BOSTON – Beacon Financial Corp., the regional bank created in September 2025 through the merger of Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. and Brookline Bancorp Inc. – the former parent company of Bank Rhode Island, reported fourth-quarter net income of $53.4 million, according to its filing with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 28.
The filing is Beacon's first full-quarter earnings report post-merger.
For the quarter, Beacon Financial reported income of 64 cents per share, as improving margins and merger synergies began to show up in results.
By comparison, BankRI’s former parent earned $20.1 million in the same period a year earlier. But because Beacon did not exist in its current form a year ago, the results are not directly comparable to prior-year periods.
On an adjusted basis excluding merger-related costs, Beacon earned 79 cents per share for the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street expectations of 78 cents, according to Zacks Investment Research.
For all of 2025, combining pre-merger results from Brookline and Berkshire with the first four months of operations at Beacon, the company reported profit of $90.3 million, or $1.03 per share. Excluding $70.1 million in merger-related charges, operating earnings totaled $142.3 million, or $1.63 per share.
The results follow a rocky third quarter, when Beacon posted a $56.3 million loss, driven by $129.8 million in pre-tax merger costs, though operating earnings excluding those charges were $38.5 million. That quarter marked the first reporting under the Beacon name, following the merger that combined $12.1 billion in assets and $10.3 billion in deposits.
“We’re beginning to build momentum as we closed 2025 with the strength of the combined Beacon organization and ongoing synergies created by our merger of equals,” CEO Paul Perrault said in a statement.
Net interest income rose to $199.7 million in the quarter, up from $128.9 million in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, net interest margin, a key measure of the bank’s earnings on loans relative to funding costs, also increased to 3.82% in the fourth quarter, up from 3.62% in the third quarter.
Total revenue was $338.5 million, with revenue net of interest expense at $225.7 million, slightly below analyst expectations, compared with $228.5 million and $145 million, respectively, in the third quarter.
Total assets climbed to $23.2 billion, reflecting the scale of the merger, up from $11.9 billion previously held by Brookline Bancorp.
Beacon said improved liquidity following the merger allowed it to reduce reliance on wholesale funding.
Credit performance improved in the quarter, with the provision for credit losses falling to $8.1 million from $20.3 million in the prior quarter. Net charge-offs declined to $9 million, or 0.20% of average loans, compared with 0.51% in the third quarter.
Nonperforming assets ticked up slightly to 0.50% of total assets from 0.46% in the third quarter, driven in part by a Boston office loan.
Bank Rhode Island, better known as BankRI, will officially rebrand as Beacon Bank on Feb. 9.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Matthew McNulty is a PBN staff writer. He can be reached at McNulty@PBN.com or on X at @MattMcNultyNYC.
