CENTRAL JERSEY: Roma announces fourth-quarter 2010 earnings

   Roma Financial, the holding company of Roma Bank and RomAsia Bank, has announced its financial condition and results of operations for the three months and year ended Dec. 31, 2010.
   The company’s consolidated net income, for the three months and year was $1.2 million and $5.1 million, respectively. These represented increases of $1.1 million and $2.5 million over the three months and year ended Dec. 31,2009, respectively. The 95.3 percent increase in net income reported for the full year 2010 caused a near doubling of net income per share to $0.17 per share, compared to $0.09 per share last year.
   For the three months and year ended Dec. 31, 2010, net interest income was $13.2 million and $46.1 million, compared to $9.4 million and $33.1 million for the same periods in 2009.
   This represented an increase of 39.3 percent, more than double theincrease reported in 2009.
   Net income in 2010 principally benefited from a $13.0 million improvement in net interest income and was given a boost by the gain on securities held for sale which included a security that had an impairment charge recorded in the last quarter of 2009 on an available for sale equity security.
   Together, this income helped soften the impact of a $3.6 million increase in the provision for loan losses; the expenses associated with the acquisition and merger of Sterling Bank into Roma Bank.