NATURE OF OPERATIONS

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2018

1.	NATURE OF OPERATIONS

Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (the “Holding Company” and together with its direct and indirect subsidiaries, the “Company”) is a Delaware corporation organized by Dime Community Bank (f/k/a The Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh) (the “Bank”) for the purpose of acquiring all of the capital stock of the Bank issued in the Bank’s conversion to stock ownership on June 26, 1996. At June 30, 2018 the significant assets of the Holding Company were the capital stock of the Bank and investments retained by the Holding Company. The liabilities of the Holding Company were comprised primarily of $113,686 subordinated notes due in 2027, which become callable commencing in 2022. The Company is subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

The Bank was originally founded in 1864 as a New York State-chartered mutual savings bank, and currently operates as a New York State-chartered stock savings bank. Effective August 1, 2016, the Bank changed its name from The Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh to Dime Community Bank. The new name more accurately reflects the Bank’s evolving business model and emphasizes its broader geographic and business reach while retaining the Bank’s mission to be in and of the communities it serves, including the virtual online community. 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 an increasing 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 Holding Company neither owns nor leases any property, but instead uses the administrative offices of the Bank, located in the Brooklyn Heights section of the borough of Brooklyn, New York. The Bank maintains its principal office in the Williamsburg section of the borough of Brooklyn, New York. As of June 30, 2018, the Bank had twenty-nine retail banking offices located throughout the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, and in Nassau County and Suffolk County, New York.