With the completed conversion and systems integration of Commerce Bank, Berkshire Bank is ready to push profitability at the now $11.5-billion asset company.

The bank’s parent company reported net income of $25 million for the first quarter of 2018, a 63 percent increase from the $15 million in net income the bank reported in the first quarter of 2017. Net interest income for the quarter was $85.5 million, up almost $20 million from the first quarter of 2017. The net interest margin ended the quarter at 3.36 percent, up three basis points year-over-year.

“We are all pretty excited that we are at a point now where we can concentrate almost exclusively on integrating all of the different products we have across a pretty strong footprint,” Michael Daly, Berkshire’s CEO, said on a recent earnings call. “We are past $10 billion and we’ve done it in the way we expected to do it. The numbers are coming our way. We have a lot of people on the ground that they have to cross-sell across each of our regions in order for us to realize our full potential.”

Daly said the Commerce acquisition went better than expected, with the bank retaining more deposits than they originally thought. Berkshire’s CFO James Moses said there are roughly another $2-$3 million left in Commerce acquisition deal costs, which also brings total deal costs below projections.

The bank also opened its new Boston headquarters and began attacking the Boston market. Including its one de novo branch on Congress Street and the three other Commerce branches in Boston, Berkshire has over $400 million in deposits in the Boston market. Berkshire also opened up one of its new digital teller branches in Simsbury, Connecticut during the first quarter. The company has now opened 10 of these locations and Daly said he has been getting good feedback in terms of both customer service and efficiency.

Daly said the company could see double digit hiring to beef up promising markets such as Boston.

Total assets at the company are up over $2.2 billion year-over-year, mainly due to the acquisition of Commerce Bank. Total loans reached about $8.3 billion at the end of the quarter, up about $1.73 billion year-over-year.

The ratio of total nonperforming assets to total assets at the end of the first quarter remained low at .27 percent.