Tax change reduces Gold Coast Bank's income

The absence of a tax benefit in 2013 reduced Gold Coast Bank’s net income by 90 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, it said Friday.

The privately held five-branch bank based in Islandia said net income for the three months ended Dec.31 was $90,000 or three cents a share, compared to $920,000 or 43 cents for the quarter a year earlier.

The bank said it booked a tax expense of $59,000 in the fourth quarter, compared to a benefit of $845,000 in the fourth quarter of 2012.

But core earnings, which exclude taxes and net gains on the sales of securities, were $149,000 for this year’s quarter, up 99 percent from $75,000 a year earlier.

The bank said net interest income, the difference between the revenue generated from a bank's assets and the expenses associated with liabilities, increased by 12 percent, offsetting a drop from 3.26 percent to 3.03 percent in net interest margin, a measure of the difference between the interest a bank earns on its assets such as loans and the interest it pays out to depositors.

Total assets were $244 million at Dec. 31, up 21 percent from a year earlier, the bank said.

Loans outstanding totalled $165 million, a 30 percent increase from a year earlier.

Deposits totaled $211 million, up 16 percent.

Gold Coast raised $7.6 million in capital in a stock offering last year, some of which is to be used to open more branches.

The bank has branches now in Islandia, Huntington, Setauket, Farmingdale and Mineola.