EMPLOYEES' BENEFIT PLAN

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Employees' Benefit Plan [Abstract]

Employees' Benefit Plan [Text Block]

NOTE23 – EMPLOYEES' BENEFIT PLAN

FirstBank provides contributory retirement plans pursuant to Section 1165(e) of the Puerto Rico Internal Revenue Code for Puerto Rico employees and Section 401(k) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code for USVI and U.S. employees (the “Plans”). All employees are eligible to participate in the Plans after three months of service for purposes of making elective deferral contributions and one year of service for purposes of sharing in the Bank's matching, qualified matching, and qualified nonelective contributions.Under the provisions of the Plans, the Bank contributes 25% of the first 4% of the participant's compensation contributed to the Plans on a pretax basis. Participants were permitted to contribute up to $9,000 for 2010, $10,000 for 2011, and $13,000 for 2012, and are permitted to contribute up to $15,000 beginning on January 1, 2013 ($16,500 for 2011 and $17,000 for 2012 for USVI and U.S. employees). Additional contributions to the Plans are voluntarily made by the Bank as determined by its Board of Directors. The Bank had a total plan expense of $0.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2012, $0.6 million for 2011, and $0.6 million for 2010.