(SI) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to today's Silvergate Capital Operation Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Bailey, and I'll be the operator for today's call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to pass the conference to our host, Hans Stenback, SilverGate Capital Investor Relations. Please go ahead

您好，歡迎來到今天的 Silvergate Capital Operation 2022 年第四季度收益電話會議。我叫 Bailey，我是今天電話的接線員。 （操作員說明）我現在想將會議轉交給我們的主持人 Hans Stenback，SilverGate Capital 投資者關係部。請繼續

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your participation in the Silvergate Capital Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. With me here today are Alan Lane, our Chief Executive Officer; Antonio Martino, our Chief Financial Officer; and Ben Reynolds, our President. As a reminder, a telephonic replay of this call will be available through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on January 31, 2023. Access to the replay is also available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Additionally, the slide deck to complement today's discussion is available on the IR section of our website. Before we begin, let me [audio jumps] on that this call may contain certain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

謝謝接線員，大家早上好。感謝您參與 Silvergate Capital Corporation 的 2022 年第四季度財報電話會議。今天和我在一起的是我們的首席執行官 Alan Lane；我們的首席財務官 Antonio Martino；和我們的總裁本·雷諾茲 (Ben Reynolds)。提醒一下，該電話的電話重播將在美國東部時間晚上 11:59 之前提供。東部時間 2023 年 1 月 31 日。也可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分訪問重播。此外，我們網站的 IR 部分還提供了補充今天討論的幻燈片。在我們開始之前，讓我 [音頻跳轉] 本次電話會議可能包含構成 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述的某些陳述。

These include remarks about management's future expectations, beliefs, estimates, plans and prospects. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by such statements. Such risks and other factors are set forth in our periodic and current reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any duty to update such forward-looking statements. Now I would like to turn the call over to Alan.

這些包括關於管理層未來預期、信念、估計、計劃和前景的評論。此類陳述受各種風險、不確定性和其他因素的影響，包括 COVID-19 大流行，可能導致實際結果與此類陳述所指示或暗示的結果存在重大差異。我們向證券交易委員會提交的定期和當前報告中列出了此類風險和其他因素。我們不承擔任何更新此類前瞻性陳述的義務。現在我想把電話轉給艾倫。

Thank you, Hunter, and good morning, everyone. As many of you know, we provided select preliminary and unaudited fourth quarter financial metrics on January 1. Before I dive into our full report, I want to provide a recap of what happened in the digital asset industry in recent months and its impact on Silvergate. Significant over leverage in the industry has led to several profile bankruptcies and sparked a crisis of confidence and lack of trust across the entire digital asset ecosystem. As a result, many industry participants have shifted to a risk-off position across digital asset trading platforms. To that end, we saw a modest decline in Silvergate's digital asset customers in the fourth quarter, a trend that we expect to continue in 2023 as the digital asset industry undergoes further transformation. In turn, total deposits from digital asset customers declined to $3.8 billion December 31, 2022, compared to $11.9 billion at September 30, 2018.

謝謝你，亨特，大家早上好。正如你們許多人所知，我們在 1 月 1 日提供了未經審計的初步第四季度財務指標。在我深入研究我們的完整報告之前，我想回顧一下最近幾個月數字資產行業發生的事情及其對 Silvergate 的影響.該行業的過度槓桿化已導致數家公司破產，並在整個數字資產生態系統中引發了信任危機和信任缺失。因此，許多行業參與者已經轉向跨數字資產交易平台的避險頭寸。為此，我們看到 Silvergate 的數字資產客戶在第四季度略有下降，隨著數字資產行業進一步轉型，我們預計這一趨勢將在 2023 年繼續。反過來，數字資產客戶的總存款從 2018 年 9 月 30 日的 119 億美元下降到 2022 年 12 月 31 日的 38 億美元。

Average deposits were $7.3 billion, with a high of $11.9 billion and a low of $4.5 billion during the fourth quarter. As of December 31, 2022, approximately $150 million of Silvergate deposits were from customers that had filed for bankruptcy. In order to satisfy these deposit outflows, we took commensurate steps to ensure that we were maintaining cash liquidity in excess of digital asset-related deposits. We initially utilized wholesale funding to satisfy outflows. And subsequently, we sold debt securities to accommodate sustained lower deposit levels and maintain our highly liquid balance sheet. Importantly, we currently maintain a cash position in excess of our digital asset-related deposits. And customers know they can access 100% of their deposits.

平均存款為 73 億美元，第四季度最高為 119 億美元，最低為 45 億美元。截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，大約 1.5 億美元的 Silvergate 存款來自已申請破產的客戶。為了滿足這些存款外流，我們採取了相應的措施來確保我們維持的現金流動性超過與數字資產相關的存款。我們最初利用批發資金來滿足資金流出。隨後，我們出售了債務證券以適應持續較低的存款水平並維持我們高度流動的資產負債表。重要的是，我們目前的現金頭寸超過了與數字資產相關的存款。客戶知道他們可以獲得 100% 的存款。

Antonio will provide more color on the security sales and balance sheet management strategy in a few minutes. Turning to our core offering, the Silvergate Exchange Network, or sin, -- despite the significant decline in deposits, transfer volume on the sin was $117 billion, an increase of 4% on a sequential basis, demonstrating that our platform continues to serve as critical market infrastructure for the digital asset industry. The sin has operated uninterrupted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Turning to sin leverage. Total approved commitments declined 23% to $1.1 billion compared to $1.5 billion at the end of the third quarter.

安東尼奧將在幾分鐘內提供有關證券銷售和資產負債表管理策略的更多信息。轉向我們的核心產品 Silvergate Exchange Network，或 sin，儘管存款大幅下降，但 sin 的轉賬量為 1170 億美元，環比增長 4%，表明我們的平台繼續作為數字資產行業的關鍵市場基礎設施。罪惡每週 7 天、每天 24 小時不間斷地運作。轉向罪惡槓桿。與第三季度末的 15 億美元相比，批准的承諾總額下降 23% 至 11 億美元。

In addition, we experienced a range of outstanding sin leverage balances during the quarter between $282 million and $377 million, with an average outstanding balance of $328 million. All of our sin leverage loans continued to perform as expected, with no loss of force liquidation. Looking ahead, we expect to maintain existing utilization for sin leverage in 2023 and expect commitments to shrink to approximately $400 million by the end of the second quarter of 2023.

