Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Q1 2024 Earnings Report $35.46 -1.51 (-4.09%) Closing price 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$35.44 -0.02 (-0.05%) As of 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 N.T. Butterfield & Son EPS ResultsActual EPS$1.17Consensus EPS $0.96Beat/MissBeat by +$0.21One Year Ago EPS$1.24Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$142.80 millionExpected Revenue$137.28 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$5.52 millionYoY Revenue Growth-2.90%Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2024Date4/24/2024TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateWednesday, April 24, 2024Conference Call Time10:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsBank of N.T. Butterfield & Son's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, April 22, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Thursday, April 24, 2025 at 10:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Earnings HistoryNTB ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Q1 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrApril 24, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning. My name is Dorvin, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q1 2024 Earnings Call for the Bank of NT Butterfield and Son Limited. All participants will be in the listen only mode. Please note, this event is being recorded. Operator00:00:48I would now like to turn the call over to Noah Fields, Butterfield's Head of Investor Relations. Speaker 100:00:59Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, we will be reviewing Butterfield's Q1 2024 financial results. On the call, I am joined by Michael Collins, Butterfield's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Craig Bridgewater, Group Chief Financial Officer and Michael Schrum, President and Group Chief Risk Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the call up for a question and answer session. Speaker 100:01:24Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release announcing our Q1 2024 results. The press release and financial statements, along with a slide presentation that we will refer to during our remarks on this call, are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.butterfieldgroup.com. Before I turn the call over to Liva Collins, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussions will refer to certain non GAAP measures, which we believe are important in evaluating the company's performance. For a reconciliation of these measures to U. S. Speaker 100:01:55GAAP, please refer to the earnings press release and slide presentation. Today's call and associated materials may also contain certain forward looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Additional information regarding these risks can be found in our SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to Michael Collins. Speaker 200:02:21Thank you, Noah, and thanks to everyone joining the call today. Butterfield's Q1 2024 results continue to benefit from our leading market positions in highly regarded international financial centers. As a reminder, we operate well established banking and wealth management franchises in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands. We also offer specialized financial services in the Bahamas, Switzerland, Singapore and the UK, where we provide mortgages to high net worth clients with properties in Prime Central London. I will now turn to the Q1 highlights on Page 4. Speaker 200:03:01Barfield reported strong financial results in the Q1 with net income of $53,400,000 and core net income of $55,000,000 We reported core earnings per share of $1.17 with a core return on average tangible common equity of 24.5 percent for the Q1 of 2024. The net interest margin was 2.68% the Q1, a decrease of 5 basis points from the prior quarter, with the cost of deposits rising to 170 basis points from 172 basis points in the prior quarter. The increase in deposit cost was primarily the result of continued mix shift from demand deposits to term products as well as term deposit rollovers. The Board has again approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.44 per share. We also continued to repurchase shares during quarter totaling 1,200,000 shares at an average price of $30.40 per share. Speaker 200:04:06Before I turn the call over to Craig, I would like to welcome Barfield's new General Counsel and Group Chief Legal Officer, Simon Desotage. Simon joins us following the planned retirement of Shawn Morris. Simon has over 30 years of legal experience in London, New York and Bermuda with the majority of that time spent in the banking sector. I am confident Butterfield will benefit from his extensive experience advising banks on legal and regulatory matters. I will now turn the call over to Craig for details on the Q1. Speaker 300:04:37Thank you, Michael, and good morning. On Slide 6, we provide a summary of net interest income and net interest margin. In the Q1, we reported net interest income before provision for credit losses of $87,100,000 a small increase versus the prior quarter. The net interest income benefited from an increase in average interest earning assets, but was muted by lower NIM and one less day than the 4th quarter. Average interest earning assets in the Q1 of 2024 of $13,000,000,000 was 3.2% higher than the prior quarter, driven by an increase in average deposit levels. Speaker 300:05:18The yield on the interest earning assets was flat at 4.39%. The yield on treasury assets during the quarter was comparable to the prior quarter at 4.71%, and the investment portfolio yielded 2.23%, which was 7 basis points higher than the prior quarter, reflecting the runoff of lower yield securities and increased yields for more recent purchases. Throughout the Q1, the bank reinvested maturities, pay downs and some excess liquidity into a mix of U. S. Agency MBS securities and medium term U. Speaker 300:05:51S. Treasuries. The yield on loan balances decreased by 10 basis points to 6.58%, principally attributed to net pay downs and higher yielding loans. Average investment balances decreased by $86,300,000 or 0.07 percent to $5,200,000 compared to the prior quarter, mainly due to maturities and changes in the fair value of the securities held. Slide 7 provides a summary of non interest income, which totaled $55,100,000 down 8.1% versus the prior quarter, primarily due to seasonally higher card services fees included in banking revenue in the Q4 of the year. Speaker 300:06:34Trust fees declined as a result of lower activity based fee income, while fees from asset management increased as a result of higher assets under management. Noninterest income continues to be a stable and capital efficient source of revenue through the cycle with a fee income ratio of 38.6%. On Slide 8, we present core non interest expenses. Total core non interest expenses were $86,900,000 a 3.8% decrease compared to $19,400,000 in the prior quarter. The decline in core non interest expense is primarily attributable to lower salary and benefit costs as performance based incentive accruals decreased from the prior quarter. Speaker 300:07:17Expenses in the Q1 also benefited from incurring less technology and communications costs. We continue to expect a quarterly run rate for expenses to settle around $88,000,000 per quarter in the second half of twenty twenty four. As discussed previously, this contemplates the increased expenses regarding from the amortization of our new cloud based IT investments and core banking system and branch as well as calls for our new team servicing the acquired local health of trust clients, all while taking into consideration the expected benefit of the group wide restructure announced in the Q3 of 2023. I will now turn the call over to Michael Schrum to review the balance sheet. Speaker 400:08:01Thank you, Craig. Slide 9 shows that Butterfield's balance sheet remains liquid and conservatively managed. Period end deposit balances increased to $12,100,000,000 from $12,000,000,000 at the prior quarter end, indicative of the stabilization in the deposit base. We continue to expect a medium term deposit level range between $11,500,000,000 $12,000,000,000 with the understanding that deposit flows can be cyclical due to the nature of some of the trust and larger