BOK Financial Corp (BOKF) 2018 Q3 法說會逐字稿

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  • Operator

  • Greetings, and welcome to BOK Financial Corporation's Third Quarter 2018 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

  • I'd now like to turn the conference over to Steven Nell, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Good morning, and thanks for joining us. Today, we'll hear from Steve Bradshaw, our Chief Executive Officer; and Stacy Kymes, Executive Vice President of Corporate Banking; and I'll also make some remarks about the quarter as well. Marc Maun, Executive Vice President, Chief Credit Officer, has also joined us for the Q&A session.

  • PDFs of the slide presentation and third quarter press release are available at our website at www.bokf.com. We refer you to the disclaimers on Slide 2 as it pertains to any forward-looking statements we make during the call.

  • I'll now turn the call over to Steve Bradshaw.

  • Steven Glen Bradshaw - President, CEO & Director

  • Good morning. Thanks for joining us to discuss the third quarter of 2018 financial results.

  • As shown on Slide 4, the third quarter represented yet another record quarter for BOK Financial with excellent execution across all operating units. Net income was $117.3 million or $1.79 per diluted share. That's up 2.5% from the previous quarter and up 37% from the same quarter a year ago. This strong financial performance was driven by a number of factors.

  • Loan growth continued to be strong, coming off a record quarter in Q2, with growth in both our specialty lines of business and our regional C&I activities. Net interest income continues to expand from loan growth and trading portfolio activities, coupled with a slight improvement in our net interest margin. Credit quality metrics remained strong. However, we did add $4 million to our loan loss reserve as a result of the growth in our loan portfolio. This is the first loan loss provision we've had since the third quarter of 2016.

  • Fee and commission revenue was up over 6% for the quarter, where the competitive ability and scale of our Wealth Management business allowed us to earn a $15 million fee. We continue to be extremely disciplined regarding expense growth. Our overall expense levels are down year-over-year despite substantial increases in revenue.

  • Turning to Slide 5. This quarter was another great quarter for loan growth with an increase of 2.5% or 10% annualized in average loan. Coming off a record second quarter, we're pleased to see growth continue. Most importantly, the growth continues to be broad-based across all of our major loan categories. We continue to feel optimistic about loan growth for the balance of the year due to strong commitment levels, and Stacy will provide more details in a moment.

  • Assets under management were down slightly this quarter. We attribute the decrease to timing of inflows and the seasonality of disbursements, primarily in our bond management business.

  • I'll provide additional perspective on the quarterly results at the conclusion of the prepared remarks. But now I'll turn the call back over to Steven Nell to cover the financial results in more detail. Steven?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Thanks, Steve. As noted on Slide 7, net interest income for the quarter was $241 million, up $2.3 million or about 1% for the second quarter pre-provision. However, I'll remind you that the second quarter included $5.3 million in interest recoveries compared to immaterial interest recoveries in this quarter. The net interest income improvement was largely driven by the loan growth that Steve mentioned.

  • Net interest margin was 3.21%, an increase of 4 basis points from the second quarter. Loan yields increased 12 basis points, and yields on available-for-sale securities increased 7 basis points. Interest-bearing deposit costs moved higher by 11 basis points, but continue to track favorably to the industry. We continue to benefit from an enviable mix of high commercial demand deposits.

  • On Slide 8, fees and commissions were $167.5 million, an increase of 6.1% on a sequential basis. Rising interest rates have slowed the production of mortgage loans and related products, leading to compressed margins. This has adversely affected both our brokerage and trading revenue as well as our mortgage banking revenue. Brokerage and trading revenue decreased $3.4 million, and mortgage revenue decreased $2.8 million compared to the second quarter of 2018.

  • While interest rate hikes have added a headwind to these businesses, run rate expense save measures have been undertaken in mortgage to reduce capacity, resulting in savings of $1.6 million from the previous quarter. And we are expecting to take similar action in other fee businesses. Transaction card revenue was up 2% compared to last quarter. This was primarily due to strong growth in transaction volumes, which in turn was driven by a higher customer account. The year-over-year comparison was impacted by heavy contract buyout revenue in the third quarter of 2017.

