Columbia Banking System Inc (COLB) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

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  • Operator

  • Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Columbia Banking System's Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

  • I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Clint Stein, President and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Banking System. Please go ahead.

  • Clint E. Stein - President, CEO & Director

  • Thank you, Victor. Welcome, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call as we review our second quarter results. The earnings release and accompanying investor presentation are available at columbiabank.com.

  • Our associates continue to remain focused on delivering favorable outcomes for each of our stakeholders and their efforts are reflected in our outstanding results for the second quarter.

  • Net income of $58.8 million was the best quarter in our 29-year history. Our solid operating fundamentals were propelled by exceptional loan growth and underpinned by the strength of our stable core deposit base.

  • We continue to see our investments in people and systems pay off in terms of production capabilities. Our bankers are working hard every day to deepen and expand relationships with our clients by providing products, solutions and industry-specific expertise. These activities support our clients' goals, which in turn supports the economic health of communities across our entire footprint. Preparation for our combination with Umpqua Holdings is progressing as teams from both companies eagerly await regulatory approval.

  • On the call with me today are Aaron Deer, our Chief Financial Officer; Chris Merrywell, our Chief Operating Officer; and Andy McDonald, our Chief Credit Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the line for questions.

  • Before turning the call over to Aaron, I need to remind you that we may make forward-looking statements during the call. For further information on forward-looking comments, please refer to either our earnings release or website or our SEC filings. Aaron?

  • Aaron James Deer - Executive VP & CFO

  • Thank you, Clint, and good morning, everyone. Pretax pre-provision income rose by $11.2 million on a linked quarter basis to $78.7 million. The increase was driven by a combination of rising interest income, higher noninterest income and lower operating expenses, most notably with declines in merger-related costs and compensation and benefit costs, including the impact of some onetime items I'll discuss in a moment.

  • Total deposits ended the quarter at $18 billion, which was a decrease of $342 million for the quarter, but up $2.6 billion from a year earlier with $1.7 billion coming from our Merchants acquisition. The linked quarter decrease was largely consistent with pre-pandemic seasonal trends. Our cost of deposits edged up 1 basis point to 5 basis points. Total loans rose by $563 million during the quarter to $11.3 billion. After factoring in PPP balances, loans increased by $614 million or 23% annualized.

  • Growth was propelled by $734 million in new loan originations and a 2.5 point increase in our loan utilization rate. Two years after the launch of the Paycheck Protection Program, most of the $1.5 billion in loans we funded in communities throughout our footprint are now forgiven and paid off by the FCA. As of June 30, only $32 million in PPP balances remain.

  • Total investment securities decreased $458 million during the quarter to $7.3 billion, which was split 70% available for sale and 30% held to maturity. The quarterly decrease was driven by both the fair value mark on our AFS portfolio as well as maturities, premium amortization and paydowns. No new purchases were made during the quarter. The expected yield in the current portfolio is 1.89%, up 3 basis points during the quarter.

  • Our net interest margin increased 4 basis points on a linked-quarter basis to 3.16%, largely due to the shift in earning assets from Fed funds into higher-yielding loans. Excluding the 4 basis point differential of premium amortization on acquired loans and securities and the 2 basis point differential in accelerated PPP fees between the two quarters, the margin increased 10 basis points sequentially.

  • New loans were brought on at an average tax-adjusted coupon rate of 3.93%, which is up from 3.59% in the first quarter. And the coupon rate on the overall portfolio, excluding PPP, increased from 3.84% to 4.07%. More recent production is coming on at even higher rates and with mortgage loans lifting of forward rates, we should see those benefits more fully reflected in our third quarter results.

  • Noninterest income increased linked quarter by $826,000 to $25 million. Service charges on deposit accounts increased by $1.1 million largely due to a $685,000 increase in sweep account fees, which are reported on a gross basis with a similar offsetting amount recorded to legal and professional expense. Loan revenue increased by $688,000, mostly driven by an increase in our loan production and prepayment penalties, but partly offset by the cyclical decline in mortgage banking revenue.

