Gold Coast Bank 4Q earnings jump

Privately held Gold Coast Bank said its fourth quarter earnings more than doubled from a year earlier on tax benefits.

Core earnings, which exclude tax benefits as well as securities gains, fell due to the cost of opening its fifth branch, the bank reported Tuesday. For all of last year, however, core earnings rose more than sixfold, to $621,000 from $10,000 in 2011, the bank said.

Islandia-based Gold Coast said net income in the quarter ended Dec. 31 was $920,000, up from $436,000 a year earlier on $845,000 in tax benefits, compared with $339,000 in benefits a year earlier.

But it said fourth-quarter core earnings were $75,000, compared with $96,000 a year earlier.

For all of last year, net income was $1,796,000, up 54 percent from 2011. The bank said the tax benefits that boosted its earnings have been used up.

Total assets were $202 million at Dec. 31, 2012, up $40 million from a year earlier.

The bank said it had no nonperforming loans at Dec. 31, 2012.

Gold Coast president and chief executive Joseph G. Perri said in a statement that the bank won approval in January from the New York State Department of Financial Services to increase its authorized capital stock from 2,411,420 shares to 4,350,000 shares, which it plans to accomplish through private sales.

"That will allow us to raise additional capital to ensure we meet all regulatory capital requirements as well as increase our legal lending limit," he said.

Its fifth branch, in Mineola, opened in October and was its first in Nassau County. Other branches are at its headquarters in Islandia, and in Farmingdale, Huntington and Setauket.