ServisFirst Bancshares Inc (SFBS) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings and welcome to the ServisFirst Bancshares fourth-quarter and full-year earnings call.

歡迎參加 ServisFirst Bancshares 第四季和全年財報電話會議。

(Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Davis Mange, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you, Davis. You may begin.

（操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。現在我很高興向您介紹主持人，投資者關係總監戴維斯·曼格(Davis Mange)。謝謝你，戴維斯。你可以開始了。

Good afternoon and welcome to our fourth-quarter earnings call. Today's speakers will cover some highlights of 2023 and then take in questions. We'll have Tom Broughton, our CEO; Rodney Rushing, our Chief Operating Officer; Henry Abbott, our Chief Credit Officer; Bud Foshee; our CFO; and Kirk Pressley, who will be taking over as CFO after Bud retires later this quarter.

下午好，歡迎參加我們的第四季財報電話會議。今天的演講者將介紹 2023 年的一些亮點，然後回答問題。湯姆·布勞頓 (Tom Broughton)，我們的執行長；羅德尼‧拉欣 (Rodney Rushing)，我們的營運長； Henry Abbott，我們的首席信貸官；巴德佛西；我們的財務長；柯克·普萊斯利 (Kirk Pressley) 將在巴德本季末退休後接任財務長。

I'll now cover our forward-looking statements disclosure. Some of the discussion in today's earnings call may include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ from any projections shared today due to the factors described in our most recent 10-K and 10-Q filings.

我現在將介紹我們的前瞻性聲明披露。今天的財報電話會議中的一些討論可能包括前瞻性陳述。由於我們最近的 10-K 和 10-Q 文件中描述的因素，實際結果可能與今天分享的任何預測有所不同。

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they're made, and ServisFirst assumes no duty to update that. With that, I'll turn it over to Tom.

前瞻性陳述僅代表截至其作出之日的情況，ServisFirst 不承擔更新該陳述的責任。有了這個，我會把它交給湯姆。

Thank you, Davis. Good afternoon and thank you for joining our fourth-quarter earnings call. Well, 2023 was not what we expected it to be when the year began, but we are pleased with the results of the hard work by our bankers who I think are the best in the industry, and where we ended up in the year. Bud will go into more detail on that, but we certainly were pleased to see the net interest income not only stabilized but to improve in the fourth quarter.

謝謝你，戴維斯。下午好，感謝您參加我們的第四季財報電話會議。好吧，2023 年並不是我們年初時的預期，但我們對銀行家的辛勤工作成果感到滿意，我認為他們是業內最好的，我們對這一年的最終結果感到滿意。巴德將對此進行更詳細的介紹，但我們當然很高興看到第四季度的淨利息收入不僅穩定而且有所改善。

We've found over the years in banking, you can cut expenses to improve profitability, but you cannot reach prosperity without the net interest margin reaching acceptable levels. We do expect some tailwinds from the margin both this year and 2025. You'll hear more about that as we move through our speakers.

多年來我們發現，在銀行業，你可以削減開支來提高獲利能力，但如果淨利差達到可接受的水平，你就無法實現繁榮。我們確實預計今年和 2025 年的利潤率都會出現一些順風車。當我們透過揚聲器進行介紹時，您會聽到更多相關內容。

We are pleased to announce that Joel Smith has joined us as President of Memphis, Tennessee market, and we'll certainly provide more information on the team and our location there soon. So it is a great market. Total deposits of Memphis $41 billion. We think would have a great opportunity there.

我們很高興地宣布喬爾史密斯 (Joel Smith) 已加入我們，擔任田納西州孟菲斯市場總裁，我們肯定會很快提供有關團隊和我們在那裡的位置的更多資訊。所以這是一個很大的市場。孟菲斯的存款總額為 410 億美元。我們認為那裡會有很好的機會。

As we have commented in prior calls, once we saw the run-up in treasuries in mid '22, we pivoted deposit gathering, which proved to be a great time. And given the events of March 2023, our results in 2023 exceeded expectations with year-over-year deposit growth of 15%.

正如我們在之前的電話會議中所評論的那樣，一旦我們看到 22 年中期國債的上漲，我們就轉向了存款收集，事實證明這是一個偉大的時刻。考慮到 2023 年 3 月發生的事件，我們 2023 年的業績超出預期，存款年增 15%。

New commercial accounts were up 15% over 2022 and total new accounts, including retail accounts, were up 12% year over year. We are one of the few banks our size, so we have no broker deposits or federal home loan advances. This will certainly serve us well as the regulators announced new liquidity standards as expected. Rodney Rushing will discuss a little bit more about the correspondent division after I finish my remarks.

新商業帳戶較 2022 年成長 15%，新帳戶總數（包括零售帳戶）年增 12%。我們是少數幾家具有同等規模的銀行之一，因此我們沒有經紀人存款或聯邦住房貸款預付款。這無疑對我們有利，因為監管機構如期宣布了新的流動性標準。在我發言結束後，羅德尼·拉欣將進一步討論通訊部門的問題。

Loans grew slightly in the fourth quarter. We did have loan growth in five of the last seven months of the year. C&I line utilization is really not improved so it's been pretty flat in June -- June 30, 2022. Certainly with the aftereffects of the BBB program and that, as rates move higher, that also reduced borrowings more than you would see otherwise because most of this reduction in the borrowings on the C&I side was funded with non-interest-bearing deposits.

第四季貸款略有成長。今年最後七個月中有五個月我們的貸款確實有所成長。C&I 線路利用率確實沒有改善，因此 6 月（2022 年 6 月 30 日）的使用率相當平穩。當然，隨著 BBB 計劃的影響，隨著利率走高，借款的減少也比其他情況下要多，因為 C&I 方面藉款的減少大部分是由無息存款提供資金的。

So you really have the worst of both worlds there when you're taking money out of non-interest-bearing accounts to pay down lines of credit. So we do think most of that is in the rearview mirror at this point. The back story of the quarter is we had $178 million of loans that paid off early in the quarter at an average rate of 4.3%. So that -- getting those loan payoffs was a good thing and improve profitability.

