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WaFd Bank Tuesday , April 13 , 2021 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Washington Federal Announces Quarterly Earnings Per Share Of $ 0.56 SEATTLE , WASHINGTON - Washington Federal , Inc. ( Nasdaq : WAFD ) ( the " Company " ) , parent company of Washington Federal Bank , N.A. ( " WaFd Bank " ) , today announced quarterly earnings of $ 44,871,000 for the quarter ended March 31 , 2021 , an increase of 23 % from $ 36,377,000 for the quarter ended March 31 , 2020. After the effect of dividends on preferred stock , net income available for common shareholders was $ 0.56 per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31 , 2021 , compared to $ 0.47 per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31 , 2020 , a $ 0.09 or 19 % increase in fully diluted earnings per common share . Return on common shareholders equity for the quarter ended March 31 , 2021 was 8.17 % compared to 7.19 % for the quarter ended March 31 , 2020. Return on assets for the quarter ended March 31 , 2021 was 0.93 % compared to 0.89 % for the same quarter in the prior year . President and Chief Executive Officer Brent J. Beardall commented , " We want to acknowledge the significant progress made in the vaccine deployment and the resulting decrease in the number of COVID - 19 hospitalizations and deaths . We are thankful for the hard work and sacrifice of so many that has made this possible . One year ago , as we entered this global pandemic , WaFd Bank began planning for the worst and hoping for the best . Many were predicting significant loan losses as the economic hardships of the pandemic impacted both individuals and businesses . We are grateful to report that thus far not only did those losses not materialize , we actually experienced over $ 3 million of net recoveries . An argument could be made portions of our loan portfolio are stronger today than one year ago as real estate values in most of our markets have increased substantially - which translates into lower loan - to - values and therefore , lower risk . 1