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Westfield Bank, which has branches in Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut, saw year-over-year earnings remain mostly unchanged in the third quarter.
The bank’s parent company had third quarter net income of $6 million, or $0.28 per diluted share. The bank also had $6 million in net income during the third quarter of 2021, with earnings per diluted share of $0.27. Second quarter 2022 net income was $5.5 million, or $0.25 per diluted share.
“The Company continues to experience positive growth in key business areas along with strong quarterly earnings adding to the momentum from last year’s record profitability,” Westfield’s president and CEO, James C. Hagan, said in the bank’s third quarter earnings statement. “We are pleased to report solid earnings for the third quarter of 2022 along with strong core deposit growth and loan growth across all loan segments. We remain focused on executing our strategy of driving commercial loan growth and core deposits, which have been key contributors to the Company’s ongoing profitability. We remain optimistic about the Company’s growth opportunities in the fourth quarter of 2022 and into 2023.”
Westfield Bank had total assets of $2.6 billion at the end of the third quarter, an increase of $40.4 million, or 1.6 percent, from Dec. 31.
Total loans were $2 billion, up $143 million, or 7.7 percent, from the end of 2021. Not including PPP loans, Westfield saw total loans increase 9 percent. The bank said the growth was driven by an increase in commercial real estate loans of $101.7 million, or 10.4 percent, and an increase in commercial and industrial loans of $28.7 million, or 14.3 percent. Also driving loan growth was a 5.3 percent, or $34.6 million, increase in residential real estate loans, including home equity loans.
The bank cited loan growth as the primary reason for increasing its provision for loan losses by $375,000, or 125 percent, compared with the second quarter.
Total deposits were $2.3 billion, up 1.4 percent from the end of 2021. The bank said the growth came primarily from core deposits, which increased by $89.6 million, or 4.8 percent. The bank said core deposits, which include all deposits except time deposits, made up 85 percent of the bank’s total deposits.
Westfield Bank had third quarter net interest income of $20.3 million, up from $19.4 million during the third quarter. The bank said the increase was primarily due to a 5.4 percent increase in interest and dividend income. The third quarter net interest margin was 3.35 percent compared to 3.24 percent in the second quarter.
The bank’s average cost of total funds increased during the quarter by 3 basis points to 0.25 percent. The average cost of core deposits increased by 4 basis points to 0.19 percent.