此外，我們在本季度經歷了 2.82 億美元至 3.77 億美元的一系列未償罪惡槓桿餘額，平均未償餘額為 3.28 億美元。我們所有的罪惡槓桿貸款繼續按預期表現，沒有強制清算損失。展望未來，我們預計到 2023 年將維持現有的罪惡槓桿利用率，並預計到 2023 年第二季度末承諾將縮減至約 4 億美元。

As we discussed on our business update call, we are taking several decisive actions to ensure our business remains resilient during the sustained period of lower deposit levels. To that end, we are in the process of evaluating our product portfolio and customer relationships with a focus on profitability. As it relates to our customer base, after a thorough analysis, we have made the difficult but deliberate decision to offboard certain noncore customers in the coming weeks. Importantly, we are prioritizing and remain committed to our core customers who routinely transact on the fan. While our evaluation is still being conducted, we believe the impact of these customer exits will not exceed 10% of our digital asset-related deposits.

正如我們在業務更新電話會議上討論的那樣，我們正在採取幾項果斷行動，以確保我們的業務在存款水平持續下降的時期保持彈性。為此，我們正在評估我們的產品組合和客戶關係，重點是盈利能力。由於它與我們的客戶群有關，經過全面分析後，我們做出了艱難但深思熟慮的決定，在未來幾週內退出某些非核心客戶。重要的是，我們正在優先考慮並繼續致力於我們經常在風扇上進行交易的核心客戶。雖然我們的評估仍在進行中，但我們認為這些客戶退出的影響不會超過我們數字資產相關存款的 10%。

We will also be eliminating certain products that have become too costly or complex. We have concluded that products such as digital asset custody and certain cash management services, which are used by a minority of our customers and requires significant resources to operate can no longer be offered profitably. While we remain focused on providing innovative solutions, reducing our product portfolio will allow us to better serve our core institutional digital asset customers. Moving forward, our product offering consists of our most value-added solutions and reflect what we do best with solutions like the CIN, wires via our proprietary API and deposit accounts.

我們還將淘汰某些變得過於昂貴或複雜的產品。我們得出的結論是，數字資產託管和某些現金管理服務等產品由我們的少數客戶使用，並且需要大量資源才能運營，因此無法再提供盈利能力。雖然我們仍然專注於提供創新解決方案，但減少我們的產品組合將使我們能夠更好地服務我們的核心機構數字資產客戶。展望未來，我們的產品包括我們最具附加值的解決方案，並反映出我們最擅長的解決方案，例如 CIN、通過我們專有的 API 電彙和存款賬戶。

In addition, we made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by approximately 200 people or 40%. We estimate aggregate costs associated with the reduction in force of approximately $8 million, primarily consisting of severance payments, employee benefits and related costs. We expect to incur the majority of these charges in the first quarter of 2023. Taken together, we believe that focusing on providing a streamlined offering through our core customers and managing expenses will help Silvergate return to profitability in the second half of 2023.

此外，我們做出了裁員約 200 人或 40% 的艱難決定。我們估計與裁員相關的總成本約為 800 萬美元，主要包括遣散費、員工福利和相關成本。我們預計這些費用中的大部分將在 2023 年第一季度產生。總而言之，我們認為專注於通過我們的核心客戶提供簡化的產品和管理費用將有助於 Silvergate 在 2023 年下半年恢復盈利。

While we are narrowing our focus, I want to emphasize that Silvergate's mission has not changed. I recognize that we've made some difficult decisions recently, but we are confident that these changes will enable us to serve our core customers in a responsible and profitable manner. We are committed to maintaining a highly liquid balance sheet with minimal credit exposure and a strong capital position, ensuring maximum flexibility for our customers. We continue to believe in the digital asset industry and stand ready to support our customers. I'll now turn the call over to Tony to review our financial results in more detail before we take your questions. Tony?

在我們縮小關注範圍的同時，我想強調 Silvergate 的使命沒有改變。我認識到我們最近做出了一些艱難的決定，但我們相信這些變化將使我們能夠以負責任和有利可圖的方式為我們的核心客戶提供服務。我們致力於以最小的信用風險和強大的資本狀況維持高度流動的資產負債表，確保為我們的客戶提供最大的靈活性。我們繼續相信數字資產行業，並隨時準備為我們的客戶提供支持。在我們回答您的問題之前，我現在將電話轉給托尼以更詳細地審查我們的財務結果。托尼？

Thank you, Alan, and good morning, everyone. Starting on Slide 3 with our key financial results. Silvergate reported a net loss attributable to Common shareholders of $1 billion or a loss of $33.16 per common share. Excluding securities and derivatives, impairment charges and restructuring charges, adjusted net income available to common shareholders was $15.1 million or $0.48 per adjusted diluted share. Tier 1 leverage ratio was 5.36% based on average assets of approximately $15 billion and continues to exceed the well-capitalized standards as defined by federal banking regulations. We expect our Tier 1 leverage ratio to improve over time as we reduce wholesale funding and the result in size of our balance sheet.

謝謝你，艾倫，大家早上好。從幻燈片 3 開始我們的主要財務結果。 Silvergate 報告歸屬於普通股股東的淨虧損為 10 億美元，即每股普通股虧損 33.16 美元。不包括證券和衍生品、減值費用和重組費用，可供普通股股東使用的調整後淨收入為 1510 萬美元，或調整後攤薄每股收益 0.48 美元。基於約 150 億美元的平均資產，一級槓桿率為 5.36%，並繼續超過聯邦銀行法規定義的資本充足標準。隨著我們減少批發融資和資產負債表規模的結果，我們預計我們的一級槓桿率會隨著時間的推移而提高。

In addition, book value per common share was $12.93. -- moving on to Slide 5. As we disclosed earlier this month, total deposits from digital asset customers declined to $3.8 billion during the quarter compared to $11.9 billion in the third quarter and $14.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021. Average digital asset customer deposits were $7.3 billion in the quarter, down 40% compared to last quarter. As a result of the crisis of confidence the industry experienced, we saw higher volatility in our deposit base as the range of deposits during the quarter win within a high of $11.9 million to a low of $3.5 billion. Our weighted average cost of deposits for the quarter increased to 77 basis points compared to 16 basis points during the third quarter.

