Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript April 28, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Kevin O’Connor - Chief Executive Officer

Stu Lubow - President and Chief Operating Officer

Avi Reddy - Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Manuel Navas - D.A. Davidson

Chris O'Connell - KBW

Operator

Hello. And welcome to the Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. First Quarter Earnings Call.

Before we begin, the company would like to remind you that discussions during this call contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such statements including and set forth in today’s press release and the company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to which we’ll refer you.

During this call, references will be made to non-GAAP financial measures as supplemental measures to review and assess operating performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with the U.S. GAAP. The information about these non-GAAP measures and for reconciliation to GAAP, please refer today’s earnings release.

I will now hand over to Kevin O’Connor, Chief Executive Officer to begin. Kevin, please go

Kevin O’Connor

Good morning. Thank you, Lauren. And thank you all for joining us this morning. With me are Stu Lubow, our President and Chief Operating Officer, and Avi Reddy, our CFO. I am pleased to report another strong quarter of returns for Dime, as well as provide positive comments on deposits and loans. This despite the Fed's unprecedented activities and the connected events of March. This further reflects the power of our plain-vanilla community bank model and the franchise we've created on Greater Long Island. It's certainly not an overstatement to say we're operating unique and challenging environment for the industry.

As those of you who follow Dime know, we do not have any of the concentrations that got the failed banks and others in trouble. We also don't have a large book of securities and don't take rate risk in that portfolio. These facts, coupled with our rock solid multifamily portfolio provide us with the confidence we will outperform in any potential recessionary environment. For the record, we have zero multifamily loans that are greater than 60 days delinquent and the LTV on that portfolio is in the mid-50. Finally, Dime's credit losses have been well below the bank index over multiple cycles and we're extremely proud of our track record. Similar to the rest of the banking industry, we took steps in the first quarter to add to our on balance sheet liquidity. Also, as you would expect, we reached out to our client base reminding them of Dime's strong track record, our simple plain-vanilla business model, and our strong relationship based mindset. These conversations had their tended impact and were pleased, despite significant market turbulence, to report our deposits, excluding brokered, were up approximately $15 million versus year end.