Net Income for Year Down 8% for Pioneer Bancorp

With increased overhead costs and fewer investment tax credits, Pioneer Bancorp, the holding company for Pioneer Bank in Fullerton, reported that net income last year declined 8% to $441,454 from $480,062.

“We didn’t have a lot of investment tax credits in 1985 that we had in 1984,” said Richard B. Boyle, president and chief executive of the bank. “We also moved to a new headquarters in Fullerton and opened a new branch in Santa Ana. That takes its toll on overhead.”

But the bank, Pioneer Bancorp’s sole asset, showed strong growth in other areas. At the end of the year, total deposits rose 87% to $78.5 million from $42 million, and total loans jumped 51% to $55.3 million from $36.6 million.

Assets on Dec. 31 were $84.1 million, a 76% increase from $47.6 million a year earlier. But Boyle said part of that total was based on $12 million in short-term deposits that title and escrow companies put in on the last day of the year and took out within two weeks. He said average assets for the year were $72 million, a 51% increase.

The bank’s ratio of capital to assets at the end of the year was 6.9%, based on the $84.1 million figure, or 7.9%, based on the $72 million average. Federal regulators require that banks maintain a 6% ratio.

At a recent board meeting, directors declared a 10% stock dividend for shareholders of record on Feb. 28. The dividend will be distributed March 31.

In other actions, Boyle said, Gordon Bagne of Tustin, president of Plasticolor Molded Products Inc. in Fullerton, was named to the boards of directors of both Pioneer Bancorp and Pioneer Bank, filling vacancies created by the resignation earlier this year of Gerald Dicker, a shopping center developer.

The bank also hired Teresa A. Haughey of Laguna Niguel as vice president and operations manager of the Fullerton office, replacing Karen Lennartz, who resigned.