Flushing Financial earnings up 52%

Flushing Financial Corp., the Lake Success company that owns Flushing Savings Bank, reported record year-end earning yesterday of $38.8 million, up almost 52 percent from 2009.

Chief executive John Buran, left, credited much of the gain to a larger spread between what the bank earns on the loans it makes and the interest it pays on deposits. That gap was 3.25 percentage points in 2010, compared to 2.76 percentage points the previous year. The bank further took advantage of that gap by reducing its reliance on borrowed money as deposits increased from $2.6 billion to $3.1 billion.

At the same time, however, the bank's bad loans increased in the past year from $85.9 million to $126.0 million. That forced the bank to set aside more money to cover potential loan losses at a time when many banks are able to reduce that amount.

The bank has assets of $4.3 billion and 16 branches in New York City and Nassau County.

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