From the November issue: Even as national banks and insurance firms reenter the lending arena, community banks are hanging onto the foothold they established in the multi-family market when larger institutions backed away during the financial crisis.

Local banks such as New Jersey–based Investors Bank and New York Community Bank are doing record volumes of lending, spurred on by the strength of New York’s multi-family market, sources told The Real Deal. For the most part, their staying power is thanks to the relationships they built during the dark days of the financial crisis and their willingness to both invest in up-and-coming areas and create customized loans for tricky deals. [more]

Investors Bancorp CEO Kevin Cummings and a Brooklyn Federal Savings branch at 81 Court Street

New Jersey-based Investors Bancorp acquired Brooklyn Federal Bancorp for $10.3 million, Long Island Business News reported, while unloading most of Brooklyn Federal’s commercial real estate loan portfolio to a separate, unnamed, real estate investment fund.

Brooklyn Federal is the parent company of Brooklyn Federal Savings Bank, which has five branches in Brooklyn and Long Island and has $470 million in assets and $411 million in deposits. With Brooklyn Federal in tow, investors will have $10.7 billion in assets, $7.2 billion in deposits and 85 branches in New Jersey, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island.

Brooklyn Federal agreed to the transaction because of the increasing costs of complying with government regulation, such as Dodd-Frank, according to analysts interviewed by LIBN…. [more]