  • Fiduciary and asset management revenue was up nearly 38% this quarter. Though there was one large transaction that comprised $15 million of the increase, I think this demonstrates how strong our wealth management capabilities are. Transaction of this size aren't attainable unless you are a top-tier firm. While this deal was a significant driver this quarter, steady fee production has been an ongoing trend in this segment that we're happy to see.

  • Turning to Slide 9. We continue to carefully manage operating expenses in line with guidance to deliver earnings leverage. Personnel expense is up this quarter, primarily due to valuation assumption adjustments to equity compensation that resulted in second quarter expenses being less than normal. Other operating expense was up marginally as well this quarter, mostly due to an impairment of a software license of $2.3 million, coupled with a $1.7 million other real estate owned write-down. There were about $1 million of CoBiz acquisition-related expenses in this quarter.

  • Slide 10 has our current guidance for the balance of 2018 and some general outlook for 2019. We expect continued loan growth as we integrate CoBiz portfolios into our lines of businesses. As a result, provision levels moving forward will be influenced by loan growth. We anticipate that loan loss reserve levels could drop below 1% after consolidation accounting of CoBiz.

  • We have built into our 2018 forecast one additional rate hike in December. We currently expect additional increases in the federal fund rate to be accretive, although at a decreasing rate as competition for deposits intensifies in the future.

  • We expect that revenue from fee-generating businesses will be down due to continued mortgage headwinds. The mortgage production environment is obviously challenged right now. While we are holding our own relative to the competition, the impact of our mortgage production and mortgage trading businesses may continue to be noticeable.

  • CoBiz integration and closing charges are expected to be $45 million going forward, with approximately 75% in the fourth quarter of 2018 and 25% in the first quarter of 2019. CoBiz adds a bit of complexity to our forecast models. So until our budget assumptions are fully adjusted, I'll hold off on discussing 2019 at this time. However, based on the forecast informations I reviewed post closing, we still feel comfortable with the 6% earnings per share accretion in 2019, as previously announced. We continue to be on track for conversions late in the first quarter of 2019.

  • Stacy Kymes will now review the loan portfolio in more detail. I'll turn the call over to Stacy.

  • Stacy C. Kymes - EVP of Corporate Banking

  • Thanks, Steven. As you can see on Slide 12, total loans were up 1.9% compared to the second quarter or over 7% annualized. Building on a quarterly record for loan growth in the second quarter, the third quarter was also very strong and broad with energy, healthcare, manufacturing and commercial real estate segments all showing gains.

  • Total C&I was up 2% for the quarter and 7.2% year-over-year. We're seeing broad-based strength across our region, with nearly every market adding to their C&I book.

  • Energy was up 4.7% for the quarter and up 14.9% year-over-year, which is a testament to the commitment to the industry that we maintain during the recent downturn, which has clearly differentiated us against other energy banks. We are also benefiting from lower-than-normal churn in the energy portfolio as companies are slower to divest assets or sell outright in the current market environment.

  • Our healthcare channel was up 3.6% sequentially for the quarter and 8.8% year-over-year. This channel remains a growth engine for BOK Financial and is expected to continue to perform well. Many large national players in senior housing have struggled over the last year, which should lead to more opportunities for regional players, which constitute our primary customers and prospects.

  • Commercial real estate has continued to deliver. Outstandings are up 2.5% for the quarter or 8% year-over-year. While we remain cautious given the length of the economic recovery, we are still finding quality opportunities within our strong customer base. We do not currently see any declining credit trends in this portfolio.

  • We remain optimistic about core loan growth as we finish 2018 and into 2019 as long as the broader economy continues to show strength. We believe our geographic footprint and quality of our banking teams will allow us to outperform the national economy.

  • On Slide 13, credit quality remains strong. Nonaccruals were down 7.6% during the quarter. Net charge-offs remain low at 20 basis points, and our loan loss reserve remains appropriate at 1.16% of period-end loans and leases.

  • I'll now turn the call back over to Steve Bradshaw for closing commentary.

