2Q profits up at three LI banks

Three Long Island banks reported higher profits for the second quarter of this year over a year earlier, but one said the improvement wasn't good enough.

State Bancorp, based in Jericho and the holding company of the State Bank of Long Island, said it earned $2.9 million, or 14 cents a share, in April, May and June compared with $1.7 million, or seven cents a share, a year earlier.

The bank is in the process of being taken over by Valley National Bancorp of New Jersey.

State cited a $4.4-million decrease in the provision for loan losses by virtue of a reduced level of "problem loans" and a $495,000 increase in net interest income as the result of a wider net interest margin -- a measure of the return on a company's investments relative to its interest expenses.

Problem loans are sold at a loss to investors willing to shoulder the risks. "We got rid of most of them at the end of 2009," president and chief executive Thomas M. O'Brien said. State has 17 branches in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Manhattan.

Empire National Bank of Islandia said second-quarter profits rose by 107 percent to $442,000, or 10 cents per share, for the quarter.

Chairman and chief executive Douglas C. Manditch cited a spike in "demand deposits," on which banks pay no interest.

Empire has branches in Islandia, Shirley and Port Jefferson Station.

Astoria Financial of Lake Success, operator of Astoria Federal Savings and Loan Association, said second-quarter profits rose by 8 percent to $16.8 million, with the per-share earnings up by 6 percent to 18 cents.

President and chief executive Monte N. Redman expressed disappointment with the results, which he said were "negatively impacted" by the continued decrease in interest-earning assets and the slightly higher provision for loan losses.

Astoria has 85 branches in Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester and Long Island -- 53 of them in Nassau and Suffolk.