Earnings fall for Bank Mutual as it books expenses for merger

Third-quarter earnings fell almost 14% for Bank Mutual Corp. as revenue from loan fees and mortgage banking decreased and the company booked nearly $1.3 million in expenses related to its pending merger with Associated Banc-Corp.

Brown Deer-based Bank Mutual, which with $2.7 billion in assets, is the third-largest bank headquartered in Wisconsin, posted net income of about $3.8 million, or eight cents per share in the third quarter. That compared with $4.5 million, or 10 cents per share, in the third period of 2016.

“Excluding the after-tax effect of $1.3 million in expenses related to our pending merger with Associated, our earnings would have increased slightly in the third quarter of 2017 compared to the same quarter last year,” David A. Baumgarten, president and chief executive of Bank Mutual, said in a statement. “We continue to be pleased with the year-over-year growth in our loans and the expansion of our net interest margin, although we continue to struggle a bit with our sources of non-interest income, which has declined in 2017.”