JERICHO, N.Y., Oct. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (ESQ) (the "Company"), the holding company for Esquire Bank, National Association ("Esquire Bank"), today announced its operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019.

Significant achievements during the quarter include:

• Net income increased to $3.8 million, or $0.49 per diluted share, for the current quarter compared to net income of $3.5 million, or $0.45 per diluted share for the quarter ended June 30, 2019.
• Returns on average assets and common equity were 2.01% and 14.58%, respectively, as compared to 1.89% and 14.04% for the trailing quarter ended June 30, 2019.
• Supported by a strong net interest margin of 4.82%, net interest income for the third quarter increased $1.5 million, or 20%, to $8.7 million compared to the same period in 2018.
• Total assets increased 19% annualized, or $95.8 million, to $759.7 million when compared to December 31, 2018.
• Loans increased 19% annualized, or $65.8 million, from December 31, 2018, to $533.9 million, primarily driven by our higher yielding commercial loan portfolio.
• Continued solid asset quality metrics with 0.20% in nonperforming loans to total loans and an allowance for loan losses to total loans of 1.26% at September 30, 2019.
• Merchant services fees increased 153% to $3.3 million compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2018. Total fee income represented 28.4% of total revenue for the quarter.
• Efficiency ratio improved to 54.0% for the third quarter of 2019 compared to 55.7% for the second quarter of 2019.
• Deposits totaled $644.5 million, a $76.1 million, or 18% annualized increase from December 31, 2018 with a cost of funds of 0.44% (including demand deposits). This growth was driven by our litigation and merchant platforms.
• Average demand deposits represent approximately 40% of our average total deposits for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019.
• Esquire Bank remains well above the bank regulatory "Well Capitalized" standards.

"Our lending and merchant platforms continue to grow, driving strong performance metrics despite the current interest rate environment and economic outlook," stated Tony Coelho, Chairman of the Board. "We will continue to invest resources in both verticals."

"We continue to experience strong growth in our litigation platform despite excess liquidity in the alternative litigation finance market," stated Andrew C. Sagliocca, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Third Quarter Earnings

Net income for the quarter ended September 30, 2019 was $3.8 million, or $0.49 per diluted share, compared to $1.7 million, or $0.22 per diluted share for the same period in 2018. Returns on average assets and common equity for the current quarter were 2.01% and 14.58% compared to 1.07% and 7.66% for the same period of 2018. The prior year quarterly results included a one-time $859 thousand after tax compensation charge. Excluding this charge net income was $2.5 million, or $0.33 per diluted share in 2018. Returns on average assets and common equity were 1.62% and 11.57% excluding the compensation charge.

Net interest income for the third quarter of 2019 increased $1.5 million, or 20.2%, to $8.7 million, primarily due to growth in average interest earning assets totaling $113.0 million, or 18.6%, to $720.4 million when compared to the same period in 2018. Our net interest margin increased to 4.82% for the third quarter of 2019 compared to 4.75% in 2018. Average loans in the quarter increased $112.3 million, or 27.0%, to $528.3 million when compared to the third quarter of 2018. Loan growth was primarily driven by commercial loans representing organic growth funded with core deposits (total deposits excluding certificates of deposit). Core deposits represent 96.9% of total deposits at September 30, 2019 while our loan-to-deposit ratio was 82.8%.

The provision for loan losses was $425 thousand for the third quarter of 2019, a $25 thousand decrease from the comparable period in 2018. As of September 30, 2019, Esquire had nonperforming loans to total loans of 0.20%.

Noninterest income increased $1.7 million, or 93.1%, to $3.5 million for the third quarter of 2019 as compared to third quarter 2018. Our merchant services platform experienced strong growth, offset by decreased administrative service payment ("ASP") fees on off-balance sheet funds. Merchant processing income increased $2.0 million or 152.6% compared to the third quarter of 2018. This increase was due to the expansion of our sales channels through independent sales organizations ("ISOs"), merchants and additional fee allocation arrangements as we continue to focus on prudently growing this source of stable fee income. Other noninterest income, consisting primarily of ASP fee income, declined by $309 thousand compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2018. Our ASP fee income is impacted by the volume and duration of off-balance sheet funds as well as short-term interest rates.

Noninterest expense increased $274 thousand, or 4.3%, to $6.6 million for the third quarter of 2019 as compared to the third quarter of 2018. Excluding the aforementioned one-time pretax compensation charge totaling $1.2 million, noninterest expense increased $1.4 million for the third quarter of 2019. This increase was driven by increases in employee compensation and benefits, professional and consulting services and data processing costs. Employee compensation and benefits costs increased due to an increase in the number of employees as well as the impact of year end salary increases. Professional and consulting costs increased due to our IT enterprise-wide architecture assessments and other pre-development IT costs. Data processing costs were higher due to increased processing volume primarily driven by our core banking platform as well as additional costs related to certain system implementations. The Company's efficiency ratio continued to improve to 54.0% for the three months ended September 30, 2019 as compared to 56.8% for the same period ended 2018.

Leading Welsh commercial law firm Acuity Law has agreed a £10 million litigation funding facility with the UK’s largest litigation funder by volume, Augusta Ventures.

From its headquarters in Cardiff and offices in Swansea and London, Acuity provides legal advice to a portfolio of national and international business clients. The preferred arrangement offers Acuity’s clients competitive funding rates, with a time-efficient process in place to ensure effective decision making. Under the terms of the facility, Augusta will fund the full cost of pursuing a claim, including legal fees and expert witness costs and other agreed disbursements. This arrangement provides Acuity’s clients with 'non-recourse' funding, ensuring claimants are not called on to repay in the event their claim is unsuccessful. Augusta only recovers its investment from any sums received from defendants.

