Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders with Vineland Bancorp Inc. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. During the meeting, you will have a question and answer session. You can submit a written question at any time by clicking on the message icon at the top Guests will not be able to submit questions. Please also note that all participants are in a listen only mode.
If you experience technical difficulties during the meeting, please click on the support link on the broadcast screen. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Roberto Horancias, Chairman of the Board. Mr. Horinthia, the floor is yours.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to BioN Bancorp's 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I am Roberto Herencia, Chairman of the Board of Byland, and I call this annual meeting to order. We wish we could celebrate this meeting in person, but we place the highest priority in keeping people safe and healthy during this crisis. We appreciate your flexibility during the COVID-nineteen pandemic and the fact that you're joining this meeting virtually.
Our most heartfelt welcome and thank you to all Byline shareholders from around the world who join us today. Joining me on the line is Alberto Parracini, Director, President and Chief Executive Officer Lindsay Corby, Executive Vice President of the Company and Chief Financial Officer and Ana Casanueva, Associate General Counsel and Secretary of the Board, who will also serve as Secretary for this annual meeting. Also in attendance today are our fellow members of the Board of Directors, Mary Jo Hersepp, Antonio Dalvalier Perroceana, Philip Cabrera, Stephen Kent, William Kissner, Robert Yohanan and Stephen Roll. I would also like to recognize the participation of Chad Flaherty and Gabe Nashand, representatives of Moss Adams, the company's independent registered public accounting firm and Jennifer King from the law firm Better Price. I would like to take a moment to thank first responders and healthcare professionals across the globe.
Their dedication, compassion and resilience during these exceptionally challenging times have been nothing short of inspiring. The pandemic has already hit us at the most personal level. Jaime Ruiz Sacristan, one of our founding directors, passed away on Easter Sunday in Mexico City from complications of COVID-nineteen. Jaime was an extraordinary human being and contributed to Byline at the very highest levels as Chairman of the Governance and Nominating Committee and a key member of the bank's Credit Committee, to name a few. We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss and remain grateful for his contribution and guidance.
Jaime, the Director, will be greatly missed at Byline. Jaime, our friend, will always be remembered. 2020 will be a challenging year. As a result of the pandemic, we expect the financial condition of our borrowers to be stressed. Most economic forecasts put the U.
S. Unemployment rate on a trajectory to reach levels last seen during the Great Depression. Loan losses will depend on how quickly the country and more specifically, the Chicago market can control the spread of the pandemic and ease restrictions on business activity and also how effective federal relief legislation will be in cushioning the blow. We come to this inflection point, however, from a position of strength. Byline's capital ratios stand well above the regulatory definition of well capitalized and exceed the median of our peers.
We carried extra capital for growth and acquisitions, which we can use defensively now to support our customers. Our ability to model stress testing and do regular deep credit dives into our specialty lines of business are robust and in line with the sophistication and governance typically seen in banks greater than 10,000,000,000 We would be remiss if we did not mention our experienced Board and management teams. They were hands on during the Great Recession and have experienced managing and overseeing banks in stress environments with great appreciation for risk management designed to mitigate the type of tail credit risk this pandemic could unfold. I need to acknowledge an important statement made by the Board of Directors of BioLine and published last Friday in our intranet calling for change, justice and the end of racism in the aftermath of the death of yet another black man at the hands of law enforcement. Tone at the top matters more than ever, and we are committed to driving and supporting change to barriers that deny access and opportunity within communities of color.
At BioLine, we know that our greatest asset is our people. We are a company of talented individuals of different races, ethnicities, backgrounds and experiences. This is our strength and we embrace it. We also know that maintaining and nurturing a culture of diversity and inclusion can be fragile if not attended to and nurtured. It is now my distinct pleasure to introduce our President and Chief Executive Officer, Alberto Parracini.
Thank you, Roberto, and good morning, everyone. I am Alberto Parracini, Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of the company. First, I want to let you know that our thoughts are with all families impacted by the COVID-nineteen virus from both a health and economic perspective. We are grateful for the outstanding work of our people during the crisis and throughout 2019. We consider people to be our greatest asset and this resonates now more than ever given the essential nature of our business and having so many employees on the frontline serving customers during the current pandemic.
Now I would like to walk you through some of our numbers for 2019. We closed 2019 with $5,500,000,000 in assets, $3,800,000,000 in loans, dollars 4,100,000,000 in deposits and $750,000,000 in total stockholders' equity, all measures having grown at least 10% over the previous year. Net income was a record $57,000,000 for the year, up nearly 40% from 2018. Return on average assets and return on average tangible common equity were 1.08% and 11.8%, respectively. Excluding merger related charges and the other unusual items, which we consistently disclose and reconcile, adjusted net income for 2019 was 62,100,000 dollars and adjusted return on average assets and return on average tangible common equity were 1.18% and 12.8%, respectively.