此外，每股普通股賬面價值為 12.93 美元。 -- 轉到幻燈片 5。正如我們本月早些時候披露的那樣，本季度數字資產客戶的總存款下降至 38 億美元，而 2021 年第三季度為 119 億美元，第四季度為 141 億美元。平均數字資產客戶本季度存款為 73 億美元，比上一季度下降 40%。由於該行業經歷了信任危機，我們發現存款基礎的波動性更大，因為本季度的存款範圍在 1190 萬美元的高位和 35 億美元的低位之間。我們本季度的加權平均存款成本從第三季度的 16 個基點上升至 77 個基點。

As Alan mentioned, we initially utilized wholesale funding to satisfy outflows. The annualized cost of digital asset deposits remained at 0, reflecting our low-cost digital asset deposit strategy. As we have said before, deposits with Silvergate have been and continue to be safely held. At the end of the fourth quarter, we held total cash and cash equivalents of $4.6 billion, which is in excess of deposits from digital asset customers. Our business is designed to accommodate deposit inflows and outflows under a range of market conditions. Turning to Slide 6. Net interest income was $53.7 million in the fourth quarter, a decrease of $27.2 million compared to the third quarter and an increase of $15.5 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Net interest margin was 1.54% for the fourth quarter compared to 2.1% in the third quarter and 1.11% in the fourth quarter of last year. As we outlined in our business update earlier this month, we sold debt securities for cash proceeds in order to accommodate sustained lower deposit levels and maintain our highly liquid balance sheet. We sold $5.2 billion of debt securities during the quarter, resulting in a loss on the sale of securities of $751.4 million.

正如艾倫所提到的，我們最初利用批發資金來滿足資金外流。數字資產存款年化成本保持為0，體現了我們的低成本數字資產存款策略。正如我們之前所說，Silvergate 的存款一直並將繼續安全持有。截至第四季度末，我們持有的現金和現金等價物總額為 46 億美元，超過了數字資產客戶的存款。我們的業務旨在適應各種市場條件下的存款流入和流出。轉到幻燈片 6. 第四季度淨利息收入為 5370 萬美元，與第三季度相比減少 2720 萬美元，與 2021 年第四季度相比增加 1550 萬美元。第四季度淨利息收益率為 1.54%相比之下，第三季度為 2.1%，去年第四季度為 1.11%。正如我們在本月早些時候的業務更新中概述的那樣，我們出售債務證券以獲得現金收益，以適應持續較低的存款水平並維持我們的高流動性資產負債表。我們在本季度出售了 52 億美元的債務證券，導致證券出售損失 7.514 億美元。

This sale included available-for-sale securities as well as certain securities that were previously identified as held to maturity. Our securities portfolio had an average outstanding balance of $9.8 billion with a corresponding yield of 2.61% for the fourth quarter, down from an average balance of $11.8 billion at the end of the third quarter with its corresponding yield of 2.09%. As of quarter end, our securities portfolio had a balance of $5.7 billion. As part of our risk management strategy, we hedged approximately 35% of our interest-earning assets to protect against downside interest rate risk. Looking ahead, we expect to sell a portion of these securities, estimated to be $1.7 billion in early 2023 to reduce wholesale borrowings, which resulted in the recognition of impairment charge of $134.5 million in the fourth quarter related to the unrealized loss on those securities expected to be sold.

此次出售包括可供出售的證券以及之前被確定為持有至到期的某些證券。第四季度，我們的證券投資組合的平均未償餘額為 98 億美元，相應收益率為 2.61%，低於第三季度末 118 億美元的平均餘額和 2.09% 的相應收益率。截至季度末，我們的證券投資組合餘額為 57 億美元。作為我們風險管理策略的一部分，我們對大約 35% 的生息資產進行了對沖，以防範下行利率風險。展望未來，我們預計將在 2023 年初出售這些證券的一部分，估計為 17 億美元，以減少批發借款，這導致在第四季度確認與這些證券預期的未實現損失相關的減值費用 1.345 億美元被出售。

Subsequent to the end of the year, we sold approximately $1.5 billion of securities. And as always, we will continue to evaluate our balance sheet and liquidity management needs, which will depend on deposit flows and customer behavior. Turning to Slide 7. Noninterest loss for the fourth quarter of 2022 was $887.3 million, compared to noninterest income of $8.5 million in the prior quarter and $11.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Losses on securities were $885.8 million and losses on derivatives were $8.7 million, resulting from the sale of debt securities and related derivatives and impairment charge during the quarter. Excluding these losses on securities derivatives, adjusted noninterest income for the quarter was $7.2 million. As a result of the strategic actions Alan outlined earlier, we expect quarterly net interest income and fee income in 2023 to trend lower than adjusted fourth quarter 2022 levels.

年底之後，我們出售了大約 15 億美元的證券。一如既往，我們將繼續評估我們的資產負債表和流動性管理需求，這將取決於存款流量和客戶行為。轉到幻燈片 7。2022 年第四季度的非利息損失為 8.873 億美元，而上一季度的非利息收入為 850 萬美元，2021 年第四季度的非利息收入為 1110 萬美元。證券損失為 8.858 億美元，衍生品損失為 8.7 美元百萬，來自本季度出售債務證券和相關衍生品以及減值費用。排除證券衍生品的這些損失，本季度調整後的非利息收入為 720 萬美元。由於艾倫之前概述的戰略行動，我們預計 2023 年的季度淨利息收入和費用收入將低於調整後的 2022 年第四季度水平。

Slide 8 shows noninterest expense for the quarter of $238.5 million compared to $33.2 million in the prior quarter and $25.7 million in the same quarter of last year. The increase sequentially and year-over-year primarily resulted from $196.2 million impairment charge on developed technology assets we acquired earlier in the year as well as increases in salaries and employee benefits attributable to a $3.7 million restructuring charge related to exiting the mortgage lending product during the fourth quarter of 2022. -- excluding the impairment on intangible assets and restructuring charges, adjusted noninterest expense for the quarter was $38.6 million.

