Independent Bank quarterly earnings soar with strong mortgage market

Independent Bank quarterly earnings soar with strong mortgage market
President and CEO Brad Kessel

GRAND RAPIDS — Independent Bank Corp.’s first quarter soared from a year earlier, driven in part by a strong mortgage market.

The Grand Rapids-based Independent Bank (Nasdaq: IBCP) on Tuesday reported $22 million in quarterly net income, or $1 per diluted share, to start 2021. That compares with $4.8 million, or 21 cents per diluted share, in the same period in 2020.

The bank attributed the earnings growth to a $12.8 million net gain on mortgage loans, an increase of more than 45 percent from a year earlier, plus a $474,000 quarterly credit for loan losses, versus a $6.7 million expense in the first quarter of 2020.

The bank’s non-interest income grew to $26.4 million for the quarter, compared to $11 million a year earlier.

“As we continue to navigate the many challenges brought down by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are pleased to report continued strong financial performance for the first quarter of 2021,” President and CEO Brad Kessel told brokerage analysts during a conference call to discuss results. “We continue to execute on our operating plan that we share each quarter. This plan is built around diversified and balanced growth, process improvement and cost controls, talent management and an enterprise-wide risk management framework. We believe following this plan will yield consistent and improving performance metrics over many quarters and many years.”

The bank originated $509 million in mortgage loans during the first quarter and commercial loans grew by $58.8 million to $1.3 billion as of March 31.

Independent Bank has 63 offices in the Lower Peninsula with $4.42 billion in total assets at the end of the first quarter.