因此，當您從無利息帳戶中取出資金來償還信用額度時，您確實遇到了兩全其美的情況。所以我們確實認為目前大部分都在後視鏡中。本季的背景故事是，我們有 1.78 億美元的貸款在本季初以平均 4.3% 的利率還清。因此，獲得這些貸款償還是一件好事，並且可以提高獲利能力。

We are growing increasingly optimistic that as activity is picking up, we will see more normalized loan growth this year. Our loan pipeline has increased 50% since last quarter end, which has improved substantially from 2023 levels. We're certainly not a blistering pace of 2022, but that year was certainly way above normal and loan activity will not be a typical year.

我們越來越樂觀地認為，隨著經濟活動的回升，今年我們將看到更正常化的貸款成長。自上季末以來，我們的貸款管道增加了 50%，較 2023 年的水準有了大幅改善。2022 年的步伐當然不會很快，但那一年肯定遠高於正常水平，貸款活動也不會是典型的一年。

We think the pipeline is very robust at this point and we do see loan activity picking up of weekly basis. So certainly activity in a new market like Memphis will help carry us, give us momentum later in the year. Our own production side, we hired seven new producers in the fourth quarter of the net of three for a total of 143. Even though we are adding the -- a team in Memphis, we do expect to improve the efficiency of some of our other markets over time and maybe our headcount end up more balanced as we go through the end of the year.

我們認為目前的管道非常強勁，我們確實看到貸款活動每周有所回升。因此，像孟菲斯這樣的新市場的活動肯定會幫助我們前進，為我們在今年晚些時候提供動力。我們自己的製作方面，我們在第四季度僱用了 7 名新製作人，其中 3 名，總共 143 名。儘管我們在孟菲斯增加了一個團隊，但我們確實希望隨著時間的推移提高我們其他一些市場的效率，也許我們的員工人數在年底時會更加平衡。

Credit quality does remain strong. I think most of us in the industry and all investors have been waiting for a recession since 2019. But we do not see early signs of difficulties emerging and Henry Abbott will discuss in a few minutes in more detail.

信用品質確實保持強勁。我認為自 2019 年以來，我們這個行業的大多數人和所有投資者都在等待經濟衰退。但我們沒有看到出現困難的早期跡象，亨利·阿博特將在幾分鐘內進行更詳細的討論。

So in this time, I'll turn it over to Rodney to talk about the correspondent division.

所以這一次，我將把它交給羅德尼來談談通訊部門的事情。

Thank you, Tom. Correspondent banking had a strong second half of 2023 and fourth quarter in both deposit growth and new relationships. As I reported last quarter, that correspondent balances grew. They continued expanding with just over $280 million or 15% increase during the second half of the year.

謝謝你，湯姆。2023 年下半年和第四季度，代理銀行業務在存款成長和新關係方面均表現強勁。正如我上季度報告的那樣，往來餘額有所增長。他們繼續擴張，下半年銷售額略高於 2.8 億美元，增幅為 15%。

During the fourth quarter, we opened nine new correspondent banking relationships with a total of 28 for 2023. Three new agent bank credit card issuers, which where we had 14 new issuers for the entire year, eight lease settlement bank during the fourth quarter, 15 for the year.

第四季度，我們新開設了 9 個代理行關係，2023 年總數達到 28 個。新增 3 家代理銀行信用卡發卡機構，其中全年新增 14 家發卡機構，第四季新增 8 家租賃結算銀行，全年新增 15 家。

Most new account activity came from our newly expanded Texas market, while new agent credit card issuers were spread across the US. As we look to continue this momentum into 2024, our focus has shifted, Tom, from deposit growth and toward improving liability costs. We are specifically optimistic about this outlook in correspondent banking.

大多數新帳戶活動來自我們新擴展的德克薩斯州市場，而新的代理信用卡發行商遍布美國各地。湯姆，當我們希望將這種勢頭延續到 2024 年時，我們的重點已經從存款成長轉向改善負債成本。我們對代理銀行業務的前景特別樂觀。

If interest rate futures markets are accurate, and we are in a declining rate environment, correspondent banking should benefit from the falling rates. As rates decline, our correspondent liability costs will decline step for step with a beta of one. In addition, at the same time, funds will migrate from non-interest bearing deposits to non-interest bearing accounts.

如果利率期貨市場是準確的，而且我們處於利率下降的環境中，那麼代理銀行業務應該會從利率下降中受益。隨著利率下降，我們的相應責任成本將逐步下降，貝塔值為 1。此外，同時，資金也會從無利息存款遷移到無利息帳戶。

The only other topic I'd like to mention, Tom, is that we've completed the credit card system conversion, and we have worked through the changes and have the benefits and extra features it provides for both us and our agent banks. Because of that, we are optimistic about credit card revenue contributions in 2024.

湯姆，我想提及的唯一另一個主題是我們已經完成了信用卡系統轉換，我們已經完成了這些更改，並擁有它為我們和我們的代理銀行提供的好處和額外功能。因此，我們對 2024 年信用卡收入貢獻持樂觀態度。

So with that, I'll turn it over to Henry Abbott for comments who has a short report, I believe, short usually means good news coming from our Chief Credit Officer. Henry?

因此，我將把它交給亨利·阿博特徵求意見，他有一份做空報告，我相信，做空通常意味著我們的首席信貸官傳來好消息。亨利？

Thank you, Rodney. I'm pleased with the bank's performance in 2023, more specifically in the fourth quarter. The bank's loan portfolio continued to perform at an exceptional level in a unique environment with rising interest rates that we experienced in 2023. Tom covered pipelines and loan outlook for 2024, but I will also add that we brought on some strong team in North Carolina and Virginia in 2023.

