NASDAQ:BMRC Bank of Marin Bancorp Q4 2023 Earnings Report $20.82 -0.21 (-1.00%) Closing price 04/25/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$20.74 -0.08 (-0.38%) As of 04/25/2025 04:05 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Bank of Marin Bancorp EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.30Consensus EPS $0.32Beat/MissMissed by -$0.02One Year Ago EPSN/ABank of Marin Bancorp Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$20.98 millionExpected Revenue$27.50 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$6.52 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/ABank of Marin Bancorp Announcement DetailsQuarterQ4 2023Date1/29/2024TimeN/AConference Call DateMonday, January 29, 2024Conference Call Time11:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsBank of Marin Bancorp's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Monday, April 28, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 11:30 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Annual Report (10-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Bank of Marin Bancorp Q4 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrJanuary 29, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning, and thank you for joining Bank of Marin Bancorp's Earnings Call for the Q4 Ended December 31, I'm Yahaira Garcia Perea, Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager for Bank of Marin. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode. After the call, we will conduct a question and answer session. Joining us on the call today are Tim Myers, President and CEO and Connie Guertin, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings press release and supplementary presentation, which we issued this morning, can be found in the Investor Relations portion of our website at bankofmarin.com, This call is also being webcast. Operator00:00:41Closed captioning is available during the live webcast, as well as on the webcast replay. Before we get started, I want to note that we will be discussing some non GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the reconciliation table in our earnings press release for both GAAP and non GAAP measures. Additionally, the discussion on this call is based on information we know as of Friday, January 26, 2024, and may contain forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those set forth in such statements. Operator00:01:16For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please review the forward looking statements disclosure in our earnings press release as well as our SEC filings. Following our prepared remarks, Tim Tani and our Chief Credit Officer, Masako Stewart will be available to answer your questions. And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Tim Myers. Speaker 100:01:36Thank you, Yada. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q4 and full year earnings call. I'd like to begin by providing a high level overview of our financial results. During the Q4, we took several actions to further bolster our balance sheet that contributed to improvement in our pretax, pre provision income, excluding losses on security sales in the quarter as well as laid the foundation for improved earnings growth in 2024. First, we strategically repositioned our balance sheet by divesting lower yielding securities and further reducing our short term borrowings. Speaker 100:02:13While the loss generated on the security sales lowered our earnings, We directed the proceeds toward new loan originations and repayment of borrowings to accelerate margin improvement in the coming quarters. These actions countered the adverse impact of increased funding costs and supported our net interest margin expansion during the quarter. We believe that our current interest rate risk position will better support increased profitability in the year ahead as we navigate the potential higher for longer interest rate environment. 2nd, in keeping with our long established conservative approach to credit administration, We continue to proactively identify potentially vulnerable loans and during the Q4 created specific reserves for select loans dealing with idiosyncratic issues that have exhibited extended periods of weakness. Specifically, We added to our provision for credit losses in the quarter, contributing to the increase in the allowance to 1.2% of total loans compared to 1.16% for the prior quarter. Speaker 100:03:18Overall, credit quality remains strong with non accrual loans standing at just 0.39 percent of our total loans at quarter end. Additionally, classified loans declined during the quarter and comprised 1.56 percent of total loans, an improvement from 1.9% at the end of Q3. We believe it is wise to conservatively address possible challenges early and proactively. This includes exiting relationships, evaluating loans with unique characteristics individually or pursuing other credit enhancement opportunities on potentially problematic loans. We remain highly selective and committed to strong asset quality amid economic uncertainty and the likelihood that interest rates will remain elevated this year. Speaker 100:04:08During the quarter, Our lending teams continue to build momentum further developing relationships with our clients and finding compelling new opportunities to grow originations as we cultivate and build a more diversified loan portfolio. Our loan originations improved from $22,700,000 in Q3 to $53,800,000 in Q4 and were largely offset by payoffs, scheduled repayments and strategic exits of certain lending relationships as part of our risk management process. Overall, this left total loans for the quarter essentially flat. Still, rates on loans we originated were 175 basis points higher than those paid off, helping provide margin support. We are positioning the overall portfolio for modest growth in the year ahead. Speaker 100:04:59Non owner occupied commercial real estate loans made up 73% of total classified loans at year end, up modestly from the prior quarter as we carefully monitor vacancy rates in the office sector. Our non owner occupied office portfolio is diverse and consists of 153 loans with an average loan size of $2,400,000 the largest loan being $16,900,000 Weighted average loan to value was 59% and the weighted average debt service coverage ratio was 1.6 times based on our most recent data. Our office CRE book in San Francisco represents just 3% of total loan portfolio and 6% of our total non owner occupied CRE portfolio. Just to reiterate, we are continually looking for ways to enhance our collateral on potentially problematic credits, including working with our borrowers to secure additional collateral and or revised credit terms, all with the view of minimizing the risk of future credit losses. Now turning to deposits. Speaker 100:06:07We continue to successfully attract new clients and deepen ties with existing customers to support our funding base. While deposits grew over the past 2 quarters, Our deposits in Q4 declined moderately mostly due activity from clients executing typical seasonal and year end business transactions. Since year end, deposits have increased by as much as $104,000,000 during January, which illustrates the impact normal large fluctuations can have on the daily balances due to our high level of operating accounts and why we maintain such high levels of liquidity. Additionally, we saw some customers move cash into alternative investments to capture higher returns, some of which were directed to our own wealth management group. Non interest bearing deposits at year end remained strong at 44% of total deposits and a majority of the non interest bearing outflows Align with the same customer business activities we saw with overall deposits. Speaker 100:07:08Our average cost of deposits increased 21 basis points in the 4th quarter to only 1.15%, continuing the deceleration of the last quarter. We believe we are competitive on deposit pricing while maintaining a strong core deposit franchise and excellent customer relationships through exceptional service and our local market expertise. As many of you know well, our overall cost of funds has with a robust suite of products and services rather than competing on price alone. Importantly, as we pursue improved profitability, We also remain highly focused on expense management. Our 4th quarter non interest expenses declined 2% from the prior quarter. Speaker 100:08:03With respect to liquidity and capital, we continue to maintain high levels of both. Security sales during the quarter reduced our capital sensitivity to rising interest Our total risk based capital ratio improved to 16.89 percent at year end compared to 16.56% at September 30. The 31% improvement in AOCI raised tangible common equity to 9.73% of tangible assets. Total available liquidity of approximately $2,000,000,000 at year end consisted of cash, unencumbered securities and borrowing capacity. Importantly, our liquidity covers all of our uninsured deposits by over 2 10%. Speaker 100:08:48Uninsured deposits declined by a percentage point from the prior quarter and stood at 28% of our total deposits as of December 31. In summary, We made important progress on both sides of our balance sheet in the 4th quarter and throughout the second half of twenty twenty three, aggressively taking strategic measures to drive profitability in the quarters ahead. