Record net interest income boosts Flushing Financial results

Record net interest income helped push Flushing Financial Corp.’s earnings up 5.2 percent in last year’s final quarter over a year earlier.

In an announcement Tuesday, the parent of the 19-branch Flushing Bank, headquartered in Uniondale, also cited the absence in the quarter of a $2.3 million net loss on the sale of securities booked in the same quarter a year earlier. That caused noninterest income to swing from a net loss of $576,000 in the final quarter of 2014 to a profit of $2.1 million in last year’s fourth quarter.

Flushing said its net earnings were $11.6 million or 40 cents a share in the fourth quarter of 2015, up from $11.1 million and 38 cents a share a year earlier.

Net interest income, the difference between the revenue generated from a bank’s assets and the expenses associated with liabilities, was $39.4 million in the quarter, up 6.2 percent from the final quarter a year earlier.

Flushing said loan originations and purchases in the quarter were a record $395.6 million. “The robust growth supports our already strong balance sheet as we maintained our prudent underwriting standards,” John R. Buran, president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Total assets on Dec. 31 were $5.7 billion, up 12.4 percent from a year earlier.