謝謝你，羅德尼。我對該銀行 2023 年的業績，特別是第四季的業績感到滿意。在 2023 年利率上升的獨特環境中，該銀行的貸款組合繼續表現出色。Tom 介紹了 2024 年的管道和貸款前景，但我還要補充一點，我們在 2023 年在北卡羅來納州和維吉尼亞州引進了一些強大的團隊。

The bulk of the past year, we had them focusing on deposits and not loans. So we are well positioned for loan growth in 2024 and beyond and we will have some good tailwinds in these new markets. These bankers are now focusing their efforts on lending. Some of these markets are having disruptions due to bank mergers and other changes, creating an opportunity for ServisFirst to attract and retain high-quality customers.

在去年的大部分時間裡，我們讓他們專注於存款而不是貸款。因此，我們為 2024 年及以後的貸款成長做好了充分準備，並且我們將在這些新市場中獲得一些良好的推動力。這些銀行家現在將精力集中在貸款上。其中一些市場因銀行合併和其他變化而受到干擾，這為 ServisFirst 創造了吸引和留住高品質客戶的機會。

Our asset quality continued to remain strong, and our core key credit metric were all generally stable or improving. Our charge-off for the quarter were only 9 basis points when annualized and managed down from the annualized 15 basis points in the third quarter, which is roughly a 40% reduction quarter over quarter in charge-offs.

我們的資產品質持續保持強勁，核心關鍵信用指標整體穩定或改善。以年化計算，本季的沖銷僅 9 個基點，較第三季的年化 15 個基點有所下降，沖銷較上季減少約 40%。

Our ALLL total loans went from 1.31% to1.32% for the quarter. Non-performing assets decreased in dollar and NPAs to total assets from 15 basis points in the third quarter to only 14 basis points in the fourth quarter. Our asset quality continues to remain strong.

本季我們的 ALLL 總貸款從 1.31% 升至 1.32%。以美元計價的不良資產和不良資產佔總資產的比例從第三季的 15 個基點下降到第四季的 14 個基點。我們的資產品質持續保持強勁。

Also note, we started the year with AD&C loans as a percent of risk-based capital gain of 100% and over the course of the year, that had come down to 90%. We don't see any issues within our portfolio and problematic asset classes such as office space. Our commercial real estate portfolio continues to perform at a very high level.

另請注意，今年年初，我們的 AD&C 貸款佔基於風險的資本收益的百分比為 100%，而在這一年中，這一比例已降至 90%。我們在我們的投資組合和辦公空間等有問題的資產類別中沒有發現任何問題。我們的商業房地產投資組合繼續保持很高的水平。

I feel good about our loan portfolio and how it formed in 2023, how we're positioned for 2024 and beyond. With that, I'll hand it to Bud.

我對我們的貸款組合及其在 2023 年的形成方式以及我們對 2024 年及以後的定位感到滿意。這樣，我就把它交給巴德了。

Thank you, Henry, and good afternoon. We're very pleased with the progress the bank has made in the fourth quarter with liquidity, credit quality, capital, improving loan pipelines, and net interest margin stabilized. Our non-interest bearing deposits were stable in the fourth quarter. Our total deposits grew by $132 million

謝謝你，亨利，下午好。我們對銀行第四季在流動性、信貸品質、資本、貸款管道改善和淨利差穩定等方面取得的進展感到非常滿意。第四季我們的無息存款保持穩定。我們的總存款增加了 1.32 億美元

As Tom mentioned, we saw net loan growth in five of the last seven months of 2023. The key to improving earnings per share is loan growth, and our team is focused on a more balanced approach to loan and deposit growth in 2024. Our 2023 focus on deposits worked as our liquidity remained strong at $2.1 billion. Our adjusted loan-to-deposit ratio at yearend was 80.2%. This ratio includes the correspondent Fed funds purchase.

正如 Tom 所提到的，我們在 2023 年最後 7 個月中有 5 個月看到了淨貸款成長。提高每股盈餘的關鍵是貸款成長，我們的團隊致力於在 2024 年採取更平衡的貸款和存款成長方式。我們 2023 年對存款的關注發揮了作用，因為我們的流動性保持在 21 億美元的強勁水平。年末調整後存貸比為80.2%。此比率包括相應的聯邦基金購買量。

Our loan repricing initiative will contribute to net income in 2024 as we don't anticipate increasing deposit costs. Examples of our repricing effort, $525 million year to date of loans where the rate has been restructured. Loans paid off early were $185 million. We have [$154 million] pending and loan repricing. Loan repricing is the best opportunity to improve profitability combined with loan growth. Loans that repriced or paid off in the fourth quarter or $212 million, which combined with loan paydowns on fixed-rate loans totals to $2 billion on an annualized run rate.

我們的貸款重新定價計劃將為 2024 年的淨利潤做出貢獻，因為我們預計存款成本不會增加。我們的重新定價工作的例子是，年初至今已調整利率的 5.25 億美元貸款。提前還清的貸款為 1.85 億美元。我們有[1.54 億美元]待處理和貸款重新定價。貸款重新定價是提高獲利能力和貸款成長的最佳機會。第四季重新定價或償還的貸款為 2.12 億美元，加上固定利率貸款的還款額，以年化運行率計算總計達 20 億美元。

The cumulative effects of this repricing will improve margins and earnings per share over time. We have low rate investment securities of $347 million, maturing in 2024. We would improve the margin by $8 million on an annualized basis by reinvesting short-term treasuries or overnight funds.