幻燈片 8 顯示本季度非利息支出為 2.385 億美元，上一季度為 3320 萬美元，去年同期為 2570 萬美元。環比和同比增長主要是由於我們在今年早些時候收購的已開發技術資產的減值費用為 1.962 億美元，以及與期間退出抵押貸款產品相關的 370 萬美元重組費用導致的薪金和員工福利增加2022 年第四季度。——不計無形資產減值和重組費用，本季度調整後的非利息費用為 3860 萬美元。

As Alan discussed earlier this month, we announced the reduction in force of approximately 200 employees or 40% in order to account for the economic realities facing the business and industry today. We estimate the aggregate costs associated with the reduction in force of approximately $8.1 million, primarily consisting of severance payments, employee benefits and related costs and expect to incur the majority of these charges in the first quarter. Cost savings associated with the reduction in force are expected to be $7 million to $8 million per quarter. Our expense base in the first half of the year will continue to be assessed as we evaluate individual vendor contracts and other costs as a result of the strategic actions that Alan mentioned. We expect expenses in the second half of the year to be lower compared to the first half of the year.

正如艾倫本月早些時候所討論的那樣，我們宣布裁員約 200 名員工或裁員 40%，以應對當今企業和行業面臨的經濟現實。我們估計與裁員相關的總成本約為 810 萬美元，主要包括遣散費、員工福利和相關成本，並預計將在第一季度產生這些費用的大部分。預計每季度與裁員相關的成本節省為 700 萬至 800 萬美元。由於艾倫提到的戰略行動，我們將繼續評估上半年的費用基礎，因為我們評估了個別供應商合同和其他成本。我們預計下半年的支出將低於上半年。

We recognized a tax benefit of $24.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2022, reflecting an effective tax recovery rate of 2.3% compared to an expense of $13.5 million for the third quarter of 2022 with a corresponding effective tax rate of 23.7%. The income tax benefit recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022 was driven by the loss recognized during the quarter and the resulting reversal of prior period income tax expense incurred during the first 3 quarters of the year. partially offset by a charge from the transition to 100% valuation allowance on deferred tax assets. As a result of losses incurred during the quarter, we have established a deferred tax asset balance of $342 million and applied 100% valuation allowance against this asset. The deferred tax asset balance associated with net operating losses will carry forward indefinitely and can be utilized against 80% of future taxable income.

我們確認 2022 年第四季度的稅收優惠為 2430 萬美元，反映有效稅收回收率為 2.3%，而 2022 年第三季度的支出為 1350 萬美元，相應的有效稅率為 23.7%。 2022 年第四季度記錄的所得稅收益是由本季度確認的虧損以及由此產生的今年前 3 季度發生的前期所得稅費用轉回所驅動的。部分被遞延稅資產過渡到 100% 估值備抵的費用所抵消。由於本季度出現虧損，我們建立了 3.42 億美元的遞延稅資產餘額，並對該資產應用了 100% 的估值準備金。與淨經營虧損相關的遞延所得稅資產餘額將無限期結轉，並可用於抵扣未來應納稅所得額的 80%。

While this was a tough quarter in light of significant challenges in the broader digital offset industry and difficult decisions we had to make as a company, we remain committed to serving our core customers. We look forward to providing further updates on our business throughout 2023. With that, I would like to ask the operator to open up the line for any questions. Operator?

儘管鑑於更廣泛的數字膠印行業面臨的重大挑戰以及我們作為一家公司必須做出的艱難決定，這是一個艱難的季度，但我們仍然致力於為我們的核心客戶提供服務。我們期待在整個 2023 年提供有關我們業務的進一步更新。因此，我想請接線員開通任何問題的線路。操作員？

[Operator Instructions]

[操作說明]

Our first question today comes from the line of Michael Perito from KBW.

我們今天的第一個問題來自 KBW 的 Michael Perito。

I have a few things I want to get to, but I'll let some of my colleagues ask on the others. The one I wanted to start on was kind of your comment about deposit flows and customer behavior, driving decisions around selling securities. And I'm just -- I guess I'm curious what the recent update is on both. I mean, it seems like you sold some, but not all of the securities that you earmarked for sale when you prereleased earlier this month. And I'm just curious if there's any update to deposit flows and customer behavior that you're willing to provide at this point.

我有幾件事想做，但我會讓我的一些同事問問其他人。我想開始的是你對存款流量和客戶行為的評論，推動了關於出售證券的決定。而且我只是 - 我想我很好奇兩者最近的更新是什麼。我的意思是，你似乎賣出了一些，但不是所有你在本月早些時候預發行時指定要出售的證券。我很好奇您此時是否願意提供有關存款流量和客戶行為的任何更新。

Yes. I'll touch on the deposit question and turn it over to Tony for the securities question. So on the deposit question, Mike, we are not -- we're going to stick with our standard approach here, which is to not provide any guidance whatsoever. -- as, I think, abundantly clear in the fourth quarter, any guidance in this initiative is speculation. And in similar fashion, reporting on deposit movements in a 2-week period is not indicative of what we might expect for the entire quarter. And so we don't want to provide any update at this point that would cause people to think that deposits are going to be surging higher or that they're going to be lower. The CIN continues to operate 24/7. We continue to maintain cash on balance sheet in excess of all of our deposits in this initiative. So our customers know that they can access their deposits 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

是的。我會談談存款問題，然後將其交給 Tony 來解決證券問題。因此，關於存款問題，邁克，我們不會——我們將在這裡堅持我們的標準方法，即不提供任何指導。 ——正如我認為的那樣，在第四季度非常清楚，這一倡議中的任何指導都是猜測。以類似的方式，報告兩週內的存款變動並不代表我們對整個季度的預期。因此，我們此時不想提供任何更新，以免人們認為存款會飆升或下降。 CIN 繼續 24/7 全天候運營。我們繼續保持資產負債表上的現金超過我們在該計劃中的所有存款。因此，我們的客戶知道他們可以每週 7 天、每天 24 小時訪問他們的存款。

They -- if they bring additional deposits on as some customers have, we're going to continue to hold those in cash on our balance sheet. And if customers choose to withdraw as some have, they know that they can have 24/7 -- well, they can have access to move those 24/7 over the CIN or they can withdraw them be a wire transfer during normal banking hours. And we stand ready, willing and able to assist our customers with their liquidity needs, which is the primary function that Silvergate has provided to this ecosystem since we got into this business 9 years ago. And so with that, Tony, would you like to touch on the security sales?

