WSFS Financial Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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July 26, 2024

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to today's Wilmington Savings Fund Society Financial Corporation Second Quarter Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. I'd now like to turn the call over to your host for today, Mr.

Operator

Art Bacci, Chief Wealth Officer and Interim Chief Financial Officer. Sir, you may begin.

Speaker 1

Good morning or good afternoon and thank you for joining our Q2 2024 earnings call. Our earnings release and earnings release supplement, which we will refer to on today's call, can be found in the Investor Relations section of our company website. With me on this call are Roger Levinson, Chairman, President and CEO Steve Clark, Chief Commercial Banking Officer and Sherry Krasinski, Chief Consumer Banking Officer. Before I turn the call over to Roger and for his remarks on the quarter, I would like to read our Safe Harbor statement. Our discussion today will include information about our management's view of the future expectations, plans and prospects that due to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, due to risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the risk factors included in our annual report on Form 10 ks and our most recent quarterly reports on Form 10 Q as well as other documents we periodically file with the Securities and Exchange All comments made during today's call are subject to the Safe Harbor statement.

Speaker 1

I will now turn the call over to Roger.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Art, and everyone else for joining us on the call today. During the Q2, WSFS continued to demonstrate the strength of our franchise and diverse business model. Results included a core earnings per share of $1.08 core return on assets of 1.25 percent and core return on tangible common equity of 18.83%. Core fee revenue of $86,000,000 was up 13% linked quarter and 28% year over year, driven by growth across all major fee businesses. Wealth Management fee revenue grew 14% linked quarter 16% over the Q2 of 2023, driven by strong results in WSFS Institutional Services, higher activity at Bryn Mawr Trust Company of Delaware and seasonal fees for tax services.

Speaker 2

Cash Connect has added nearly 8,000 serviced non bank ATMs since the Q3 of 2023 by gaining market share from the previously discussed exit of a large industry participant. This combined with the optimization of its unit and funding mix increased CashConnect's ROA to 1.72% in the 2nd quarter. Our Capital Markets and Mortgage businesses increased fee revenue by 13% and 35% respectively over the prior quarter due to increased activity. In addition, we saw growth in both loans and deposits, which increased 6% and 3% respectively on an annualized basis. The core net interest margin was 3.85 percent for the quarter.

Speaker 2

The higher income from our continued loan growth and redeployment of cash flows from the securities portfolio offset the increase in our cost of funds resulting from the current interest rate environment and high retention in our maturing CD portfolio as outlined in the release. Asset quality remained stable. NPAs declined to 32 basis points of total assets, while delinquencies dropped to 13 basis points. Problem loans increased primarily due to the downgrades of 3 C and I loans. Net charge offs for the quarter were 44 basis points or 17 basis points excluding upstart and leasing portfolios in line with net charge off levels over the past year.

Speaker 2

During the quarter, we returned $48,700,000 or approximately 70% of earnings to shareholders in the form of $9,000,000 in dividends and $39,700,000 from a mix of routine and incremental stock buybacks. We continue to have substantial capital levels above the well capitalized regulatory benchmarks, including the full impact of AOCI. Despite the economic uncertainty, WSFS continued to grow and deliver a strong first half of twenty twenty four. We remain well positioned to execute our strategy and produce sustainable top quintile financial performance. Just as importantly, the strength in our earnings, liquidity and capital positions provides us a cushion to absorb

Speaker 1

Thank you, Roger. We are tracking above the full year outlook communicated in January with first half core ROA of 1.28 percent, core EPS of $2.19 and core ROTCE of 19.01%. As we look to the second half of twenty twenty four, we remain well positioned to execute our strategy and deliver top quintile financial performance with a full year core ROA of around 1.25%. The underlying components of our midyear outlook remain relatively unchanged from our January outlook. I will highlight several items.

Speaker 1

We continue to assume no interest rate cuts in 2024. While the Fed has made indications to reduce rates, we have found it best to use a no cut scenario as a baseline for our business. Our analysis shows that a 25 basis point reduction or alternatively an increase would have a full year annualized impact of 3 basis points to ROA. Assuming any rate cuts would occur later this year, it would not materially impact our full year performance. Deposit growth is projected to be flat year over year primarily due to competitive pressures as well as the natural volatility and seasonality of trust and certain commercial deposits.

Speaker 1

We expect our interest bearing deposit beta to be less than 55% compared to the previously communicated 50%. The higher beta is due to the continued shift in deposit mix, repricing of CDs and the competitive marketplace pricing. Our loan to deposit ratio is forecasted to end the year at 83%. Net charge offs of 30 basis points excluding Upstart and New Lane reflect potential weakness in a small group of problem loans where we are actively working with the borrowers and this continued softening economy. Finally, I would reiterate our long term commitment to return approximately 35% of our net income in the form of dividends and routine stock buybacks.