  • Other noninterest income declined by $821,000, largely because of onetime gains we recorded in the first quarter. For the second quarter, we still had $1 million in nonrecurring income, including a BOLI benefit and a payment for participation in an Oregon disaster relief program.

  • Noninterest expense decreased by $9.7 million linked quarter to $95.4 million. Adjusting for merger-related expenses of $3.9 million in the second quarter and $7.1 million in the first quarter, noninterest expense decreased by $6.5 million to $91.5 million. The linked quarter decrease was due to several factors, largely affecting the compensation and benefits line.

  • For one, the first quarter included roughly $2.1 million of seasonally elevated payroll taxes and benefit costs. Meanwhile, the second quarter benefited by about $1.4 million from benefit accrual and funding adjustments. And finally, the second quarter also benefited from FAS 91 capitalized loan origination costs owing to the very strong loan production in the period, and that reduced compensation expense by about $1 million compared to the first quarter and about $0.5 million compared to the average of recent periods.

  • Finally, occupancy and data processing costs also declined, some of which stemmed from the completion of our Merchants Bank core conversion back in March. We anticipate our normalized expense run rate, excluding merger cost, to be in the mid-90s. The provision for income taxes increased $565,000 on a linked-quarter basis to $16.2 million, representing a 21.6% effective rate. We continue to expect our 2022 tax rate to be in the 20% to 22% range, but perhaps towards the higher end of that range given our higher profitability.

  • Lastly, as I discussed last quarter, the rise in interest rates resulted in a negative fair value mark on our investment portfolio reflected through accumulated other comprehensive income. While this mark does not affect our regulatory target ratios, it does weigh on our tangible common equity ratio and tangible book value. Excluding AOCI, however, both our TCE ratio and our tangible book value increased during the quarter.

  • And with that, I'll turn the call over to Chris.

  • Christopher M. Merrywell - COO & Executive VP

  • Thanks, Aaron. Our forward momentum is accelerating as we exit the pandemic and in anticipation of our pending combination with Umpqua Holdings. In a very competitive market, Columbia's bankers are continuing to take care of existing clients while simultaneously finding and driving new business.

  • As mentioned earlier in the call, loan growth was outstanding. Ex PPP, loan production of $734 million was another record shattering the old record of $640 million set just 2 quarters ago. About 25% of the growth in the loan portfolio was due to increase in line utilization, primarily in the agricultural and finance sectors, with the remaining growth driven by record production predominantly in real estate leasing, health care, agriculture and the construction sectors.

  • New production was sourced 51% from Washington, 24% from Oregon, 10% from California, 6% from Idaho and the remaining 9% from outside of our footprint through our specialty, tribal and national health care teams. Approximately $186 million of the new balances was from clients with commitments of greater than $10 million.

  • Notwithstanding the strong production during the quarter, our pipelines continue to expand and remain to our satisfaction. The quarterly production mix was 75% fixed, 22% floating and 3% variable. Term loans represented $525 million of total new production, while lines accounted for $209 million. The overall portfolio mix is now 55% fixed, 31% floating and 14% variable.

  • Over the past 12 months, we have seen a shift from C&I towards CRE loans, which now makes up 46.4% of the portfolio, up from 42.3% one year ago. The shift can be partly attributed to the payoff of $660 million of net PPP loans during the year. As a result of higher rates, we continue to see a decline in our mortgage warehouse business. During the quarter with sold loans dropping from $57 million to $39 million, which compares to $101 million in the second quarter of 2021. Overall, the composition of the loan portfolio did not change materially even with the increase in line utilization.

  • Deposits declined $342 million during the second quarter, which is normal due to the seasonal business activity. The mix remained consistent at 49% noninterest-bearing and 51% interest-bearing. The composition also remained consistent with 60% commercial and 40% retail. If seasonal patterns hold, deposit balances will pick up in the third quarter through the remainder of the year.

