| Westfield Financial benefitted from double-digit loan growth and its recent expansion into Connecticut during the second quarter this year.
The holding company for Westfield Bank recorded net income totaling $1.4 million for the quarter ended June 30, representing a year-over-year increase of about 1.6 percent from $1.3 million last year.
Year-over-year, total loans increased $73.3 million, or 10.7 percent, to $759.4 million at June 30. The company highlighted increases in residential loans ($47.3 million), commercial and industrial loans ($23.4 million) and commercial real estate loans ($2.1 million).
“Over the past 12 months, we have seen significant momentum in our efforts to grow both the loan portfolio and our deposit base,” President and CEO James C. Hagan said in a statement, also highlighting the bank’s loan growth and the recent recruitment of Christopher Fager, assistant vice president, to the bank’s commercial lending team out of its downtown Springfield office.
Hagan also touted the bank’s expansion into Connecticut, which it began in 2013, first opening a branch in Granby and establishing a second branch in Enfield last year.
“We continue to see success in Westfield Bank’s recent market expansion into northern Connecticut. Our two Connecticut offices now have over $36.6 million in deposits,” he said. “The customer base in the Connecticut market is very receptive to our brand of banking and our objective is to continue to develop loan and deposit relationships.”
Net interest and dividend income increased $78,000 to $7.8 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 compared to $7.7 million for the comparable 2014 period.
The net interest margin declined 11 basis points year-over-year in the second quarter to 2.51 percent.
Non-interest income increased $206,000 to $1.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, compared with $1 million for the same period in 2014.
Non-interest expense was $6.9 million in the second quarter, compared with $6.5 million for the same period in 2014. For the six-month period ended June 30, noninterest expense increased $510,000 to $13.1 million. That increase was driven largely by salaries and benefits and occupancy expenses, associated at least in part with the opening of the bank’s Enfield branch last fall.
The allowance for loan losses totaled $8.3 million at June 30, compared with $8 million in both the prior and year-ago quarters. Those figures represented 1.09 percent, 1.1 percent and 1.17 percent of total loans, respectively. The company set aside $350,000 for provision for loan losses in the second quarter, compared with $450,000 in the year-ago period, and it recorded net charge-offs of $101,000 in the second quarter, compared with $13,000 last year. Nonperforming loans totaled $8 million at June 30, compared with $8.3 million in the prior quarter, representing 1.06 and 1.14 percent of total loans, respectively.
Total assets increased approximately 5.9 percent to $1.4 billion, compared with $1.3 billion last year.
The board of directors approved the declaration of a quarterly cash dividend of 3 cents per share, to be paid Aug. 26 to shareholders of record on Aug. 12.
