Chesapeake Financial Shares Inc., parent company of both Chesapeake Bank and Chesapeake Wealth Management, reported earnings of $10,119,738 for the 2023 calendar year, representing a 42.6 percent decrease from 2022 earnings, according to Chesapeake Chairman of the Board and CEO Jeffrey M. Szyperski.

The reported earnings per share were $2.151 fully diluted as compared to $3.730 in 2022. Chesapeake Financial Shares ended the year on Dec. 31, 2023 with total assets of $1,471,046,795, a 10.7 percent increase over year-end 2022. Nonperforming assets were 0.255 percent as of Dec. 31, 2023 compared to 0.539 percent at Dec. 31, 2022.

“2023 was a challenging year for Chesapeake Financial Shares as well as our industry,” Szyperski said. “By far the primary cause of our lower performance as compared to 2022 was the tightening of our net interest margin. We anticipate this to greatly improve once interest rates normalize. Our specialty lines of business accounted for over 40 percent of our...