First Defiance reports $5.4M 3rd quarter profit

DEFIANCE — First Defiance Financial Corp. on Monday reported a third quarter profit of $5.4 million, or 54 cents per share, up from $4.1 million, or 36 cents per share, for the same period a year ago.

The company, which owns First Federal Bank of the Midwest and an insurance firm, said its quarterly net interest income, a key measure of a bank’s health, was $17.2 million, compared to $17.6 million for the same period in 2011. First Defiance Financial said its quarterly provision for loan losses totaled $705,000, compared with $3.1 million for the same period a year ago.

“We are extremely pleased with the earnings results this quarter, not just with the strong bottom line number, but with the overall quality behind the earnings. The third quarter highlight was the substantial reduction in the level of provision of loan loss, which helped drive our earnings growth for the quarter,” William J. Small, Chairman,

President, and Chief Executive Officer of First Defiance Financial, said.