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tani to discuss our financial results in greater detail. Speaker 200:09:18Thanks, Tim. Good morning, everyone. We've been working hard on many fronts to enhance and accelerate our profitability growth. Our tax equivalent net interest margin increase of 5 basis points in the 4th quarter followed a 3 basis point increase in the 3rd quarter. Our balance sheet repositioning contributed 15 basis points, reflected in reduced borrowings and securities and a lower average rate on borrowings and higher yields on securities. Speaker 200:09:48Loan yield improvements contributed another 10 basis points. Deposit cost increases reduced the margin by 20 basis points. We are optimistic that we will see further margin improvement in the coming quarters with the full effect of the balance sheet restructuring, our ongoing focus on selectively growing the loan portfolio and the natural repricing of the existing loan book. We generated net income of $610,000 in the 4th quarter or $0.04 per diluted share as compared to net income of $5,300,000 or $0.33 per share in the 3rd quarter. There were 2 primary drivers of the 4th quarter decline in earnings. Speaker 200:10:33First, we recorded a $5,900,000 pre tax net loss on the sale securities as part of our balance sheet restructuring, which reduced net income by $4,200,000 or $0.26 per share. 2nd, we had an $875,000 increase in the pre tax provision for credit losses due in part to specific allowances on loans that have exhibited credit risk characteristics not indicative of pooled loans under the CECL model. We have taken a proactive approach in recognizing these characteristics by removing the loans from the pooled loan categories and analyzing them individually. Additionally, a $406,000 loss on the sale of an owner occupied agricultural commercial real estate loan was charged to the allowance concurrent with the sale. Non interest income, excluding the loss on the securities sale, was stable for the quarter as modest increases from wealth management and trust services and other income were partially offset by a decrease in debit card interchange fees. Speaker 200:11:41Noninterest expenses were again well controlled in the quarter at $19,300,000 down from $19,700,000 in the 3rd quarter. The improvement was due to a combination of factors. Salaries and related benefits decreased 380,000 largely due to a decline in incentive based compensation and partially offset by increases in regular salaries and accruals for insurance and employee paid time off. Deposit network fees also decreased by $287,000 due to a decline in reciprocal deposit network balances. Decreases were partially offset by a $4,000 increase in professional services expenses. Speaker 200:12:28Putting it all together, our profitability ratios were significantly by the loss on sale of securities in the Q4, without which pretax pre provision income would have been 4% higher than in the 3rd quarter. As everyone on this call is aware, 2023 was a very challenging year for the banking industry with Several regional bank failures following the fastest increase in interest rates in 40 years. Banco Marin was Characteristically well positioned to weather the storm. We have always maintained strength in our capital and liquidity positions and exercise disciplined credit and interest rate risk management and conscientious expense control. Since December 31, 2022, total risk based capital improved 99 basis points to 16.9 percent for Bancorp and 89 basis points to 16.6 percent for the bank. Speaker 200:13:26Bancorp's TCE ratio has improved 152 basis points over the year to 9.7% and the bank's TCE ratio has improved 143 basis points to 9.5% at year end. If the net unrealized losses on held to maturity securities were treated the same as available for sale securities, Bancorp's TCE ratio at December 31 would have been 7.8%. On balance sheet and contingent liquidity remains strong and represent 2 13% of uninsured deposits. Our deposit base is well diversified with businesses representing 59% of total deposit balances and 33% of total accounts, while the remainder are consumer accounts. The average balance per account on our deposit base decreased by $5,000 over the quarter. Speaker 200:14:22Our largest depositor represented just 1.7 percent of total deposits, while our 4 largest depositors comprised 4.6%. Our interest rate risk position continues to be fairly neutral, although more liability sensitive than in past years due to the upward repricing of deposits. Security sales and reductions in borrowings added some asset sensitivity to the position. Cumulative deposit cost increases this interest rate cycle or the deposit beta have reached the levels assumed in our modeling and we are revisiting those assumptions in the context of our 2023 experience. Our Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.25 per share on January 25, 2024, which represents the 75th consecutive quarterly dividend paid by Banc While our share repurchase authorization remains in place, we didn't repurchase any stock during the quarter as we were focused on continuing to build our strong capital, increasing our allowance for credit losses and repositioning the balance sheet for the new interest rate environment. Speaker 200:15:33We have identified and implemented incremental adjustments across our balance sheet and expense structure to accelerate net interest income expansion and to self fund efficiency improvements and we will continue to look for further opportunities. Our vigilant credit administration, consistent expense discipline and commitment to strong capital and liquidity levels give us a foundation to continue pursuing prudent growth in the year ahead. With that, I'll turn it back to Tim to share some final comments. Speaker 100:16:06Thank you, Tani. In closing, the actions taken in the 4th quarter significantly impacted profitability metrics in the 4th quarter. And without them, the pretax pre provision income would have increased over that of the 3rd quarter. We continue to emphasize our relationship based banking model to maintain an attractive deposit mix and healthy liquidity levels, while proactively managing our balance sheet to expand our net interest margin. We remain committed to recruiting top talent and further building our teams to grow both deposits and loans, positioning the bank for increased profitability into the future. Speaker 100:16:44We continue to fortify our balance sheet and maintain robust capital levels to manage risk and are exercising consistent expense discipline as we lay the foundation for prudent growth in 2024. With that, I want to thank everyone on today's call for your interest and your support. We will now open the call to your questions. Speaker 300:17:24Our first question will come from the line of David Feaster with Raymond James, your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:17:31Hey, good morning, everybody. Speaker 100:17:33Good morning, David. Speaker 400:17:36Perhaps not surprisingly, I was hoping to start on the margin. Could we talk a bit about how you think about I guess, first of all, what do you think would be a good core margin run rate. I mean, there's been a lot of balance sheet maneuvers that you guys are doing. You've been very active. So curious kind of how you think about a good core margin? Speaker 400:17:55And then just trajectory in a potentially declining rate scenario. You screen as modestly liability sensitive. You alluded in the press release maybe a bit more rate neutral. So just curious how you think about the margin trajectory if we do get potential cuts? Speaker 100:18:10Yes. Thank you, David. Good question. I'll let Tommi Jump in here. Speaker 200:18:13Yes. Thanks, David. So we still have some residual loan repricing coming off book to the current levels of interest rates. So, in the go forward quarter or the Q1, that's worth about 7 basis points, end to end, or 14 end to end, 7 on average, And over the year about 46 basis points end to end or about 23 basis points on average. And that is roughly that's in the base case with interest rates flat. Speaker 200:18:55If you have rates going up, it's more than that, but you also then have offsets of deposit rates going up possibly, and we are revisiting our deposit beta assumptions there. But if we go down, we still have some residual repricing on the loan portfolio, Plus, we would have, repricing on the deposits. So, it's really difficult to say, What the deposits are going to do on the repricing, although we do feel that that's going to continue to moderate in terms of increases if the Fed stays on pause. And then the last factor there, as I mentioned, was the residual or the full effect of the securities or the balance sheet restructuring. So we have 0 borrowings on the balance sheet right now. Speaker 200:19:55And so I think that there's some the full effect for 1 quarter versus We executed those transactions over the course of the Q4, so we didn't get the full impact in the Q4. Speaker 400:20:11Sure. Do you have maybe kind of any expectation for what inclusive the margin would be inclusive of all the balance sheet actions? Speaker 200:20:22I think in the next quarter, 5 to 10 basis points. And for the core margin, boy, that's a really tough question. That's a hard one to say, just because there's so many moving parts. Speaker 400:20:38Yes. And to your point on the deposit side, maybe switching gears there. Appreciate all the commentary about seasonality and the potential benefits in January. I know there's some seasonal tax impacts in the quarter as well. Could you maybe just dig into and maybe quantify some of the seasonal dynamics that you saw in the quarter and whether you started to see those balances recover in January like you had mentioned? Speaker 400:21:02And just how do you think about your ability to reprice deposits, just given deposit betas are relatively slow on the way up. And So just any thoughts on the deposit outlook and kind of what you're seeing? Speaker 100:21:16Sure. So about 80% 70 9%, 80% of the positive outflow overall in the quarter was related to some combination of seasonal or what I would call unique but normal business transactions, business sales, trust distributions business or real estate acquisitions, so not vendor payments or tax payments like you