Pathfinder Bancorp Q4 profit jumps 52 percent

OSWEGO, N.Y. — Pathfinder Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBHC), parent of Pathfinder Bank, reported Monday that its net income rose nearly 52 percent to $834,000, or 19 cents a share, in the fourth quarter from $550,000, or 13 cents, in the year-ago period.

The rise “was primarily the result of the increase in net interest income due to the increase of average interest-earning asset balances and the decrease in the average cost of interest-bearing liabilities between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2013,” the Oswego–based banking company said in its earnings report.

Those increases were partially offset by a $221,000 increase in noninterest expenses and a $227,000 increase in the provision for income taxes, the report stated.

Pathfinder produced net income of $2.7 million in 2014, up more than 12 percent from $2.4 million in 2013. 

“The 2014 year was an important and historic year in the 155 year history of Pathfinder Bank, as its parent holding completed a successful second step conversion from its mutual holding company form of ownership to a fully publicly held institution raising net common capital of $24.9 million,” Tom Schneider, president and CEO of Pathfinder, said in the earnings report. “More significantly, organic growth within the Bank’s loan portfolio continues to positively impact revenue and net income.”

Pathfinder Bank, a New York chartered savings bank headquartered in Oswego, has eight full-service branch offices located in Oswego County and northern Onondaga County, plus a business banking office that opened in downtown Syracuse in the fourth quarter.

Through its subsidiary, Pathfinder Risk Management Company, Inc., the bank owns a 51 percent interest in the FitzGibbons Agency, LLC.

Pathfinder Bancorp had total assets of $561 million at the end of 2014, up from nearly $504 million a year prior.