  • Steven Glen Bradshaw - President, CEO & Director

  • Thanks, Stacy. Our team has put together another broad-based record quarter. The earnings power of BOK Financial and the strength of our business model is on full display, again, proving our diversified platform produces positive outcomes and isn't overly reliant upon any one segment or geography. We continue to be optimistic about core earnings growth to finish 2018.

  • We're very excited about the closing of the acquisition of CoBiz earlier this month. We closed the transaction in record time, and I believe this is due in part to our strong community engagement track record and outstanding CRA rating. Our integration planning process has been thorough and well-integrated with CoBiz leadership. We've already begun to merge activities and create run rate efficiencies contemplated in the transaction.

  • BOK Financial and CoBiz are very similar organizations, which certainly gives us a leg up as cultural integration is the most important factor in M&A success. This has been evident in our meetings and discussions about integration with the broader CoBiz team, and I'm proud to welcome them to our organization. All told, this was yet another excellent quarter for BOK Financial. We remain convinced that we're in the sweet spot of the industry from both a business mix and a geographic standpoint.

  • With that, we will now take your questions. Operator?

  • Operator

  • (Operator Instructions) Our first questions are from the line of Ken Zerbe with Morgan Stanley.

  • Kenneth Allen Zerbe - Executive Director

  • Maybe just remind us. Obviously, you guys have very solid loan growth in the quarter. And I know you do target more, maybe it's wrong to say, but the little smaller clients. Because one of the things we hear across the industry is just this nonbank competition and how much is negatively affecting loan growth for most of the banks. Can you just talk about, like, what parts of your loan portfolio might be more affected by the nonbanks versus less affected and how we should think about, sort of, the mix?

  • Stacy C. Kymes - EVP of Corporate Banking

  • Well, I think, for most of the entirety of my career here, we've made a living off of playing up market in terms of lending perspective. Certainly on the C&I and in the lines of business, we play big and look big as we migrate across our footprint and, in some cases, outside our footprint with some of our national businesses. So certainly, there are folks outside the industry on the lower end of the lending scale who have made some inroads, but that has not been a material impact for BOK Financial overall. Generally speaking, we found those types of firms better as partners than as competitors. And I think that, that will continue to be the case as we move forward. But our lending platform has always been to play well against like-sized peers and larger. And I don't think I foresee that changing anytime in the future.

  • Operator

  • Our next questions are from the line of Brady Gailey with KBW.

  • Brady Matthew Gailey - MD

  • Maybe I'll just start with the buyback. I know you all have been active on the buyback front in the past. You weren't in the third quarter. Maybe that's because of what was going on with CoBiz. But with the stock trading where it's trading, could you just update us on your thoughts about buying stock back here?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Yes, you're exactly right. We stayed out of the market during the third quarter because of CoBiz. We'll be in a position to be in the market in the fourth quarter and beyond. And we've got plans to do that at this level of price. And we have a buyback authorization of just shy of 2 million shares at this moment. And I suspect we'll be in the markets in the fourth quarter.

  • Brady Matthew Gailey - MD

  • Okay. And then I know part of the B2 consensus estimates this quarter was driven by fee income and specifically the Wealth Management. You talk about the larger fee that was earned as a result of some -- by the sale of some client assets. Can you just expand on what happened there?

  • Steven Glen Bradshaw - President, CEO & Director

  • Sure, Brady. This is Steve Bradshaw. Yes, we thought we needed to call attention on that because that's a bit larger than what we would typically see. But we're engaged in helping clients optimize assets on a regular basis. Our trust business or fiduciary business has a pretty significant hold in the minerals and farm and ranch land areas. And so it's not unusual for us to work with clients to try to optimize those sales. In this case, it was a pretty significant property set of oil and gas properties that we negotiated on behalf of a client in order to earn that fee. So core business for us, a little larger fee than what we would typically see. So we thought it was important to draw it to your attention. But all of our quarterly results will include asset disposition fees, just as a normal course of business.

  • Operator

  • Our next questions come from the line of Brett Rabatin with Piper Jaffray.

