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Bank stocks may not be as exciting as some of the growth stocks associated with the tech world, but many of them have other exciting reasons, including attractive dividend yields. The right bank stocks can bring you stable returns and a steady flow of passive income. Some of them can now be purchased at prices that some people consider cheap.

As we enter 2022, there are two great dividend stocks here, and they also look very cheap.

New York Community Bank (NYCB -1.57%) is a large regional bank with nearly $58 billion in assets, with a dividend yield of 5.5%. Part of the reason for the high yield is that the stock price has fallen 29.5% in the past five years. But this year, there are obvious signs of a turning point in the work.

New York community banks have long adopted a thrifty model, usually categorized according to a combination of high-cost financing and fixed-rate loans. Over the years, this model has not produced substantial returns, nor has it stimulated investor interest. But at the beginning of 2021, Thomas Cangemi took over as the new CEO and has been pushing to restructure the balance sheet, focusing on more sticky low-cost financing and more income diversification to increase profits and better respond to rising interest rates.

Earlier this year, the bank announced plans to acquire Flagstar Bancorp (FBC -1.77% ), a regional bank in Michigan that will push the assets of New York Community Bank to approximately $87 billion. By increasing bank deposits without any interest payment, more commercial loans and mortgage warehouse loans, this will also help further help Cang Gemi's desire to change the balance sheet portfolio. New York Community Bancorp has also been doing a good job of changing its balance sheet. The bank increased its interest-free deposits by nearly US$2 billion in 2021, while reducing higher-cost certificates of deposit, and also began to expand its commercial loan portfolio and carry out other innovative activities, such as minting stablecoins. The New York community bank trades at about 140% of the tangible book value, which is the value after the bank's liquidation. If the bank can execute the transformation, the New York community bank has room for growth. Investors have received good dividend compensation while waiting for the improvement.

Northwest Bancshares (NWBI 0.51%) is a small asset bank headquartered in Pennsylvania with a scale of approximately $1.1 billion and currently offers a dividend yield of up to 5.76%. Although this is another stock that has underperformed in the past five years, the fundamentals of the banking industry look solid.

By the first nine months of 2021, Northwest Airlines' average return on assets was 1.46%, which shows how management is using assets to generate income (1% or higher is considered strong). Northwest has also produced an average return on equity of nearly 13%, which is quite strong for such a small bank. The efficiency ratio (a measure of bank expenditures as a percentage of income) is 51%, which is good.

Given its level of non-performing assets, Northwest Airlines’ loan risk appears to be slightly higher, but write-offs (debts that are unlikely to be recovered) are still low. The bank’s current transaction price is less than 150% of the tangible book value. At present, this is not necessarily good or bad, but regardless of performance, the market seems to give higher premiums to large banks, so the gap is certainly likely to narrow in the future. If Northwest Airlines continues to produce such results, I think it will achieve higher valuation returns in the long run.

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