他們 - 如果他們像一些客戶那樣帶來額外的存款，我們將繼續在我們的資產負債表上持有現金。如果客戶選擇像某些人那樣取款，他們知道他們可以全天候 24/7——好吧，他們可以通過 CIN 將這些 24/7 移動，或者他們可以在正常銀行營業時間內通過電匯取款。我們隨時準備好、願意並且能夠幫助我們的客戶滿足他們的流動性需求，這是自我們 9 年前進入該業務以來 Silvergate 為這個生態系統提供的主要功能。那麼，托尼，你想談談安全銷售嗎？

Yes, sure. Thanks, Alan. -- as we disclosed, we anticipated selling approximately $1.6 billion of securities and had recorded an impairment charge that sale, which is part of the loss. And we're -- as Alan said, we're only 2 weeks into the year, but we did execute on that plan. We've sold $1.5 billion of the $1.6 billion that we have earmarked. And so that's transpired in the first 2 weeks of the year. And beyond that, as Alan said, it's early, it's too early in the quarter to guide further. But as we said, we have earmarked those securities for sale. The purpose was primarily to reduce borrowings, and that's what we've done as a point in time.

是的，當然。謝謝，艾倫。 -- 正如我們所披露的那樣，我們預計將出售約 16 億美元的證券，並記錄了此次出售的減值費用，這是損失的一部分。我們 - 正如艾倫所說，我們今年只有 2 週，但我們確實執行了該計劃。我們已經出售了我們指定的 16 億美元中的 15 億美元。所以這是在今年的前兩週發生的。除此之外，正如艾倫所說，現在還為時過早，在本季度進一步指導還為時過早。但正如我們所說，我們已指定出售這些證券。目的主要是減少借款，這就是我們在某個時間點所做的。

Got it. Helpful. And then just for my second question, I appreciate all the commentary, Alan, around how you're kind of refocusing the business and trying to rightsize the OpEx side for the new kind of lower deposit level. I'm just curious though, the kind of focusing and removing some functionality that's more expensive in noncore is the element. But then the other element, right, is making sure you're getting paid for what you're providing appropriately. And I'm just curious, when you think about the CIN when you think about CIN leverage, when you think about everything that you still are conducting, how are you thinking about the ROI on those products as I think maybe some of the risk factors around just taking deposits seem a little bit more amplified in this business than a typical commercial deposit. Just curious what your updated thought processes are there.

知道了。有幫助。然後關於我的第二個問題，我感謝所有評論，艾倫，圍繞你如何重新調整業務重點並試圖調整 OpEx 方面的規模以適應新的較低存款水平。不過，我只是好奇，關注和刪除一些在非核心中更昂貴的功能才是元素。但是另一個因素，對，是確保您因提供適當的服務而獲得報酬。我很好奇，當你想到 CIN 時，當你想到 CIN 槓桿時，當你想到你仍在進行的一切時，你如何看待這些產品的投資回報率，因為我認為可能是一些風險因素與典型的商業存款相比，在這項業務中，僅僅接受存款似乎有點被放大了。只是好奇你更新的思維過程是什麼。

Yes. Mike, I appreciate that question. And I'll ask Ben to address it.

是的。邁克，我很欣賞這個問題。我會請Ben 解決這個問題。

Yes. So as Alan mentioned in his prepared comments, some of the products that we offer today have just become too costly or complex to continue offering. So as with any (inaudible) business, you make assumptions about customer adoption of new products and when they don't scale the way that you anticipated, sometimes it's -- you need to make course corrections. So digital asset custody is an example of that for us. It's a very competitive space and difficult to differentiate yourself. -- kind of switching gears to the cash management solutions that we mentioned. We don't want to provide more details at this time related to that because we want to make sure that we notify some of our strategic partners and customers first. But what I can tell you is fee income is going to be lower in 2023. But when you peel back the onion, you note that the margins of some of the products that were not -- that we would need to continue to invest in we just won't continue to do that.

是的。因此，正如艾倫在他準備好的評論中提到的那樣，我們今天提供的一些產品已經變得太昂貴或太複雜而無法繼續提供。因此，與任何（聽不清）業務一樣，您對客戶採用新產品做出假設，並且當它們沒有按照您預期的方式擴展時，有時是——您需要進行路線修正。所以數字資產託管就是我們的一個例子。這是一個競爭非常激烈的領域，很難讓自己脫穎而出。 - 一種轉向我們提到的現金管理解決方案的方式。我們此時不想提供更多與此相關的細節，因為我們想確保我們首先通知我們的一些戰略合作夥伴和客戶。但我可以告訴你的是，2023 年的費用收入將會降低。但是當你剝開洋蔥時，你會注意到一些產品的利潤率不是——我們需要繼續投資於我們只是不會繼續這樣做。

And so we do expect a boost to profitability by discontinuing those products despite an overall decline in fee income in the next several quarters. The other thing, Mike, that's worth mentioning on this topic is that as we do offer the CIN and wires and other products that are critical to our core customer base. We do expect those products to generate significant fee income, but that is difficult to predict as it's often dependent on market conditions. So sort of everything on the table in terms of how to monetize the platform. But I'd say more work is probably needed in order to say exactly how we're going to do that beyond the way we do today, which is through deposits. Thanks for the question.

因此，儘管未來幾個季度的費用收入總體下降，但我們確實希望通過停止這些產品來提高盈利能力。另一件事，邁克，在這個話題上值得一提的是，我們確實提供對我們的核心客戶群至關重要的 CIN 和電線以及其他產品。我們確實預計這些產品會產生可觀的費用收入，但這很難預測，因為它通常取決於市場條件。因此，就如何通過平台獲利而言，對桌面上的所有內容進行排序。但我想說，可能需要做更多的工作才能準確說明我們將如何超越我們今天所做的方式，即通過存款來做到這一點。謝謝你的問題。

The next question today comes from the line of Joseph Vafi from Canaccord.