隨著時間的推移，這種重新定價的累積效應將提高利潤率和每股盈餘。我們擁有 3.47 億美元的低利率投資證券，將於 2024 年到期。我們將透過短期國債或隔夜資金再投資，將年化利潤率提高 800 萬美元。

Net interest margin increase in the quarter $102 million in the fourth quarter versus $100 million in the third quarter. Variable rate loan originations made up 69% of the total production in the fourth quarter at a rate of 8.3%. 82% of these loans have a floor rate, 36% of production had a floor rate of 5% and 18% had a floor rate of 5.5%. About 42% of total loans are floating rate today.

第四季淨利差增加 1.02 億美元，而第三季為 1 億美元。可變利率貸款發放量佔第四季總產出的 69%，成長率為 8.3%。其中 82% 的貸款具有下限利率，36% 的生產貸款的下限利率為 5%，18% 的貸款下限利率為 5.5%。目前，約 42% 的貸款採用浮動利率。

Deposit cost stabilized in December. We have begun rationalizing higher deposit costs in the first quarter, so we expect higher cost excess funds to decline in addition to normal seasonal declines in first quarter excess cash. Credit card income in the fourth quarter was impacted by a billing issue with one vendor that was not timely passing through certain expenses. We anticipate that this income returning to normalized levels in 2024.

12月份存款成本穩定。我們已開始對第一季較高的存款成本進行合理化調整，因此，除了第一季過剩現金的正常季節性下降之外，我們預計成本較高的過剩資金也會下降。第四季度的信用卡收入受到一家供應商的帳單問題的影響，該供應商未能及時支付某些費用。我們預計這筆收入將在 2024 年恢復到正常水平。

In discussing non-interest expense, we made an effort to hold the line of expense growth in 2023, since incentive payouts for 2023 or more than we anticipated as we focused on deposit growth for the entire year. The focus on 2024 incentive plans is to enhance earnings per share. We anticipate new additions from the Memphis market will be offset by production officer attrition in 2024. We have several non-recurrent expenses in the fourth quarter, which are detailed in the earnings release.

在討論非利息支出時，我們努力控制 2023 年的支出成長線，因為 2023 年的激勵支出或高於我們的預期，因為我們專注於全年的存款成長。2024年激勵計畫的重點是提高每股收益。我們預計 2024 年孟菲斯市場的新增產能將被生產人員的流失所抵銷。我們在第四季有幾項非經常性支出，這些費用在收益發布中都有詳細說明。

Our teams are performing quite well and have grown new accounts 12% year over year. We've continued our growth in the book value per share. Our CET1 ratio was 10.91% and our Tier 1 capital leverage ratio was 9.12%. Our capital continues to be a strength.

我們的團隊表現非常出色，新客戶數量較去年同期成長 12%。我們的每股帳面價值持續成長。我們的CET1比率為10.91%，一級資本槓桿率為9.12%。我們的資本仍然是我們的優勢。

I'm retiring next month, so not going to be here for the first quarter of 2024. Kirk Pressley will be the next CFO and I will return the program over to him and comment on 2024.

我將於下個月退休，因此 2024 年第一季不會留在這裡。柯克·普萊斯利 (Kirk Pressley) 將擔任下一任首席財務官，我將把該計劃交還給他，並對 2024 年發表評論。

Thank you, Bud. Tom has given some good color on the business. I'll give some color on the earnings side. I'm optimistic about 2024. As a reminder, like most other banks, Q4 2023 was significantly different than Q1 2023. So I'll focus my comments on the run rates from the fourth quarter versus year over year. The good news is that we feel good about where we are going. We expect the margin to grow from here, not only due to loan growth, but also from the repricing of fixed rate loans and securities as Bud discussed.

謝謝你，巴德。湯姆對這項業務給予了一些很好的評價。我將在收益方面給出一些說明。我對 2024 年持樂觀態度。提醒一下，與大多數其他銀行一樣，2023 年第四季與 2023 年第一季有顯著不同。因此，我將重點放在第四季度與去年同期的運行率。好消息是我們對前進的方向感覺良好。我們預計利潤率將從這裡開始成長，這不僅是由於貸款成長，而且還因為巴德討論的固定利率貸款和證券的重新定價。

We think our deposits repriced quicker than most of our peer banks, so we're probably a little farther along on overcoming increases in funding costs. We think our dollar margin bottomed out in the third quarter of 2023, and it will continue to grow from here. We expect Q1 2024 to be higher than Q4 2023 despite there being one less day.

我們認為我們的存款重新定價速度比大多數同業銀行都要快，因此我們在克服融資成本增加方面可能會走得更遠一些。我們認為我們的美元利潤率已於 2023 年第三季觸底，並將從此繼續成長。我們預計 2024 年第一季將高於 2023 年第四季度，儘管少了一天。

We think the margin expansion will accelerate from there due to both the fixed rate loans and securities cash flows and growth in the loan book. Non-interest income should do well this year. But, as you know, that is a smaller part of our business. We do expect growth in low double-digits. Non-interest expenses is a little of a challenge to explain, but as you all know, we keep a firm grip on expenses.

我們認為，由於固定利率貸款和證券現金流以及貸款帳簿的成長，利潤率擴張將會加速。今年非利息收入應該會表現良好。但是，如您所知，這只是我們業務的一小部分。我們確實預期低兩位數的成長。非利息費用解釋起來有點困難，但眾所周知，我們嚴格控制費用。

The fourth quarter had a lot of noise, primarily due to the non-GAAP adjusting items noted in the press release, which are the FDIC special assessment, duplicate privilege tax expense, and the termination of our EDP. contract. In addition to those items, we also had elevated expenses related to historic tax credits. If you strip out the unusual or infrequent items, we think our fourth quarter core non-interest expense run rate was closer to $44 million.