  • Earlier this month, we announced the expansion of our footprint into Utah, adding a highly experienced commercial lending team in the Salt Lake City market. In addition, we continue to invest in our retail network with our newest financial hub opening next week in the vibrant Proctor District of Tacoma. Financial hubs are full-service locations that are uniquely focused on helping our clients achieve their comprehensive financial goals, including investments, trust services and other financial considerations.

  • Both producers and clients across our footprint see the value of the upcoming combination with Umpqua and the increased capabilities that it will bring. Our bankers are doing a great job remaining outwardly focus, expanding our customer base, while generating high-quality loans and long-term deposit relationships during a time when many companies would be internally focused.

  • Now I will turn the call over to Andy to review our credit performance.

  • Andrew L. McDonald - Executive VP & Chief Credit Officer

  • Thanks, Chris. For the quarter, we added $2.1 million to our allowance. The additional reserve was primarily driven by loan growth during the quarter and a less favorable economic forecast.

  • Last quarter, the unemployment rate was expected to end 2022 at 3.4% and remain at or below pre-pandemic levels throughout the forecast period. The current forecast assumes the unemployment rate will end 2022 at 3.7% and remain above pre-pandemic levels throughout the forecast period.

  • Last quarter, the full year GDP growth expectations for 2022 was 3.3%. The current forecast assumes full year GDP growth expectations for 2022 of 2.5% and assumes GDP will remain below 2% throughout the forecast period. Offsetting loan growth and the less favorable economic forecast was a continuation in the trend of improving credit metrics and to a lesser extent, net recoveries of about $886,000.

  • As I mentioned a moment ago, our credit trends continue to move in a positive direction, albeit at a more modest pace. Nonperforming loans remained low at only 15 basis points of period-end loans and substandard loans declined $76 million during the quarter and now represent less than 2.5% of total loans. Special mentioned loans are less than 1% of total earnings. For the year, problem loans, those rated watch or worse, have declined $127 million. The bank's impaired asset ratio has also declined from 21.6% to 14.5%.

  • Given these metrics, our allowance going forward will continue to be driven primarily by loan growth and the economic forecast. In summary, while we are seeing credit quality metrics similar to that which we enjoyed pre-pandemic, we remain cognizant of the current global environment and instability in Europe, rising interest rates, especially their impact on housing and inflationary pressure this year at home. So while we are optimistic for the future performance of the portfolio near term, we remain cautious as we look further down the road.

  • Okay. Back to you, Clint.

  • Clint E. Stein - President, CEO & Director

  • Thanks, Andy. This concludes our prepared comments. As a reminder, Andy, Chris and Aaron are with me to answer your questions. And now Victor, let's open the line for questions.

  • Operator

  • (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of David Feaster from Raymond James.

  • David Pipkin Feaster - Research Analyst

  • Maybe just starting on deposits. Obviously, you guys have a phenomenal low-cost core deposit franchise. But I'm just curious maybe if you could walk through some of the underlying trends that you're seeing, especially since quarter end. It sounds like in the market that we're hearing more conversations about exception pricing and those types of things and migration within books. Just curious whether there's any interesting trends you've seen within your book and what drove the runoff? Is it more munis or anything like that? And then just any other trends worth highlighting and whether you'd expect more outflows potentially for the remainder of the year?

  • Clint E. Stein - President, CEO & Director

  • So you've got Chris and Aaron fighting across the table to decide who gets to answer this first, so I'm going to jump in and just steal their thunder. What we saw in the second quarter really was -- started to feel a lot like our seasonal patterns that we've had pre-pandemic. And I think it was in Chris' comments that he mentioned that those traditional patterns hold true in the third quarter and for the balance of the year that we should see some deposit growth come back in. And I'd say that so far at this point in the third quarter, we are seeing those historical seasonal patterns of deposit growth.

  • And on an overall basis, we weren't down materially in the second quarter. We move around $150 million, $200 million from day-to-day. So sometimes it's just a matter of that focal date of June 30 and if somebody laid a big deposit on us or system cash out. So I'll step back now and let Chris and Aaron continue their argument over who's going to fill in the details.

