NATURE OF OPERATIONS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

NATURE OF OPERATIONS [Abstract]

NATURE OF OPERATIONS

1.  NATURE OF OPERATIONS

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 (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 December 31, 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 $113,759 subordinated notes payable maturing in 2027, and become callable commencing 2022. The Company is subject to the financial 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, and one-to-four family residential real estate loans, as well as mortgage-backed securities, obligations of the U.S. government and government- sponsored enterprises (“GSEs”), and corporate debt and equity securities.

The Holding Company neither owns nor leases any property, but instead uses the back office 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 December 31, 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, New York.