ended June 30, 2020. Interest and dividend income decreased $976,000, or 8.7%, interest expense decreased $1.1 million, or 50.4%, the provision for loan losses decreased $3.4 million or 150.9%, non-interest income increased $106,000, or 6.1%, while other expenses and taxes increased $2.4 million, or 34.3%, between comparable quarters.
For the six months ended June 30, 2021, net income was $5.9 million, or $0.54 per diluted share, compared to $2.4 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, for the six months ended June 30, 2020. Interest and dividend income decreased by $664,000, or 3.0%, interest expense decreased $2.3 million, or 48.9%, and the provision for loan losses decreased $4.7 million, or 135.2%, resulting in a $6.3 million increase, or 45.4%, in net interest income after the provision for loan losses. Non-interest income increased $787,000, or 23.8% while other non-interest and tax expense increased $3.6 million, or 24.5%, during the equivalent six month timeframes.
Net Interest Income. Net interest income increased $152,000, or 1.7%, to $9.1 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021, compared to $9.0 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. The ratio of average interest-earning assets to average interest-bearing liabilities improved 2.9% to 143.82% while our net interest margin decreased by 15 basis points to 3.26% when comparing the second quarter of 2021 to the same period in 2020.
For the six months ended June 30, 2021, net interest income increased $1.6 million, or 9.3%, to $18.9 million from $17.3 million for the comparable 2020 period. Overall there was a 6 basis point decrease in the net interest margin to 3.45%, when comparing the respective six month periods, while the ratio of average interest-earning assets to average interest-bearing liabilities improved 4.3% to 143.86%.
Interest Income. Interest income decreased $976,000, or 8.7%, to $10.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021 from $11.2 million for the comparable 2020 period. The average yield decreased by 60 basis points to 3.66%, which was offset by an increase in the average balances of interest-earning assets of $65.4 million, or 6.2%, to $1.12 billion.
For the six months end June 30, 2021, interest income decreased $664,000, or 3.0%, to $21.3 million from $22.0 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020. The average yield declined by 57 basis points when comparing the six-month periods ended June 30, 2021 and 2020 to 3.88% for the six months ended June 30, 2021, which was offset by an increase in the average balance of interest-earning assets of $114.5 million, or 11.5%, to $1.11 billion.
In both comparable periods, interest income decreases were mostly driven lower earning asset yields due to lower yielding PPP loans and lower yielding debt securities due to the significant decline in the interest rate environment, partially offset by higher average earning asset balances.
Interest Expense. Interest expense decreased $1.1 million, or 50.4%, from $2.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, to $1.1 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2021. Interest rates on interest-bearing liabilities decreased 62 basis points to an average of 0.57% for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, which was offset by an increase in the average balance of total interest-bearing liabilities of $23.9 million, or 3.2%, to $780.8 million.
For the six months ended June 30, 2021, interest expense decreased $2.3 million, or 48.9%, to $2.4 million from $4.7 million for the comparable 2020 period, as the average yield on interest-bearing liabilities decreased by 68 basis points from the first half of 2020 to 0.62% for the first half of 2021. The decrease in overall cost was partially offset by an increase of $49.7 million, or 6.9%, in the average balances of interest-bearing liability accounts.
Provision for Loan Losses. The provision for loan losses decreased by $3.4 million, or 150.9%, from $2.3 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, to a credit of $1.1 million for the current quarter. The provision decreased by $4.7 million, or 135.2%, from $3.5 million at June 30, 2020 to a credit of $1.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021. The provision increased in 2020 as a result of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic conditions. The credit for both the three months and six months of 2021 was primarily attributable to a decline in loan balances, exclusive of multi-family commercial real estate loans, an improvement in credit quality and an improvement in the general economy as our customers show signs of recovering from the pandemic.
Recoveries outpaced charge-offs for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, totaling $13,000 in net recoveries compared to $303,000 in net charge-offs for the respective period in 2020. For the six-month period ended June 30,