  • Christopher M. Merrywell - COO & Executive VP

  • Dave, this is Chris. I'll provide a little color to the outflows. As we've always talked, we've talked about controlling our deposit costs through using Wealth Management, CB Financial. And during the quarter, of that number, about $55 million was the net movement to CB Financial to take advantage of some higher rate opportunities.

  • The exception pricing, we still continue to utilize that. It's trending kind of as the normal, maybe a little bit more with what's going on in the market. But overall, the base of our deposit funding is very consistent to where it was. We'll continue to see what happens with the competition and things of that nature. But we're really following the playbook that we've always had, and it's -- as of today, it's continuing to bear out.

  • David Pipkin Feaster - Research Analyst

  • Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe just -- look, it's extremely impressive to see record originations in production. And if I heard correctly, that you're continuing to see expanding pipelines, like that combination is really impressive. I'm just curious what do you think is allowing you to be so successful.

  • I mean is it the economic recovery? Is it some of your new hires? Is it people excited about the deal? I'm just curious, as you step back and look at it, what do you think is allowing you to be so successful. And is this kind of continued pace of growth sustainable, especially as we look at higher rates and potential deceleration in originations, but you also got the prospects of slower payoffs and paydowns. Just any high-level thoughts.

  • Clint E. Stein - President, CEO & Director

  • So I think it really starts with a conscious decision that we made in the second quarter of 2020. While a lot of our competitors shuttered their operations, scattered their teams and tried to run their banks from the basement of their vacation homes, we were here every day. And we continue to just serving the needs of our communities and taking care of our clients.

  • And a lot of the business that we've won over the last couple of years, our prospects that we called on for, in some cases, 10-plus years, and they just didn't really like the experience or the lack of availability of their existing bank and/or their existing bank pulled out of certain markets.

  • And so I think that, that momentum that we didn't lose the momentum that a lot of, I think, end-market competitors lost. And so as they've been trying to regain some momentum, we've just continued to accelerate. And I think that approach has also helped us to attract great talent with some of the hires that we've talked about and some -- many that we haven't.

  • We continue to attract a lot of great bankers across the footprint. And the announcement on our Utah team is just the most recent example of that type of activity. And so I think it's not something where we just flip the switch. And we had a lot of momentum actually going into 2020. Coming out of 2019, we were starting off the first quarter, it was shaping up to be a tremendous first quarter of 2020. And then, of course, the pandemic hit and everything kind of came to a standstill.

  • So I don't know if that gives you everything you want or if Chris wants to add some additional context or not. But that's really -- I think it's not something that has just started. It's something that we've been very focused on for a few years now.

  • Christopher M. Merrywell - COO & Executive VP

  • Yes. David, I'd add on the aspect of just backing up the -- our bankers are out and about, they're very proactive and focused. And as you look towards the pending combination, the integration management office is doing a fantastic job so that our bankers can focus on all the stuff that they do externally. And then that team continues to work internally on all of the stuff that happens on day 1.

  • As far as when you look at how it kind of all came together, specifically to production, there's certainly been some pent-up demand that's came through. I think the second quarter, you saw a little bit of -- some things that came through some -- taking advantage of the lower rates before things started to rise. That certainly helped with it as well. We were able to take advantage of those, get into some new deals while retaining a lot of our old business as well.

  • I think your question about, is it sustainable? That's certainly one of the unknown questions. And we've talked before, I hesitate to speculate if we'll set record after record. But I'm very comfortable with what our teams are doing. And I think there's going to be a natural summer pullback as well, and we'll see how it plays out for the rest of the year. But it truly was incredible.

  • David Pipkin Feaster - Research Analyst

  • Yes, that's great. And maybe just touching on asset quality and giving Andy a little airtime. You guys always maintain a conservative approach to credit. And we've seen continued improvement in asset quality. But -- and you guys talked about it, there's some real challenges in the economy.

