Kearny Financial – KRNY – To Suspend July Dividend

Kearny Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: KRNY) announced that the KRNY’s Board of Directors has determined not to pay its next scheduled quarterly dividend in July 2012 because of the onerous requirements imposed by the Federal Reserve Board on dividend waivers by the Company’s mutual holding company parent, Kearny MHC.

Craig L. Montanaro, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “The new Federal Reserve regulations would require annual member approval of dividends, a procedure which we estimate would cost us between $300,000 to $600,000 per year. Without the dividend waiver, the Company would be required to pay dividends to Kearny MHC at the same rate they are paid to public stockholders resulting in the payment of over $2.5 million to Kearny MHC each quarter. In addition, Kearny MHC would incur significant tax liability on the receipt of this dividend income. The Board of Directors is hopeful that the industry’s ongoing discussions with the Federal Reserve staff will result in less burdensome options but, in the meantime, has determined not to pay the July dividend. Future dividends will be evaluated on a quarterly basis.”

Kearny Financial Corp. is the holding company for Kearny Federal Savings Bank, which operates from its administrative headquarters building in Fairfield, New Jersey, and 41 retail branch offices located in Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, Morris, Middlesex, Monmouth, Essex, Union and Ocean Counties, New Jersey.

About Kearny Financial Corp. – KRNY

Kearny Financial Corp. (KRNY) is a holding company for Kearny Federal Savings Bank (the Bank), a Federally-Chartered stock savings bank. The Company operates from an administrative headquarters in Fairfield, New Jersey and had 40 branch offices as of June 30, 2011. KRNY’s primary business is the ownership and operation of the Bank. The Bank is principally engaged in the business of attracting deposits from the general public at its 40 locations in New Jersey and using these deposits, together with other funds, to originate or purchase loans for its portfolio and invest in securities. Loans originated or purchased by the Bank generally include loans collateralized by residential and commercial real estate augmented by secured and unsecured loans to businesses and consumers. The investment securities purchased by the Bank generally include United States agency mortgage-backed securities, the United States government and agency debentures and bank-qualified municipal obligations.

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Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.