今天的下一個問題來自 Canaccord 的 Joseph Vafi。

Thanks for the extra color here in your report. I just wanted to circle back maybe to some of your comments you made a couple of weeks ago on the prerelease. And I know you're not providing guidance, but kind of a broad rule of thumb is to continue -- a couple of weeks ago, you said to look at where Silvergate's deposit base was perhaps 6 or 8 quarters ago and kind of extrapolate out interest income today based on that same level of deposits then. Just wanted to make sure you think that, that kind of rule of thumb still makes sense. And then I have a follow-up.

感謝您在報告中添加額外的顏色。我只是想回顧一下你幾週前在預發布上發表的一些評論。而且我知道你沒有提供指導，但一種廣泛的經驗法則是繼續 - 幾週前，你說看看 Silvergate 的存款基礎可能在 6 或 8 個季度前的位置，然後推斷出今天的利息收入基於當時相同的存款水平。只是想確保您認為那種經驗法則仍然有意義。然後我有一個後續行動。

Yes, Joe, I really appreciate you asking for that clarity because I don't -- that's not what I meant when I was referring back to, as you said, 6 or 8 quarters ago, I wasn't at all focused on like the interest income, the net interest income side of things. It was more reflective -- or my comments a couple of weeks ago in this regard were more reflective of the fact that it was only a little over 2 years ago that we were essentially this size in terms of deposits. And therefore, we have a pretty good idea as to what staffing level will be required in order to support this adjusted size and also kind of embedded in that observation and tying this back to some of the comments that Ben was just making.

是的，喬，我真的很感謝你要求澄清，因為我沒有——這不是我提到的意思，就像你說的那樣，6 或 8 個季度前，我根本沒有專注於像利息收入，淨利息收入方面的事情。它更具反思性——或者我幾週前在這方面的評論更多地反映了這樣一個事實，即就存款而言，僅僅在兩年多以前，我們基本上就是這種規模。因此，我們非常清楚需要什麼樣的人員配備水平來支持這種調整後的規模，並且也有點嵌入該觀察並將其與 Ben 剛剛發表的一些評論聯繫起來。

It's also reflective of the fact that we expect to have fewer customers and also a streamlined product set, which are all very similar to kind of where we were a couple of years ago. And so my comment that a couple of weeks ago, were really meant to just share with you all that we've been here before in terms of running a profitable company in that it has fewer customers and lower deposits, but that still serves this ecosystem with the critical infrastructure that we provide. As to the interest rate environment, we're in a very different interest rate environment today versus where we were back then. You may recall that interest rates essentially went to 0 shortly after that like kind of 8 quarters ago when the pandemic hit. And during most of our growth throughout 2020 and 2021, and we were in a 0 interest rate environment with the 3-month treasury yielding less than 10 basis points. And so today, we're in a much different interest rate environment. And so we're not at this -- we never try to predict interest rates. We just try to understand how different interest rate environment might impact our business. And we're certainly going through that same analysis today with a lower balance sheet but a higher interest rate environment.

這也反映了這樣一個事實，即我們希望擁有更少的客戶和精簡的產品集，這些都與幾年前的情況非常相似。因此，我幾週前的評論實際上只是想與大家分享我們之前在經營一家盈利公司方面的所有情況，因為它的客戶和存款較少，但仍然為這個生態系統服務與我們提供的關鍵基礎設施。至於利率環境，我們今天所處的利率環境與當時截然不同。你可能還記得，在那之後不久，利率基本上降到了 0，就像 8 個季度前大流行病襲來時一樣。在我們 2020 年和 2021 年的大部分增長期間，我們處於零利率環境中，3 個月的國債收益率不到 10 個基點。所以今天，我們處於一個截然不同的利率環境中。所以我們不在這裡——我們從不試圖預測利率。我們只是試圖了解不同的利率環境如何影響我們的業務。我們今天肯定會在資產負債表較低但利率較高的環境下進行同樣的分析。

Sure. And then maybe a follow-up. I mean obviously, you're maintaining a super liquid balance sheet right now with cash in excess of deposits, which is not something historically that you've done. Is there -- can you provide maybe some guidepost for us on to when that -- the balance sheet kind of may normalize over time here relative to maybe shrinking down that overly liquid balance sheet and cash in excess of deposits (inaudible).

當然。然後也許是後續行動。我的意思是，很明顯，你現在用超過存款的現金維持著一個超級流動的資產負債表，這在歷史上不是你做過的。有沒有——你能為我們提供一些指導嗎——資產負債表可能會隨著時間的推移而正常化，相對於可能會縮減過度流動的資產負債表和超過存款的現金（聽不清）。

Yes. It's a fair question, and I'll just go ahead and take this one, too, and just say that I'll mention the same thing I always mentioned, which is we don't provide guidance, and it's really difficult to predict. But let's just focus on kind of why are we doing this right now. And it really goes back to the thing that we've been saying for the last couple of weeks, which is this industry has experienced a significant crisis of confidence across the ecosystem because of all of the over leverage in the system and some of the bad actors and the bankruptcies, et cetera. And so when market participants are looking in this ecosystem and they're trying to determine who can we trust. We want to make sure that our customers know that we are holding 100% of their deposits in cash on our balance sheet so that they can access that cash up to 100% of their deposits. And so it really is meant to instill confidence.