  • I'm just curious, at a high level, your thoughts on the credit outlook from your all standpoint. And in the pulse of the clients, as you look out, are there any segments that you may be a bit more cautious on? Are there any segments where you're maybe seeing clients pull back or that you're avoiding? And then on the other side, I mean, what is your appetite for credit at this point? And have you guys begun tightening standards?

  • Andrew L. McDonald - Executive VP & Chief Credit Officer

  • Well, first of all, our appetite remains consistent through all of the cycles. And I think that for our customers and for our prospects makes us, I think, predictable and they like that. So we're not in and out of segments and we don't adjust our underwriting criteria to get more loans or get less and stuff like that. We try to remain consistent throughout the entire cycle. So our risk appetite remains the same.

  • Overall, yes, credit is looking really good. I hate to say it, it's probably as good as it's going to get, but I guess I just said it. And so really, the economy will be a big driver of how we move forward. The segments that are under stress. I mean we continue to be concerned with hospitality a little bit, but I think we got our arms around that, and most of that, I think, is pretty well taken care of. But it remains for certain kinds of -- especially if it's business travel related, that remains a challenge versus vacation.

  • Elderly care, you had the pandemic theoretically lower but not in assisted living and nursing care facility because it already takes a small outbreak and then they can't take in new people. There is still a reluctance for a lot of people to place their mother or their father into those facilities. And they're designed in such a way that they need relatively high occupancy to cover the fixed cost of running the facility. So elderly care is there. We don't have a big bucket of elderly care, but it's less than $100 million for us. But almost all of it is exhibiting some kind of stress.

  • I think on a broader case, I'm not going to tell you anything you don't already know, but a lot of businesses are still struggling to find employees. And in the restaurant area, they're open, but they can't run at full capacity because they don't have enough servers. And so that impacts their ability to generate revenue. Grocery stores are closing delis, which happened to me the other day, because they don't have enough people to staff the deli.

  • So a lot of businesses are really struggling, and inflation so far is running ahead of wages. So real nominal consumer spending hasn't really increased, but I do and I think I have some concerns over continued wage inflation and will begin to exceed the commodity side of inflation, if you will. So that's probably longer term, the concern in the portfolio.

  • Operator

  • (Operator Instructions) Our next question is from the line of Matthew Clark from Piper Sandler.

  • Matthew Timothy Clark - MD & Senior Research Analyst

  • Maybe just to close the loop on credit, Andy, I don't think you mentioned the office, but that seems to be another kind of longer-term concern for -- we've heard property values in certain metro markets that I don't think you really dabble in that much. Values there could be 25%. Are you seeing anything like that in any of your markets? I know -- I'm sure a lot of what you have is suburban office, but any color on the office would be great.

  • Andrew L. McDonald - Executive VP & Chief Credit Officer

  • Yes. Certainly, the downtown core of Seattle and Portland are the weakest office markets but those buildings are way bigger than what we ever get involved in. But it does impact the region a bit. And you are correct. We're primarily in the suburban and rural markets. Most of our office is actually walk-up, 2, 3 story, 2 x 4 construction. You've got the veterinary clinic, the dentists, maybe an architect and a law firm in it. So our office composition is not sort of what you would be reading about in the Wall Street Journal.

  • Real estate values. I don't know where the large buildings in Seattle are trading because that's not the market we play in. But I would say that in general, cap rates remain extremely low because there's so much money looking for a home. And so while we aren't seeing the same inflationary pressures in real estate values, they are holding, but they're just not increasing. So we'll have to wait and see as rates continue to rise by the Fed. If cap rates rise, then you'll see values. But right now, there's a lot of money looking for homes in just about every segment of the real estate market.

  • Matthew Timothy Clark - MD & Senior Research Analyst

  • Okay. Great. And then shifting gears to the margin. Aaron, [your] going to have the margin -- the average margin in the month of June. And as a follow-up, what the spot rate was at the end of June and the weighted average rate on new loans going into 3Q?

  • Aaron James Deer - Executive VP & CFO

  • So we did see margin improvement through the quarter. The new coupon on loans in June was 4.17% that compares obviously favorably to the average for the quarter. So we're seeing good directional lift there. And I think our -- you asked about the margin. The margin overall for June was -- on an operating basis was 3.24%. That was up about, I think, from 3.09% in the March -- month of March. So again, good directional trends there.

