Daily News

Westfield Financial Posts Solid Second Quarter

WESTFIELD — Westfield Financial Inc., the holding company for Westfield Bank, reported net income of $1.4 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, compared to $1.3 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2014. For the six months ended June 30, 2015, net income was $2.7 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, compared to $3.0 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, for the same period in 2014.

Among other selected financial highlights for second quarter of 2015:

• Total loans increased $73.3 million, or 10.7%, to $759.4 million at June 30, 2015 compared to $686.1 million at June 30, 2014. This was primarily due to increases in residential loans of $47.3 million, commercial and industrial loans of $23.4 million, and commercial real-estate loans of $2.1 million.

• Securities increased $20.7 million, or 4.2%, to $516.7 million at June 30, 2015, compared to $496.0 million at June 30, 2014. On a sequential-quarter basis, securities were relatively flat at June 30, 2015, compared to $515.2 million at March 31, 2015.

• 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. On a sequential-quarter basis, net interest and dividend income increased $189,000 for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, compared to the quarter ended March 31, 2015.

• The bank prepaid $10 million in Federal Home Loan Bank borrowings with a weighted average rate of 2.77% and incurred a pre-payment expense of $278,000 in the second quarter of 2015 in order to eliminate a higher-cost liability. Net gains on the sales of securities of $276,000 were used to partially offset the pre-payment expense.

• Non-interest expense increased $334,000 to $6.9 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 compared to the second quarter of 2014. On a sequential-quarter basis, non-interest expense increased by $154,000 for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, compared to $6.7 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015. The efficiency ratio, excluding non-core items, was 76.1% for the second quarter of 2015, compared to 78.1% for the quarter ended March 31, 2015.

“Over the past twelve months, we have seen significant momentum in our efforts to grow both the loan portfolio and our deposit base,” said President and CEO James Hagan. “With loans increasing 10.7% year over year, we are demonstrating our commitment to growing our core customer franchise.

“We are also pleased to announce that Christopher Fager, assistant vice president, Commercial Lending, has recently joined Westfield Bank’s commercial team,” Hagan added. “Christopher brings more than six years of banking experience and is based in our commercial-lending office in downtown Springfield, which was established in August 2014.”

Finally, Hagan noted, “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. The Granby, Connecticut office has been open just over two years, and Enfield, Connecticut opened in November 2014. 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.”