Brookline Bancorp, parent company of Brookline Bank, has reported first-quarter net income of $3.5 million, compared to $2.7 million for the same period last year.

The increase in net income was due primarily to improvement in net interest income and a reduction in impairment loss on securities offset in part by elimination of dividend income on Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston (FHLB) stock, a higher provision for credit losses, an increase in non-interest expenses and a higher effective rate of income taxes, the bank said in a statement.

As a member of the FHLB, the company is obliged to own stock in the FHLB based on its level of borrowings from the FHLB. At March 31, the company said it owned $36 million of FHLB stock. Due to reported losses, the FHLB ceased the payment of dividends on its stock in the 2009 first quarter. In the 2008 first quarter, the company had received $405,000 in dividends on its FHLB stock. Based on announcements by the FHLB, no dividend income is expected to be received for the remainder of 2009.

The bank’s board of directors has declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.085 per share. The dividend is payable May 15 to stockholders of record on April 30.