是的。這是一個公平的問題，我也將繼續討論這個問題，只是說我會提到我一直提到的同樣的事情，那就是我們不提供指導，而且真的很難預測。但是，讓我們只關注我們為什麼現在要這樣做。這真的可以追溯到我們過去幾週一直在說的事情，即這個行業在整個生態系統中經歷了一場嚴重的信任危機，因為系統中的所有過度槓桿和一些糟糕的情況演員和破產等等。因此，當市場參與者關注這個生態系統時，他們試圖確定我們可以信任誰。我們希望確保我們的客戶知道我們在資產負債表上持有他們 100% 的現金存款，以便他們可以獲得高達 100% 存款的現金。所以它真的是為了灌輸信心。

We also -- the other part of that confidence is to communicate to our customers that we are still committed to this ecosystem. Many of the customers that we service today are customers that we onboarded in 2014 in 2017, 2016, many other banks have come into the space during our 9-year tenure. Some have left. Some have expanded their operations and then contracted. What we're trying to communicate is that we are here, we are here for the long haul. We are here to serve our core customers with the core products that they utilize every day, and they can have confidence that we have 100% cash on balance sheet -- and so when will that change, not for the foreseeable future, I don't know if that's 1 quarter, 2 quarter, all year long. We want to instill confidence in the ecosystem and especially with our customers. And so I really appreciate you asking the question so we could drill down on that a little bit more.

我們也 - 這種信心的另一部分是向我們的客戶傳達我們仍然致力於這個生態系統。我們今天服務的許多客戶都是我們在 2014 年、2017 年、2016 年入職的客戶，在我們 9 年的任期內，許多其他銀行也進入了這個領域。有些人離開了。有些人擴大了業務，然後又收縮了。我們試圖傳達的是我們在這裡，我們長期在這裡。我們在這里為我們的核心客戶提供他們每天使用的核心產品，他們可以相信我們的資產負債表上有 100% 的現金——所以這種情況什麼時候會改變，不是在可預見的未來，我不知道不知道那是一季度、二季度還是一整年。我們希望灌輸對生態系統的信心，尤其是我們的客戶。所以我真的很感謝你提出這個問題，這樣我們就可以深入研究一下。

Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Steven Paraskevopoulos from JPMorgan.

謝謝你。今天的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Steven Paraskevopoulos。

I want to start on tangible book value, which was $12.93 in the quarter. In terms of a new baseline, I just wanted to confirm that we shouldn't expect any additional charges or impairments in the first quarter beyond the $8 million restructuring charge you called out to which could further reduce tangible book value?

我想從有形賬面價值開始，本季度為 12.93 美元。就新基線而言，我只是想確認，除了您提出的 800 萬美元重組費用之外，我們不應期望第一季度有任何額外費用或減值，這可能會進一步降低有形賬面價值？

Yes, Steve, I'll go ahead and kick that question over to Tony. Tony?

是的，史蒂夫，我會繼續把這個問題交給托尼。托尼？

Yes. Steve, thanks for the question. With respect to the tangible book value per share, as I indicated previously, we recorded an impairment for $1.7 billion in securities sales, and that's already embedded in there. We've -- there's puts and takes, as always, with tangible book value. As Alan indicated a couple of times, we don't provide forward guidance. And it's early it's early -- really early in the quarter to try to give a guide pop there. But there are puts and takes. Another example is the deferred tax carryforward of $342 million that we disclosed. That's not built into the tangible book value because we've taken the valuation allowed for it, but it's certainly there in terms of tax losses that are available to offset future income. So again, it's early. We don't provide guidance, but I appreciate the question.

是的。史蒂夫，謝謝你的提問。關於每股有形賬面價值，正如我之前指出的那樣，我們記錄了 17 億美元的證券銷售減值，並且已經包含在其中。我們已經 - 一如既往地有看跌期權和有形賬面價值。正如 Alan 多次指出的那樣，我們不提供前瞻性指導。現在還早，真的很早——真的是在本季度的早期，試圖在那裡做一個流行的指南。但是有放有放。另一個例子是我們披露的 3.42 億美元的遞延稅款結轉。這並沒有計入有形賬面價值，因為我們已經考慮了允許的估值，但就可用於抵消未來收入的稅收損失而言，它肯定存在。再說一次，現在還早。我們不提供指導，但我很欣賞這個問題。

Okay. And then for my follow-up, I don't know if you guys heard the Signature call this morning, but in the Q&A session, they had a question on AML BSA. And they indicated that for FTX it was more of a made-off situation, they specifically said not an AML/BSA issue. Do you see this the same way as it relates to Silvergate, not an AML BSA concern?

好的。然後對於我的後續行動，我不知道你們今天早上是否聽到簽名電話，但在問答環節，他們有一個關於 AML BSA 的問題。他們表示，對於 FTX 來說，這更像是一種被剝奪的情況，他們明確表示不是 AML/BSA 問題。您是否以與 Silvergate 相關的方式看待這一點，而不是 AML BSA 問題？

Yes. Steve, unfortunately, I did not get a chance to listen to the signature call. So I don't have the context for how they referenced it. But we're just not going to comment at all on any kind of FTX-related matters. And so from my perspective, we should just focus on our core business and all of the things that we're doing to help this ecosystem and let all that other stuff kind of work its way out.

是的。史蒂夫，不幸的是，我沒有機會聽到簽名電話。所以我不知道他們如何引用它的上下文。但我們根本不會對任何與 FTX 相關的問題發表評論。因此，從我的角度來看，我們應該只關注我們的核心業務以及我們為幫助這個生態系統所做的所有事情，並讓所有其他事情發揮作用。

Okay fair enough thanks for taking my questions

好的，很公平，謝謝你回答我的問題

You bet.

你打賭。

The next question today comes from the line of David Rochester from Compass Point.

今天的下一個問題來自 Compass Point 的 David Rochester。

You guys had a lot of moving parts on the balance sheet in the fourth quarter that would impact the margin moving forward. And I know you don't want to give any guidance on the NIM, but can you just give some of the spot yields and costs at the end of 4Q for the major average balance sheet lines? I think that would be helpful. And if you happen to have the yield on the securities that you're selling in the first quarter that you've already sold, that would be great as well.

你們在第四季度的資產負債表上有很多移動部分會影響未來的利潤率。我知道你不想對 NIM 提供任何指導，但你能否在第四季度末為主要平均資產負債表項目提供一些現貨收益率和成本？我認為這會有所幫助。如果你在第一季度出售的證券恰好有你已經出售的收益，那也很好。

Yes, Dave. I'll take this question over to Tony

是的，戴夫。我會把這個問題交給托尼

Yes. Thanks for the question, Dave. So again, I think with -- if you look at the balance sheet broadly speaking, given the disclosures that we made, the cash and securities are the overwhelmingly large components of the balance sheet. And the securities -- the cash yields are in line with federal funds rate. With the securities, what I'll say is as of year-end, we are close to about 80% of the securities portfolio being floating rate securities and in the first 2 weeks -- as I indicated, we sold about $1.5 billion of what was left in the book. And I think the 80%, I mean, will trend a little bit higher, but -- and so for a portfolio that's government issued or all agency-backed and primarily mortgage back and other types of securities, you probably could figure out what the yield is there in relation to the fund rate.