In addition, we initiated the payment of a small common dividend on our common stock during the 4th quarter. We had solid growth in our loan portfolio, which increased 26.7% over 2018 and is a testament to the long term value and alignment of the acquisitions we've made to help drive organic growth. We expanded our portfolio of niche businesses and added key talent within our Commercial Banking Group and remain the number one SBA lender in Illinois and Wisconsin and the 5th largest lender nationwide. Deposit growth continues to be a priority for us. Non interest bearing deposits represented 30.9% of total deposits, with particularly strong performance in our business accounts.
Our deposits per branch increased to $68,000,000 up $4,000,000 from 2018 $24,000,000 from 2017, as we continue to rightsize the branch network and pursue strategic consolidation and repurposes of branches to better align with customer behavior and preferences. Despite intense banking competition in the Chicago market, we finished the year with a net interest margin 4.47% versus 4.6% in 2018, above the median for our peer banks. Our efficiency ratio improved to 61.09 percent in 2019 from 65.15 percent in 2018, while the adjusted efficiency ratio was slightly better in 2019 at 58.5% versus 59.8% in the previous year. As we look to the challenging year ahead, we're confident in the talent of our team, the dedication of all byliners and the risk management framework we've built, all anchored by our vision, mission and the things that matter in order to weather the uncertainty created by the pandemic and to capitalize on opportunities that almost always appear in the most difficult times to create a better and brighter future for all of our stakeholders. We remain confident in our ability to respond intelligently and compassionately during these challenging times.
We're up to the task and intent on being the bank our customers deserve. I will now turn it back to the Chairman of the Board, Roberto Herencia.
Thank you, Alberto. As is now our custom, we will conduct the business portion of this meeting first and answer questions at the end of the meeting. If you have logged into the meeting as a stockholder with your control number, you may submit a question by typing the same in the Ask a Question text box on your screen. To assure that we receive your questions before the Q and A session, we encourage you to submit your questions now. The first formal item of business is the election of 9 director nominees to serve as a 1 year to serve a 1 year term until the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until their successors are duly elected and qualified.
The Board of Directors recommends a vote for each nominee to the Board. The second formal item of business is the ratification of the appointment of Moss Adams LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. The Board recommends a vote for the ratification, the appointment of Moss Adams. I would now like to introduce Anna Casanova, BioLine's Corporate Secretary, who is also acting as Secretary of the Annual Meeting and has been duly appointed as the Inspector of Election at this Annual Meeting to report them the results of the 2 formal items of business.
Thank you, Roberto. The company's record show that stockholders owning in excess of a majority of the outstanding shares of the company's common stock entitled to vote at the meeting are present in person or by proxy. As a result, I declare that a quorum is present at the meeting. I would like to read and seek approval of the minutes of the company's 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
Ms. Casa Nueva, I, Roberto Orencia, submit a motion to waive the reading of the minutes and approve the minutes of the 2019 meeting.
I, Lindsay Corby, second the motion.
The minutes of the 2019 Annual Stockholders Meeting are approved. They will be available for your review at the Office of the Secretary of the Board of Directors. We will now proceed with a description of the matters properly brought before today's meeting. The first item of business is the election of 9 director nominees to serve a 1 year term until the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until their succession are duly elected and qualified. The following persons have been nominated by the Board as nominees for election as Directors of the company at the meeting: Roberto Herencia, Mary Jo Herrsett, Philip Cabrera, William Kiesner, Alberto Paracini, Antonio del Valle Perroccena, Steve Kent, Steve Rowe and Robert Yohanan.
Directors are elected by a plurality of votes of the shares present in person or represented by the proxy at the meeting and entitled to vote on the election of directors. Accordingly, the director nominees receiving the most votes of the holders of Byline's stock will be elected as Directors. I, Ana Casanueva, as Inspector of Election, declare that each of the Director nominees has received a plurality of votes of the shares of Byland's common stock, and each director nominee has been duly elected to serve a 1 year term until the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The second item of business is the ratification of the appointment of Moss Adams LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. Approval of this proposal requires the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the shares of Byline's common stock, present in person or represented by proxy at the meeting and entitled to vote on the proposal.
As Inspector of Election, I declare that a majority of the shares of Byline's common stock have voted in favor of this proposal, and therefore, Moss Adams LLP is appointed as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. The final voting results of the matters properly brought to your attention at this meeting will be reported in a Form 8 ks to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within the next 4 business days. I would like to turn the meeting over to Roberto Herencia, Chairman of the Board.
Thank you, Anna, and congratulations to each of the nominees and to Moss Adams. We have no other formal items of business to be conducted at the Annual Meeting. And accordingly, I am adjourning the formal part of the meeting. We will now move to the question and answer session, where questions of general nature may be addressed. As previously mentioned, if you've logged into the meeting within with your control number, you may ask a question.
We have not received any questions. Therefore, I am going to adjourn the meeting. Thank you all for your participation and for your continued support. Stay safe. Thank you.
This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.