  • But one of the things that I want to point out because I think it's an important point, and we've talked about this in the past, where there's -- with the inflection of margin trends, we always said it was going to take a little bit of time before we really saw that pull through. And a big part of that stems from the floors that we have on our loans. And we've got some pretty good breakout on slide 10 of our investor deck that we kind of show this.

  • And if you look back to the March quarter, we had about $1.7 billion of loans that were still subject to floors. And moving forward to June 30, that number droid to about $1.2 billion. And most of that would need just a 25 basis point change in the Fed funds to lift off floors. And obviously, with the next week's anticipated FOMC meeting, we're going to get something well above that.

  • So with that, we will have over $3.5 billion of loans that will be adjustable with rate resets that should be coming in pretty short order. So we should start to see a much better impact from the rate hikes coming forward.

  • Matthew Timothy Clark - MD & Senior Research Analyst

  • Got it. Okay. And then I don't know if you mentioned it during your prepared remarks, any guidance for the upcoming quarter on a stand-alone basis from a non-interest expense perspective, assuming production flows, capitalized deferred -- FAS 91, I would assume those would increase, but any guide around the run rate?

  • Aaron James Deer - Executive VP & CFO

  • Yes, we're still looking for something in the mid-90s.

  • Matthew Timothy Clark - MD & Senior Research Analyst

  • Okay. And then maybe, Clint. Could you give us an update on kind of what you're hearing as it relates to the approval process, if anything? And I'm sure it's frustrating, but just any color you might have and whether or not we might need to see the USB's acquisition have to get approval first or not?

  • Clint E. Stein - President, CEO & Director

  • Yes. I mean it's a process. And we would like to have complete transparency into the time line for the approval process. But unfortunately, that's just not the way that it works. And we've been through this before with prior deals where the process has to run its course.

  • But we're not wasting any time to the extent that we can continue to prepare ourselves for when we do receive approval and move quickly towards closing. There's not anything that jumps out from my perspective that creates any type of an anomaly or makes the approval process more challenging or difficult. I don't know if that helps you or not. But it's just -- we're just going through the normal process.

  • I don't know the answer specifically on if our deal is in line behind the U.S. Bank deal. I think we announced what, roughly 30 days or so after they did. So I know that the DOJ is very busy, but I don't have visibility into everything in terms of what they're actually working on at any given point in time.

  • But I do know that our application is being worked on. And while it's -- the delay is a little bit frustrating, the real value that we feel that this combination creates for all of our stakeholders is a long-term decision. And so if it's a matter of a few months here on the front end, it doesn't change our excitement or expectation for the benefits of this combination to all of our stakeholders.

  • Operator

  • And our next question will come from line Jay Rulis from D.A. Davidson.

  • Jeffrey Allen Rulis - MD & Senior Research Analyst

  • Just a couple of questions on maybe production. Chris, could you tell us the pipeline as we sit today versus where you sat at the same point in the second quarter?

  • Christopher M. Merrywell - COO & Executive VP

  • It's very similar to what was going into the second quarter. I won't give an absolute figure on that. But yes, it's very similar.

  • Jeffrey Allen Rulis - MD & Senior Research Analyst

  • And Chris, is there -- this is pretty specific, but thinking about the Utah expansion in those individuals. Is there any kind of non-compete there? Do you think that their book of business can hit beginning in the third quarter? Any timing there or could we assume we could see some positive impact from that group immediately?

  • Christopher M. Merrywell - COO & Executive VP

  • Yes. They've been on for about a month now, it's a couple of weeks in total. And when you look at it, there's always -- or typically, there could be a non-solicit or anything of that nature. We're not really -- we don't build these teams and expansions on what necessarily can come from their existing book. It's really more about what's the go forward, how active are they in the market? And how quickly can they seize on new opportunities.

