

Fifth Third said Nov. 15 in a regulatory filing that investigators were reviewing an accounting error that forced a $54 million charge-off in the third quarter. The bank reached an agreement with regulators last week to change its internal accounting practices.

Since their disclosures, Fifth Third's stock has dropped about 17 percent, while Provident has dipped about 22 percent. In contrast, the Standard & Poor's Banks Index has fallen 5 percent since Nov. 14 and 0.2 percent since March 4.

Industry experts offer some theories:

• The restatement by Provident indicated that the bank made less profit than what it said in the past.

• The Provident issue came as the bank was recovering from some bad loans, causing investor uneasiness that momentum would wane.

• Over the long term, Fifth Third has provided investors one of industry's best returns among all U.S. banks, possibly causing investors to be more patient. More important, though: Fifth Third did not have to restate profits.

Jeff McKinney