Speaker 1

Any incremental stock repurchases would be determined by the economic environment, our financial results and would need to be in line with our historic buyback framework. Thank you. And we will now open the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you. It looks like our first question today comes from the line of Russell Gunther with Stephens Incorporated. Russell, please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Hi, Russell.

Speaker 4

I wanted to first ask if

Speaker 3

I could on the fee outlook and more specifically, bailment fees. Can you guys give us a sense for where they shook out this quarter and what we should expect for the back half of the year? Sure, Russell.

Speaker 1

I think fee income still I'll break it up into the divisions that we have. I think in mortgage and capital markets, we're continuing to see good activity levels going into July. I will caution us sometimes in August, September, the summer months tend to slow down. But at this point, we're seeing really good activity there. Wealth, the same thing.

Speaker 1

We've got some really nice pipeline potential wins here in the Q3, which would help in the activity level at our Delaware Trust Company of Brenmar Trust Company of Delaware's remains pretty elevated as well as our institutional trust services are seeing really good volumes in July. Cash Connect, I would expect somewhat of a slowdown in the growth of the revenue there. We have pretty much on boarded all the new ATMs that came over from the other players. So the 8,000 ATMs Roger referred to is pretty much it. So I would see that returning to more of a normal growth rate in the second half of the year.

Speaker 3

Okay. All right. Thank you for that. And then maybe switching gears a second on to expenses. So, appreciate the overall guide and the efficiency ratio target.

Speaker 3

Could you guys just maybe walk through the step up in the salary benefits line this quarter? And then similarly just broad stroke expectations for that trend in the back half of the year?

Speaker 1

Sure. On the salary line, recall that we reversed about $3,200,000 in the Q1 because we paid out incentives that were less than targeted in for 2023, but we had accrued at target. So we had to reverse those per GAAP. What you'll see is this quarter, when you look at the gross increase, it's coming off at artificially low Q1 because of that reversal. So the net increase is more like 4% quarter over quarter.

Speaker 1

Now probably half of that is really the cash connect external funding that as we transition those 8,000 accounts we use more external funding than internal funding in that process. The other thing is we've just had merit increases in the Q1 and it was late in the Q1 that we processed merit increases. So we've now got a full year or a full quarter of those increases. We've continued to invest in the business and hiring people. And we will look to kind of continue to run rate probably a little bit higher on incentive accruals for the second half of the year because we are running above target and so we'll have to start accruing for that.

Speaker 1

So those are kind of really the drivers. We also did just to highlight, we did have an elevated medical, we call that medical benefits, but it's some claims, medical claims from our associates. It's a small portion of the population that had higher than average claims for we can't get into the reason, but that kind of drove a little bit higher expense this quarter. We don't think that will continue. Okay.

Speaker 3

I appreciate it. And then I guess just to follow-up in terms of with the Dash Connect and the onboarding of the ATMs, the use of external versus internal funding. How should we extrapolate that from an expense perspective for the next couple of quarters?

Speaker 1

I think you'll see that come down from an expense perspective slightly. We are targeting to have roughly 75% of that funding done with external partners and 25% internally. So that coming from a much higher level of external funding in the first half of the year. So that should help on there. Obviously, that will also impact our ROA.

Speaker 1

The $170,000,000 we saw in the second quarter would probably drop more to like a $130,000,000 $140,000,000 as we've used more of our own cash to fund the ATMs.

Speaker 3

Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you, Art. And then guys last one for me would just be on the net charge off expectation. Those are unchanged implies the second half of the year steps up a bit.

Speaker 3

Just curious as to what you're seeing or expecting that drive that?

Speaker 2

Russell, this is Roger. I'd say, Art outlined in his comments, you saw a little bit of an increase in our problem loans and there were some situations we're monitoring closely. And so we feel as though the outlook reflects potential losses depending upon how those work out.

Speaker 3

Got it. Okay. Very good guys. Thank you very much for taking my questions.

Operator

Thanks Russell. And our next question comes from the line of Manuel Nieves with D. A. Davidson. Manuel, please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, how does the exit NIM in 4Q kind of that range shift if we do have a September rate cut?

Speaker 1

Manuel, I think the ex if the rate cut is happening late in the year as we've kind of projected, we probably would see on a full year basis about a 1.5% impact on NII. What that would translate into NIM is probably about 5 bps of lower NIM going in as an exit rate, if rates were to be cut later in the quarter.

Speaker 5

Okay. That's similar to what you said in the past. So I appreciate that. How is the 55% deposit beta expectation kind of arrived at? Is are you seeing increased competition?

