Message from Marc

January 2022

The movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, is an all-time classic.

The story of the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan Association parallels Third Federal in its early years, and mirrors the struggles my parents had trying to build and grow a company in the midst of the Depression. The message from both the movie and my parents’ own real life experience is clear: each life we touch is important and meaningful.

Building meaningful relationships with our associates, our customers, the communities we serve, has helped make Third Federal the success story we are today.

Our recently retired Third Federal Foundation Executive Director, Kurt Karakul, embraced those relationships, driving successes for our community partners in the areas of inner city education, housing support and other wraparound services for those in need.

And at Third Federal we continued to focus on each customer relationship, one customer at a time. Despite the challenges this past year brought for many, it was a bright one for our company.

During a time when refinancing continued to dominate, our first mortgage loan originations increased 17 percent from 2020 from $3.08 billion to $3.63 billion, and equity lines of credit commitments increased 34 percent during the year from $1.23 billion to $1.65 billion. Finally, more good news, forbearances dropped 87 percent as our customers managed through the pandemic hardships.

With conviction, we are looking forward to another great year in 2022 as we continue the mission of thrift, home ownership, and enhancing shareholder wealth.

Sincerely,

Marc A. Stefanski
Chairman and CEO