BURR RIDGE, Ill., March 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BankFinancial Corporation (Nasdaq:BFIN) announced today that its Board of Directors has extended the expiration date of the Company's share repurchase authorization from June 30, 2018 to April 30, 2019, and has increased the number of shares that can be repurchased in accordance with the authorization by 500,000 shares.  The Company is extending the expiration date and increasing the amount of shares authorized for repurchase as part of its continued efforts to further improve total shareholder return, and expects repurchases may offset the distribution of shares related to the termination of the BankFinancial National Association Employee Stock Ownership Plan.  Pursuant to this extended and increased share repurchase authorization, there are 665,476 shares of common stock authorized for repurchase through April 30, 2019.

The authorization permits shares to be repurchased in open market or negotiated transactions, and pursuant to any trading plan that may be adopted in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The authorization will be utilized at management’s discretion, subject to price, volume and other internal limitations that will be established by the Company’s Board of Directors, and to the limitations set forth in Rule 10b-18 of the Securities and Exchange Commission and other applicable legal requirements.  Share repurchases will be funded from available working capital.

The authorization does not obligate the Company to purchase any particular number of shares at any given price per share at any time. The authorization may be suspended, terminated or modified at any time for any reason, including market conditions, the cost of repurchasing shares, the availability of alternative investment opportunities, liquidity, and other factors deemed appropriate. These factors, as well as internal restrictions on trading in the Company's shares during specific time periods, may also affect the timing and amount of share repurchases.

BankFinancial Corporation is the holding company for BankFinancial, NA, a full-service, community-oriented bank providing financial services to individuals, families and businesses through 19 full-service banking offices, located in Cook, DuPage, Lake and Will Counties, Illinois.  At December 31, 2017, BankFinancial had total assets of $1.626 billion, total loans of $1.315 billion, total deposits of $1.340 billion and stockholders’ equity of $198 million.  BankFinancial Corporation’s common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol BFIN.

This release includes “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may be identified by words such as "believes," "will," "expects," "project," "may," "could," "anticipate," "estimates," "intends," "plans" and similar expressions.  These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the Company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties.  A variety of factors could cause the Company's actual results to differ from those expected at the time of this release. For a discussion of some of the factors that may cause actual results to differ from expectations, please refer to the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed with the SEC.  Investors are urged to review all information contained in these reports, including the risk factors discussed therein.  Copies of these filings are available at no cost on the SEC's web site at http://www.sec.gov or at http://www.bankfinancial.com.  Forward looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company does not undertake to update them to reflect changes.