Speaker 5

Is it just where we're just staying in this higher rate for longer? Just can you kind of give some extra thoughts on that projection?

Speaker 1

I'll let Sherry talk about the competitive environment on the consumer side. I think the other thing we've looked at really closely is just our back book on the CD side. And as we've been able to retain a higher percentage of those CDs as they mature, but they're coming off a lower price and as they mature and reprice, they're being renewed at higher rates. Sherry, do you want to cover some of the competitive?

Speaker 6

Sure. Hi, Emmanuel. This is Sherry. I would say that the competitive landscape, though it has eased a bit, it's still something that we're monitoring very closely and certainly very, focused on protecting our customer base. So again, as Art said, we see as the CDs mature, we do have some specials available for customers based on the current rate environment that they're taking advantage of.

Speaker 6

And so most of that is being driven by our success really retaining those clients.

Speaker 1

I would also add that about 65%, 70% of our money market accounts are exception priced, right? And that's usually in reaction to the competitive environment.

Speaker 5

That's all really helpful. Can I circle back to your long term commitment to that 35% of net income return as buybacks? You had a really strong amount of buybacks this past quarter. Pricing has moved higher. Can you just talk a little bit about thoughts with that?

Speaker 5

And then buyback is a huge tool for keeping ROE up and you're about to enter another 3 year planning process. I think ROE is where you stand out. And just kind of thoughts on where buyback fits in on maintaining ROEs high?

Speaker 1

Yes, Manuel. I mean, our philosophy hasn't changed about the 35% that we will continue to do routine dividends and stock buybacks as we've had in the past. Clearly anything incremental will have to be driven by what we're seeing in terms of our own financial results, the economy and more importantly our historic framework where we generally target the 16% IRR on our incremental buybacks. So we've been very disciplined about that. And clearly in the Q2, we saw some really nice opportunity.

Speaker 1

So we got aggressive in the buybacks. The stock has appreciated materially here. So we would have to really look at our framework and determine if longer term we think there's still some changes in the underlying assumptions to get us to a 16% IRR if we're going to do incremental buybacks.

Speaker 5

Okay. I appreciate the commentary. I'll step back into the queue.

Operator

All right. Thanks, Benoit. And our next question comes from the line of Kelly Motta with Keefe, Bruyette and Woods. Kelly, please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hey, good morning. Thanks for the question or afternoon rather. Where did the day go? I was hoping to circle back to asset quality. I mean, everything looks really strong and PA came down, but I noticed the reserves built particularly on the investor CRE side.

Speaker 6

I was hoping to get additional color on the driver of that and it's at 116 basis points now comfort level there?

Speaker 2

Hey, Kelly, it's Roger. And you recall, we've been talking about for several quarters this process that we have a 24 month roll forward look at all maturing CRE loans over $2,500,000 and resensitizing those for the current interest rate environment with no changes in their cash flow. And so based upon that analysis, every time we go through that and we roll forward another quarter, we update the impact of that into our ACL model where wherever we see potential weakness. So what you're seeing there is just reflecting the continued roll forward of that project. It's a modest amount of reserves that are increased there.

Speaker 2

You saw we also continue to increase in the office sector of CRE. And so that's really what's driving that build in the CRE overall.

Speaker 6

Got it. Thank you so much. Last question from me, and I apologize if this was covered already. I joined a little bit late. But with the revised deposit growth guidance being flat for the year, Is the right way to think of the balance sheet from here just kind of steady as cash flows are redeployed into loans or any kind of puts or takes that you could help us out with in terms of that with putting together with the margin guide?

Speaker 6

Thanks.

Speaker 1

Kelly, this is Art. I would absolutely say that the balance sheet should be pretty steady. I don't see a lot of material change in the size of the balance sheet. I would tell you that part of the flat in deposits, we really ended the end of 2023 with an elevated level of deposits coming from our institutional trust business and some commercial business. And that's what a lot of extra cash on our balance sheet that we were able to deploy in Fed funds that we're probably down cash $250,000,000 quarter over quarter on an average basis.

Speaker 1

So that impacts II, but it doesn't really impact demand. But bottom line, the overall balance sheet really won't change much.

Speaker 6

Thank you so much.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Kelly.

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Frank Schiraldi with Piper Sandler. Frank, please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hey, guys. Just curious, are you doing anything balance sheet wise naturally or synthetically here that you would expect that 3 basis point impact from a given 25 bps in rate cuts. See that move at all lower or is that just common acceptable assets sensitivity of the business here?