alluded to, But normal business activity, that was the vast majority of it. And we've had inflows in those same kind of accounts upwards of over $100,000,000 throughout the month of January. So we know that that's a real factor. We did have about $25,000,000 leave to go to outside growth per rate, But that's down dramatically from Q4 when we admittedly got caught flat footed, trying to be stubborn about deposit pricing before the events of March. Speaker 100:22:04That over $70,000,000 in that category at the time. So but those aren't customers we've lost. If you look at the dollars of deposit line from lost business is less than 1%. So we've really done a good job of repricing. The amount we brought in through our The campaign we talked about the last couple of quarters, almost $130,000,000 That weighted average is about $3,360,000 all in. Speaker 100:22:29So To your point, we're trying to hold the line on a relationship based pricing model, still almost everything exception based pricing. And we've already been strategizing about, okay, what are what do we do when rates start to come down and how do we respond. So a pretty minimal amount in time deposits, all of which mature in this year, but that was a fairly, I think, dollars 18,000,000 So really trying to keep it and a few types of accounts that we can manage as proactively as possible. But that's kind of the math around. In deposits overall, we had about $25,000,000 also moved from non interest bearing into interest bearing, but those are clients that are again still within the bank. Speaker 100:23:14So we don't that's and we had about $5,000,000 net of money that went from deposit accounts here into our Wealth Management and Trust group to put into higher yielding securities. So that's the general breakdown, David. Speaker 400:23:26Okay. That's extremely helpful. And then maybe just last one for me. Just touching on The growth outlook in the loan, some of the dynamics in the loan decline. It seems like maybe there was more asset sales and payoffs in the 4th quarter. Speaker 400:23:41Maybe there's some strategically that you're moving out of the bank, but I'm just curious maybe the pulse of the market from your standpoint, how demand is trending, How the pipeline is shaping up and just how you think about organic loan growth going forward? Speaker 100:23:54Sure. So we had a lot of robust activity pipeline and closing in Q4. The mix is slightly more skewed towards C and I and owner users than maybe some of the prior quarters, but kind of overall mirrors The makeup of the overall portfolio on the originations, obviously, when you close that much, you've got to rebuild the pipeline, but we feel better about where it is than we did a couple of quarters ago for sure. And so we are aggressively looking. We've added some hires on the commercial banking side looking to add some more. Speaker 100:24:26But part of that behavioral, part of that market sentiment, we are seeing a loosening of people willing to consider some of these options, business transactions for which they need to borrow. On the asset sales side, I know that's been a bit of a recurring theme for us, But really it's marginal in terms of the things we can control. Between asset sales and people just paying off debt with cash, That was almost 40% of that total. A couple of larger or midsize, I would say, construction projects that completed and as expected and paid off, Only $3,000,000 of that total refinanced and went to another institution. And then we had about $12,000,000 of those payoffs that We put in the workout category things we're doing that caused them to look for financing elsewhere, but that helped us get rid of some of our largest classified loans. Speaker 100:25:17So we view that as a positive. In the end, did that depress the overall net loan growth? Of course. But In the long run, that was a positive for us. Speaker 300:25:35Our next question will come from the line of Woody Lai with KBW. Your line is unmuted. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:25:43Hey, good morning guys. Speaker 100:25:45Good morning, Woody. Good morning. Speaker 500:25:47It was good to see the continued balance sheet Management. I mean, do you think to the extent that loan growth opportunities remain elevated, Do you think we could see further restructuring in the quarters ahead? Speaker 100:26:05Well, I'll start high level and then Tanya can jump in if she wants. But we Throughout that second half of the year, we look for opportunities to shed lower yielding some mix of lower yielding, but also that has a lower impact in terms of the losses on the sale of the And we'll continue to look at that. Yes, I mean, we're seeing with the deposit trends, we expect those continue to trend upward overall outside of seasonal fluctuations. We're outside of the line. And I'm not super anxious to take losses on sales, But if we start seeing a real pickup in loan activity and that trade off of those lower yielding securities and the higher yielding loans at these levels, yes, we'll continue to look at that. Speaker 100:26:47Tanya, do you want to add anything to that? Speaker 200:26:49Yes. I would just say, the ones that we've sold, those had Pretty low earn back periods, very low earn back periods relative to loan rates and pretty low earn back periods relative to paying off borrowings and putting money into cash. We picked the best securities to sell for those based on that criteria. Now if we as Tim said, if we have significant loan growth, We would easily be able to target loan or low earn back periods in order to repurpose cash from securities into the loan book. Speaker 500:27:34Got it. That's super helpful color. Wanted to Shift to deposit trends, I mean, they sound pretty positive so far in January. I was just curious how the non interest bearing deposit trends are faring so far in January? Speaker 100:27:51I think where that's where we saw the bigger fluctuations. That's where certainly some of the Seasonal outflow was in terms of business transactions, whether normal vendor tax type payments versus those more onetime or unique things like a business sale Where proceeds go to investors or purchase of real estate or a business, again, we've seen the noninterest bearing increase upwards of $100,000,000 throughout the month. So it does fluctuate. And so it is hard to tell what the seasonality that we see. But Again, we're not losing a lot of money out the back door, losing very few to other institutions and the pace of money moving out of non interest bearing into Both interest bearing and into non bank financial markets like money markets, that is dissipating. Speaker 100:28:40So I don't know how to prognosticate, but we continue to see positive trends there. Speaker 200:28:44Yes. And if I could just add that a significant portion. So we had a little lift in our interest bearing deposits over the course of the 4th quarter, but a Pretty large portion of that was new money from existing customers as well as new relationships. So, I think that's an important data point. Speaker 500:29:06Got it. And then last for me, I know you're pretty aggressive on the grading process with credit. But just any color you can share on what drove the increase to special mention loans in the quarter? Speaker 100:29:20Yes. So I'll start really high level and then hand it off to Masako Stewart. But we are pretty conservative or aggressive depending on You look at that and looking things in a watch category, very finite time period that we let stuff sit there. And so we do have stuff move from watch as a pass credit into criticize, but we also are constantly looking at those that we can upgrade. So I'll let Masaka jump in on the specifics. Speaker 600:29:43Right, right. So we did continue to migration in the quarter kind of moving in both directions. But in the special mention category, like Tim was talking about, we do tend to take a more aggressive approach in our watch category that if we don't see improvements over about 2 or 3 quarters, we will move it into special mention. And so the increase primarily came from those situations, all kind of with individual kind of different situations, but not necessarily further deterioration, just not any meaningful improvement over the last couple of quarters. However, we are expecting a number of upgrades to in the Q1 after we get results from year end. Speaker 600:30:24And so again, like I mentioned, we are going to continue to see migration in both directions. And just in our substandard category, again, that actually balance went down by quite a bit just due to some active and successful We'll work out situations, although we did have 2 more loans within to our non accrual category as well. But overall, that's We will continue to see migration, I think, in all grades. Speaker 500:30:53Yes. All right. That's all for me. Thanks for taking my questions. Speaker 400:30:57Thank you, Wadi. Speaker 300:31:00Next question will come from Jeff Rulis With D. A. Davidson, your line is now open. You may begin. Speaker 700:31:09Thanks. Good morning. Speaker 100:31:11Good morning, Speaker 700:31:11Jeff. Just to stay on the credit side, that classified balance $32,000,000 is Any way to kind of break out the larger segments that are kind of most represented, what's in that bucket? Speaker 300:31:32Yes. So Speaker 600:31:35The largest loan that we have in that is an office building in San Francisco that I think has been mentioned before, which was downgraded, I think, 3 Decembers ago. And that makes up nearly half of that balance. We continue to work with the borrower. Loan is continuing to pay as Reed, we have not restructured and there's borrowers continuing to still make contractual payments there. And we continue to monitor that very closely. Speaker 600:32:10But that makes up the bulk of the substandard. Speaker 700:32:15Okay. Pretty