institutional depositors. Butterfield's low risk density of 34.4 percent continues to reflect the regulatory capital efficiency of the balance sheet with the lower risk weighted residential mortgages now representing 69% of our total loan assets. Speaker 400:09:00On Slide 10, we show that Butterfield continues to have strong asset quality with low credit risk in the investment portfolio, which is now 100% comprised of at least AA rated U. S. Government guaranteed agency securities. Loan asset quality also continues to be excellent with non accrual loans remaining at 1.3% of gross loans, a net charge off of 1 basis point and our allowance for credit losses coverage ratio is consistent with prior quarter at 0.5%. In terms of credit trends, we have additional disclosures in Note 6 to the financial statements. Speaker 400:09:42I would just point out that our past due and accruing facilities are expected to continue to be somewhat elevated over the next few quarters due to a sizable legacy hospitality facility in Bermuda, working through a receivership and sale process, which we expect to conclude later this year. We remain well secured and continue to expect full recovery on all pass through and accruing loan assets. On Slide 11, we present the average cash and securities balance sheet with a summary interest rate sensitivity. Asset sensitivity increased in the Q1 of 2024 due to a lower asset duration with higher levels of cash and cash equivalents, along with durations of investments and fixed rate loans trending lower. Unrealized losses in the FS portfolio included in OCI was $178,200,000 at the end of the first quarter, an unfavorable movement of $14,300,000 or percent from $163,900,000 at 31 December 2023 due to an increase in long term market interest rates. Speaker 400:10:57At current forward rates, AFS OCI is expected to improve by $52,000,000 or 29 percent in the next 12 months and $83,000,000 or 47% in the next 24 months, allowing for reinvestment in high yielding assets and tangible book value growth. Slide 12 summarizes regulatory and leverage capital levels. Butterfield's capital levels continue to be conservatively above regulatory requirements. Remains above our targeted range of 6% to 6.5% and is indicative of the health of our overall capital levels. I'll now turn the call back to Michael Collins. Speaker 200:11:48Thank you, Michael. The outlook for tourism in Bermuda and Cayman is very positive with improved airlift and a good pipeline of cruise ships scheduled to visit the island. Bermuda continues to maintain its status as a world class jurisdiction to host high profile international events. Early next month, SailGP, an offshoot of the America's Cup sailing race, will be hosting televised races in Bermuda. Butterfield was a proud supporter of the event as we were with the America's Cup. Speaker 200:12:18In November, the PGA will once again hold the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in Bermuda at the Port Royal Golf Course, where the event has been held since 2019 and is televised internationally. In Cayman, the peak season for tourism is winding down as we head towards summer after a great season. Available visitor statistics show air arrivals heading back towards records with bed capacity continuing to increase. In addition to Burmese and Cayman, the Channel Islands also Speaker 300:12:51from international business. At the Speaker 200:12:54end of 2023, the Bermuda government tabled legislation on moving to a corporate income tax from 2025. The legislation will implement minimum corporate income tax of 15% on Multinational Enterprises with total global revenues in excess of €750,000,000 in at least 2 of the previous 4 accounting periods and will fall within the scope of the Pillar 2 global minimum tax rules. During the Q4 of 2023 reporting cycle, we saw a number of Bermuda reinsurers announce deferred tax assets in preparation for the expected implementation of a first ever corporate income tax in Bermuda. We do not expect the tax to impact Barfield directly in the near future, but we will be monitoring the progress closely. At this point, reinsurers are mostly planning to accept the changes and maintain their significant and economically important operations in Bermuda. Speaker 200:13:53In Cayman, the government has taken a less active approach legislatively with a wait and see position. Barfield continues to benefit from capital efficient and recurring non interest income, disciplined expense management and net interest earnings. The bank has consistently maintained top quartile returns relative to U. S. Regional banks with operating returns on tangible equity in the range of 16% to 28% over the most recent economic cycle. Speaker 200:14:22Our strong returns require active capital management, which we deliver through regular quarterly cash dividends and share repurchases. Additionally, capital is utilized to support organic growth and contemplates potential M and A activity. We remain committed to exploring growth opportunities through acquisitions and are regularly in contact with targets to assess potential prospects. We continue to look for accretive deals, primarily in private trust, while also building organically from previous acquisitions and we'll remain disciplined to ensure M and A is consistent with our strategic and financial objectives. Thank you. Speaker 200:15:01And with that, we would be happy to take your questions. Operator? Operator00:15:07Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer The first question comes from Tim Switzer with KBW. Please go ahead. Speaker 300:15:52Hey, good morning. Thanks for my question. Speaker 200:15:55Good Speaker 500:15:57morning. Could you guys talk about the level of non interest income in Q1? It was a little bit above the run rate you guys talked about last quarter and a lot of it was the FX revenue which there might be some one timers in there. Could you talk about what drove the upside and what your expectations are going forward? Speaker 300:16:19Yes. This is Craig, and I can speak to that. So you're right. So we did have hit the increases in FX revenue, and it's really due to just a handful of significant transactions that took place in our Channel Islands segment. The bulk of the FX revenue on a quarter to quarter basis is really kind of from the paid currencies in Cayman Islands versus U. Speaker 300:16:46S. Dollar as well as Bermuda dollars versus U. S. Dollar. And that accounts for somewhere around 70 percent of that FX revenue on a quarter to quarter basis. Speaker 300:16:56And then just depending on client volumes and client transactions, the FX would tend to kind of vary from quarter to quarter. So this quarter, we had again a handful of large transactions in our channel items segment. The other piece is that we've also seen some positive results coming through on our asset management piece. We are seeing more inflows into our money market fund as an example. And I think as rates stay higher for longer, obviously, customers are going to continue to seek higher yields on their investments for any excess cash. Speaker 300:17:34So we have seen some favorable flows into our money market funds, as well as just increases in the fair value of this portfolio that are managed by asset management. So that's largely driving the Q1, financial income. Speaker 500:17:52Okay. And what are your going forward expectations? What is some of that sustainable that can repeat in the coming quarters? Speaker 300:18:01I think as long as again, as long as we see rates higher for longer, I think we'll still continue to see pretty good levels in our money market fund, so that connects with. So we're earning fees on those, so that's going to be positive. Depending on how equity markets perform, again, that's going to basically support assets under management. So perhaps we'll see those levels continue to be where they are or increase slightly, again, depending on market conditions. And then I guess under that, you'll probably see cyclical increases as we have seen the past. Speaker 300:18:39So in Bermuda, as the tourism season comes in, you'll see more kind of credit card volumes and that's going to drive banking fees. And then obviously in Q4, we have seasonally high fees on the banking side as well. Speaker 500:18:55Okay, that's helpful. And my other question is, I know you guys