  • Brett D. Rabatin - Senior Research Analyst

  • I wanted to talk about expenses and just kind of understanding. You had about $10 million this quarter related to share-based and incentive comp. And you mentioned that you were going to be doing some other things like you were doing in mortgage to become more efficient. Can you maybe just give us a little more color around sort of how you see expenses playing out? And then what you're doing in the other businesses? What impact that might have, whether it's in '19, or how we should think about that?

  • Steven Glen Bradshaw - President, CEO & Director

  • Yes, this is Steve Bradshaw. I'll talk about the expense initiatives, and Steven may have some things to add as well. For us, a lot of our fee businesses are, by design, countercyclical as a way to obviously to mitigate significant volatility to earnings. And we're seeing that today in our mortgage-related businesses, both mortgage origination as well as our trading activities inside the broker-dealer, which have a pretty strong mortgage presence or MBS presence as well. So we've been working to take capacity out of both of those business lines. We talked about this quarter that we took out run rate expense on the mortgage side in excess of $4 million. And we're just trying to get expenses in line with how we're thinking about revenue growth for those particular businesses going forward in this rate environment. So that work continues. We would expect to add to that run rate save in the fourth quarter.

  • Brett D. Rabatin - Senior Research Analyst

  • So is it fair to assume kind of the 240-ish or 245 run rate as kind of a core number?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Yes. With BOK Financial standalone, of course, now we own CoBiz, and so we'll incorporate their expense base into the fourth quarter. And then we'll also have 75% of that $45 million that I mentioned in terms of integration and closing costs in the fourth quarter. But I don't expect anything highly unusual with expenses. We'll work through our budget process, as Steve mentioned. We'll take necessary action that we need to, to put together a good budget. But I don't see a deviation from kind of your normal trend of what you mentioned there in terms of size of BOK as standalone.

  • Brett D. Rabatin - Senior Research Analyst

  • Okay. And then I wanted to make sure I understood the guidance around fee income and just thinking about the businesses. I assume the guidance were slightly softer. Fee income would obviously exclude the large gain on the mineral rights, I assume, sale in the third quarter. Would this mortgage, in your view, continue to be a little softer from here? And what kind of contribution on an ongoing basis might that piece, especially the Wealth Management, contribute?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Well, I mean, that's exactly the reason we gave the guidance. As we do think, it's going to be down a bit, the pressures in the mortgage industry, it affects our mortgage origination. Currently, it's affected margins as well. In the third quarter, we expect that to continue. It has some impact in our brokerage and trading activity with our mortgage-backed security forward trade activity. But as Steve mentioned, we'll work with those businesses to determine the right level of profitability as it relates to the revenue size. So we do see some pressure in our fee businesses, those -- primarily those 2 categories because of the mortgage environment continuing in the fourth quarter.

  • Operator

  • Our next questions are from the line of Peter Winter with Wedbush.

  • Peter J. Winter - MD of Equity Research

  • Now that you guys closed CoBiz and done some additional due diligence, I'm just wondering, can you provide an update in terms of maybe quantifying potential revenue synergies? And any chance if you can do better than the 40% cost saves?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Well, it's a little early, we think, to forecast kind of fee synergies. As you know, when we announced the deal, we did not build any fee revenue synergies into the pro forma or into the pricing. There is upside there. But until we get through our budget process in this fall, in the fourth quarter, we'll kind of -- we don't know exactly what that opportunity might be for '19. It won't be immediate. But longer term, certainly, there's going to be some benefit from selling our fee revenue businesses into their client base. So yes, I think it's just contingent on us putting it on paper during the budget process and kind of understanding what the synergies are going to be. I believe today that the synergies will be attained on the expense side. Everything that we've looked at, the actions we've taken so far would lead us to believe we can get the lift that we indicated initially when we announced the deal in June. So I'm pretty confident with that.

  • Steven Glen Bradshaw - President, CEO & Director

  • Yes, Peter, this is Steve. I'd say the other thing I'd add in addition to the fee synergies, we're already seeing some interest among CoBiz kind of traditional customer base to benefit from our larger balance sheet. And so we would expect some incremental loan growth to come out of that customer base as well, in addition to adding our fee-based businesses to those relationships. And we see both of those, and we'll be focused on both of those in '19.

