Sandy Spring Bancorp posts $6.4M 3Q profit

Posted: 2:43 pm Thu, October 21, 2010
By Ben Mook
Daily Record Business Writer

The parent company of Sandy Spring Bank on Wednesday reported a profit of $6.4 million in the third quarter, up from $5.1 million in the second quarter due to drops in the amount of money set aside for bad loans.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc. also reported a profit for the first nine months of 2010 of $10.8 million. In the third quarter of 2009 the bank reported a loss of $14.8 million. Sandy Spring, which has its headquarters in Olney, is the largest Maryland-based bank.

“Our positive third quarter results provide us with further reason for optimism even as the economy struggles to recover from the recent recession,” Daniel J. Schrider, Sandy Spring president and CEO, said in a statement. “The experience gained during this very challenging economic period has enabled us to emerge as a stronger institution as we remain focused on the business of community banking.”

One of the biggest factors affecting the bank’s bottom line was a reduction in the amount set aside for bad loans. Sandy Spring set aside $2.5 million in the third quarter, compared to $34.5 million in the third quarter of 2009. The bank has set aside a total of $23.6 million for bad loans for the first nine months of the year compared to $55.7 million the first nine months of 2009.

“We took aggressive action early in the credit cycle to identify and resolve problem credits and this is evidenced by the continued downward trend in our non-performing commercial real estate mortgage and construction loans, in addition to commercial business loans,” Schrider said.

Sandy Spring said the company has also repaid $41.5 million of the $83 million it received under the TARP capital purchase program.

Shares of Sandy Spring were down in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq. At 2 p.m., shares of Sandy Spring were trading at $16.49, down 81 cents, or a 4.6 percent.