like to hold a lot of liquidity on the balance sheet, but cash increased a little bit around 24% of earning assets. Can you remind us like what your target liquidity level is and if there's any opportunity for you to deploy cash into either loan opportunities or higher yielding securities? Speaker 400:19:22Yes. Thanks, Tim. So it's Michael Skrum. I'll kick off and maybe Craig can pitch in as well. Yes, you're absolutely right. Speaker 400:19:29As we see the maturities in the investment investment portfolio kind of coming back, we've been sort of building the cash position a little bit here. Just one, it's not adding any OCI risk at the moment. We've had some deposit stabilization and some volatility prior to that, obviously, after the regional bank sort of volatility last year. And so we've just been kind of building the cash position a little bit. I think in a stable environment, 15% to 20% of our deposits typically would be what we call working capital or cash positions, which is, again, because we don't have a central bank or lender last resort, we don't have a Fed window. Speaker 400:20:10So we have to manage our treasury effectively. And because we have pervasive multicurrency accounts across a number of different markets, that ends up with liquidity flows kind of being sort of a little bit higher than you might otherwise normally see. So, I think there are definitely opportunities for us to think about laddering out. Just as a reminder, cash and short term securities are up to 1 year. So, there's a little bit of some repricing lag on that, but there's not substantial duration. Speaker 400:20:42So again, we'd just like to continue to see the investment portfolio run down a little bit. And then as that happens, then we're rolling it into higher yielding securities. I'll let Craig add anything. Yes. Speaker 300:20:56I guess the main thing I'll add is that what we did see during the quarter was, I guess, you saw an increase in the others. So again, that was a contributor to the increased levels of liquidity that we have. So in addition to kind of managing the investment portfolio and the reinvestments there, we do have deposits increase and obviously we kind of have to see how those deposits are going to behave before we invest into longer term assets. Operator00:21:35Thank you. The next question comes from Alex Twerdahl with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:21:47Michael, your comments about expected medium term deposit range being $11,500,000,000 to $12,000,000,000 implies maybe a little bit of expected outflow over the next couple of quarters, which I know it's not atypical for sort of the middle of the year. But do you in fact have line of sight on some deposits that are flowing out or expected to flow out in the near term? And then would those deposits be non interest bearing or would they have some costs associated with them that we can take into consideration when our modeling? Speaker 400:22:23Yes. Good question, Alex. So yes, it's the answer. I think we do have a number of depositors that are sitting on the balance sheet, but the company itself is in liquidation. It's going through the courts. Speaker 400:22:39And it's just very difficult to predict how they're going to flow out. And as we've seen, we also have some but we're expecting some of that to be in the sort of near to medium term. It just depends on when exactly the court process is completed and the liquidation proceeds. And those would typically be non interest bearing. So there's a couple of those. Speaker 400:23:06And then I think we're also sitting with some reasonably expensive deposit and we continue to see some mix shift. And so I think the normalization period is probably still ongoing. We're seeing some inflows and we're seeing some money fund inflows at the moment. But I think there's still a little bit of a ways, a couple maybe 3 quarters to go just to kind of make sure that we feel that this is completely stabilized. We came out of post COVID and financial assistance, monetary policy pretty ramped up and then going into a much higher interest rate environment. Speaker 400:23:50So I think it's a normal sort of stabilization period here. And yes, we do have some line of sight to some depositors and there's a normal kind of volatility. Okay. Speaker 600:24:01And then you guys have made a pretty considered effort to reduce the asset sensitivity in the loan portfolio over the last couple of years. Is that process and that effort kind of down at this point? I mean is the sort of the mix between the fixed and the variable, is that kind of what it's going to be at this point? Speaker 400:24:20Yes. I would say so. I think you never know what's happening with interest rates. One day, it's 2 cuts and the next day, it's longer term increases. But I think if we kind of think that the Fed is kind of done hiking here and we're kind of most customers would be looking probably to come into floating rate, more sophisticated customers, I think. Speaker 400:24:47And so we'd probably not expect for people to kind of go 3 to 5 year fixed here at this point. It's going to be obviously different for each market, But I would suspect that we're probably sitting at that to 50% for the medium term. Those are repricing from here to like 27%, right? So there's not a particular lumpy tranches in those repricing. But as they come up, I think we should probably see that fixed percentage of total kind of either stable or declining. Speaker 600:25:26Okay. And then in terms of the M and A, Michael, your comments on still looking for a private trust business or continue to be acquisitive. Just given the change in geographies and sort of the spread that business over the last with the Credit Suisse transaction, are there any geographies that make more sense today than they did a couple of years ago? And either from just sort of a synergistic standpoint or another standpoint? And then just remind us overall what the criteria is of if that's a change at all over the last couple of years in terms of the appetite for the revenues they seek out the size of the businesses, etcetera? Speaker 700:26:05Yes. Hi, it's Michael Collin. So geography wise, that hasn't changed. So whether on the banking side in terms of Bermuda that came in, Guernsey, New Jersey or on the trust side, if you add in Geneva and Singapore and Bahamas, that hasn't changed. So there's the offshore world is very small and there's some very good jurisdictions and there's some jurisdictions that aren't quite as good. Speaker 700:26:29So we know what they are, but we're in the right places. Singapore obviously is a particular growth area. We're top 5 or 6 private trust company in Singapore now. We would never imagine that we could sort of compete in the banking world there. So we know exactly where we want to be, which is fee income. Speaker 700:26:48So geographies are exactly the same. And when you look at trust, private trust companies, they're pretty the good ones are pretty much across those geographies. So that's going Speaker 200:26:57to stick. In terms of criteria, Speaker 700:27:00it's still going to be private trust. There's obviously other fee income businesses, the private equity like company administration, fund administration, which is very technology intensive. We don't want to be in those business. We want to stay in private trust, which we've been in for 7 years. So we're going to stick to that. Speaker 700:27:17The only thing I'd say is in terms of our price appetite, so basically 8 times EBITDA, maybe a little bit more, 10 times EBITDA if it's a bigger acquisition opportunity. The two ways we can do it is a small trust company or a larger trust company. If we acquire a larger trust company and it's from a reputable seller, then we can acquire as a legal entity. If it's a little more difficult, we would just do of an asset purchase and choose each trust 1 by 1. So essentially, nothing's changed. Speaker 700:27:53I would say if it's the right opportunity, we might consider paying a bit more. But in terms of geography and what we would be buying, it's consistent. Operator00:28:14Thank you. The next question comes from Eric Spector with Raymond James. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:28:30Hey, good morning. This is Eric on the line for Dave Feaster. Congrats on a good quarter and appreciate you taking the questions. Just wanted to start on NII and NIM, kind of mentioned rate sensitivity is up a little bit quarter over quarter. Just curious kind of how you think about NIM in higher for a longer environment and if you're considering any actions to demand rate sensitivity here going forward? Speaker 300:28:59Hi, Ark, it's Craig. I guess on NIM, we had previously kind of or just spoke about NIM troughing kind of in Q1, Q2. We think that is the same. I think towards probably towards the I guess kind of towards the end of Q2, we will start to see some improvement in the overall NIM. This is obviously kind of dependent on really the cost of funds, so they deposit pricing. Speaker 300:29:28We are actively watching deposit pricing and average duration of long term deposits is around 3 months. So that's those actually roll off the reprice. I really just taking a keen eye to kind of what we reprice the bill debt. But in a higher for longer rate environment, we expect that we'll probably still have continued pricing pressures on deposits. So we're thinking carefully about that. Speaker 300:29:53So that's going to probably kind of meet any increases in NIM at this point based on the current market environment. On the positive side, as you will see, we are starting to narrow back out into the portfolio, and you would have seen an increase in the yield on our investment portfolio. We stood at the 2.23 for Q1. And as we continue to ladder back into portfolio and invest at higher rates, we're going to see some positive contribution to NIM from there. But yes, I think because it's the cost of deposits and the cost of funding, that's probably going to keep it more or less stable to trending up at this point. Speaker 400:30:35Eric, so it's Michael Schrum. I think if you look at OCI, right, and the divestment portfolio is pretty large compared to the size of the balance sheet. And so having gone through this sort of whole increase in rates and building large negative relatively large negative positions in HTM and although totally unrealized. I think we're also just kind of fine seeing that OCI burn down and sort of being cautious about laddering in and just sitting on a bit of cash, right, which I think we're not sort of a mark to market shop. We just kind of need to manage through the different parts of the cycle. Speaker 400:31:13And as you can see, earnings are coming through. So I think it's kind of steady. When we say higher for longer, I mean, some people are talking about increases in rates, right? I think we also want to be mindful of the risk positions that we have there and make sure that we're not adding to those risk positions as we go through. Speaker 800:31:36Got it. That's helpful. And then just curious, I mean, you talked a little bit about M and A, but just kind of curious about capital return more broadly. You've obviously been pretty active repurchasing stock the last few quarters, and TCE is now above that 6% to 6.5% level and regulatory capital is very strong. Just curious how you think about capital priorities and your appetite for repurchases. Operator00:31:59Do you expect a similar pace that we've seen in Speaker 800:32:02the last couple of quarters? And just kind of any color on that would be helpful. Speaker 400:32:07Yes. Thanks, Eric. It's Michael Schrum. So yes, we're actually calling in from Cayman at the moment. We just we're down here just for our Board meetings. Speaker 400:32:16And the Board is very supportive at these levels, very attractive, reasonably attractive valuations. Obviously, half an eye to what's the M and A pipeline, organic growth opportunities, and there's certainly quite a bit of opportunity here on the lending side in Cayman. The economy is booming, there's tower creams everywhere. So that's a positive in terms of causing capital consumption and at least replacing the amortization that we're seeing in the Limburg at the moment. But yes, very supportive in terms of the current strategy, which is obviously first priority is the dividend. Speaker 400:32:54And we kept that at $0.44 a share. Secondly, obviously, supporting our core markets in terms of organic growth and or any credit deterioration, which we're not really seeing. We've seen a little bit of migration. Again, a few lumpy loans there and some legacy positions, but very confident about the pending valuations there, so it shouldn't attract a lot more risk weighted assets. And then thirdly, obviously, M and A and or buybacks. Speaker 400:33:23I think we spoke about the pipeline for M and A, which we are kind of sitting on a lot of capital. And so we want to return our capital to shareholders. And so, we've been pretty active, and I would expect us, subject to market conditions, to continue. And if we need to re up later in the year, we'll do that. Speaker 800:33:45Got it. That's helpful. And then just one last one for me. Curious if you could provide just an update, I mean, given that the core banking system upgrade was completed this quarter, just curious how that went? And then maybe just some color on the Credit Suisse acquisition, the 1st full quarter since the final tranche closed. Speaker 800:34:10Just curious if you could provide some colors on just trends broadly there and how the team brought on has been doing? Speaker 400:34:23Right. So, yes, maybe I'll kick off and Craig can pitch in as well. Core banking system upgrades, I mean, are always good at gold, right? So there nobody's really it's not something that's necessarily positive unless you're rolling out a bunch of new functionalities. So what we did was a like for like conversion. Speaker 400:34:43It's a fairly major upgrade. It was a moving to a cloud infrastructure. As you can see, the expenses and the capital picture has changed slightly in terms of software as a service rather than the capital depreciation in those lines. I think, generally speaking, it went well. There's no write offs. Speaker 400:35:01There's obviously a few client impacting things. And we apologize to clients, but they're all still with us. And I think what we're excited about is the opportunity to roll out additional functionality now. And we have a pretty good steady platform, seems to be operating. It's a lot faster for clients. Speaker 400:35:18And so there's not a lot of noise. Our call centers broadly were able to deal with the elevated volumes. Most of the volumes from the implementation came from the OTP functionality. So, one time password functionality, inability to log in, new splash screens, etcetera. And so, it was really kind of user guide walkthroughs on that side. Speaker 400:35:41Internally, it went very well, like all our stuff with the training program was very good. And we ended up, as I said, not having any real reconciliation issues at the back end of process issues. So, I think at this point, I think everybody is feeling like that was probably more of the operational risk moment when we went live, and that's kind of in the rearview mirror, and now we can add new functionality. And in terms of Credit Suisse, Craig can just talk a little bit about that. Speaker 300:36:11Yes. And then on the IT piece, like I said, it's kind of gone according to plan that it's working. It's not amortized, the expenses related to that as well as the hosting fees. And really one of the important things in the IT upgrade was to kind of get all the current version and remain current. So I guess the positive thing is that we're now looking to apply planning for the application of kind of a new pet set. Speaker 300:36:39So kind of getting that into kind of the regular routine when it On the Credit Suisse side, again, that's going well. The assets came over, the client relationships have come over, the people have come over and they're all settled into the teams. Our Head of Trust has been very active kind of getting around to see those teams, having town halls and just making sure everybody is settled in. So that's going well. And really, it's just a matter of making sure we serve with those clients well, get to know them and then see how we can leverage those relationships. Operator00:37:26Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Noah Fields for any closing remarks. Speaker 200:37:38Thank you, Dorwin, and thanks, everyone, for dialing in today. Speaker 100:37:40We look forward to speaking with you next quarter. Speaker 300:37:43Have a great day. Operator00:37:48Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallBank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Q1 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K) Bank of N.T. 