granular from there. Speaker 200:32:18That's helpful. Speaker 700:32:20Tani, if I could circle back to the margin, I just wanted to Sure, I've got pretty good detail, but I wanted to make sure I have it correct. If we're at, call it, 253, I'm looking at the benefits to the margin. I think you said residual on average kind of full year impact of 23 basis points. So in a vacuum, does that take margin to 275? Then other additions would be a little tail of the balance sheet restructuring could be a benefit, Not to mention, if we see some rate cuts, if you lean at liability sensitive and upswing and then it would be any carving back would be further repricing or pressure on the funding side. Speaker 700:33:07Is that are those the bigger pieces that we're talking about in magnitude? Is that generally in line? Speaker 200:33:14Yes, yes, that sounds right. Speaker 700:33:17Okay. Got it. And then, I guess, one last one just on the non interest expense. In terms of management of that, that's been A contained number, I don't know if you typically don't like to throw out outlooks, but in terms of expense growth, What kind of year is that in terms of investments? Are you really mindful of that I just want to I don't know what the outlook for expenses ahead is. Speaker 700:33:53What the messaging is it Camp down or is it, hey, we're seeing, Tim, I think you mentioned, obviously, you're seeing some talent here and there. Just Investment versus kind of mining expenses, what's that in the wash? Speaker 100:34:10Sure. If you adjust out about the roughly $600,000 accrual adjustment, that expense level is a good indicator in the quarter of our run rate. We are looking to make hires, but we horse trade around staffing levels and where we can free up some money. We have made some cost save initiatives in a couple of areas to free up some funds for further investment and technology to streamline our lending operations in So there are expenses coming, but we will continue to do our best to offset those elsewhere. So again, if you back out that $600,000 accrual adjustment, that Q4 expense level seems a good indicator to us right now. Speaker 700:34:55$600,000,000 is a positive, meaning the benefit in the 4th quarter? Speaker 200:35:01Yeah, you would want to take that out because those were accrual adjustments. Yeah. And then just a reminder that In the Q1, our 401 contribution matching tends to spike up, because everybody is resetting for the year. And then merit increases typically will go into effect in the Q2. Speaker 700:35:22Got it. And Tani, just a quick last one. The tax rate Is for 24%, what's a good number to use? Speaker 200:35:32I think you can continue to use the 25%, twenty 6%. Speaker 700:35:38Okay. That's it for me. Thank you. Speaker 300:35:57Next question will come from Andrew Terrell from Stephens. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:36:07Hey, good morning. Good morning, Andrew. Just a couple of quick ones for me. 1, can we get back to the margin for And Tanya, do you have the spot securities yield at twelvethirty 1? Speaker 200:36:25Yes, I do. Just let me grab that. Hang on one second. Speaker 800:36:42And I guess, Tanya, Speaker 200:36:43what are you doing? I'll come back to that. Yes. Speaker 800:36:45Okay. Perfect. Yes, yes. If I look at shifting gears, looking at Slide on the investor CRE maturities or the repricing in 2024 2025. This is a really helpful slide. Speaker 800:36:59But when I look at the 2024 bucket for loans repricing, the $26,300,000 outstanding. You've got the new weighted average Debt service assumption at 120 or 1.2 times. I guess when I look back at the December presentation, the 20 20 loan repricings were estimated to carry a 2.01 times debt service after reprice. So I guess the question is what changed in the disclosed debt service? Is it just a function of the mix of loans that are in that bucket? Speaker 800:37:31It does look like the mix changed a little bit or were there any kind of model changes that you made within these assumptions? Speaker 100:37:39I think we had one property in there that in between those quarters where the tenant chose not to renew their lease. So we adjusted that to more market based assumptions. So that skewed it, was, I think, the biggest impact. Speaker 800:37:59Okay, understood. But no change like the model assumptions or anything in Speaker 200:38:05No. No. No. Speaker 800:38:07Okay. Andrew, back Speaker 200:38:09to your net interest margin question, sorry. The average portfolio yield in December was 2.32%. And then that's broken down in the presentation between AFS and health to maturity. Speaker 800:38:25Okay, perfect. 232, got it. Okay. And then Tanya, I wanted to go back to some of the commentary you gave earlier around the kind of residual loan repricing. And I guess I'm trying to understand a little bit better when I look at, I think it's Page 18, the disclosure around the asset repricing Going forward on both the loan and the security side, when I look on the loans in that kind of 3 to 12 month bucket, it looks like, it $100,000,000 or so of loans repricing in 2024. Speaker 800:38:59So I'm I guess I'm trying to figure out how we get to the point to point disclosure of 40 basis points kind of throughout the year in terms of loan repricing if there's just $97,000,000 in that bucket, if that question makes sense? Speaker 300:39:16Let's see. So you've got well, you've got the 3 to 12 months at 97, but Speaker 200:39:20you've also got the $240,000,000 in the 3 months or less. So obviously, some of that $240,000,000 if you have flat rates won't reprice, but some of it is coming rolling down the curve and is ready to reprice. Does that make sense? Speaker 800:39:38Yes, it does. My assumption was just that the 3 month or less was predominantly floating and had already repriced, just given the rate was 7.3 4ths here. So I was thinking about the impact is more of like the $97,000,000 maybe you had an extra quarter in there coming from $584,000,000 up to 774,000,000 It just seemed it was tough to get to the type of point to point loan yield expansion just based off the slide. Speaker 200:40:06Yes. Okay. Andrew, I'll look at that offline and see if I can explain it a little better. Speaker 800:40:13Okay. Got it. I appreciate it. And then last question, just on the margin. It looks like if I look at the interest bearing deposit cost progression throughout the quarter, the December month saw kind of the greatest increase. Speaker 800:40:30I'm not sure if that was more of just a function of mix. I know there's some volatility towards quarter end, it sounds like. But just Given maybe an elevated amount of pressure in December versus the prior quarter, would you expect that we could see, I guess a relatively stable margin in the Q1 before some of these benefits start to kind of kick in as we roll throughout the year? Speaker 100:40:54Yes. I think some of the movements in the non interest bearing to interest bearing and some that moved out, they were pretty lumpy. And that did happen later in the quarter. And so I don't want to say that's a run rate then. That can Be a little jerky in its impact depending on the timing. Speaker 100:41:15So I don't think that's indicative of a run rate per se. But again, I'm really loathe to prognosticate that given what's happened. Speaker 800:41:25Yes, totally understood. Speaker 100:41:33So we did have an online question. When you talk about the residual loan repricing opportunity, is it safe to assume that will continue in 2025 and beyond assuming we do not return to a 0 and so great policy? I'll let Tanya handle that. Speaker 200:41:48And I would say, yes, the residual repricing continues beyond the 1 year time horizon. We typically the duration on our loan portfolio is somewhere around 4 years. So you can assume that we're going to get residual repricing over that entire timeframe. Speaker 300:42:19I will now turn the call over to Tim Myers for closing remarks. Speaker 100:42:24Thank you again everyone for both your interest,Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallBank of Marin Bancorp Q4 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Annual report(10-K) Bank of Marin Bancorp Earnings HeadlinesBank of Marin Bancorp (BMRC) Projected to Post Earnings on MondayApril 26 at 1:38 AM | americanbankingnews.comA Glimpse of Bank of Marin's Earnings PotentialApril 25 at 9:37 PM | benzinga.comElon Set to Shock the World by May 1st ?Tech legend Jeff Brown recently traveled to the industrial zone of South Memphis to investigate what he believes will be Elon’s greatest invention ever… Yes, even bigger than Tesla or SpaceX.April 26, 2025 | Brownstone Research (Ad)Bank of Marin: Bank On Its Solid Fundamentals, But Beware Of Its TechnicalsApril 23 at 8:34 AM | seekingalpha.comApril 2025's Stocks That May Be Priced Below Estimated ValueApril 9, 2025 | finance.yahoo.comBank of Marin Bancorp Q1 2025 Earnings Call AnnouncementApril 4, 2025 | tipranks.comSee More Bank of Marin Bancorp Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Bank of Marin Bancorp? