BankRI profits jump 35% as parent adds services office, 50 jobs in R.I.

BANK RHODE ISLAND saw its net income rise 35.5 percent in 2012 to $12.27 million from $9.05 million in 2011.
BANK RHODE ISLAND saw its net income rise 35.5 percent in 2012 to $12.27 million from $9.05 million in 2011.

PROVIDENCE – Bank Rhode Island – the local subsidiary of Brookline Bancorp Inc. – saw net income jump 35.5 percent during 2012, according to its year-end report filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Profits were driven, in part, by the creation of a new Brookline office in Lincoln during 2012.

BankRI posted earnings of $12.27 million for the year, compared with profit of $9.05 million in 2011, the federal documents said. Total interest and non-interest income declined 0.4 percent on the year to $78 million.

“We had a terrific year in 2012,” said bank President and CEO Mark Meiklejohn. “We are very happy with the results.”

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Part of the improved profit numbers for the bank were the result of 14 percent growth in commercial loans on the year, which resulted in a 4.8 percent increase in net loans and leases for the year to $1.2 billion. But BankRI also reported a significant decrease in its non-interest expense that helped improve profitability.

Meiklejohn said that the 23.6 percent drop in salaries and employee benefits expenses to $19.1 million could be explained by two significant events.

First, as a result of the bank’s merger with Brookline Bancorp closing on Jan. 1, 2012, a number of one-time payouts to departing BankRI executives were accounted for in 2011, pushing the employee costs unusually high. In addition, throughout the year a total of roughly 100 people were moved off the local bank’s payroll and onto a new corporate shared services entity that Brookline Bancorp created and located in Lincoln.

In fact, said Meiklejohn, as a result of the creation of the new office, “we’ve actually had a net increase in employment [in Rhode Island] since the merger took place, about a 15 percent increase in overall employment.” Meiklejohn went on to say that that percentage has translated into roughly 50 new full-time equivalents in Rhode Island tied to the new shared services center.

“We consolidated operations for all three of the banks in Lincoln, so that’s a good story for Rhode Island,” he added.

Meiklejohn was non-committal but optimistic that there may be more jobs coming to the Ocean State in the future.

“I think there’s a fairly good chance there will be some additional growth as we fully consolidate [operations] into that location. … We still have some mortgage underwriting done up in Massachusetts that will eventually all be consolidated into Lincoln, and I think that could result in additional headcount. But it’s kind of hard to say right now what that will be.”

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