Bangor Savings reports growth Income up 27% due to expansion

BANGOR – Bangor Savings Bank experienced financial growth during the last year while expanding its holdings into central Maine and purchasing a payroll services business.

In its annual report, released Monday, the bank stated net income of $9.25 million, a 27.1 percent increase over last year, and net assets of $1.418 billion, up 5.5 percent over last year. Total loans and leases were $1.132 billion, up 2.2 percent, and total deposits were $1.068 billion, up 3.1 percent.

Interest and dividend income was down, to $85 million from $94.2 million, a “sign of the times” of low consumer interest rates, said P. James Dowe Jr., president and chief executive officer, in an interview before the company’s annual meeting Monday night in Bangor.

“The bank is in very sound condition, especially given the economic uncertainty that we’re in,” he said.

Dowe acknowledged that part of the reason for the bank’s growth was its expansion into Augusta and Waterville. A Hampden branch also was opened in the last year. He said the expansions were the bank’s “continued attempt to move where there’s more people and more prosperity.”

“We’re doing what we need to do to have a healthy Maine-based bank,” Dowe said. “New branches and new growth support people here.”

Bangor Savings Bank employs 550 people, most of them in the Bangor area, and has 42 branches.

About a year ago, Bangor Savings Bank acquired Advanced Payroll Plus, a move designed to add another service to the bank’s diversified portfolio of securities brokerage, insurance and corporate services, Dowe said.

Dowe, along with board chairman David M. Carlisle, said the bank adheres to “sound corporate governance practices,” even though the bank is not required by law to abide by the recently implemented Sarbanes-Oaxley Act. The law requires that companies listed with the Securities and Exchange Commission personally account for the accuracy of their financial statements.

Carlisle said Bangor Savings Bank is not a publicly traded company but had been practicing its own form of corporate governance well before Congress passed the law. He said the bank’s board primarily is composed of independent observers, instead of employees, who meet every month to oversee and question the operations.

During the coming year, the bank will continue to seek opportunities to diversify its holdings, Dowe said, and it will continue to support community activities by giving more than $600,000 annually to nonprofit organizations and other functions, such as the Special Olympics and the Race for the Cure.