New York Community Bancorp said Thursday that its second-quarter earnings fell 9% from the same period last year, to $119.5 million, as a surge of originations in multi-family loans could not offset a sharp decline in mortgage income.
The Westbury, N.Y., company said that earnings per share declined 10%, to 27 cents, a penny short of consensus analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters.
New York Community originated said in a news release that it originated $2.9 billion of loans in the second quarter, up 52% from last year's second quarter. Nearly 71% of its originations last quarter were for multi-family properties. Through the first half of the year its originations increased by more 176%, to $4.7 billion, and the company says it has roughly $2.4 billion of loans in its pipeline.
Overall earnings growth, however, has been inhibited by the weak housing market. Income from mortgage banking in the second quarter plunged 70% year-over-year, to $11.8 million. As a result New York Community said that its fee income declined by nearly 19% in the quarter, to $58.9 million.
New York Community operates eight separately branded banks with a combined $40 billion of assets and with 275 branches in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Florida and Arizona.
