Banker & Tradesman file photo
Hanover-based Rockland Trust announced a strong end to 2024 with a fourth quarter net income of $50 million.
The increase in net income was largely attributable to growth in net interest income, a decrease in loan loss provision and a reduced tax rate compared to the prior quarter. Average deposits for the fourth quarter also increased by $109.0 million compared to the prior quarter.
“Our employees continue to provide outstanding service to our clients, resulting in sustained improvement over many core elements of the bank,” said Jeffrey Tengel, Rockland Trust CEO, during the bank’s quarterly earnings call. “Fourth quarter results were driven by a focus on our fundamentals, and we believe that we are well positioned to achieve profitability improvement through both net interest margin expansion and the pending acquisition of Enterprise.”
Rockland Trust reported a noninterest income of $32.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, a decrease of $1.4 million, or 4 percent compared to the prior quarter. Overall investment and advisory income decreased by $250,000 and loan-level derivative income decreased by $686,000.
Additionally, Rockland executives noted that C&I loan production represented 50 percent of total commercial loan production in 2024, up from 40 percent in 2023. The company also originated $81 million of business banking loans, up 8 percent from 2023.
Tengel highlighted the company’s effort to key strategic priorities such as reducing Rockland Trust’s commercial real estate concentration. He noted that CRE purchase, refinance and construction loans were essentially flat due to normal amortization.
Part of the strategic planning saw the company reclassify its portfolio of loans secured by owner-occupied commercial real estate to the commercial and industrial loan category. The reclassification was made to reflect the variation in the management and underlying risk profile of such loans compared with investor-owned commercial real estate loans.
Rockland Trust is waiting on approval from federal regulators for its purchase of Lowell-based Enterprise Bank. The company has visited all of Enterprises branches which will all remain open after the merger is completed.
“Our franchises fit together like two puzzle pieces,” Tengel said. “We have made in-person visits to all 27 enterprise branches, all of which will remain open post-close, and have had numerous cross-functional meetings with the Enterprise team across all business units. We’ve been extremely pleased with the collective outcome of these meetings. We are even more convinced about the strategic and financial merits of this deal.”
