A Berkshire Bank storefront branch in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff

Berkshire Bank saw deposits drop by 2.5 percent during the first quarter, but some of those lost deposits moved to money market products in the bank’s wealth management division.

Total deposits at the end of the first quarter were $10.07 billion compared to $10.33 billion at the end of 2022 and $10.7 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

David Rosato, who recently joined Berkshire Bank as its chief financial officer, said during the bank’s first quarter earnings call on Thursday that about half of the $260 million in lost deposits had moved into the bank’s wealth management money market products.

In response to an analyst’s question, Rosato said the accelerated movement of deposits over to wealth management products had settled down soon after the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failures.

“There was a flurry of activity in that week to week-and-a-half period of time, but it was kind of amazing to me how quickly things settled down,” Rosato said. “This happened within the context of heightened competition for deposits as well. We had a crisis within a tough environment for deposits anyway.”

Berkshire Bank’s first quarter net income was $27.6 million, or $0.63 per diluted share, compared to $20.2 million, $0.42 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2022. Berkshire CEO Nitin Mhatre said during the call that the per share earnings of $0.63 marked a record for a first quarter for the bank.

Berkshire’s total assets were $12.32 billion compared to $11.66 billion at the end of 2022 and $12.1 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

Total loans were $8.33 billion at the end of the first quarter, up from $7.94 billion at the end of the fourth quarter and $7.27 billion at the end of first quarter of 2022.

In response to an analyst’s question, Mhatre attributed the 4 percent loan growth during the first quarter in part to a strong pipeline coming out of the fourth quarter and fewer prepaid loans. He said originations were down about one-quarter from the fourth quarter, and the pipeline coming out of the first quarter was down about 25 percent.

The bank has declined some lending opportunities, Mhatre said, but he noted that Berkshire still wanted to support customers and prospects that continue to perform.

In response to an analyst’s question, Mhatre said the bank does not plan to make significant branch consolidations at this time.

“We are comfortable where we are, especially given the fact that we found a lot of new bankers that are able to serve customers in those markets over the last couple of years, and we see significant opportunity for deepening relationships in those markets,” Mhatre said.