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Butterfield & Son Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Bank of N.T. Butterfield & SonThe Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son (NYSE:NTB) Ltd. provides community banking and wealth management business. The firm operates through the following geographical segments: Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Channel Islands and the UK, and Other. The Bermuda and Cayman segments offer retail banking and wealth management. The Channel Islands and the UK segment refers to the retail and corporate banking and wealth management. The Other segment includes operations in the jurisdictions of The Bahamas, Canada, Mauritius, Singapore and Switzerland. 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There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning. My name is Dorvin, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q1 2024 Earnings Call for the Bank of NT Butterfield and Son Limited. All participants will be in the listen only mode. Please note, this event is being recorded. Operator00:00:48I would now like to turn the call over to Noah Fields, Butterfield's Head of Investor Relations. Speaker 100:00:59Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, we will be reviewing Butterfield's Q1 2024 financial results. On the call, I am joined by Michael Collins, Butterfield's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Craig Bridgewater, Group Chief Financial Officer and Michael Schrum, President and Group Chief Risk Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the call up for a question and answer session. Speaker 100:01:24Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release announcing our Q1 2024 results. The press release and financial statements, along with a slide presentation that we will refer to during our remarks on this call, are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.butterfieldgroup.com. Before I turn the call over to Liva Collins, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussions will refer to certain non GAAP measures, which we believe are important in evaluating the company's performance. For a reconciliation of these measures to U. S. Speaker 100:01:55GAAP, please refer to the earnings press release and slide presentation. Today's call and associated materials may also contain certain forward looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Additional information regarding these risks can be found in our SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to Michael Collins. Speaker 200:02:21Thank you, Noah, and thanks to everyone joining the call today. Butterfield's Q1 2024 results continue to benefit from our leading market positions in highly regarded international financial centers. As a reminder, we operate well established banking and wealth management franchises in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands. We also offer specialized financial services in the Bahamas, Switzerland, Singapore and the UK, where we provide mortgages to high net worth clients with properties in Prime Central London. I will now turn to the Q1 highlights on Page 4. Speaker 200:03:01Barfield reported strong financial results in the Q1 with net income of $53,400,000 and core net income of $55,000,000 We reported core earnings per share of $1.17 with a core return on average tangible common equity of 24.5 percent for the Q1 of 2024. The net interest margin was 2.68% the Q1, a decrease of 5 basis points from the prior quarter, with the cost of deposits rising to 170 basis points from 172 basis points in the prior quarter. The increase in deposit cost was primarily the result of continued mix shift from demand deposits to term products as well as term deposit rollovers. The Board has again approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.44 per share. We also continued to repurchase shares during quarter totaling 1,200,000 shares at an average price of $30.40 per share. Speaker 200:04:06Before I turn the call over to Craig, I would like to welcome Barfield's new General Counsel and Group Chief Legal Officer, Simon Desotage. Simon joins us following the planned retirement of Shawn Morris. Simon has over 30 years of legal experience in London, New York and Bermuda with the majority of that time spent in the banking sector. I am confident Butterfield will benefit from his extensive experience advising banks on legal and regulatory matters. I will now turn the call over to Craig for details on the Q1. Speaker 300:04:37Thank you, Michael, and good morning. On Slide 6, we provide a summary of net interest income and net interest margin. In the Q1, we reported net interest income before provision for credit losses of $87,100,000 a small increase versus the prior quarter. The net interest income benefited from an increase in average interest earning assets, but was muted by lower NIM and one less day than the 4th quarter. Average interest earning assets in the Q1 of 2024 of $13,000,000,000 was 3.2% higher than the prior quarter, driven by an increase in average deposit levels. Speaker 300:05:18The yield on the interest earning assets was flat at 4.39%. The yield on treasury assets during the quarter was comparable to the prior quarter at 4.71%, and the investment portfolio yielded 2.23%, which was 7 basis points higher than the prior quarter, reflecting the runoff of lower yield securities and increased yields for more recent purchases. Throughout the Q1, the bank reinvested maturities, pay downs and some excess liquidity into a mix of U. S. Agency MBS securities and medium term U. Speaker 300:05:51S. Treasuries. The yield on loan balances decreased by 10 basis points to 6.58%, principally attributed to net pay downs and higher yielding loans. Average investment balances decreased by $86,300,000 or 0.07 percent to $5,200,000 compared to the prior quarter, mainly due to maturities and changes in the fair value of the securities held. Slide 7 provides a summary of non interest income, which totaled $55,100,000 down 8.1% versus the prior quarter, primarily due to seasonally higher card services fees included in banking revenue in the Q4 of the year. Speaker 300:06:34Trust fees declined as a result of lower activity based fee income, while fees from asset management increased as a result of higher assets under management. Noninterest income continues to be a stable and capital efficient source of revenue through the cycle with a fee income ratio of 38.6%. On Slide 8, we present core non interest expenses. Total core non interest expenses were $86,900,000 a 3.8% decrease compared to $19,400,000 in the prior quarter. The decline in core non interest expense is primarily attributable to lower salary and benefit costs as performance based incentive accruals decreased from the prior quarter. Speaker 300:07:17Expenses in the Q1 also benefited from incurring less technology and communications costs. We continue to expect a quarterly run rate for expenses to settle around $88,000,000 per quarter in the second half of twenty twenty four. As discussed previously, this contemplates the increased expenses regarding from the amortization of our new cloud based IT investments and core banking system and branch as well as calls for our new team servicing the acquired local health of trust clients, all while taking into consideration the expected benefit of the group wide restructure announced in the Q3 of 2023. I will now turn the call over to Michael Schrum to review the balance sheet. Speaker 400:08:01Thank you, Craig. Slide 9 shows that Butterfield's balance sheet remains liquid and conservatively managed. Period end deposit balances increased to $12,100,000,000 from $12,000,000,000 at the prior quarter end, indicative of the stabilization in the deposit base. We continue to expect a medium term deposit level range between $11,500,000,000 $12,000,000,000 with the understanding that deposit flows can be cyclical due to the nature of some of the trust and larger institutional depositors. Butterfield's low risk density of 34.4 percent continues to reflect the regulatory