Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call July 23, 2024 9:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Stuart Lubow - President and Chief Executive Officer
Avinash Reddy - Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Gregory Zingone - Piper Sandler
Manuel Navas - D.A. Davidson
Steve Moss - Raymond James
Christopher O'Connell - KBW
Operator
Thank you for standing by and welcome to Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. Second Quarter Earnings Conference 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 US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Such statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such statements, including as set forth in today's press release and the company's filings with the US 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 US GAAP. For information about non-GAAP measures and for reconciliation to GAAP, please refer to today's earnings release.
At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Stuart Lubow, President and CEO. Please go ahead.
Stuart Lubow
Good morning. Thank you, Lisa and thank you all for joining us this morning for our quarterly earnings call. With me today is Avi Reddy, our CFO. In the second quarter, Dime continued to execute on our growth plan. The momentum in our business is strong and we grew core deposits by over $300 million and business loans by over $200 million.
The strong growth in core deposits has enabled us to reduce our wholesale funding position substantially since year-end. As a result, the net interest margin increased by 20 basis points in the quarter. We were pleased with the increase in the margin and believe the first quarter of 2024 was a trough for this cycle in terms of both net interest income and NIM.