第四季有很多噪音，主要是由於新聞稿中提到的非 GAAP 調整項目，即 FDIC 特別評估、重複特權稅費用和我們的 EDP 的終止。合約.除了這些項目之外，我們還增加了與歷史稅收抵免相關的費用。如果剔除不尋常或不常見的項目，我們認為第四季核心非利息費用運行率接近 4,400 萬美元。

We expect expenses to grow slowly from here. Year over year, we expect expenses to grow mid-single digits from the 2023 reported numbers. This would be closer to 10% after taking out the infrequent and unusual items from Q4. The increases are due to normalized incentives for the full year, the investments in the Memphis team and their facilities, merit increases, and continued investments in technology and back-office.

我們預計支出將從這裡開始緩慢成長。我們預計支出將比 2023 年報告的數字成長中個位數。在剔除第四季不常見和不尋常的項目後，這一比例將接近 10%。這些成長是由於全年正常的激勵措施、對孟菲斯團隊及其設施的投資、績效成長以及對技術和後台的持續投資。

We expect nice progression in the income statement in the first quarter as well as loan growth. We expect EPS for the quarter to be up modestly when compared to the adjusted fourth quarter of $0.91. However, the funding of the allowance for credit losses for loan growth is expected to limit the growth in the net income and EPS. The good news is the extra margin from the loan growth will go to the bottom line in subsequent quarters.

我們預計第一季損益表以及貸款成長將取得良好進展。與調整後的第四季 0.91 美元相比，我們預計本季每股收益將小幅成長。然而，貸款成長的信貸損失準備金預計將限制淨利潤和每股收益的成長。好消息是貸款成長帶來的額外利潤將在接下來的幾個季度達到淨利潤。

Let me turn it over to Tom for some final thoughts.

讓我把它交給湯姆來徵求一些最後的想法。

Thank you, Kirk. We also had previously announced that Bud's going retire after year end, so this will be his last earnings call. Bud was here for the formation of the bank in 2005. He handled all back-office functions, cash management, HR, in addition to his finance duties. So when Bud came on board, I said, Bud, two things. I said, I've hired a Head of Deposit Operations, she's great, and I've set up all phone systems. And so he didn't think that the deposit ops person was really all that good. And sure enough, she resigned two before we opened the bank.

謝謝你，柯克。我們之前也宣布巴德將在年底後退休，所以這將是他最後一次財報電話會議。2005 年，巴德在這裡成立了該銀行。除了財務職責外，他還負責所有後台職能、現金管理、人力資源。所以當巴德加入時，我說，巴德，有兩件事。我說，我已經聘請了存款業務主管，她很棒，我已經設定了所有電話系統。所以他不認為存款操作員真的那麼好。果然，在我們開設銀行之前，她就辭職了兩次。

And he threw the phone system in the trash and got a new one. So after that -- I didn't tell Bud how do anything in the back office anymore. I'll let him that and he's done a great job. He's obviously knew the stock price is still depressed at current levels. But we started it was $1.66 a share in 2005 and it's in the 60s today. So Bud has clearly done an outstanding job. Bud, thank you for all you've done for the company.

他把電話系統丟進垃圾桶，換了一套新的。所以從那以後——我就沒有再告訴巴德如何在後台做任何事情了。我會讓他這麼做，他做得很好。他顯然知道股價在目前的水平上仍然低迷。但 2005 年我們的股價為每股 1.66 美元，而今天已經是 60 美元了。所以巴德顯然做得非常出色。巴德，謝謝你為公司所做的一切。

So with that, we'll turn it open it up for questions now.

因此，我們現在將其打開以供提問。

(Operator Instructions) Graham Dick, Piper Sandler.

（操作說明）Graham Dick、Piper Sandler。

Hey. Good evening, everyone. How's it going?

嘿。各位晚上好。怎麼樣了？

Good. Thanks, Graham.

好的。謝謝，格雷厄姆。

Just wanted to start on the loan side of things. I know we talked a little -- last quarter, you talked about just -- a bit just now. But I think things are a little slower than I expected this quarter on the loan growth side, and it had some payoffs. But we had talked about that $1.5 billion of liquidity you wanted to deploy.

只是想從貸款方面開始。我知道我們談了一點——上個季度，你剛才談了一點——剛才。但我認為本季貸款成長方面的情況比我預期的要慢一些，並且帶來了一些回報。但我們已經討論過您想要部署的 15 億美元流動性。

Just trying to get a sense for -- I guess, a better sense for how much loan growth you expect in 2023, whether that be a dollar amount or a percentage growth number, something to just set the bar at going forward.

我想，只是想更了解您預計 2023 年的貸款成長量，無論是美元金額還是百分比成長數字，這只是為未來設定標準。

And then I guess also in tandem with that, is this -- do you think you'll just have this elevated liquidity position for a bit longer than you thought last quarter? Basically, how are things looking on that front, I'd say, relative to where you were three months ago?

然後我想，與此同時，你認為你的流動性部位上升的時間會比你上個季度想像的要長一點嗎？基本上，我想說，相對於三個月前的情況，這方面的情況怎麼樣？

Graham, this is Tom. We're quite optimistic as I just said in the prepared comments, in terms of loan demand has picked up markedly. The pipelines double where it was, and we expect those loans -- and that's a 90-day pipeline. So we kind of know what the next 90 looks like, and I think it could be a little drag on that. It could take 120 days to close the amount in that pipeline. But that kind of funding will give us a nice number at the end of the year, and we don't -- I'm anticipating high single-digits for the year is kind of what were in our internal budgets that we're budgeting.

格雷厄姆，這是湯姆。正如我剛才在準備好的評論中所說，我們非常樂觀，貸款需求已顯著回升。準備貸款數量是原來的兩倍，我們預計這些貸款將持續 90 天。所以我們多少知道下一個 90 歲會是什麼樣子，我認為這可能會有點拖累。可能需要 120 天才能完成該管道中的金額。但這種資金將在年底為我們帶來一個不錯的數字，但我們沒有——我預計今年的高個位數數字就是我們正在製定的內部預算中的數字。

So we think that the loan demand is clearly coming back in terms -- and maybe we're doing a better job of getting out and marketing. We were marketing deposits for the last 18 months, and we obviously flipped and we're obviously marketing both loans and deposits. But we're certainly -- got a real key on loans right now compared to where we were before, Graham.