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Bank of Marin Bancorp and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Bank of Marin BancorpBank of Marin Bancorp (NASDAQ:BMRC) operates as the holding company for Bank of Marin that provides a range of financial services primarily to small to medium-sized businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and commercial real estate investors in the United States. The company offers personal and business checking and savings accounts; and individual retirement, health savings, and demand deposit marketplace accounts, as well as time certificates of deposit, certificate of deposit account registry, and insured cash sweep services. It also provides commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, and consumer loans, as well as construction financing and home equity lines of credit. In addition, the company offers merchant and payroll services; commercial equipment leasing program; payment solutions; treasury management services; credit cards; and mobile deposit, remote deposit capture, automated clearing house, wire transfer, and image lockbox services. Further, it provides wealth management and trust services comprising customized investment portfolio management, financial planning, trust administration, estate settlement, and custody services, as well as 401(k) plan services; and automated teller machines, and telephone and digital banking services. The company was incorporated in 1989 and is headquartered in Novato, California.View Bank of Marin Bancorp ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Market Anticipation Builds: Joby Stock Climbs Ahead of EarningsIs Intuitive Surgical a Buy After Volatile Reaction to Earnings?Seismic Shift at Intel: Massive Layoffs Precede Crucial EarningsRocket Lab Lands New Contract, Builds Momentum Ahead of EarningsAmazon's Earnings Could Fuel a Rapid Breakout Tesla Earnings Miss, But Musk Refocuses and Bulls ReactQualcomm’s Range Narrows Ahead of Earnings as Bulls Step In Upcoming Earnings Cadence Design Systems (4/28/2025)Welltower (4/28/2025)Waste Management (4/28/2025)AstraZeneca (4/29/2025)Mondelez International (4/29/2025)PayPal (4/29/2025)Starbucks (4/29/2025)DoorDash (4/29/2025)Honeywell International (4/29/2025)Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (4/29/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. Start Your 30-Day Trial MarketBeat All Access Features Best-in-Class Portfolio Monitoring Get personalized stock ideas. Compare portfolio to indices. Check stock news, ratings, SEC filings, and more. Stock Ideas and Recommendations See daily stock ideas from top analysts. Receive short-term trading ideas from MarketBeat. Identify trending stocks on social media. Advanced Stock Screeners and Research Tools Use our seven stock screeners to find suitable stocks. Stay informed with MarketBeat's real-time news. Export data to Excel for personal analysis. Sign in to your free account to enjoy these benefits In-depth profiles and analysis for 20,000 public companies. Real-time analyst ratings, insider transactions, earnings data, and more. Our daily ratings and market update email newsletter. Sign in to your free account to enjoy all that MarketBeat has to offer. Sign In Create Account Your Email Address: Email Address Required Your Password: Password Required Log In or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google Forgot your password? Your Email Address: Please enter your email address. Please enter a valid email address Choose a Password: Please enter your password. Your password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least 1 number, 1 letter, and 1 special character. Create My Account (Free) or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google By creating a free account, you agree to our terms of service. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning, and thank you for joining Bank of Marin Bancorp's Earnings Call for the Q4 Ended December 31, I'm Yahaira Garcia Perea, Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager for Bank of Marin. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode. After the call, we will conduct a question and answer session. Joining us on the call today are Tim Myers, President and CEO and Connie Guertin, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings press release and supplementary presentation, which we issued this morning, can be found in the Investor Relations portion of our website at bankofmarin.com, This call is also being webcast. Operator00:00:41Closed captioning is available during the live webcast, as well as on the webcast replay. Before we get started, I want to note that we will be discussing some non GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the reconciliation table in our earnings press release for both GAAP and non GAAP measures. Additionally, the discussion on this call is based on information we know as of Friday, January 26, 2024, and may contain forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those set forth in such statements. Operator00:01:16For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please review the forward looking statements disclosure in our earnings press release as well as our SEC filings. Following our prepared remarks, Tim Tani and our Chief Credit Officer, Masako Stewart will be available to answer your questions. And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Tim Myers. Speaker 100:01:36Thank you, Yada. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q4 and full year earnings call. I'd like to begin by providing a high level overview of our financial results. During the Q4, we took several actions to further bolster our balance sheet that contributed to improvement in our pretax, pre provision income, excluding losses on security sales in the quarter as well as laid the foundation for improved earnings growth in 2024. First, we strategically repositioned our balance sheet by divesting lower yielding securities and further reducing our short term borrowings. Speaker 100:02:13While the loss generated on the security sales lowered our earnings, We directed the proceeds toward new loan originations and repayment of borrowings to accelerate margin improvement in the coming quarters. These actions countered the adverse impact of increased funding costs and supported our net interest margin expansion during the quarter. We believe that our current interest rate risk position will better support increased profitability in the year ahead as we navigate the potential higher for longer interest rate environment. 2nd, in keeping with our long established conservative approach to credit administration, We continue to proactively identify potentially vulnerable loans and during the Q4 created specific reserves for select loans dealing with idiosyncratic issues that have exhibited extended periods of weakness. Specifically, We added to our provision for credit losses in the quarter, contributing to the increase in the allowance to 1.2% of total loans compared to 1.16% for the prior quarter. Speaker 100:03:18Overall, credit quality remains strong with non accrual loans standing at just 0.39 percent of our total loans at quarter end. Additionally, classified loans declined during the quarter and comprised 1.56 percent of total loans, an improvement from 1.9% at the end of Q3. We believe it is wise to conservatively address possible challenges early and proactively. This includes exiting relationships, evaluating loans with unique characteristics individually or pursuing other credit enhancement opportunities on potentially problematic loans. We remain highly selective and committed to strong asset quality amid economic uncertainty and the likelihood that interest rates will remain elevated this year. Speaker 100:04:08During the quarter, Our lending teams continue to build momentum further developing relationships with our clients and finding compelling new opportunities to grow originations as we cultivate and build a more diversified loan portfolio. Our loan originations improved from $22,700,000 in Q3 to $53,800,000 in Q4 and were largely offset by payoffs, scheduled repayments and strategic exits of certain lending relationships as part of our risk management process. Overall, this left total loans for the quarter essentially flat. Still, rates on loans we originated were 175 basis points higher than those paid off, helping provide margin support. We are positioning the overall portfolio for modest growth in the year ahead. Speaker 100:04:59Non owner occupied commercial real estate loans made up 73% of total classified loans at year end, up modestly from the prior quarter as we carefully monitor vacancy rates in the office sector. Our non owner occupied office portfolio is diverse and consists of 153 loans with an average loan size of $2,400,000 the largest loan being $16,900,000 Weighted average loan to value was 59% and the weighted average debt service coverage ratio was 1.6 times based on our most recent data. Our office CRE book in San Francisco represents just 3% of total loan portfolio and 6% of our total non owner occupied CRE portfolio. Just to reiterate, we are continually looking for ways to enhance our collateral on potentially problematic credits, including working with our borrowers to secure additional collateral and or revised credit terms, all with the view of minimizing the risk of future credit losses. Now turning to deposits. Speaker 100:06:07We continue to successfully attract new clients and deepen ties with existing customers to support our funding base. While deposits grew over the past 2 quarters, Our deposits in Q4 declined moderately mostly due activity from clients executing typical seasonal and year end business transactions. Since year end, deposits have increased by as much as $104,000,000 during January, which illustrates the impact normal large fluctuations can have on the daily balances due to our high level of operating accounts and why we maintain such high levels of liquidity. Additionally, we saw some customers move cash into alternative investments to capture higher returns, some of which were directed to our own wealth management group. Non interest bearing deposits at year end remained strong at 44% of total deposits and a majority of the non interest bearing outflows Align with the same customer business activities we saw with overall deposits. Speaker 100:07:08Our average cost of deposits increased 21 basis points in the 4th quarter to only 1.15%, continuing the deceleration of the last quarter. We believe we are competitive on deposit pricing while maintaining a strong core deposit franchise and excellent customer relationships through exceptional service and our local market expertise. As many of you know well, our overall cost of funds has with a robust suite of products and services rather than competing on price alone. Importantly, as we pursue improved profitability, We also remain highly focused on expense management. Our 4th quarter non interest expenses declined 2% from the prior quarter. Speaker 100:08:03With respect to liquidity and capital, we continue to maintain high levels of both. Security sales during the quarter reduced our capital sensitivity to rising interest Our total risk based capital ratio improved to 16.89 percent at year end compared to 16.56% at September 30. The 31% improvement in AOCI raised tangible common equity to 9.73% of tangible assets. Total available liquidity of approximately $2,000,000,000 at year end consisted of cash, unencumbered securities and borrowing capacity. Importantly, our liquidity covers all of our uninsured deposits by over 2 10%. Speaker 100:08:48Uninsured deposits declined by a percentage point from the prior quarter and stood at 28% of our total deposits as of December 31. In summary, We made important progress on both sides of our balance sheet in the 4th quarter and throughout the second half of twenty twenty three, aggressively taking strategic measures to drive profitability in the quarters ahead. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tani to discuss our financial results in greater detail. Speaker 200:09:18Thanks, Tim. Good morning, everyone. We've been working hard on many fronts to enhance and accelerate our profitability growth. Our tax equivalent net interest margin increase of 5 basis points in the 4th quarter followed a 3 basis point increase in the 3rd quarter. Our balance sheet repositioning contributed 15 basis points, reflected in reduced borrowings and securities and a lower average rate on borrowings and higher yields on securities. Speaker 200:09:48Loan yield improvements contributed another 10 basis points. Deposit cost increases reduced the margin by 20 basis points. We are optimistic that we will see further margin improvement in the coming quarters with the full effect of the balance sheet restructuring, our ongoing focus on selectively growing the loan portfolio and the natural repricing of the existing loan book. We generated net income of $610,000 in the 4th quarter or $0.04 per diluted share as compared to net income of $5,300,000 or $0.33 per share in the 3rd quarter. There were 2 primary drivers of the 4th quarter decline in earnings. Speaker 200:10:33First, we recorded a $5,900,000 pre tax net loss on the sale securities as part of our balance sheet restructuring, which reduced net income by $4,200,000 or $0.26 per share. 2nd, we had an $875,000 increase in the pre tax provision for credit losses due in part to specific allowances on loans that have exhibited credit risk characteristics not indicative of pooled loans under the CECL model. We have taken a proactive approach in recognizing these characteristics by removing the loans from the pooled loan categories and analyzing them individually. Additionally, a $406,000 loss on the sale of an owner occupied agricultural commercial real estate loan was charged to the allowance concurrent with the sale. Non interest income, excluding the loss on the securities sale, was stable for the quarter as modest increases from wealth management and trust services and other income were partially offset by a decrease in debit card interchange fees. Speaker 200:11:41Noninterest expenses were again well controlled in the quarter at $19,300,000 down from $19,700,000 in the 3rd quarter. The improvement was due to a combination of factors. Salaries and related benefits decreased 380,000 largely due to a decline in incentive based compensation and partially offset by increases in regular salaries and accruals for insurance and employee paid time off. Deposit network fees also decreased by $287,000 due to a decline in reciprocal deposit network balances. Decreases were partially offset by a $4,000 increase in professional services expenses. Speaker 200:12:28Putting it all together, our profitability ratios were significantly by the loss on sale of securities in the Q4, without which pretax pre provision income would have been 4% higher than in the 3rd quarter. As everyone on this call is aware, 2023 was a very challenging year for the banking industry with Several regional bank failures following the fastest increase in interest rates in 40 years. Banco Marin was Characteristically well positioned to weather the storm. We have always maintained strength in our capital and liquidity positions and exercise disciplined credit and interest rate risk management and conscientious expense control. Since December 31, 2022, total risk based capital improved 99 basis points to 16.9 percent for Bancorp and 89 basis points to 16.6 percent for the bank. Speaker 200:13:26Bancorp's TCE ratio has improved 152 basis points over the year to 9.7% and the bank's TCE ratio has improved 143 basis points to 9.5% at year end. If the net unrealized losses on held to maturity securities were treated the same as available for sale securities, Bancorp's TCE ratio at December 31 would have been 7.8%. On balance sheet and contingent liquidity remains strong and represent 2 13% of uninsured deposits. Our deposit base is well diversified with businesses representing 59% of total deposit balances and 33% of total accounts, while the remainder are consumer accounts. The average balance per account on our deposit base decreased by $5,000 over the quarter. Speaker 200:14:22Our largest depositor represented just 1.7 percent of total deposits, while our 4 largest depositors comprised 4.6%. Our interest rate risk position continues to be fairly neutral, although more liability sensitive than in past years due to the upward repricing of deposits. Security sales and reductions in borrowings added some asset sensitivity to the position. Cumulative deposit cost increases this interest rate cycle or the deposit beta have reached the levels assumed in our modeling and we are revisiting those assumptions in the context of our 2023 experience. Our Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.25 per share on January 25, 2024, which represents the 75th consecutive quarterly dividend paid by Banc While our share repurchase authorization remains in place, we didn't repurchase any stock during the quarter as we were focused on continuing to build our strong capital, increasing our allowance for credit losses and repositioning the balance sheet for the new interest rate environment. Speaker 200:15:33We have identified and implemented incremental adjustments across our balance sheet and expense structure to accelerate net interest income expansion and to self fund efficiency improvements and we will continue to look for further opportunities. Our vigilant credit administration, consistent expense discipline and commitment to strong capital and liquidity levels give us a foundation to continue pursuing prudent growth in the year ahead. With that, I'll turn it back to Tim to share some final comments. Speaker 100:16:06Thank you, Tani. In closing, the actions taken in the 4th quarter significantly impacted profitability metrics in the 4th quarter. And without them, the pretax pre provision income would have increased over that of the 3rd quarter. We continue to emphasize our relationship based banking model to maintain an attractive deposit mix and healthy liquidity levels, while proactively managing our balance sheet to expand our net interest margin. We remain committed to recruiting top talent and further building our teams to grow both deposits and loans, positioning the bank for increased profitability into the future. Speaker 100:16:44We continue to fortify our balance sheet and maintain robust capital levels to manage risk and are exercising consistent expense discipline as we lay the foundation for prudent growth in 2024. With that, I want to thank everyone on today's call for your interest and your support. We will now open the call to your questions. Speaker 300:17:24Our first question will come from the line of David Feaster with Raymond James, your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:17:31Hey, good morning, everybody. Speaker 100:17:33Good morning, David. Speaker 400:17:36Perhaps not surprisingly, I was hoping to start on the margin. Could we talk a bit about how you think about I guess, first of all, what do you think would be a good core margin run rate. I mean, there's been a lot of balance sheet maneuvers that you guys are doing. You've been very active. So curious kind of how you think about a good core margin? Speaker 400:17:55And then just trajectory in a potentially declining rate scenario. You screen as modestly liability sensitive. You alluded in the press release maybe a bit more rate neutral. So just curious how you think about the margin trajectory if we do get potential cuts? Speaker 100:18:10Yes. Thank you, David. Good question. I'll let Tommi Jump in here. Speaker 200:18:13Yes. Thanks, David. So we still have some residual loan repricing coming off book to the current levels of interest rates. So, in the go forward quarter or the Q1, that's worth about 7 basis points, end to end, or 14 end to end, 7 on average, And over the year about 46 basis points end to end or about 23 basis points on average. And that is roughly that's in the base case with interest rates flat. Speaker 200:18:55If you have rates going up, it's more than that, but you also then have offsets of deposit rates going up possibly, and we are revisiting our deposit beta assumptions there. But if we go down, we still have some residual repricing on the loan portfolio, Plus, we would have, repricing on the deposits. So, it's really difficult to say, What the deposits are going