Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call October 19, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Stuart Lubow - CEO

Stu Lubow - President and COO

Avi Reddy - SVP & CFO

Conference Call Participants

Steve Moss - Raymond James

Matthew Breese - Stephens, Inc.

Mark Fitzgibbon - Piper Sandler

Chris O'Connell - KBW

Mokshith Reddy - D.A. Davidson

Operator

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Dime Community Bancshares Third 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’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to which we 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 to today’s earnings release.

I'll now hand over to your host Stuart Lubow, President and CEO, to begin. Stuart, please go ahead when you're ready.

Stuart Lubow

Good morning. Thank you, Carla, and thank you all for joining us this morning. I will first provide comments on key themes underlining our business. Avi will then provide additional details on the third quarter, and then we will open it up for questions. Dime continues to perform well in a year marked by the failure of three regional banks and unprecedented inverted yield curve and significant interest rate increases by the Fed. In the third quarter, we grew core deposits approximately $200 million. We reduced wholesale funding on our balance sheet. We increased our already strong risk-based capital, and we reduced our non-performing assets by 16%. As we have mentioned on our previous calls, we do not have any concentrations that got the failed banks and others in trouble. These facts, coupled with our rock solid bulletproof multi-family portfolio, which represents 38% of our overall loan portfolio, gives us confidence that we will outperform in any potential recessionary environment. For the record, we have no loans on our entire multifamily portfolio that are delinquent greater than 60 days, and the LTV on that portfolio of 58%. We continue to be vigilant and diligent around monitoring all parts of our loan portfolio. Overall, asset quality remains strong, with NPAs and 90 days past due declining to only 17 basis points. As you would expect, we continue to closely monitor our investor office portfolio. As of September 30, we have no delinquencies greater than 60 days in the investor office portfolio. In fact, we only have one loan over 30 days at 9/30, which was only $1.9 million, and had an LTV less than 50%. We provide some additional disclosures on this portfolio as it relates to properties and geography in our recent investor presentation.