因此，我們認為貸款需求顯然正在回升——也許我們在走出去和行銷方面做得更好。過去 18 個月我們一直在行銷存款，但我們顯然發生了轉變，我們顯然同時在行銷貸款和存款。但與之前相比，我們現在確實掌握了貸款的關鍵，格雷厄姆。

Okay. That's helpful. And I guess as you look at loan growth, it sounded like C&I lines are pretty much just staying where they are, I guess, at a percentage basis. Where do you think the growth is going to come from your customer base? At what segment? Are we talking CRE here or construction? What are the main areas that you're seeing demand pick up in, I guess?

好的。這很有幫助。我想，當你觀察貸款成長時，聽起來 C&I 貸款幾乎只是保持在原位，我猜，是按百分比計算的。您認為您的客戶群的成長將來自哪裡？在什麼段？我們這裡談的是商業不動產還是建築業？我猜您看到需求回升的主要領域是什麼？

A lot of CRE. But in a lot of -- there's a lot of different things. I mean whether it's in marina or in Florida or whatever else, we're seeing -- there's some construction out there. Obviously, Florida is continuing to see very nice growth with the population inflows that we have there. So -- and certainly, we hope that C&I is going to pick up compared to where it's been. And I think if we get some lower rates towards the back half of the year, hopefully, we can see some C&I growth.

很多商業地產。但在很多方面——有很多不同的事情。我的意思是，無論是在碼頭、佛羅裡達州或其他地方，我們都看到——那裡有一些建築。顯然，隨著人口流入，佛羅裡達州繼續出現非常好的成長。因此，當然，我們希望 C&I 與以往相比能夠有所回升。我認為，如果我們在今年下半年獲得較低的利率，我們有望看到工商業的一些成長。

But our pipeline today includes some C&I. We're optimistic that we'll grow everything. But we don't -- we've got room -- certainly, we've got room to grow CRE. We've got some room to grow construction as well. We've got room in our bucket. So we feel good about -- we're not having -- we don't feel like we'll have to constrict any one segment during the year, Graham.

但我們今天的管道包括一些 C&I。我們樂觀地認為我們會種植一切。但我們沒有──我們有空間──當然，我們有發展商業不動產的空間。我們還有一些發展空間。我們的桶子裡還有空間。所以我們感覺很好 - 我們沒有 - 我們覺得我們不必在這一年中限制任何一個部分，格雷厄姆。

Okay. That's helpful. And then Bud or Kirk, whoever wants to take this, on expenses, I think you said that there is some -- obviously, there's some one-timers called out in the release and then a higher write-down of the tax credit investment. But I guess just -- and specifically in that accrual that was booked this quarter. So at the end of the day, was that a $1.9 million net benefit to the bottom line? Because in the release, it looked like there was a tax benefit directly tied to that accrual of, what was it, $4.1 million? Is that the right way to think about that, that it was -- at the end of the day, even though it hurt expenses by a little bit, it was actually a $1.9 million benefit to the bottom line?

好的。這很有幫助。然後巴德或柯克，無論誰想接受這個，在費用方面，我想你說過，有一些——顯然，在新聞稿中呼籲了一些一次性者，然後對稅收抵免投資進行了更高的減記。但我想只是 - 特別是在本季度預訂的應計費用中。那麼歸根結底，這是否為淨利潤帶來了 190 萬美元的淨收益？因為在新聞稿中，看起來好像有一項稅收優惠與應計的 410 萬美元直接相關，這是什麼？這是正確的思考方式嗎？

Well, you had $4.1 million in tax credit and the tax expense related to that was $3.3 million. So are you looking it something else from --

那麼，您有 410 萬美元的稅收抵免，與之相關的稅收支出為 330 萬美元。那麼你是否正在尋找其他東西--

No. No, that makes sense. I thought that $2.15 million that was called out in the non-GAAP was probably related to that.

不。不，這是有道理的。我認為非 GAAP 中撥出的 215 萬美元可能與此有關。

Oh, no, that's totally different. Yes, that's privilege tax.

哦，不，那是完全不同的。是的，這就是特權稅。

Okay. Okay. And so -- but the run rate essentially at the end of the day was $44 million, like you said, and mid-single digit from here?

好的。好的。所以 - 但最終的運行率基本上是 4400 萬美元，正如你所說，從這裡開始是中個位數？

Yeah.

是的。

Yeah. All right. That makes sense. And then I guess just the last one for me would be on the margin, specifically just deposit costs. It sounds like the end-of-quarter cost of interest-bearing deposits was actually lower than the average rate if the average was 4.06% in the period, 4.04%. Are you starting to see some actual relief and the cost of deposits move lower on the interest-bearing side? Or is that just more stabilization at this point than anything?

是的。好的。這就說得通了。然後我想對我來說最後一項是在保證金上，特別是存款成本。聽起來季末生息存款成本實際上低於平均利率，如果期內平均利率為 4.06%，即 4.04%。您是否開始看到一些實際的緩解以及生息方面的存款成本下降？或者說這只是目前比其他任何事情都更穩定？

We're working at it, Graham. I guess it takes effort. It doesn't happen without effort on our part, obviously, but we're trying to rationalize the higher cost deposits as we said. So we're trying to reduce -- we're reducing certain deposit rates. We obviously have a -- we're in a good position from a liquidity standpoint. And we need to improve margins. So we're working hard at that.