Hugh Hitchcock, Head of Litigation at Acuity, said: "Acuity has established its reputation as a leading UK litigation law firm. We’ve been delighted to serve an increasing number of clients over recent years, and this deal with Augusta further differentiates our offering to clients in Wales and across the UK. We are now able to help clients pursue meritorious cases that otherwise may not have proceeded due to financial constraints.”

Robert Hanna, Managing Director at Augusta, said: “We are delighted to be working with Wales’s leading litigation firm, Acuity Law, on providing funding for their clients’ disputes. Augusta has built a market-leading reputation for our team and processes, which enable access to justice. We are looking forward to offering these to Acuity’s clients to help them secure the funding they need to pursue meritorious claims.”

Acuity Law has recently been recognised in the Wales Legal Awards as both the Commercial Litigation Team of The Year and the overall Legal Team Of The Year. Acuity Law is a new model law company that is enjoying rapid and successful growth. With a team of over 100 lawyers and expanding, Acuity last year advised on over 100 UK-based transactions with an aggregate value of over £1.5 billion. Acuity Law specialises in high value and complex commercial disputes.

Augusta has recently announced a further $115m fundraising from a multi-billion-dollar US-based investment manager. This follows a £150m fundraising from a global investment fund in 2018, to finance business growth and investment in funding cases.

Augusta has also recently announced hirings into its senior team with the arrival of Proskauer Director Polly Bahl as Chief Operating Officer, FTI Consulting Managing Director Leor Franks as Chief Marketing Officer and Ardonagh Group’s Chief Counsel Frances Coats as General Counsel. These additions reflect Augusta’s ongoing growth and increasing client demand for dispute and litigation funding.

About Acuity:

• Founded in 1999, Acuity Law is a commercial law firm headquartered in Cardiff and with offices in Swansea and London.
• Acuity is an award-winning firm whose most recent accolades include Law Firm of the Year (Wales) at the Legal 500 Awards 2019 and Litigation Team and Legal Team of the Year at the Wales Dealmakers Awards 2019.
• Acuity are specialists in providing corporate (M&A’, disposals, joint venture and partnering arrangements, management buy-outs and management buy-ins, private equity and venture capital investments and business transfers and restructuring), commercial, litigation, real estate, employment and tech advice.
• Acuity’s corporate and commercial and TMT teams were ranked tier 1 in this year’s edition of the Legal 500.

About Augusta:

- Established in 2013, Augusta is the largest litigation and dispute funding institution in the UK by # case. Augusta’s scale enables us to make decisions in market-leading timeframes and fund cases of any size. - Augusta is organised into a series of specialist practice groups: Arbitration, Class Action, Competition, Consumer, Intellectual Property and Litigation, and sectors including Financial Services and Construction & Energy. - By the end of H12019, Augusta had funded 213 claims with a market-leading win ratio of over 80%. - Augusta has offices in London, Sydney, Melbourne and Toronto.

• funding and management of disputes, and international enforcement of judgments and awards (including against sovereigns in all continents)
• enforcement of non-performing loans of banks and subrogation claims of insurance companies
• world-first After-the-Event cost protection cover in cost-shifting jurisdictions.

LONDON 14 October 2019, Woodsford Litigation Funding, the global provider of litigation financing solutions for businesses, individuals and law firms, has announced further expansion of its international executive team with the appointment of Adam Erusalimsky to the position of Senior Investment Officer, Alex Hickson as Investment Officer and Daniel Littman as Commercial Manager. All three will be based at Woodsford’s London HQ.

Adam, a seasoned litigator who joins Woodsford from Stewarts and Alex, who joins from Slater & Gordon, will be part the underwriting team led by Charlie Morris, focusing on cases in the UK and EMEA, including class and group actions, IP claims and general commercial disputes. Daniel will join the commercial team led by Woodsford’s Commercial and Finance Director, Mark Spiteri. Daniel will focus on structuring and negotiating litigation funding and law firm finance deals globally.

These appointments are a graphic illustration of the rapidly increasing deal flow at Woodsford. And the recruitment push in new (Canada) and existing (Singapore) markets illustrates how the business is not resting on its laurels.

“Our business continues to grow and succeed because we have a winning combination of high quality capital and high quality professionals. Particularly following last year’s injection of significant further capital by our shareholders, Adam, Alex and Daniel complete the ingredients for a successful litigation finance business” said Steven Friel, Woodsford’s CEO.

Woodsford’s new Senior Investment Officer, Adam Erusalimsky commented, “It’s tremendously exciting to be joining one of the world’s leading litigation funders at a time when it is growing so quickly. I am really looking forward to playing my part in taking Woodsford to the next level.”

About Woodsford Litigation Funding

Founded in 2010 and with a presence in London, Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York, Singapore, Brisbane and Tel Aviv, Woodsford Litigation Funding provides tailored litigation financing solutions for businesses, individuals, and law firms. This includes both single case and portfolio litigation funding and arbitration funding. Woodsford’s Executive team blends extensive business experience with world-class legal expertise. Woodsford is a founder member of the Association of Litigation Funders of England and Wales (ALF). Woodsford’s Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan Barnes, was recently re-elected to the board of ALF for a further three years.