| BSB Bancorp posted double-digit increases in net income for the third quarter, representing its ninth consecutive period of earnings growth.
The holding company for Belmont Savings Bank recorded net income totaling $1.87 million on Sept. 30, up 55.4 percent from $1.2 million in the year-ago period. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company posted net income of $4.85 million, representing an increase of 65.7 percent from $2.92 million a year ago.
“Through strong organic growth and expense control, we continue to improve our profitability. Importantly, credit quality remains sound,” President and CEO Robert M. Mahoney said in a statement.
Net interest and dividend income, after provision for loan losses, totaled a little more than $9 million, compared with $7.8 million in the year-ago quarter. To keep up with loan growth, BSB beefed up its provision for loan losses to $727,000 in the third quarter, a year-over-year increase of about 149 percent. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, provision for loan losses totaled $1.43 million, compared with $988,000 in the year-ago period.
The allowance for loan losses totaled $10.39 million and represented 0.73 percent of total loans on Sept. 30, compared with $8.88 million and 0.75 percent a year ago. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, BSB posted net recoveries of $79,000, compared with net charge-off of $627,000 in the year-ago period. Nonperforming assets totaled $2.76 million, or 0.16 percent of total assets, compared with $2.82 million and 0.20 at year-end 2014.
Total assets increased $266.86 million, or 18.7 percent, year-to-date, totaling $1.69 billion.
Net loans increased $248.26 million, or 21 percent, from year-end 2014. Residential one- to four-family real estate loans, construction loans, commercial real estate loans and home equity lines of credit increased by $184.82 million, $31.74 million, $30.14 million and $19.54 million, respectively. Indirect auto loans decreased $15.52 million, as the company suspended new originations due to current market conditions.
That asset growth was funded mainly by growth in deposits, which totaled $1.21 billion at Sept. 30. That represented an increase of $224.01 million, or 22.8 percent, from year-end 2014. In a statement, Chief Operating Officer Hal R. Tovin attributed that increase to success in the bank’s municipal and business banking strategies.
Total stockholders’ equity increased $6.56 million to $143.57 million from $137.01 million at year-end 2014. The company said that increase was primarily the result of earnings of $4.85 million and a $1.60 million increase in additional paid-in capital related to stock-based compensation.
