BayFirst sees loan growth, but remains cautious
January 27, 2023 - St. Petersburg-based BayFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: BAFN), parent company of BayFirst National Bank, reported a net income of $1.3 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2022. The report comes after BayFirst discontinued its mortgage lending division during the prior quarter. "Our ability to achieve our profitability goals will be dependent upon our success in continuing to generate conventional and government guaranteed loans in the current rate environment, as well as our efforts to control non-interest expense and generate deposits at reasonable rates. While we believe our loan loss reserve is well positioned for current economic conditions, deterioration during 2023 could adversely affect our financial performance and condition," CEO Anthony Leo said in a news release, explaining BayFirst expects to return to more normalized levels of profitability this year.