David Pijor
executive
Thank you, Jennifer. I hereby declare that all the director nominees have been duly elected, the resolution that the shareholders of FVCBankcorp, Inc. approve the compensation of the named executive officers has been ratified, and the appointment of Yount, Hyde & Barbour PC has been ratified.
I would now like to briefly report on the financial performance of the company for 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. Slide 3. The company and FVCbank has had a strong calendar 2025 and first quarter 2026.
Slide 3 of the deck indicates the newest physical location of FVCbank, I am pleased to report that in May of 2026, FVCbank opened a loan production office in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Heading up our team in Virginia Beach is Terri Ruby, a lifelong resident of the area. Terri has worked there for entire banking career and brings extensive experience in market expansion, business development and treasury services.
Terri's background includes leadership roles at Blue Ridge Bank, Virginia Community Bank, Monarch Bank and Fulton Bank, where she consistently drove growth and profitability. Slide 3 lists several important financial highlights. As of March 31, 2024, bank reported total assets of $2.34 billion, a 4% increase from the same period in 2025. Notably, the bank's return on average assets reached 1.17%, while our return on average equity reached 10.04% at March 31, 2026.
The bank's net interest margin increased for the ninth consecutive quarter reaching 3.26% at March 31, '26. This represents a 15% increase over the prior year's first quarter number. The bank's tangible book value per share increased at $14.06, a 10.3% increase over the prior year's first quarter numbers.
Slide 4, please. Slide 4 presents a number of technologies employed by your bank. Much of the bank's improved financial performance is the direct result of our disciplined focus on implementing strategically aligned technologies. Slide 4 lists some of these technologies. Our lending functions benefit from a number of cutting-edge technologies, which serve to create efficiency internally and for our many borrowers. I note specifically our automated borrowing base certification tool used by our government contractor clients to efficiently manage their operating lines of credit. And our automated warehouse lending platform, which allows us to manage a very large number of loan transactions under our warehouse facilities.
Last year, for example, we processed over 1,000 loans totaling $427 million using this facility. With respect to treasury functionality, we provide a broad suite of technologies from online deposit account opening to a digital platform that allows the bank's property management and 1031 exchange clients an efficient solution to handle third-party accounts and subaccounts.
Finally, we effectively use enterprise-wide tools to improve our back-office functions. For example, FVCbank through our partnership with KlariVis obtains bank-wide dashboards to enable our employees to have immediate access to client data for better communications with our clients.
Slide 5, please. Slide -- Page 5 contains financial information specifically regarding our most recent quarter ending March 31, 2026. During this quarter, we reported net income increased 24% compared to the year ago quarter. Our diluted earnings per share were $0.35 for the quarter ending March 31, '26 compared to $0.28 per share for the quarter ending March 31 last year, an increase of 25%. The return on average assets for the quarter increased to 1.17% from 0.94% reported for the year ago quarter.
Our core deposits increased 7% from March 31, 2025, while our wholesale deposits decreased by 9% at March 31, '26. Slide 6. Slide 6 lists both Slides 6 and 7 illustrate our bank's strong record of growth and profitability.
Our total loans have increased annually since 2024 and a compounded growth rate of 5.3%, while our total deposits have increased over the same period by a compounded growth rate of 5.5%. The Slide 7 shows our recent net interest margin of 3.26% for the first quarter '26. Again, our net interest margin has increased over the last consecutive 9 calendar quarters. We also note on Slide page 7 that our bank's efficiency ratio has improved substantially over the last 3 years from a high as 64% in calendar 2023, to our current efficiency ratio of 54%.
Slide 8. Finally, it is a special privilege to announce our bank's annual Citizenship Award. Each year at this time, FVCbank identifies one or more nonprofit organizations to award funds from the L. Burwell Gunn Citizenship award to support these organizations ongoing efforts to help the communities we all serve. This year's recipient is a national alliance on mental health Northern Virginia.
Its mission is to serve Northern Virginia individuals, family members and friends affected by mental health challenges through awareness, education, support, advocacy and collaboration with our community partners. Founded in 1977 by 4 families with adult children experiencing mentally illness, NAMI, Northern Virginia is the largest affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental illness in Virginia. Since its founding, NAMINoVa, it's thought for families and individuals impacted by mental health conditions.
It promotes community wellness, breaks down barriers to mental health care and provide support and expertise for families, professionals and individuals throughout Northern Virginia. At NAMI Northern Virginia, they have the courage to believe that healing is possible and believe in the power of hope.
There is no other business to be conducted. This concludes the formal business of our meeting. At this time, I would welcome any questions. Again, you can submit questions and comments by clicking on the Q&A tab.
I would like again to express my sincere appreciation to those shareholders who have joined us today as well as to those who have submitted their proxies, but were not able to attend. The continued success of our bank is attributable in large part by the continued support of our shareholders.
I hereby declare this meeting adjourned.