我們正在努力，格雷厄姆。我想這需要努力。顯然，如果我們不付出努力，這種情況就不會發生，但正如我們所說，我們正在努力合理化較高的存款成本。因此，我們正在努力降低某些存款利率。顯然，從流動性的角度來看，我們處於有利地位。我們需要提高利潤率。所以我們正在努力做到這一點。

None of us are naive enough to think our charge-offs are going to stay at 10 basis points for the rest of my career. There's going to be times they're going to be higher than 10 basis points a year. So we need to have higher margins in order to absorb the loan losses from that as well. So yeah, we've got to improve margins. That's certainly a focus that we have for the whole year. And there's only one way to do it, raise loan rates and lower deposit costs.

我們中沒有人天真地認為我們的沖銷將在我餘下的職業生涯中保持在 10 個基點。有時它們每年會高於 10 個基點。因此，我們需要更高的利潤率才能吸收由此帶來的貸款損失。所以，是的，我們必須提高利潤率。這當然是我們全年的重點。只有一種方法可以做到這一點，那就是提高貸款利率並降低存款成本。

So that's what certainly -- we're not forecasting in our internal budgets any rate cuts or rate increases for that matter. We always forecast flat rates, and I think we're going to have to make it based on what we have. When the cards were dealt, we don't count on getting a reshuffle and getting better cards in the deck.

因此，我們不會在內部預算中預測任何與此相關的降息或升息。我們總是預測統一費率，我認為我們必須根據我們現有的情況來實現這一目標。當發牌時，我們並不指望進行重新洗牌並在牌堆中獲得更好的牌。

Okay.

好的。

So does that answer your question, Graham?

格雷厄姆，這能回答你的問題嗎？

Definitely. Definitely. Okay. That's all from me, guys, and Bud, congratulations and good luck.

確實。確實。好的。這就是我、夥計們和巴德的全部發言，恭喜你，祝你好運。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, Graham.

謝謝，格雷厄姆。

Steve Moss, Raymond James.

史蒂夫·莫斯，雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

Hi. Good afternoon. Maybe just starting off on -- just circling back to loan growth here. The quarter was driven with a tilt towards resi. Just curious, do you expect this will continue here for another quarter or two? Are you looking to maybe -- just trying to get a sense for -- increase your asset sensitivity, just the dynamics there, what kind of product you put on as well?

你好。午安.也許這才剛開始——回到貸款成長的問題。本季的趨勢是向RESI傾斜。只是好奇，您預計這種情況會再持續一兩個季度嗎？您是否希望—只是想了解一下—提高您的資產敏感性，只是那裡的動態，您還推出了什麼樣的產品？

First of all -- yeah. We didn't really have any loan growth in the quarter. And I don't think we've got -- on the residential side, I think we don't have much there, Steve. I don't -- what do you see there that --

首先——是的。本季我們實際上沒有任何貸款成長。我認為我們在住宅方面沒有太多，史蒂夫。我不知道——你在那裡看到了什麼--

I had 6.8% quarter-over-quarter growth for 1-to-4 family.

1 至 4 人家庭的季度較上季成長率為 6.8%。

Yeah. I mean 1-to-4 family was certainly kind of part of the driver of the growth in the third quarter. But that's an anomaly. I mean we're focused on commercial clients. That's where we're going to see our growth is in commercial C&I and commercial -- CRE, that's our bread and butter.

是的。我的意思是，一對四家庭肯定是第三季成長的推動力之一。但這是一個異常情況。我的意思是我們專注於商業客戶。這就是我們將在商業 C&I 和商業 CRE 領域看到我們成長的地方，這是我們的麵包和黃油。

Does that include rent to own -- excuse me -- rent, I mean?

我的意思是，這是否包括先租後買——請問——租金？

No, this is just family, 1-to-4.

不，這只是一家人，1對4。

Okay. It's not -- still not a big -- and the rest of your question, I'm sorry, I'll focus on that, Steve. Give me the second half of the question.

好的。這不是——仍然不是一個大問題——你的其餘問題，我很抱歉，我會集中精力解決這個問題，史蒂夫。請給我問題的後半部。

Sure. Yeah. Just thinking around asset sensitivity, maybe I'll just make it into a more broader question. Obviously, rate cuts should help you guys here. Just curious what you're doing either on the balance sheet to benefit from potential rate cuts and today, where you're positioned, what a move of 25 basis points will do to your margin.

當然。是的。只是考慮資產敏感性，也許我會把它變成一個更廣泛的問題。顯然，降息應該對你們有幫助。只是好奇您在資產負債表上做了什麼，以從潛在的降息中受益，以及今天，您的位置，25 個基點的變動會對您的利潤產生什麼影響。

This is Kirk. We are liability-sensitive, but it is not massively. We're pretty close to neutral at this point, and that's where Tom has always tried to direct this bank. I think we are a lot more neutral than we were or even liability-sensitive compared to where we were a year ago.

這是柯克。我們對責任很敏感，但並不嚴重。在這一點上我們非常接近中立，這也是湯姆一直試圖指導這家銀行的方向。我認為，與一年前相比，我們比以前更中立，甚至對責任更敏感。

So I think at this point, if there was a nominal increase in rates or a decrease in rates as we're talking about, we don't think it's going to have a major, more than like 2%, 3%, and that's at a 1% rate change over a year. So it's pretty nominal. So we're playing the hand that we're dealt right now. We think the repricing story is something that really is going to help us a lot over the next year, and we like what's happening with the securities, too. So we like where we are today.

所以我認為，在這一點上，如果像我們所說的名義上利率上升或下降，我們認為不會出現重大的變化，不會超過 2%、3%，那就是一年內變化率為1% 。所以這是相當名義上的。所以我們正在玩現在所發的牌。我們認為重新定價的故事確實會對我們明年有很大幫助，而且我們也喜歡證券方面發生的事情。所以我們喜歡今天的處境。

Okay. Great. I appreciate all that color. And just one more thing. I apologize if I missed it. On the credit card income, I know there's -- I heard the issue with the vendor you guys mentioned. Just curious how you guys are thinking about the growth for that business in the upcoming year, just how much you could pick up.

