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Washington Federal Reports Earnings Per Share Of $2.26 For Fiscal 2020
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Washington Federal, Inc. (Nasdaq: WAFD) (the "Company"), parent company of Washington Federal Bank, N.A. ("WaFd Bank"), today
About this update from Wafd, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":" SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nWashington Federal, Inc. (Nasdaq: WAFD) (the \"Company\"), parent company of Washington Federal Bank, N.A. (\"WaFd Bank\"), today announced annual earnings and diluted earnings per share of $173,438,000 and $2.26 for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2020, compared to $210,256,000 or $2.61 per diluted share for the year ended September 30, 2019, a $0.35 or 13.4% decrease in earnings per diluted share. Return on equity for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2020 was 8.63% compared to 10.46% for the year ended September 30, 2019. Return on assets for the year ended September 30, 2020 was 1.00% compared to 1.28% for the prior year.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201014005969/en/\nPresident and Chief Executive Officer Brent J. Beardall commented, \"We are pleased to be done with fiscal 2020 and look forward to a bright future. After-tax earnings were down 18% from the record earnings we reported in fiscal 2019 as a result of several factors, most of which were related to the global pandemic and the resulting economic consequences. The Federal Reserve’s moving interest rates to near zero resulted in one of the most challenging interest rate environments in our 103-year history. Not only did floating rate assets reprice downward, but we experienced record refinancing of long-term assets. For example, today's market interest rate for 30-year mortgages is at 2.75%, a rate never seen before, and this has impacted top-line revenue for both our loans and investments. Next, as a result of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including record unemployment, there is a great deal of uncertainty as to what will happen to credit quality. In response, we increased our credit loss allowance from $138 million to $192 million, a 39% increase. Lastly, investments we made to improve our client experience, operations and compliance increased operating expenses by $32 million or 11%.\n\n\"In spite of this being an incredibly challenging year, I am very proud of what our team has accomplished and happy to share some of the Company’s accomplishments. First, we achieved record growth in transaction deposit accounts, up $2.7 billion or 38%. Second, our incredible teams produced record loan production of $6.2 billion, up $2.1 billion or 51%. Third,...