After almost 17 years as CEO, this is the most optimistic I have been on Puerto Rico and OFG.
For our customers, our proprietary digital PPP portal once again facilitated access by small businesses to another $126 million in credit to keep their doors open and staffs employed.
And so far, more than 40% have been inoculated.
Please turn to Page 4.
During the first quarter, we scheduled approximately 8,800 such appointments.
Please turn to page 5 to review our first quarter results.
We reported $0.56 in earnings per share compared to $0.42 in the fourth quarter and breakeven in the year ago quarter, which was the first quarter to be impacted by the pandemic.
Total core revenues were $128 million.
Net interest income of $98 million benefited from PPP loan fees and lower cost of deposits.
Provision was $6.3 million, primarily due to improved economic and credit trends.
Net interest margin picked [Phonetic] up to 4.26% from the fourth quarter.
Banking and wealth management revenues totaled $29 million.
Non-interest expenses totaled $78 million.
The effective tax rate was 32% compared to 22% in the fourth quarter.
Loan production total an impressive $528 million.
In January, we increased the regular quarterly cash dividend -- common cash dividend 14%.
This enables us to effectively deploy excess liquidity and increase net income available to shareholders -- to current shareholders by $6.5 million on an annualized basis.
Stockholders' equity climbed to $1.11 billion.
Please turn to Page 6 for our financial highlights.
First quarter core revenues were $127.7 million.
This compares to $132.8 million in the fourth quarter.
First quarter revenues included $1.6 million in interest income from $92 million of PPP loans that were forgiven.
First quarter revenues included three items: $3.9 million in non-interest income from annual insurance commissions; $3.1 million in interest income from acquired loan prepayments; and $2 million in mortgage sales that were held back from the third quarter.
When you take all that into consideration, core revenues increased $2.3 million or 1.9%.
This was driven by $1.4 million in lower cost of deposits and higher mortgage banking activities.
First quarter non-interest expense totaled $7.7 million.
This compares to $89 million in the fourth quarter.
It also included $1.8 million primarily in gains on sales and improved valuation of foreclosed properties.
The first quarter included $10.1 million in merger and restructuring expenses.
As a result, the efficiency ratio improved to 60.84% from 67.06% in the fourth quarter and 66.49% in the year ago quarter.
Our objective is to return to the mid-50% range.
Return on average assets increased to 1.21% from 94 basis points in the fourth quarter and virtually nil in the year ago quarter.
Our objective continues to be a -- to be on return on average assets above 1%.
Return on average tangible common equity rose to 13.11% compared to 9.99% [Phonetic] in the fourth quarter and virtually nil in the year ago quarter.
Our objective continues to be achieving return on average tangible common equity of above 12%.
Tangible book value was $70.39 per share.
That's an increase of 11.5% year-over-year and 2.5% from the fourth quarter.
The CET1 ratio increased to 13.56%.
Please turn to Page 7 for our operational highlights.
Average loan balances were $6.6 billion, a decline of 1% from the fourth quarter.
Average core deposits were $8.5 billion, an increase of 1% from the first quarter.
As Jose mentioned, loan generation totaled $528 million or $401 million excluding PPP originations.
Loan yield was 6.61%, an increase of 6 basis points from the fourth quarter, largely due to PPP loan forgiveness.
Cost of core deposit was 48 basis points, a decline of 5 basis points from the fourth quarter.
During the first quarter, we acquired $127 million of mortgage-backed securities for our held-to-maturity portfolio.
The result was that NIM increased 2 basis points from the fourth quarter.
Please turn to Page 8.
Total net charge-offs were $9.1 million or 55% of total loans.
This is a decline compared to net charge-off of $44.8 million or 2.67% in the fourth quarter, which included $31.2 million to charge-off to acquire Scotiabank loans that were substantially and previously reserved.
This fell to 0.85% in the first quarter from 1.56% in the fourth quarter and 2.31% in the year ago quarter.
In particular, the early delinquency rate fell to 2.15% in the first quarter from 2.68% in the fourth quarter and 3.16% in the year ago quarter.
Provision declined from $14.2 million in the fourth quarter.
It should be noted that the fourth quarter included $4.7 million to cover the unreserved amount of disclosure loans that we [Technical Issues].
First quarter provision included a reserve release of $3.7 million.
The first quarter also included a provision of $3.5 million for our commercial loan in workout prior to the pandemic.
Please turn to Page 9 for our conclusion.

Summary:
We reported $0.56 in earnings per share compared to $0.42 in the fourth quarter and breakeven in the year ago quarter, which was the first quarter to be impacted by the pandemic.
First quarter core revenues were $127.7 million.