New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) Lowers Quarterly Dividend 70.6% to $0.05; 1.9% Yield
New York Community Bancorp (NYSE: NYCB) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.05 per share, or $0.2 annualized. This is a 70.6% decrease from the prior dividend of $0.17.
The dividend will be payable on February 28, 2024, to stockholders of record on February 14, 2024, with an ex-dividend date of February 13, 2024.
The annual yield on the dividend is 1.9 percent.
CEO COMMENTARY
"In 2023, New York Community reached an inflection point in its transformation to a dynamic, full-service commercial bank," said President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas R. Cangemi. "We reported an increase in net income available to common stockholders, diversified our balance sheet with commercial loans now representing almost 50% of our total loans, and increased the percentage of non-interest-bearing deposits. In addition, we have made terrific progress integrating Flagstar Bank, meeting every milestone along the way and unveiled a fresh, new re-branding campaign, which will launch shortly after the planned systems conversion is completed in mid-February.
"Shortly after closing the acquisition of Flagstar Bank, we were presented with the unique opportunity to accelerate this transformation when we were selected by the FDIC to purchase certain strategically and financially attractive assets and liabilities of Signature Bank. The benefits of this transaction were abundantly clear, as it strengthened our balance sheet by adding a significant amount of low-cost deposits and a middle-market business supported by over 130 private banking teams. The transaction also put us over $100 billion in total assets, placing us firmly in the Category IV large bank class of banks between $100 billion and $250 billion in assets and subjecting us to enhanced prudential standards, including risk-based and leverage capital requirements, liquidity standards, requirements for overall risk management and stress testing. While we began preparing to be a $100 billion bank almost immediately after closing the Flagstar acquisition, we crossed this important threshold sooner than anticipated as a result of the Signature transaction. Alongside the integration of our three banks and in anticipation of our initial capital plan submission in April of this year, we have pivoted quickly and accelerated some necessary enhancements that come with being a $100 billion-plus Category IV bank.
"With this in mind, during the fourth quarter, we took decisive actions to build capital, reinforce our balance sheet, strengthen our risk management processes, and better align ourselves with the relevant bank peers. We significantly built our reserve levels by recording a $552 million provision for loan losses, bringing our ACL coverage more in line with these peer banks. In addition, we added on-balance sheet liquidity as we prepare for the enhanced prudential standards that apply to banks with $100 billion or more in total assets.
"To this end, we are also building capital by reducing our quarterly common dividend to $0.05 per common share. We recognize the importance and impact of the dividend reduction on all of our stockholders and it was not made lightly. We believe this is the prudent decision as it will allow us to accelerate the building of capital to support our balance sheet as a Category IV bank.
"While these necessary actions negatively impacted our fourth quarter results, we are confident they better align our larger organization with our new peers and provide a solid foundation going forward. We successfully grew into a $50 billion-plus bank in 2018, and we believe the actions we are taking now will make our transition to a $100 billion plus bank even more successful.
"Lastly, I would like to thank all of our teammates for their outstanding work over the past year. We have an amazing team and as always, we truly appreciate their continued commitment to the Company and dedication to our clients, customers, and communities."
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