  • Peter J. Winter - MD of Equity Research

  • Okay. And you mentioned, Steven, about the slowing growth in the NIM from continued Fed rate increases. I'm just wondering if you could be just a little bit more specific. So in other words, how much was the benefit to NIM from a 25 basis point rate hike before? And where do you think it's going to?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Yes. I think when you normalize some of the unusual items out and just look at it on a comparative basis for the second quarter, we went up probably 3 to 4 basis points, and we'll normalize terms with this 25 basis point rate increase. I expect it to be close to that, but we do see deposit pricing lifting a bit. I mean, the deposit betas were a little bit higher in the third quarter. We expect that's going to be the same in the fourth quarter as long as our loan growth continues to grow, which we think it will. So we see benefit from the next 25 basis point rate increase, but perhaps at a slightly lower level than we saw the previous couple of quarters.

  • Peter J. Winter - MD of Equity Research

  • And just my final question, I'm sorry. But loan growth on a standalone basis, it's very strong, high single digits. Do you think it might be slightly less next year, just given competitive pressures that are out there?

  • Stacy C. Kymes - EVP of Corporate Banking

  • We've kind of indicated when the year started that mid to high single-digit loan growth was something that we thought was very achievable. And based on where I sit today, I would tell you, as we look out into '19, similar guidance would be appropriate. I think that all of that is predicated on a GDP growth rate that's in the 2.5% to 3.5% plus or minus range. If you get economic slowing, there's a clear correlation to loan growth over time. But as long as the economy, the broader economy is doing well and there's growth, I feel very comfortable with kind of the sustainability of our current level of loan growth. And I think that, that should continue, in my view.

  • Operator

  • Our next questions are from the line of Michael Rose with Raymond James.

  • Michael Edward Rose - MD, Equity Research

  • Just wanted to get a sense for the timing of the cost save realization. Obviously, the deal closed earlier. You're expecting a conversion next quarter. Just how should we think about the flow-through of the expected cost savings as we move forward?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Well, I think we gave you guidance around the integration costs. And then we are currently taking action, if you will, around some of the synergies that we talked about on the expense base. And some of those will be sooner than others. Others will -- we've got to continue to operate CoBiz somewhat independently, if you will, until we get the systems converted. And we have that scheduled for the end of March. And so there will be a lot of difference compared to what we originally announced. We think we'll get pretty close to full synergies the last 3 quarters of '19, but it's going to take some time and dollars to get ourselves to that conversion date at the end of March.

  • Michael Edward Rose - MD, Equity Research

  • Okay, that's helpful. And then maybe just a follow-up on the last question on loan growth. You talked about the correlation of growth to GDP, but that seems to kind of decoupled here relative to history. So I guess, can you give some color and context maybe as it relates to your portfolio and why you guys might be different than, I guess, the rest of the industry?

  • Stacy C. Kymes - EVP of Corporate Banking

  • Well, I think -- first and foremost, I think our geographic footprint is differentiated. We've said that, and we've been very purposeful about how we built the franchise. We think we're in some of the best and fastest-growing states from an economic perspective. And I do think, ultimately, that does result in a differentiated outcome relative to peers in different parts of the country. For us, clearly, energy is a differentiator, healthcare is a differentiator. As we look at segments that we have that we're focused on, that we're able to grow in different times. And I think that that's a benefit to us and part of how we built the franchise and continue to build the franchise over a long period of time.

  • Operator

  • Our next questions are from the line of Jon Arfstrom with RBC.

  • Jon Glenn Arfstrom - Analyst

  • A couple of follow-ups here. Just, I guess, Stacy, since you're front and center on energy, you talked about your consistency there leading to some of your growth. Are you seeing increased competition in that business?

