United Financial Bancorp, the parent company of Hartford-based United Bank, is planning to open more de novo branches in in 2018 in order to bring in more deposits to keep up with the bank’s loan growth.

Total loans at the end of 2017 reached roughly $5.34 billion, a $434 million increase year-over-year. Total deposits at the end of the year were roughly $5.2 billion, nearly $500 million year-over-year growth. Despite the fact that deposits grew at a faster clip than loans, the bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio sits over 100 percent.

United executives said they are excited about a new Hartford branch slated to open in the second half of the year, and also have some announcements about new branches coming in the future. William Crawford, president and CEO of the $7.1 billion asset company, said he is also excited about the bank’s new lending center, which will help with business banking.

“The cost of deposits in business and commercial banking is much lower than consumer,” he said on a recent earnings call, adding that the new center should help the bank grow fast. 

United CFO Eric Newell said that the bank had a strong year with non-interest bearing deposits, with 10 percent growth, so transaction fees should continue to grow. He also said the bank is having success marrying its wealth operations with its retail branches.

But Newell acknowledged that competition to bring deposits in the door could be stiff in the bank’s coverage area, which consists of Connecticut and western Massachusetts. He said some of the competition is offering rates that are indicative of deposit pricing, which he called “very aggressive.”

On the whole, the bank reported $9.5 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter, down about $5 million from the fourth quarter of 2016. The bank reported annual net income of $54.6 million, or $1.07 per diluted share, compared to net income of $49.7 million, or $0.99 per diluted share in 2016.

The bank took a $2.8 million write down in the fourth quarter due to tax reform, $1.6 million stemming from a recalculation of deferred tax assets, which are tied to the corporate tax rate, and another $1.2 million related to other tax credits. Net interest income for the year was about $184 million in 2017, up about $13 million from 2016. The net interest margin finished the year at 2.98 percent, up about five basis points from the end of 2016.

The bank is seeking to have a return on assets of 1 percent by the second half of 2019, a goal one investor questioned due to the bank’s single digit earnings-per-share growth projections.

The provision for loan losses remained relatively flat, totaling $2.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2017. Net charge-offs for the quarter ended they year at $1.5 million, or 0.11 percent, as a percentage of average loans outstanding.