capital efficiency of the balance sheet with the lower risk weighted residential mortgages now representing 69% of our total loan assets. Speaker 400:09:00On Slide 10, we show that Butterfield continues to have strong asset quality with low credit risk in the investment portfolio, which is now 100% comprised of at least AA rated U. S. Government guaranteed agency securities. Loan asset quality also continues to be excellent with non accrual loans remaining at 1.3% of gross loans, a net charge off of 1 basis point and our allowance for credit losses coverage ratio is consistent with prior quarter at 0.5%. In terms of credit trends, we have additional disclosures in Note 6 to the financial statements. Speaker 400:09:42I would just point out that our past due and accruing facilities are expected to continue to be somewhat elevated over the next few quarters due to a sizable legacy hospitality facility in Bermuda, working through a receivership and sale process, which we expect to conclude later this year. We remain well secured and continue to expect full recovery on all pass through and accruing loan assets. On Slide 11, we present the average cash and securities balance sheet with a summary interest rate sensitivity. Asset sensitivity increased in the Q1 of 2024 due to a lower asset duration with higher levels of cash and cash equivalents, along with durations of investments and fixed rate loans trending lower. Unrealized losses in the FS portfolio included in OCI was $178,200,000 at the end of the first quarter, an unfavorable movement of $14,300,000 or percent from $163,900,000 at 31 December 2023 due to an increase in long term market interest rates. Speaker 400:10:57At current forward rates, AFS OCI is expected to improve by $52,000,000 or 29 percent in the next 12 months and $83,000,000 or 47% in the next 24 months, allowing for reinvestment in high yielding assets and tangible book value growth. Slide 12 summarizes regulatory and leverage capital levels. Butterfield's capital levels continue to be conservatively above regulatory requirements. Remains above our targeted range of 6% to 6.5% and is indicative of the health of our overall capital levels. I'll now turn the call back to Michael Collins. Speaker 200:11:48Thank you, Michael. The outlook for tourism in Bermuda and Cayman is very positive with improved airlift and a good pipeline of cruise ships scheduled to visit the island. Bermuda continues to maintain its status as a world class jurisdiction to host high profile international events. Early next month, SailGP, an offshoot of the America's Cup sailing race, will be hosting televised races in Bermuda. Butterfield was a proud supporter of the event as we were with the America's Cup. Speaker 200:12:18In November, the PGA will once again hold the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in Bermuda at the Port Royal Golf Course, where the event has been held since 2019 and is televised internationally. In Cayman, the peak season for tourism is winding down as we head towards summer after a great season. Available visitor statistics show air arrivals heading back towards records with bed capacity continuing to increase. In addition to Burmese and Cayman, the Channel Islands also Speaker 300:12:51from international business. At the Speaker 200:12:54end of 2023, the Bermuda government tabled legislation on moving to a corporate income tax from 2025. The legislation will implement minimum corporate income tax of 15% on Multinational Enterprises with total global revenues in excess of €750,000,000 in at least 2 of the previous 4 accounting periods and will fall within the scope of the Pillar 2 global minimum tax rules. During the Q4 of 2023 reporting cycle, we saw a number of Bermuda reinsurers announce deferred tax assets in preparation for the expected implementation of a first ever corporate income tax in Bermuda. We do not expect the tax to impact Barfield directly in the near future, but we will be monitoring the progress closely. At this point, reinsurers are mostly planning to accept the changes and maintain their significant and economically important operations in Bermuda. Speaker 200:13:53In Cayman, the government has taken a less active approach legislatively with a wait and see position. Barfield continues to benefit from capital efficient and recurring non interest income, disciplined expense management and net interest earnings. The bank has consistently maintained top quartile returns relative to U. S. Regional banks with operating returns on tangible equity in the range of 16% to 28% over the most recent economic cycle. Speaker 200:14:22Our strong returns require active capital management, which we deliver through regular quarterly cash dividends and share repurchases. Additionally, capital is utilized to support organic growth and contemplates potential M and A activity. We remain committed to exploring growth opportunities through acquisitions and are regularly in contact with targets to assess potential prospects. We continue to look for accretive deals, primarily in private trust, while also building organically from previous acquisitions and we'll remain disciplined to ensure M and A is consistent with our strategic and financial objectives. Thank you. Speaker 200:15:01And with that, we would be happy to take your questions. Operator? Operator00:15:07Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer The first question comes from Tim Switzer with KBW. Please go ahead. Speaker 300:15:52Hey, good morning. Thanks for my question. Speaker 200:15:55Good Speaker 500:15:57morning. Could you guys talk about the level of non interest income in Q1? It was a little bit above the run rate you guys talked about last quarter and a lot of it was the FX revenue which there might be some one timers in there. Could you talk about what drove the upside and what your expectations are going forward? Speaker 300:16:19Yes. This is Craig, and I can speak to that. So you're right. So we did have hit the increases in FX revenue, and it's really due to just a handful of significant transactions that took place in our Channel Islands segment. The bulk of the FX revenue on a quarter to quarter basis is really kind of from the paid currencies in Cayman Islands versus U. Speaker 300:16:46S. Dollar as well as Bermuda dollars versus U. S. Dollar. And that accounts for somewhere around 70 percent of that FX revenue on a quarter to quarter basis. Speaker 300:16:56And then just depending on client volumes and client transactions, the FX would tend to kind of vary from quarter to quarter. So this quarter, we had again a handful of large transactions in our channel items segment. The other piece is that we've also seen some positive results coming through on our asset management piece. We are seeing more inflows into our money market fund as an example. And I think as rates stay higher for longer, obviously, customers are going to continue to seek higher yields on their investments for any excess cash. Speaker 300:17:34So we have seen some favorable flows into our money market funds, as well as just increases in the fair value of this portfolio that are managed by asset management. So that's largely driving the Q1, financial income. Speaker 500:17:52Okay. And what are your going forward expectations? What is some of that sustainable that can repeat in the coming quarters? Speaker 300:18:01I think as long as again, as long as we see rates higher for longer, I think we'll still continue to see pretty good levels in our money market fund, so that connects with. So we're earning fees on those, so that's going to be positive. Depending on how equity markets perform, again, that's going to basically support assets under management. So perhaps we'll see those levels continue to be where they are or increase slightly, again, depending on market conditions. And then I guess under that, you'll probably see cyclical increases as we have seen the past. Speaker 300:18:39So in Bermuda, as the tourism season comes in, you'll see more kind of credit card volumes and that's going to drive banking fees. And then obviously in Q4, we have seasonally high fees on the banking side as well. Speaker 500:18:55Okay, that's helpful. And my other question is, I know you guys like to hold a lot of liquidity on the balance sheet, but cash increased a little bit around 24% of earning