  • Stacy C. Kymes - EVP of Corporate Banking

  • There is some competition coming back into the space, as you would imagine, with prices stabilizing and up until the last couple of weeks generally rising. You do see some entrants, particularly some of the foreign competitors beginning to dip their toe back in the water. It's not a huge headwind from that perspective. Part of our growth has been the slowdown in the public equity markets for some of the large energy companies. So they don't have the currency per se to buy or the public equity markets aren't rewarding, maybe the better way to say it, those who are buying other properties, and so -- and kind of growing their opportunity for E&P. And in our customer base, that's resulted in loans being stickier for longer, and so that's help decrease the churn in the portfolio and enhance the growth rate there. I don't see that changing in the near term, and that's been to our benefit. But competition is returning. But I think it's pretty well respected who are the leaders in this space. And we're seeing multiple opportunities to grow around this and taking advantage of them, frankly.

  • Jon Glenn Arfstrom - Analyst

  • Yes, okay. Okay, good. And then a follow-up, I guess, maybe somewhat of a margin question, maybe for Steve or Steven. You guys singled out migration to off-balance-sheet alternatives in Wealth Management. Curious how significant that was. And also, can you talk about other migration that maybe you're concerned about in commercial and consumer?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Yes, I think the wealth component, it was around $300 million to $350 million. And really that's not that big of a movement out of that deposit base. And so I really don't see that as any kind of a trend or real indication of movement off the balance sheet. Ending my comment there, I don't have any other thoughts.

  • Jon Glenn Arfstrom - Analyst

  • Okay. Commercial and consumer, any concern there of...

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Commercial actually looked really good this quarter. In fact, we were up with DDA balances in the commercial, and consumer is pretty flat. Now there's some competition that we see moving in. We have some things we can do or, in fact, we're talking about that internally, as we speak, around products and other things that we can do on both the consumer and wealth side to maybe stimulate some deposit growth going forward. But we're not ready to talk about the details of those yet.

  • Stacy C. Kymes - EVP of Corporate Banking

  • Generally speaking, I think this rate increase cycle, there's been less disintermediation to nonbank products because of the changes in the money market mutual fund rules. And so the competition has really been more focused on other financial institutions and their individual liquidity needs than disintermediation, which has been a bigger issue in past rising rate time periods.

  • Steven Glen Bradshaw - President, CEO & Director

  • Yes, Jon, this is Steve. I'd tag on it as well. We benchmark to our peers. And as of June 30, with our 42% of our deposit base being noninterest DDA, that's #2 out of all the banks between 10 and 50. And I think that helps account for the fact that we are lagging in deposit betas. If you look at the large national banks, their deposit beta was in the 38% range. We were at about the 33% range. And that's why, and we've -- as Steven said, we worked very hard to build that commercial DDA base, and that's a strength for us.

  • Jon Glenn Arfstrom - Analyst

  • Okay. Okay. And just last one, Steven, for you. A little bit of a mix shift on the asset side, and loan-to-deposit ratio went up a bit. Any limits on loan-to-deposit?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Well, we've been here a long time. We've ranged from 60% all the way up into the close to 95% range. We're still in a really good liquidity spot at, what, 84% or whatever we are today. We'll continue to look at the balance there. I love the loan growth, and we'll find ways appropriately to fund that. And there is no limit as to what level we would go to, but we'll just work in terms of our asset liability management to generate the kind of deposit growth. We needed a good spread to support what Stacy and Norm and all of our lenders are doing with -- that will be my comment.

  • Operator

  • Our next questions come from the line of Jennifer Demba with SunTrust.

  • Jennifer Haskew Demba - MD

  • Just quick question. You had an impairment on software license and OREO write-down on the healthcare property. What were the amounts on those 2 items?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • The impairment on the software contract was $2.3 million, and the write-down on the property was $1.7 million. Nothing really unusual there. I don't think we pointed them out because they were -- they happen from time to time. On the software contract, we renegotiated. There was a component of it that licenses, that had -- no longer had value to us. However, the renegotiated contract with that particular vendor provides us great synergies going forward. But we did carve out the component of it during the renegotiation that didn't have any continuing value. So from an accounting perspective, we took the charge. But economically longer term, the renegotiation with that vendor is positive.

