New York Community Bancorp, Inc. Reports 4th Quarter 2007 Diluted Cash Earnings Per Share of $0.25 and Diluted GAAP and Operating Earnings Per Share of $0.21

Business Wire, Jan 29, 2008

Borrowed funds totaled $12.9 billion at year-end 2007, and were up $837.2 million from the balance at September 30, 2007 and $1.0 billion from the balance recorded at December 31, 2006. The linked-quarter increase was partly due to the Synergy transaction and to an increase in the Company's use of wholesale borrowings. Reflecting the comparative attractiveness of the interest rates on Federal Home Loan Bank of New York ("FHLB-NY") advances, wholesale borrowings rose $968.3 million to $12.2 billion over the course of the current fourth quarter; year-over-year, the balance of wholesale borrowings was up $1.1 billion, or 10.1%, at the end of the year.

Stockholders' Equity

Stockholders' equity totaled $4.2 billion at December 31, 2007, a $150.8 million increase from the balance recorded at September 30, 2007 and a $492.5 million, or 13.3%, increase from the balance recorded at December 31, 2006. The respective amounts were equivalent to 13.68%, 13.42%, and 12.95% of total assets and book values of $12.95, $12.85, and $12.56 per common share. The calculation of book value per share was based on 322,834,839 shares at December 31, 2007 and 313,633,512 shares and 293,890,372 shares, respectively, at the earlier dates.

Tangible stockholders' equity totaled $1.6 billion at December 31, 2007, up $64.5 million and $198.4 million, respectively, from the balances at September 30, 2007 and December 31, 2006. Excluding after-tax net unrealized losses on securities of $14.8 million, adjusted tangible stockholders' equity represented 5.88% of adjusted tangible assets at the end of December 2007; the comparable ratios were 5.74% and 5.66%, respectively, at the earlier dates. Including adjustments, tangible stockholders' equity represented 5.83% of tangible assets at December 31, 2007, up from 5.69% and 5.47% at the earlier dates. The linked-quarter and year-over-year increases in tangible stockholders' equity were attributable to the issuance of shares in connection with the Company's transactions with PennFed and Synergy.(4)

The Company's subsidiary banks also reported solid levels of capital at December 31, 2007, and continued to exceed the requirements for classification as "well capitalized" institutions under the FDIC Improvement Act. At the end of the year, New York Community Bank had a leverage capital ratio of 7.69% and New York Commercial Bank had a leverage capital ratio of 9.10%.

Earnings Summary for the Fourth Quarter of 2007

In the fourth quarter of 2007, the Company recorded GAAP earnings of $67.4 million and operating earnings of $67.5 million. The Company's fourth quarter 2007 GAAP earnings were reduced by two non-cash charges that were recorded in operating expenses: an after-tax charge of $2.1 million for the allocation of Employee Stock Ownership Plan ("ESOP") shares in connection with the PennFed and Synergy merger transactions (the "merger-related charge"); and an after-tax charge of $650,000 relating to the Company's membership interest in Visa U.S.A., a Visa, Inc. subsidiary (the "Visa litigation charge"), as further described below. The combined impact of the aforementioned non-cash charges was largely offset by a tax benefit of $2.6 million that stemmed from certain tax audit developments with various tax jurisdictions (the "benefit of tax audit developments").