assets. Can you remind us like what your target liquidity level is and if there's any opportunity for you to deploy cash into either loan opportunities or higher yielding securities? Speaker 400:19:22Yes. Thanks, Tim. So it's Michael Skrum. I'll kick off and maybe Craig can pitch in as well. Yes, you're absolutely right. Speaker 400:19:29As we see the maturities in the investment investment portfolio kind of coming back, we've been sort of building the cash position a little bit here. Just one, it's not adding any OCI risk at the moment. We've had some deposit stabilization and some volatility prior to that, obviously, after the regional bank sort of volatility last year. And so we've just been kind of building the cash position a little bit. I think in a stable environment, 15% to 20% of our deposits typically would be what we call working capital or cash positions, which is, again, because we don't have a central bank or lender last resort, we don't have a Fed window. Speaker 400:20:10So we have to manage our treasury effectively. And because we have pervasive multicurrency accounts across a number of different markets, that ends up with liquidity flows kind of being sort of a little bit higher than you might otherwise normally see. So, I think there are definitely opportunities for us to think about laddering out. Just as a reminder, cash and short term securities are up to 1 year. So, there's a little bit of some repricing lag on that, but there's not substantial duration. Speaker 400:20:42So again, we'd just like to continue to see the investment portfolio run down a little bit. And then as that happens, then we're rolling it into higher yielding securities. I'll let Craig add anything. Yes. Speaker 300:20:56I guess the main thing I'll add is that what we did see during the quarter was, I guess, you saw an increase in the others. So again, that was a contributor to the increased levels of liquidity that we have. So in addition to kind of managing the investment portfolio and the reinvestments there, we do have deposits increase and obviously we kind of have to see how those deposits are going to behave before we invest into longer term assets. Operator00:21:35Thank you. The next question comes from Alex Twerdahl with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:21:47Michael, your comments about expected medium term deposit range being $11,500,000,000 to $12,000,000,000 implies maybe a little bit of expected outflow over the next couple of quarters, which I know it's not atypical for sort of the middle of the year. But do you in fact have line of sight on some deposits that are flowing out or expected to flow out in the near term? And then would those deposits be non interest bearing or would they have some costs associated with them that we can take into consideration when our modeling? Speaker 400:22:23Yes. Good question, Alex. So yes, it's the answer. I think we do have a number of depositors that are sitting on the balance sheet, but the company itself is in liquidation. It's going through the courts. Speaker 400:22:39And it's just very difficult to predict how they're going to flow out. And as we've seen, we also have some but we're expecting some of that to be in the sort of near to medium term. It just depends on when exactly the court process is completed and the liquidation proceeds. And those would typically be non interest bearing. So there's a couple of those. Speaker 400:23:06And then I think we're also sitting with some reasonably expensive deposit and we continue to see some mix shift. And so I think the normalization period is probably still ongoing. We're seeing some inflows and we're seeing some money fund inflows at the moment. But I think there's still a little bit of a ways, a couple maybe 3 quarters to go just to kind of make sure that we feel that this is completely stabilized. We came out of post COVID and financial assistance, monetary policy pretty ramped up and then going into a much higher interest rate environment. Speaker 400:23:50So I think it's a normal sort of stabilization period here. And yes, we do have some line of sight to some depositors and there's a normal kind of volatility. Okay. Speaker 600:24:01And then you guys have made a pretty considered effort to reduce the asset sensitivity in the loan portfolio over the last couple of years. Is that process and that effort kind of down at this point? I mean is the sort of the mix between the fixed and the variable, is that kind of what it's going to be at this point? Speaker 400:24:20Yes. I would say so. I think you never know what's happening with interest rates. One day, it's 2 cuts and the next day, it's longer term increases. But I think if we kind of think that the Fed is kind of done hiking here and we're kind of most customers would be looking probably to come into floating rate, more sophisticated customers, I think. Speaker 400:24:47And so we'd probably not expect for people to kind of go 3 to 5 year fixed here at this point. It's going to be obviously different for each market, But I would suspect that we're probably sitting at that to 50% for the medium term. Those are repricing from here to like 27%, right? So there's not a particular lumpy tranches in those repricing. But as they come up, I think we should probably see that fixed percentage of total kind of either stable or declining. Speaker 600:25:26Okay. And then in terms of the M and A, Michael, your comments on still looking for a private trust business or continue to be acquisitive. Just given the change in geographies and sort of the spread that business over the last with the Credit Suisse transaction, are there any geographies that make more sense today than they did a couple of years ago? And either from just sort of a synergistic standpoint or another standpoint? And then just remind us overall what the criteria is of if that's a change at all over the last couple of years in terms of the appetite for the revenues they seek out the size of the businesses, etcetera? Speaker 700:26:05Yes. Hi, it's Michael Collin. So geography wise, that hasn't changed. So whether on the banking side in terms of Bermuda that came in, Guernsey, New Jersey or on the trust side, if you add in Geneva and Singapore and Bahamas, that hasn't changed. So there's the offshore world is very small and there's some very good jurisdictions and there's some jurisdictions that aren't quite as good. Speaker 700:26:29So we know what they are, but we're in the right places. Singapore obviously is a particular growth area. We're top 5 or 6 private trust company in Singapore now. We would never imagine that we could sort of compete in the banking world there. So we know exactly where we want to be, which is fee income. Speaker 700:26:48So geographies are exactly the same. And when you look at trust, private trust companies, they're pretty the good ones are pretty much across those geographies. So that's going Speaker 200:26:57to stick. In terms of criteria, Speaker 700:27:00it's still going to be private trust. There's obviously other fee income businesses, the private equity like company administration, fund administration, which is very technology intensive. We don't want to be in those business. We want to stay in private trust, which we've been in for 7 years. So we're going to stick to that. Speaker 700:27:17The only thing I'd say is in terms of our price appetite, so basically 8 times EBITDA, maybe a little bit more, 10 times EBITDA if it's a bigger acquisition opportunity. The two ways we can do it is a small trust company or a larger trust company. If we acquire a larger trust company and it's from a reputable seller, then we can acquire as a legal entity. If it's a little more difficult, we would just do of an asset purchase and choose each trust 1 by 1. So essentially, nothing's changed. Speaker 700:27:53I would say if it's the right opportunity, we might consider paying a bit more. But in terms of geography and what we would be buying, it's consistent. Operator00:28:14Thank you. The next question comes from Eric Spector with Raymond James. