Business
First Northwest Bancorp Reports Second Quarter 2024 Financial Results
PORT ANGELES, Wash., July 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- "In spite of challenging times for the entire industry as a result of the rate environment, First
About this update from First Northwest Bancorp
[{"type":"text","content":"PORT ANGELES, Wash., July 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- \"In spite of challenging times for the entire industry as a result of the rate environment, First Northwest executed on a balance sheet restructure strategy. The restructure included a sale-leaseback transaction for six of our branches, a restructure of our bank-owned life insurance policies, two securities loss sale transactions, two balance sheet hedges against fixed rate loans and municipal bonds and the sale of our Visa B shares,\" commented Matthew P. Deines, President and CEO. \"As a result, we reached an inflection point for the net interest margin in the second quarter after declines for the preceding five quarters. We also reduced wholesale funding reliance in the current quarter, and today are announcing significant expense reduction through a reduction in force which we expect will positively impact earnings in the second half of 2024 and into 2025. We still have substantial work to do in order to produce stronger earnings. However, we believe we have laid the groundwork for improved earnings moving forward as lower yielding assets reprice, payoff and paydown in line with contractual commitments. \"First Northwest continues our efforts to deemphasize real estate lending to focus on generating loans and deposits from small-to-medium sized businesses in our markets. Year-to-date in 2024, real estate loans are essentially flat, while non-real estate loans increased by 12%, or approximately $44 million. We believe that this diversification strategy will decrease interest rate risk and will allow us to build stronger relationships with businesses in our footprint. \"There was a substantial increase to our provision for credit losses this quarter. This was related to two borrowing relationships which we have been managing closely since the beginning of 2023. We have appointed a receiver for both relationships and we are working to resolve these problem assets as quickly as possible.\" The Board of Directors of First Northwest Bancorp declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.07 per common share. The dividend will be payable on August 23, 2024, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 9, 2024. 2024 FINANCIAL RESULTS2Q 24 1Q 24 2Q 23 2024 YTD 2023 YTD OPERATING RESULTS (in millions) Net income$1.4 $0.4 $1.8 $1.8 $5.3 Pre-provision net interest incom...