Speaker 1

Frank, I would just highlight that when you look at our loan portfolio and you look at the Spring EQ portfolio, some of our consumer loans, about 50% of our loan book is fixed rate. And we feel pretty balanced right now that regardless of where the rates go up or down 25 basis points, it has the same impact in both directions. We did put on we have put on about $1,200,000,000 of hedges and we are authorized to do another 300,000,000 dollars And so on the to protect on the downside. And I'd also just kind of remind everyone that we've been through these rate cycles and we continue to produce top quintile NIM regardless of whether rates are higher or lower. And so we want to make sure we're not over insuring against down rates because as we've seen over the last few years, all the rate projections have tended to be wrong and there's still potential that rates could go up at some point.

Speaker 1

So we feel very comfortable having that balance where we're protected on both sides.

Speaker 4

Okay, got you. And then on Art, you mentioned on the cash connect, you kind of built in that large piece of business that you added in terms of increasing shares in run rate at this point. So you talked about more normal growth rate. Is that high single digits here? And do you see further sort of chunky opportunity to pick up significant market share?

Speaker 4

Or is it more just maybe onesie twosie from here?

Speaker 1

Yes, I think it's the latter Frank and I don't know it would be high single digits. I think we did have a nice win this quarter with one client where they gave back a fair number of ATMs that we were just doing reconciliation work and we got back about half the number of ATMs, but it was more full bailment services and that bailment services are 3 times more profitable for us and just pure reconciliation. So if we could do those kind of things and it wouldn't really increase the number, but deeper services at better profit margins, we would certainly do those

Speaker 4

types of things all day long. Great. And if I could just sneak in a quick one. Sorry if I missed it, but in terms of the 3 CMI downgrades that led to the increase in problem assets, Any common thread there?

Speaker 7

Frank, this is Steve. There really is no common thread. The 3 C and I customers were in 3 different geographies and 3 different industries. 1, a cultural institution in Center City, Philly that is going through a repositioning of its business, a logistics fulfillment trucking company up in the Lehigh Valley, Allingham, Bethlehem area that had some softness in the Q4 of last year and Q1 of this year And then a newly built hotel property in Ocean City, Maryland that has been slow to stabilize. So all good customers, all performing loans, no real related causes, so totally distinct geographically and industry wide.

Speaker 4

Okay. All right. Thanks for the color. I appreciate

Operator

it. All right. Thanks, Frank. And our next question comes from the line of Jake Cieffiello with Janney Montgomery Scott. Jake, please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Great. Good afternoon, everyone. Just one additional question from me. Is there any change in your appetite at all to consider recognizing a loss on the AFS securities portfolio to more quickly get to that 18% to 20% ratio of securities to assets target?

Speaker 1

Jake, we'll look at transactions, but we continue not to see anything that really pencils out for us that makes sense. And we continue to see very consistent cash flow coming off that portfolio. We're able to deploy it in new originations that have a mid-seven handle kind of yield. And we think that's just the best approach to go and continue let that cash flow get redeployed naturally. If rates drop, maybe we'd take another look at that.

Speaker 1

But at this point, no, there's no real plans to restructure the portfolio.

Speaker 2

Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

All right. Thank you, Jake. And our final question today comes from the line of Manuel Neves with D. A. Davidson.

Operator

Manuel, welcome back.

Speaker 5

Hey, I just wanted to hop on and see if there's anything going on in the commercial loan pipeline. Are you seeing any changes based on rate forecasts or borrowers getting more excited or less excited? Just kind of thoughts there in context of your mid single digit loan growth guide?

Speaker 7

Yes, Manuel, Steve again. So our 90 day weighted average pipeline is actually down to a little over $200,000,000 which is as low as it's been in several quarters. And that is really a reflection of the strong closings we had in the first half of the year. Having said that, we still remain very optimistic about that mid single digit growth for the full year. We have significant opportunities in the early stage of our process and believe they'll pull through at our normal pull through rate.

Speaker 7

So sitting here today looking at the second half of the year still comfortable with our 4 year forecast.

Speaker 5

And are those kind of pricing in that 7.5 yield range? Is that kind of the right new loan origination yields?

Speaker 7

Yes. So looking at our activity through June for all commercial loans funded over $250,000 our yield in January for that population was 7.2 and we came out of June for the month of June 7.8. So we as Art mentioned that securities portfolio amortizing down and being redeployed, definitely we're in that mid to high 7 percent yield range.

Speaker 5

Thank you. I appreciate that commentary.

Operator

All right. Thank you, Manuel. And with no further questions in queue, I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Bocci. Art, the floor is

Speaker 1

yours. Thank you for joining the call today. If you have any specific follow-up questions, feel free to reach out to Andrew. Roger and I will be attending conferences and investor meetings throughout the quarter, and we look forward to meeting with many of you. Have a good day.

Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining and you may now disconnect.

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