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:28:30Hey, good morning. This is Eric on the line for Dave Feaster. Congrats on a good quarter and appreciate you taking the questions. Just wanted to start on NII and NIM, kind of mentioned rate sensitivity is up a little bit quarter over quarter. Just curious kind of how you think about NIM in higher for a longer environment and if you're considering any actions to demand rate sensitivity here going forward? Speaker 300:28:59Hi, Ark, it's Craig. I guess on NIM, we had previously kind of or just spoke about NIM troughing kind of in Q1, Q2. We think that is the same. I think towards probably towards the I guess kind of towards the end of Q2, we will start to see some improvement in the overall NIM. This is obviously kind of dependent on really the cost of funds, so they deposit pricing. Speaker 300:29:28We are actively watching deposit pricing and average duration of long term deposits is around 3 months. So that's those actually roll off the reprice. I really just taking a keen eye to kind of what we reprice the bill debt. But in a higher for longer rate environment, we expect that we'll probably still have continued pricing pressures on deposits. So we're thinking carefully about that. Speaker 300:29:53So that's going to probably kind of meet any increases in NIM at this point based on the current market environment. On the positive side, as you will see, we are starting to narrow back out into the portfolio, and you would have seen an increase in the yield on our investment portfolio. We stood at the 2.23 for Q1. And as we continue to ladder back into portfolio and invest at higher rates, we're going to see some positive contribution to NIM from there. But yes, I think because it's the cost of deposits and the cost of funding, that's probably going to keep it more or less stable to trending up at this point. Speaker 400:30:35Eric, so it's Michael Schrum. I think if you look at OCI, right, and the divestment portfolio is pretty large compared to the size of the balance sheet. And so having gone through this sort of whole increase in rates and building large negative relatively large negative positions in HTM and although totally unrealized. I think we're also just kind of fine seeing that OCI burn down and sort of being cautious about laddering in and just sitting on a bit of cash, right, which I think we're not sort of a mark to market shop. We just kind of need to manage through the different parts of the cycle. Speaker 400:31:13And as you can see, earnings are coming through. So I think it's kind of steady. When we say higher for longer, I mean, some people are talking about increases in rates, right? I think we also want to be mindful of the risk positions that we have there and make sure that we're not adding to those risk positions as we go through. Speaker 800:31:36Got it. That's helpful. And then just curious, I mean, you talked a little bit about M and A, but just kind of curious about capital return more broadly. You've obviously been pretty active repurchasing stock the last few quarters, and TCE is now above that 6% to 6.5% level and regulatory capital is very strong. Just curious how you think about capital priorities and your appetite for repurchases. Operator00:31:59Do you expect a similar pace that we've seen in Speaker 800:32:02the last couple of quarters? And just kind of any color on that would be helpful. Speaker 400:32:07Yes. Thanks, Eric. It's Michael Schrum. So yes, we're actually calling in from Cayman at the moment. We just we're down here just for our Board meetings. Speaker 400:32:16And the Board is very supportive at these levels, very attractive, reasonably attractive valuations. Obviously, half an eye to what's the M and A pipeline, organic growth opportunities, and there's certainly quite a bit of opportunity here on the lending side in Cayman. The economy is booming, there's tower creams everywhere. So that's a positive in terms of causing capital consumption and at least replacing the amortization that we're seeing in the Limburg at the moment. But yes, very supportive in terms of the current strategy, which is obviously first priority is the dividend. Speaker 400:32:54And we kept that at $0.44 a share. Secondly, obviously, supporting our core markets in terms of organic growth and or any credit deterioration, which we're not really seeing. We've seen a little bit of migration. Again, a few lumpy loans there and some legacy positions, but very confident about the pending valuations there, so it shouldn't attract a lot more risk weighted assets. And then thirdly, obviously, M and A and or buybacks. Speaker 400:33:23I think we spoke about the pipeline for M and A, which we are kind of sitting on a lot of capital. And so we want to return our capital to shareholders. And so, we've been pretty active, and I would expect us, subject to market conditions, to continue. And if we need to re up later in the year, we'll do that. Speaker 800:33:45Got it. That's helpful. And then just one last one for me. Curious if you could provide just an update, I mean, given that the core banking system upgrade was completed this quarter, just curious how that went? And then maybe just some color on the Credit Suisse acquisition, the 1st full quarter since the final tranche closed. Speaker 800:34:10Just curious if you could provide some colors on just trends broadly there and how the team brought on has been doing? Speaker 400:34:23Right. So, yes, maybe I'll kick off and Craig can pitch in as well. Core banking system upgrades, I mean, are always good at gold, right? So there nobody's really it's not something that's necessarily positive unless you're rolling out a bunch of new functionalities. So what we did was a like for like conversion. Speaker 400:34:43It's a fairly major upgrade. It was a moving to a cloud infrastructure. As you can see, the expenses and the capital picture has changed slightly in terms of software as a service rather than the capital depreciation in those lines. I think, generally speaking, it went well. There's no write offs. Speaker 400:35:01There's obviously a few client impacting things. And we apologize to clients, but they're all still with us. And I think what we're excited about is the opportunity to roll out additional functionality now. And we have a pretty good steady platform, seems to be operating. It's a lot faster for clients. Speaker 400:35:18And so there's not a lot of noise. Our call centers broadly were able to deal with the elevated volumes. Most of the volumes from the implementation came from the OTP functionality. So, one time password functionality, inability to log in, new splash screens, etcetera. And so, it was really kind of user guide walkthroughs on that side. Speaker 400:35:41Internally, it went very well, like all our stuff with the training program was very good. And we ended up, as I said, not having any real reconciliation issues at the back end of process issues. So, I think at this point, I think everybody is feeling like that was probably more of the operational risk moment when we went live, and that's kind of in the rearview mirror, and now we can add new functionality. And in terms of Credit Suisse, Craig can just talk a little bit about that. Speaker 300:36:11Yes. And then on the IT piece, like I said, it's kind of gone according to plan that it's working. It's not amortized, the expenses related to that as well as the hosting fees. And really one of the important things in the IT upgrade was to kind of get all the current version and remain current. So I guess the positive thing is that we're now looking to apply planning for the application of kind of a new pet set. Speaker 300:36:39So kind of getting that into kind of the regular routine when it On the Credit Suisse side, again, that's going well. The assets came over, the client relationships have come over, the people have come over and they're all settled into the teams. Our Head of Trust has been very active kind of getting around to see those teams, having town halls and just making sure everybody is settled in. So that's going well. And really, it's just a matter of making sure we serve with those clients well, get to know them and then see how we can leverage those relationships. Operator00:37:26Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Noah Fields for any closing remarks. Speaker 200:37:38Thank you, Dorwin, and thanks, everyone, for dialing in today. Speaker 100:37:40We look forward to speaking with you next quarter. Speaker 300:37:43Have a great day. Operator00:37:48Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by