好的。偉大的。我很欣賞所有這些顏色。還有一件事。如果我錯過了，我深表歉意。關於信用卡收入，我知道有──我聽說你們提到的供應商有問題。只是好奇你們如何看待該業務在未來一年的成長，以及您能獲得多少收益。

It's Rodney Rushing. Yes, we had a vendor billing where we actually had double expenses for the fourth quarter, which caused the revenue -- I mean, hurt credit card income for the fourth quarter a bit. We also went through a conversion, which I noted during the year. All of that's behind us now.

我是羅德尼·拉什。是的，我們有一個供應商帳單，實際上我們第四季度的費用是雙倍的，這導致了收入——我的意思是，稍微損害了第四季度的信用卡收入。我們也經歷了一次轉變，我在這一年中註意到了這一點。現在所有這些都已成為過去。

Besides our growth with our own commercial customers with fee cards and credit cards, we're adding agent banks. In '23, we added 14 other banks, correspondent banks who are issuing credit card. We share that revenue with them through the American Bankers Association-endorsed program. But through all these new issuers that we're adding, and our pipeline of new banks is stronger for 2024 than it was for '23.

除了我們自己的收費卡和信用卡商業客戶的成長之外，我們還增加了代理銀行。23 年，我們增加了 14 家發行信用卡的其他銀行、代理銀行。我們透過美國銀行家協會認可的計劃與他們分享這些收入。但透過我們新增的所有這些新發行人，到 2024 年我們的新銀行管道將比 2023 年更強。

Okay. Great. Appreciate all the color, guys. And Bud, best of luck on your retirement.

好的。偉大的。欣賞所有的顏色，夥計們。巴德，祝你退休後一切順利。

All right. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Dave Bishop, Hovde Group.

戴夫畢肖普，霍夫德集團。

Yeah. Good evening, gentlemen. I think in the prepared remarks, you said the outlook for -- it will be a balanced approach between loan and deposit growth, I think, for the year. How should we think about the funding of loan growth of high single-digit? Is it going to be purely cat of deposits or is it going to be a combination of runoff from cash and securities? Just curious how we should be thinking about that.

是的。晚上好，先生們。我認為，在準備好的發言中，您談到了今年的前景——我認為，這將是貸款和存款成長之間的平衡方法。我們該如何看待高個位數貸款成長的資金來源？它是純粹的存款還是現金和證券的組合？只是好奇我們該如何思考這個問題。

It's going to be deposits. We're trying to be balanced this year on dollars, so a little bit different, obviously, in percentage, but we're trying to be balanced on dollars.

這將是存款。今年我們試圖在美元上保持平衡，所以顯然在百分比上有點不同，但我們正在努力在美元上保持平衡。

Kirk, remind me the cash flow from the securities portfolio, what you're expecting this year.

柯克，提醒我證券投資組合的現金流，你今年的預期是什麼。

About $2 billion.

大約20億美元。

$2 billion? Okay.

2 美元十億？好的。

On loans. Sorry, loans.

關於貸款。對不起，貸款。

And the securities?

那麼證券呢？

It's about $7 million a month in paydowns.

每月的還款額約為 700 萬美元。

$7 million, okay.

700萬美元，好吧。

And another $350 million or so in maturities.

還有大約 3.5 億美元的到期資金。

Got it. And originations this quarter, I missed it during the preamble. What was the new origination yields on loans?

知道了。本季度的起源，我在序言中錯過了它。新的貸款發行收益率是多少？

Origination rate was 8.34% for the quarter.

本季的發起率為 8.34%。

Got it. And then more of a housekeeping item. I know there's a lot of noise in the tax number this quarter. Just curious what we should model for a good tax rate moving forward.

知道了。然後更多的是家務用品。我知道本季的稅收數據有很多噪音。只是好奇我們應該為未來的良好稅率建立什麼樣的模式。

About 17.5%.

約17.5%。

Perfect. And then, Tom, you mentioned the new hire in Memphis, obviously, a good start there. Just curious if you sort of have some numbers in the mine, how big do you think that market could go to either on the loan deposit side or both?

完美的。然後，湯姆，你提到了孟菲斯的新員工，顯然，這是一個好的開始。只是好奇，如果您有一些礦井數據，您認為貸款存款方面或兩者的市場可能有多大？

We don't really go into any market if we don't think we can achieve $300 million minimum in a three-year period of time in loans and deposits. So this would certainly fit in that as well. And these are Joel's team. They're going to be relationship bankers.

如果我們認為在三年內貸款和存款不能達到最低 3 億美元，我們就不會真正進入任何市場。所以這也肯定適合這一點。這些都是喬爾的團隊。他們將成為關係銀行家。

They're not going to be transactional bankers, and that's what we prefer to build on this is relationship bankers there. So we've already -- our bankers are coming from a number of different banks. So we get a little cross-pollination there of people. So we're optimistic that we can be successful in Memphis.

他們不會成為交易銀行家，而我們更願意在此基礎上建立關係銀行家。所以我們已經——我們的銀行家來自許多不同的銀行。所以我們在那裡得到了一些人的異花授粉。因此，我們對能夠在孟菲斯取得成功感到樂觀。

Got it. Thanks. And yeah, Bud, congratulations on your retirement.

知道了。謝謝。是的，巴德，恭喜你退休。

All right. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Thank you, Dave. Thank you, everybody, for listening on the call. I don't think you have any other questions but appreciate everybody for tuning in today. Have a great evening.

謝謝你，戴夫。謝謝大家收聽電話會議。我認為您沒有其他問題，但感謝大家今天的收聽。祝您有個美好的夜晚。

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。