  • Jennifer Haskew Demba - MD

  • And a question on healthcare loans. Stacy, what's your comfort and concentration in the general healthcare category going forward?

  • Stacy C. Kymes - EVP of Corporate Banking

  • We were very comfortable. We'll continue to grow that. We don't have any internal constraints that would limit the growth in that sector. As you know, for us, healthcare kind of has 3 buckets: hospital, senior housing and medical other. Our focus primarily is in the senior housing space. We feel good about that. We see good opportunities to grow there. And we don't have any factors that would limit our growth there.

  • Operator

  • Our next questions are from the line of Matt Olney with Stephens.

  • Matthew Covington Olney - MD

  • I want to go back to the deposit discussion. And I'm curious, when was the last time you completed a wholesale update in posted deposit rates? I'm just trying to fully appreciate your expectations for higher deposit betas in the fourth quarter.

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Well, we've had exception pricing on the commercial portfolio. Not a wholesale increase across the board at this point, but we do -- we have had exception pricing through that portfolio. But then, again, I think there's more opportunity there to exception price to create some deposit growth going forward. Approach clients that perhaps have smaller balances than historically we've seen. I mean, there's some things we can do on the commercial side to continue to stimulate some deposits without some sort of wholesale kind of increase in pricing. Consumer, we've held those pretty flat. We've got some longer-term kind of CD product that we're looking at that -- well, in fact, we've had it out there and it's gotten some traction. And so consumer deposits held pretty flat. And we talked about the Wealth Management deposits earlier. But looking at all angles for all of our different customer types.

  • Matthew Covington Olney - MD

  • Okay, that's helpful. And then, Steven, you mentioned in last call that the FHLB trade will be coming off and that would benefit the margin. It looks like we saw that in the third quarter. Did you get all that benefit in the third quarter? Is there still some remaining impact in the fourth quarter?

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • It's pretty much all in the third quarter. We don't have any other benefits. So I think that 3.21% margin that you see is a good starting-off point, if you will. It's not being diluted by any kind of a transaction like that. It's all out.

  • Matthew Covington Olney - MD

  • Okay. And then just, I'm looking for more clarification on the fee income guidance. I think you said the fee income would be down. Are you saying that the core fee income just at legacy BOKF will be down in 2018 versus 2017, so below that $645 million? I'm just trying to understand what the exact message is.

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Well, I'm really giving -- I think that comment relates more to the third quarter's level where we saw mortgage drop off over $3 million, and we saw brokerages trading off over $2 million. I don't know the magnitude of what it will drop in the fourth quarter. But I do think they'll be -- I wanted to indicate that we do see additional pressure there on the mortgage revenue line item and the brokerage and trading line item. So long as the mortgage market continues to behave like it is and the environment stays the same, there will be pressure there in those 2 line items. And I just wanted to acknowledge that without giving you a specific dollar amount.

  • Matthew Covington Olney - MD

  • Got it. Okay. And then last questions from me. I think in the past, you talked about some really good runway for commercial real estate growth that could last for at least a few more quarters within your parameters. Is that still the view at this point? Still some good runway as far as commercial real estate growth?

  • Stacy C. Kymes - EVP of Corporate Banking

  • So we measure that based on commitments, not based on outstandings. And so as we look at going into 2019, particularly as we integrate CoBiz, I think that we're going to see constraints around commercial real estate. But I think that, that will largely be around the commitment side. I think we still have runway to go in terms of seeing the outstandings continue to grow at a pace reasonably consistent with kind of that mid-single digit that we see year-over-year in that space. So I think that, certainly, as I look forward, I think that the growth outstanding is sustainable. We'll have to manage concentration levels based on commitments, but I think that outstandings still have some room to grow.

  • Operator

  • We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over for closing comments.

  • Steven E. Nell - Executive VP, CFO & Director

  • Okay. Well, thanks, everyone, again for joining us. We appreciate it. If you have any further questions, give me a call at (918) 595-3030 or e-mail me at ir@bokf.com. Have a great day.

  • Operator

  • This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.