to do on the repricing, although we do feel that that's going to continue to moderate in terms of increases if the Fed stays on pause. And then the last factor there, as I mentioned, was the residual or the full effect of the securities or the balance sheet restructuring. So we have 0 borrowings on the balance sheet right now. Speaker 200:19:55And so I think that there's some the full effect for 1 quarter versus We executed those transactions over the course of the Q4, so we didn't get the full impact in the Q4. Speaker 400:20:11Sure. Do you have maybe kind of any expectation for what inclusive the margin would be inclusive of all the balance sheet actions? Speaker 200:20:22I think in the next quarter, 5 to 10 basis points. And for the core margin, boy, that's a really tough question. That's a hard one to say, just because there's so many moving parts. Speaker 400:20:38Yes. And to your point on the deposit side, maybe switching gears there. Appreciate all the commentary about seasonality and the potential benefits in January. I know there's some seasonal tax impacts in the quarter as well. Could you maybe just dig into and maybe quantify some of the seasonal dynamics that you saw in the quarter and whether you started to see those balances recover in January like you had mentioned? Speaker 400:21:02And just how do you think about your ability to reprice deposits, just given deposit betas are relatively slow on the way up. And So just any thoughts on the deposit outlook and kind of what you're seeing? Speaker 100:21:16Sure. So about 80% 70 9%, 80% of the positive outflow overall in the quarter was related to some combination of seasonal or what I would call unique but normal business transactions, business sales, trust distributions business or real estate acquisitions, so not vendor payments or tax payments like you alluded to, But normal business activity, that was the vast majority of it. And we've had inflows in those same kind of accounts upwards of over $100,000,000 throughout the month of January. So we know that that's a real factor. We did have about $25,000,000 leave to go to outside growth per rate, But that's down dramatically from Q4 when we admittedly got caught flat footed, trying to be stubborn about deposit pricing before the events of March. Speaker 100:22:04That over $70,000,000 in that category at the time. So but those aren't customers we've lost. If you look at the dollars of deposit line from lost business is less than 1%. So we've really done a good job of repricing. The amount we brought in through our The campaign we talked about the last couple of quarters, almost $130,000,000 That weighted average is about $3,360,000 all in. Speaker 100:22:29So To your point, we're trying to hold the line on a relationship based pricing model, still almost everything exception based pricing. And we've already been strategizing about, okay, what are what do we do when rates start to come down and how do we respond. So a pretty minimal amount in time deposits, all of which mature in this year, but that was a fairly, I think, dollars 18,000,000 So really trying to keep it and a few types of accounts that we can manage as proactively as possible. But that's kind of the math around. In deposits overall, we had about $25,000,000 also moved from non interest bearing into interest bearing, but those are clients that are again still within the bank. Speaker 100:23:14So we don't that's and we had about $5,000,000 net of money that went from deposit accounts here into our Wealth Management and Trust group to put into higher yielding securities. So that's the general breakdown, David. Speaker 400:23:26Okay. That's extremely helpful. And then maybe just last one for me. Just touching on The growth outlook in the loan, some of the dynamics in the loan decline. It seems like maybe there was more asset sales and payoffs in the 4th quarter. Speaker 400:23:41Maybe there's some strategically that you're moving out of the bank, but I'm just curious maybe the pulse of the market from your standpoint, how demand is trending, How the pipeline is shaping up and just how you think about organic loan growth going forward? Speaker 100:23:54Sure. So we had a lot of robust activity pipeline and closing in Q4. The mix is slightly more skewed towards C and I and owner users than maybe some of the prior quarters, but kind of overall mirrors The makeup of the overall portfolio on the originations, obviously, when you close that much, you've got to rebuild the pipeline, but we feel better about where it is than we did a couple of quarters ago for sure. And so we are aggressively looking. We've added some hires on the commercial banking side looking to add some more. Speaker 100:24:26But part of that behavioral, part of that market sentiment, we are seeing a loosening of people willing to consider some of these options, business transactions for which they need to borrow. On the asset sales side, I know that's been a bit of a recurring theme for us, But really it's marginal in terms of the things we can control. Between asset sales and people just paying off debt with cash, That was almost 40% of that total. A couple of larger or midsize, I would say, construction projects that completed and as expected and paid off, Only $3,000,000 of that total refinanced and went to another institution. And then we had about $12,000,000 of those payoffs that We put in the workout category things we're doing that caused them to look for financing elsewhere, but that helped us get rid of some of our largest classified loans. Speaker 100:25:17So we view that as a positive. In the end, did that depress the overall net loan growth? Of course. But In the long run, that was a positive for us. Speaker 300:25:35Our next question will come from the line of Woody Lai with KBW. Your line is unmuted. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:25:43Hey, good morning guys. Speaker 100:25:45Good morning, Woody. Good morning. Speaker 500:25:47It was good to see the continued balance sheet Management. I mean, do you think to the extent that loan growth opportunities remain elevated, Do you think we could see further restructuring in the quarters ahead? Speaker 100:26:05Well, I'll start high level and then Tanya can jump in if she wants. But we Throughout that second half of the year, we look for opportunities to shed lower yielding some mix of lower yielding, but also that has a lower impact in terms of the losses on the sale of the And we'll continue to look at that. Yes, I mean, we're seeing with the deposit trends, we expect those continue to trend upward overall outside of seasonal fluctuations. We're outside of the line. And I'm not super anxious to take losses on sales, But if we start seeing a real pickup in loan activity and that trade off of those lower yielding securities and the higher yielding loans at these levels, yes, we'll continue to look at that. Speaker 100:26:47Tanya, do you want to add anything to that? Speaker 200:26:49Yes. I would just say, the ones that we've sold, those had Pretty low earn back periods, very low earn back periods relative to loan rates and pretty low earn back periods relative to paying off borrowings and putting money into cash. We picked the best securities to sell for those based on that criteria. Now if we as Tim said, if we have significant loan growth, We would easily be able to target loan or low earn back periods in order to repurpose cash from securities into the loan book. Speaker 500:27:34Got it. That's super helpful color. Wanted to Shift to deposit trends, I mean, they sound pretty positive so far in January. I was just curious how the non interest bearing deposit trends are faring so far in January? Speaker 100:27:51I think where that's where we saw the bigger fluctuations. That's where certainly some of the Seasonal outflow was in terms of business transactions, whether normal vendor tax type payments versus those more onetime or unique things like a business sale Where proceeds go to investors or purchase of real estate or a business, again, we've seen the noninterest bearing increase upwards of $100,000,000 throughout the month. So it does fluctuate. And so it is hard to tell what the seasonality that we see. But Again, we're not losing a lot of money out the back door, losing very few to other institutions and the pace of money moving out of non interest bearing into Both interest bearing and into non bank financial markets like money markets, that is dissipating. Speaker 100:28:40So I don't know how to prognosticate, but we continue to see positive trends there. Speaker 200:28:44Yes. And if I could just add that a significant portion. So we had a little lift in our interest bearing deposits over the course of the 4th quarter, but a Pretty large portion of that was new money from existing customers as well as new relationships. So, I think that's an important data point. Speaker 500:29:06Got it. And then last for me, I know you're pretty aggressive on the grading process with credit. But just any color you can share on what drove the increase to special mention loans in the quarter? Speaker 100:29:20Yes. So I'll start really high level and then hand it off to Masako Stewart. But we are pretty conservative or aggressive depending on You look at that and looking things in a watch category, very finite time period that we let stuff sit there. And so we do have stuff move from watch as a pass credit into criticize, but we also are constantly looking at those that we can upgrade. So I'll let Masaka jump in on the specifics. Speaker 600:29:43Right, right. So we did continue to migration in the quarter kind of moving in both directions. But in the special mention category, like Tim was talking about, we do tend to take a more aggressive approach in our watch category that if we don't see improvements over about 2 or 3 quarters, we will move it