  • The books, they tend to be fairly -- well, especially in a rising rate environment, they tend to -- it's really hard to pull somebody when you go in and offer them a higher rate today than what they had where they're currently at. So that will take a little bit more time. We're really comfortable with these teams that they are the external sourcing types of bankers that we typically attract and bring on board.

  • So from that standpoint, the team that started with us earlier in January, they certainly hit the ground running into the second quarter. So 90-ish days. I do know there are some opportunities that we are working on currently. They are already in there. And so yes, I would expect that you start seeing something into the -- maybe not in the third quarter here, but certainly moving into the fourth quarter.

  • Jeffrey Allen Rulis - MD & Senior Research Analyst

  • Got it. And Aaron, I appreciate the kind of some of the touch points you gave on margin throughout the quarter. A specific question to sort of cash and equivalent balances as those were worked down. Was that pretty steady through the quarter? Was it early part or late? Anything on timing of how those balances moved?

  • Aaron James Deer - Executive VP & CFO

  • No. I mean there was a little bit of variability around -- you could tell like in April when you had a lot of tax payments going out and things like that, there was some bigger variances. But no, I would say in terms of how the loan -- if those funds were used for loan funding, it was a pretty steady flow through the quarter.

  • Jeffrey Allen Rulis - MD & Senior Research Analyst

  • And maybe a last one, perhaps for Clint. Just I believe kind of organizational charts have been shared Umpqua and COLB. I guess is the next sort of point of stress, if you think about the combined employee base, would that be a closing or conversion? Or is there anything more internal that as you work through, as you said, you're not sitting idly by, you're preparing? I'm just thinking more of the personnel that could be pressure points of when companies come together. Anything like between now and close or conversion that would also come up in that time line?

  • Clint E. Stein - President, CEO & Director

  • I think just the length of time that we're in right now, this period that we're in waiting on regulatory approval, that weighs on some folks. I mean, part of bringing the companies together, we have in both organizations today, leaders and individuals that want to retire. And through a normal course of business when somebody retires, they can pick a date, you have a big party, they plan a trip and they leave town for a month.

  • Well, we don't know if that's exactly when to have that party for them. And so I've seen that. There's a few individuals here in our corporate headquarters that are in that situation. And so that creates, I guess, a point of frustration for them. I think that we're still running 2 separate companies, and we're planning for what we are when we come together.

  • So in essence, it's like you've got 2 jobs. You're doing your job today at Columbia Bank or at Umpqua Bank, but then you're also thinking towards the future. And so I think that once we get to the close, some of that pressure gets released from the organization. There are situations where there's 1 job for 2 people.

  • And to your earlier comment about org charts and things, those have been communicated. And so that's the other piece of where depending on at what point in the process if it's at the close, if it's 30 days post close, if it's 90 days post conversion and those that are centered around the conversion. They still have some pretty good certainty around the timing of what that looks like. But those that are centered or based on the actual closing of the merger, they don't really know exactly when that date will be.

  • So I think that -- I guess those are kind of the different scenarios that I think about. But all in all, I think across both organizations, there's still a tremendous amount of excitement, the opportunity that this creates for all of our stakeholders, our clients. I've been doing a lot of client visits the last couple of months and some of them, they're surprised to find out that the merger hasn't closed.

  • And they're excited. Get to have greater access to our bankers, greater availability of products and services. So I don't want to take your question and just focus on the pressure points of the organization. I think that the excitement still far outweighs anything in terms of just the normal course of merger-type integration work.

  • Jeffrey Allen Rulis - MD & Senior Research Analyst

  • Appreciate it, Clint. I wasn't negatively pointed, just to kind of walk through the process. So that's helpful and I appreciate the feedback.

  • Operator

  • I'm not showing any further questions in the queue. I'd like to turn the call back over to Clint Stein for any closing remarks.

  • Clint E. Stein - President, CEO & Director

  • Well, thanks, Victor, and thank you for joining our call today. And don't hesitate to reach out if there's any clarification that you'd like on any items that we discussed. Have a good afternoon.

  • Operator

  • This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.