Third-quarter net income at Dime Community Bancshares of Brooklyn, N.Y., fell 26% from a year earlier, to $11.2 million.
The $3.4 billion-asset company attributed the decline to a slowdown in prepayment fees and a decline in gains on the sales of securities and loans. Dime also said Friday that it slowed its loan growth because of continued low yields on loans.
It originated $279 million of loans during the quarter, but the volume of loans in its pipeline shrank to $80 million, Vincent F. Palagiano, Dime's chairman and chief executive officer, said Friday.
Kenneth J. Mahon, Dime's executive vice president and chief financial officer, said it would wait until yields rise above 6% before it resumes "aggressively growing the balance sheet."
Dime's credit quality remained exceptionally strong. At the end of the quarter it had $851,000 of nonperforming loans, or 0.02% of total assets.