into special mention. And so the increase primarily came from those situations, all kind of with individual kind of different situations, but not necessarily further deterioration, just not any meaningful improvement over the last couple of quarters. However, we are expecting a number of upgrades to in the Q1 after we get results from year end. Speaker 600:30:24And so again, like I mentioned, we are going to continue to see migration in both directions. And just in our substandard category, again, that actually balance went down by quite a bit just due to some active and successful We'll work out situations, although we did have 2 more loans within to our non accrual category as well. But overall, that's We will continue to see migration, I think, in all grades. Speaker 500:30:53Yes. All right. That's all for me. Thanks for taking my questions. Speaker 400:30:57Thank you, Wadi. Speaker 300:31:00Next question will come from Jeff Rulis With D. A. Davidson, your line is now open. You may begin. Speaker 700:31:09Thanks. Good morning. Speaker 100:31:11Good morning, Speaker 700:31:11Jeff. Just to stay on the credit side, that classified balance $32,000,000 is Any way to kind of break out the larger segments that are kind of most represented, what's in that bucket? Speaker 300:31:32Yes. So Speaker 600:31:35The largest loan that we have in that is an office building in San Francisco that I think has been mentioned before, which was downgraded, I think, 3 Decembers ago. And that makes up nearly half of that balance. We continue to work with the borrower. Loan is continuing to pay as Reed, we have not restructured and there's borrowers continuing to still make contractual payments there. And we continue to monitor that very closely. Speaker 600:32:10But that makes up the bulk of the substandard. Speaker 700:32:15Okay. Pretty granular from there. Speaker 200:32:18That's helpful. Speaker 700:32:20Tani, if I could circle back to the margin, I just wanted to Sure, I've got pretty good detail, but I wanted to make sure I have it correct. If we're at, call it, 253, I'm looking at the benefits to the margin. I think you said residual on average kind of full year impact of 23 basis points. So in a vacuum, does that take margin to 275? Then other additions would be a little tail of the balance sheet restructuring could be a benefit, Not to mention, if we see some rate cuts, if you lean at liability sensitive and upswing and then it would be any carving back would be further repricing or pressure on the funding side. Speaker 700:33:07Is that are those the bigger pieces that we're talking about in magnitude? Is that generally in line? Speaker 200:33:14Yes, yes, that sounds right. Speaker 700:33:17Okay. Got it. And then, I guess, one last one just on the non interest expense. In terms of management of that, that's been A contained number, I don't know if you typically don't like to throw out outlooks, but in terms of expense growth, What kind of year is that in terms of investments? Are you really mindful of that I just want to I don't know what the outlook for expenses ahead is. Speaker 700:33:53What the messaging is it Camp down or is it, hey, we're seeing, Tim, I think you mentioned, obviously, you're seeing some talent here and there. Just Investment versus kind of mining expenses, what's that in the wash? Speaker 100:34:10Sure. If you adjust out about the roughly $600,000 accrual adjustment, that expense level is a good indicator in the quarter of our run rate. We are looking to make hires, but we horse trade around staffing levels and where we can free up some money. We have made some cost save initiatives in a couple of areas to free up some funds for further investment and technology to streamline our lending operations in So there are expenses coming, but we will continue to do our best to offset those elsewhere. So again, if you back out that $600,000 accrual adjustment, that Q4 expense level seems a good indicator to us right now. Speaker 700:34:55$600,000,000 is a positive, meaning the benefit in the 4th quarter? Speaker 200:35:01Yeah, you would want to take that out because those were accrual adjustments. Yeah. And then just a reminder that In the Q1, our 401 contribution matching tends to spike up, because everybody is resetting for the year. And then merit increases typically will go into effect in the Q2. Speaker 700:35:22Got it. And Tani, just a quick last one. The tax rate Is for 24%, what's a good number to use? Speaker 200:35:32I think you can continue to use the 25%, twenty 6%. Speaker 700:35:38Okay. That's it for me. Thank you. Speaker 300:35:57Next question will come from Andrew Terrell from Stephens. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:36:07Hey, good morning. Good morning, Andrew. Just a couple of quick ones for me. 1, can we get back to the margin for And Tanya, do you have the spot securities yield at twelvethirty 1? Speaker 200:36:25Yes, I do. Just let me grab that. Hang on one second. Speaker 800:36:42And I guess, Tanya, Speaker 200:36:43what are you doing? I'll come back to that. Yes. Speaker 800:36:45Okay. Perfect. Yes, yes. If I look at shifting gears, looking at Slide on the investor CRE maturities or the repricing in 2024 2025. This is a really helpful slide. Speaker 800:36:59But when I look at the 2024 bucket for loans repricing, the $26,300,000 outstanding. You've got the new weighted average Debt service assumption at 120 or 1.2 times. I guess when I look back at the December presentation, the 20 20 loan repricings were estimated to carry a 2.01 times debt service after reprice. So I guess the question is what changed in the disclosed debt service? Is it just a function of the mix of loans that are in that bucket? Speaker 800:37:31It does look like the mix changed a little bit or were there any kind of model changes that you made within these assumptions? Speaker 100:37:39I think we had one property in there that in between those quarters where the tenant chose not to renew their lease. So we adjusted that to more market based assumptions. So that skewed it, was, I think, the biggest impact. Speaker 800:37:59Okay, understood. But no change like the model assumptions or anything in Speaker 200:38:05No. No. No. Speaker 800:38:07Okay. Andrew, back Speaker 200:38:09to your net interest margin question, sorry. The average portfolio yield in December was 2.32%. And then that's broken down in the presentation between AFS and health to maturity. Speaker 800:38:25Okay, perfect. 232, got it. Okay. And then Tanya, I wanted to go back to some of the commentary you gave earlier around the kind of residual loan repricing. And I guess I'm trying to understand a little bit better when I look at, I think it's Page 18, the disclosure around the asset repricing Going forward on both the loan and the security side, when I look on the loans in that kind of 3 to 12 month bucket, it looks like, it $100,000,000 or so of loans repricing in 2024. Speaker 800:38:59So I'm I guess I'm trying to figure out how we get to the point to point disclosure of 40 basis points kind of throughout the year in terms of loan repricing if there's just $97,000,000 in that bucket, if that question makes sense? Speaker 300:39:16Let's see. So you've got well, you've got the 3 to 12 months at 97, but Speaker 200:39:20you've also got the $240,000,000 in the 3 months or less. So obviously, some of that $240,000,000 if you have flat rates won't reprice, but some of it is coming rolling down the curve and is ready to reprice. Does that make sense? Speaker 800:39:38Yes, it does. My assumption was just that the 3 month or less was predominantly floating and had already repriced, just given the rate was 7.3 4ths here. So I was thinking about the impact is more of like the $97,000,000 maybe you had an extra quarter in there coming from $584,000,000 up to 774,000,000 It just seemed it was tough to get to the type of point to point loan yield expansion just based off the slide. Speaker 200:40:06Yes. Okay. Andrew, I'll look at that offline and see if I can explain it a little better. Speaker 800:40:13Okay. Got it. I appreciate it. And then last question, just on the margin. It looks like if I look at the interest bearing deposit cost progression throughout the quarter, the December month saw kind of the greatest increase. Speaker 800:40:30I'm not sure if that was more of just a function of mix. I know there's some volatility towards quarter end, it sounds like. But just Given maybe an elevated amount of pressure in December versus the prior quarter, would you expect that we could see, I guess a relatively stable margin in the Q1 before some of these benefits start to kind of kick in as we roll throughout the year? Speaker 100:40:54Yes. I think some of the movements in the non interest bearing to interest bearing and some that moved out, they were pretty lumpy. And that did happen later in the quarter. And so I don't want to say that's a run rate then. That can Be a little jerky in its impact depending on the timing. Speaker 100:41:15So I don't think that's indicative of a run rate per se. But again, I'm really loathe to prognosticate that given what's happened. Speaker 800:41:25Yes, totally understood. Speaker 100:41:33So we did have an online question. When you talk about the residual loan repricing opportunity, is it safe to assume that will continue in 2025 and beyond assuming we do not return to a 0 and so great policy? I'll let Tanya handle that. Speaker 200:41:48And I would say, yes, the residual repricing continues beyond the 1 year time horizon. We typically the duration on our loan portfolio is somewhere around 4 years. So you can assume that we're going to get residual repricing over that entire timeframe. Speaker 300:42:19I will now turn the call over to Tim Myers for closing remarks. Speaker 100:42:24Thank you again everyone for both your interest,Read morePowered by