NATURE OF OPERATIONS

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2017

NATURE OF OPERATIONS [Abstract]

NATURE OF OPERATIONS

1.   NATURE OF OPERATIONS

Dime Community Bancshares (the “Company”), is a Delaware corporation headquartered in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The Company was organized in 1996 and is registered as a savings and loan holding company with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System pursuant to section 10(l) of the Home Owners’ Loan Act, as amended. As of June 30, 2017, the Holding Company's direct subsidiaries were Dime Community Bank, 842 Manhattan Avenue Corp., and Dime Community Capital Trust 1. The Company engages in commercial banking and financial services through its wholly-owned banking subsidiary, Dime Community Bank. In 2004, the Company formed Dime Community Capital Trust I as a subsidiary, which issued $72.2 million of 7.0% trust preferred securities, $70.7 million of which remained outstanding at June 30, 2017. The Company’s common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “DCOM.”

Dime Community Bank, a New York-chartered stock savings bank formerly known as The Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh, was founded in 1864 and operates 27 full service retail banking offices located in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, and in Nassau County, New York. The Bank’s principal business is gathering deposits from customers within its market area and via the internet, and investing them primarily in multifamily residential, commercial real estate, mixed use, and, to a lesser extent, commercial and industrial (“C&I”) loans, mortgage-backed securities, obligations of the U.S. government and government sponsored enterprises, and corporate debt and equity securities. The substantial majority of the Bank’s lending occurs in the greater New York City metropolitan area. The Bank has four active subsidiaries, including two real estate investment trusts that hold one- to four-family and multifamily residential and commercial real estate loans; Dime Insurance Agency, which engages in general insurance agency activities; and Boulevard Funding Corporation, which holds and manages real estate.