Gold Coast Bank swings to profit in quarter

Gold Coast Bank said it swung to a profit in the final quarter of last year in the absence of extraordinary charges a year earlier.

The six-branch privately held bank based in Islandia said net income was $456,000 or 15 cents a share in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $86,000 or 3 cents a share a year earlier.

For all of last year net income was $1.2 million or 42 cents a share, up 270 percent from $328,00 or 11 cents a share a year earlier, absent the impact of a severance charge and additional tax expense in 2014, and a gain that year from sales of securities.

“We are proud to report our best year ever in operating income,” chairman and chief executive John C. Tsunis said in a statement. Operating income, which excludes taxes, was $1.9 million.

Net interest income, the difference between the revenue generated from a bank’s assets and the expenses associated with liabilities, rose by 23 percent last year from 2014 to $10.1 million.

Total assets were $349 million on Dec. 31, up 8 percent from a year earlier, said the bank, which was founded in 2008.