In Brief: 2Q Net Up at Dime, GreenPoint, Astoria

The city's largest thrifts last week reported stunning second-quarter earnings gains.

Dime Bancorp, New York's largest savings and loan, reported a 26.9% jump in net income from a year earlier, to $36.8 million, excluding a one-time pretax charge associated with the bulk sale of nonperforming assets. Earnings per share rose 29.6%, to 35 cents, excluding the charge.

Including the charge, the thrift earned $27.8 million, or 26 cents a share.

Dime's revamped mortgage operations originated more than $1 billion of loans in the quarter compared with $638 million in the first quarter. Dime hired Fred B. Koons and Richard A. Mirro, two former Chase Manhattan Mortgage executives, to run the mortgage operation last December.

GreenPoint Financial Corp. reported a 14.2% increase in net income from a year earlier, excluding nonrecurring charges, to $36.6 million. Earnings per share increased 23.6%, to 89 cents. Nonrecurring expenses, related to transferred mortgage servicing operations from New York to Atlanta, reduced earnings to $35.1 million, or 86 cents a share.

GreenPoint, a leading no-documentation mortgage lender, originated $713 million in the quarter, 32% more than a year earlier and 10.5% more than in this year's first quarter. Astoria Financial Corp. posted a 29.9% gain in net income, to $15.2 million. Earnings per share rose 30.9%, to 72 cents.

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