TCF Financial reports 20 percent jump in profit

Profit at TCF Financial rose 20 percent in the first quarter to $48 million, the bank said Thursday, due chiefly to growth in the company's national inventory, equipment and auto-lending businesses.

The Wayzata-based company said its profit amounted to 26 cents a share, up from 21 cents a year ago.

"We continued to emphasize our four strategic pillars of diversification, profitable growth, operating leverage and core funding, in all areas of the organization," Craig Dahl, TCF's chief executive, said in a statement.

He noted that loan growth is driving an increase in revenue, which rose 6.6 percent in the quarter. The company's loan quality is improving as net charge-offs and delinquencies as a percentage of all loans both decreased.

The bank is also becoming more efficient, said Dahl, by replacing 33 in-store branches at Jewel-Osco in Chicago with ATMs.

The overall economic outlook turned brighter in March, Dahl said, affirming that early first-quarter market sentiment is unreliable.

"There was a lot more skepticism generally on the economy in January and February and we've seen our numbers pretty much true up here through the first quarter," he said.

"We have not loosened our credit standards, and we have not lowered our pricing hurdles," Dahl said. "We still feel good about our auto business."

TCF, a $20.9 billion-asset bank with a 92-year history in the Twin Cities, has almost 3,000 employees in Minnesota.