Green Bay-based Associated Banc-Corp reported third quarter net income of $45.7 million, or 27 cents per share, compared with $46.4 million, or 26 cents per share in the same period a year ago.
“Despite 1 percent average loan growth in commercial and mortgage lending, continued run-off in home equity, in mortgage warehouse, and in installment loans contributed to flat overall loans. Even with the expected downturn in mortgage banking income, we were pleased to deliver value to shareholders through solid execution in other areas and expense discipline,” said president and chief executive officer Philip Flynn. “We remain focused on our strategies to enhance efficiency and on opportunities for capital deployment.”
Associated Bank is the largest Wisconsin-based bank.
In a conference call with analysts, Flynn noted that the company has become more lean in its back-office operations.
“Yes, so if you go back not too long ago, we had approximately 5,000 FTE (full-time equivalents) in our company. We are down from that peak by, say, about 400 people. Those are just permanent employees of Associated. In addition, particularly in our Mortgage operation, we’ve had a number of contract workers and temporary workers. So we’ve meaningfully, over this past couple, three months, reduced the Mortgage operation, as well as of course other areas as well. So we continue on a path of looking to become more efficient and certainly recognized and have reacted to the decline in mortgage volumes,” Flynn said.
