Noninterest income increased $102,000, or 59.3%, for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 as compared to the same period in 2020, due primarily to increases of $61,000 and $38,000 in brokered loan fees and ATM and debit card fee income, respectively.
Noninterest expense increased $226,000, or 16.8%, for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 as compared to the same period in 2020. The increase was due primarily to increases in compensation and benefits of $135,000, directors’ compensation expense of $26,000, occupancy and equipment expenses of $25,000, professional fees of $18,000 and deposit insurance premiums of $15,000, partially offset by decreases in data processing expenses of $15,000.
The Company recorded an income tax expense of $17,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, compared to an expense of $52,000 for the same period in 2020 resulting from a reduction in our effective tax rate to 4.3% for 2021 compared to 11.9% for 2020. The decrease in the effective tax rate is due largely to increased tax-exempt investment income proportionate to overall pre-tax income.
Balance Sheet Review
Total assets as of March 31, 2021 were $244.9 million compared to $235.4 million at December 31, 2020. Increases in cash and cash equivalents of $14.1 million were partially offset by decreases in investment securities and net loans. Investment securities decreased $3.4 million due primarily to $2.4 million in scheduled principal payments and maturities of mortgage-backed and tax-exempt securities and a $2.0 million increase in the unrealized loss on available for sale securities, partially offset by the purchase of $1.1 million in available for sale securities. The decrease in net loans was due primarily to decreases of $1.7 million in multi-family residential loans and $1.5 million in commercial real estate loans, partially offset by increases of $1.9 million in commercial business loans. Total liabilities, comprised mostly of deposits, increased $10.6 million to $197.0 million as of March 31, 2021. The increase was due primarily to increases of $9.1 million and $3.0 million in interest-bearing deposits and noninterest-bearing deposits, respectively, partially offset by a decrease of $1.0 million in borrowings from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis.
Credit Quality
Non-performing loans decreased to $971,000 at March 31, 2021 compared to $1.3 million at December 31, 2020, or 0.9% and 1.1% of total loans, respectively. At March 31, 2021, $573,000 or 59.0% of non-performing loans were current on their loan payments. At March 31, 2021, non-performing troubled debt restructured loans totaled $206,000. There was no foreclosed real estate owned at either March 31, 2021 or December 31, 2020.
Based on management’s analysis of the allowance for loan losses, the Company did not record a provision for loan losses for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, compared to a $57,000 provision for loan losses for the same period in 2020. The provision for the current quarter reflects expected credit losses based upon the conditions that existed as of March 31, 2021. The Company recognized net recoveries of $1,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 compared to net charge offs of $14,000 for the same period in 2020. The allowance for loan losses totaled $1.6 million, representing 1.4% of total loans at both March 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020. The allowance for loan losses represented 163.7% of non-performing loans at March 31, 2021, compared to 126.5% at December 31, 2020.
Capital
On May 23, 2018, the President signed into law the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act passed by Congress (the “Act”). The Act contains a number of provisions extending regulatory relief to banks and savings institutions and their holding companies. Effective January 1, 2020, a bank or savings institution electing to use the Community Bank Leverage Ratio (“CBLR”) will generally be considered well-capitalized and to have met the risk-based and leverage capital requirements of the capital regulations if it has a leverage ratio greater than 9.0% (adjusted to 8.0% effective April 1, 2020 and 8.5% effective January 1, 2021). On October 9, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency along with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, published a final rule, effective November 9, 2020, implementing a temporary change to the CBLR framework pursuant to the CARES Act, providing a graduated increase to the 9.0% requirement as established under the