是的。謝謝你的問題，戴夫。因此，我再次認為——如果你從廣義上看資產負債表，考慮到我們所做的披露，現金和證券是資產負債表中絕大多數的組成部分。而證券——現金收益率與聯邦基金利率一致。對於證券，我要說的是截至年底，我們接近 80% 的證券投資組合是浮動利率證券，在前兩週——正如我所指出的，我們出售了大約 15 億美元的證券留在了書中。而且我認為 80%，我的意思是，趨勢會稍微高一點，但是 - 因此對於政府發行或所有機構支持的投資組合，主要是抵押貸款和其他類型的證券，你可能會弄清楚收益率與基金利率有關。

But as we said, the bulk of our asset earning assets are adjustable rate. But as we've also said, the makeup of the balance sheet going forward, subject to change as the year evolves. So sorry, I can't be a little bit more clear, but that's about as much as we could provide at this point in time early in the quarter.

但正如我們所說，我們的大部分資產收益資產都是可調整利率。但正如我們也說過的那樣，未來資產負債表的構成可能會隨著時間的推移而發生變化。很抱歉，我再清楚不過了，但這就是我們在本季度初的這個時間點所能提供的。

Okay. I appreciate that. And then just one follow-up. Can you just talk about your bigger picture, the implications of this 100% valuation allowance on the DTA? Are you guys tactically saying that the outlook at least near term for profitability is more negligible or maybe you're predicting a loss? And then how far out does that analysis go? How far out do you guys need to look on that valuation test

好的。我很感激。然後只是一個跟進。你能談談你的大局嗎，這個 100% 估值津貼對 DTA 的影響？你們是否在戰術上說至少近期的盈利前景可以忽略不計，或者您可能預測虧損？那麼該分析有多遠？你們需要多遠才能看估值測試

do you want to just keep going...

你想繼續前進嗎...

Yes. Yes. Thanks, Alan. Yes. So Dave, as far as the valuation allowance goes, so in the near term, I mean, it's -- as I said earlier, it's -- we've got a deferred tax allowance or deferred tax asset balance of $342 million, driven by both the losses that we've incurred in the fourth quarter and some of the accrued losses that we anticipate in 2023. So from a tax perspective, with some of those accrued losses that will be realized in 2023, the allowance is one of those things that's done on a year-by-year basis. So at this point in time, -- we've assessed 100% allowance implying that there's probably not a taxable income in 2023. But beyond that, you shouldn't read too much into it because it's an allowance that could be reevaluated every year-end. And that valuation allowance could change every year-end. So it's not set in stone at 100% going forward. And from a tax perspective, as we've disclosed, those losses are -- have indefinite carryforward for federal tax purposes. And so there's future value there to the extent that there's future taxable income.

是的。是的。謝謝，艾倫。是的。所以戴夫，就估值津貼而言，所以在短期內，我的意思是，正如我之前所說，它是 - 我們有 3.42 億美元的遞延稅津貼或遞延稅資產餘額，由我們在第四季度發生的損失和我們預計在 2023 年發生的一些應計損失。所以從稅收的角度來看，其中一些應計損失將在 2023 年實現，津貼就是其中之一這是逐年完成的。所以在這個時間點，我們已經評估了 100% 的免稅額，這意味著 2023 年可能沒有應稅收入。但除此之外，你不應該過多地了解它，因為它是一項每年都可以重新評估的免稅額-結尾。而且估值津貼可能會在每年年底發生變化。所以它並不是一成不變的 100% 前進。從稅收的角度來看，正如我們所披露的那樣，這些損失是 - 出於聯邦稅收目的無限期結轉。因此，就存在未來應稅收入而言，存在未來價值。

Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Manan Gosalia from Morgan Stanley.

謝謝你。今天的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Manan Gosalia。

I appreciate all the incremental color this morning. And I know you also mentioned in the slide deck that the headcount reduction will drive a $7 million to $8 million reduction in comp. I guess as we think about the core expense number going into the back half of the year, given that you also mentioned you're exiting from the custody and cash management businesses, what should we -- how should we think about the core expense number as we exit the onetime expenses that you're making over the next couple of quarters?

我很欣賞今天早上所有的增量顏色。我知道你還在幻燈片中提到，裁員將導致薪酬減少 700 萬至 800 萬美元。我想當我們考慮到今年下半年的核心費用數字時，鑑於您還提到您正在退出託管和現金管理業務，我們應該 - 我們應該如何考慮核心費用數字當我們退出你在接下來幾個季度的一次性開支時？

Yes, Manan. -- thanks for the question. I'm going to turn it over to Tony in just a second, but I just want to clarify one thing. -- we are not exiting all of the cash management services, but just certain cash management expenses, and we have not yet disclosed which services those are, but you could go back and contemplate Ben's comments around some of the products that when you launch certain products, you make some assumption as to the customer adoption of those products, et cetera. And then as you move through time, you have to reassess those. And so -- but I wouldn't want anybody to think that we're no longer going to provide cash management services. That is core to what we do. And the SIN, the 24/7 API-enabled sin that our customers have come to rely on will still be operational with API wires, et cetera. And we'll be able to provide more color, as Ben mentioned, once we notify some of our key partners and our customers, we don't want to get ahead of being able to have individual conversations with all the appropriate folks. But back to the expense question. Tony, you want to take that?

是的，馬南。 ——感謝提問。我馬上就把它轉交給托尼，但我只想澄清一件事。 ——我們並沒有退出所有的現金管理服務，只是退出了某些現金管理費用，我們還沒有透露這些服務是哪些，但你可以回去考慮一下本對某些產品的評論，當你推出某些產品時產品，您對客戶採用這些產品等做出一些假設。然後隨著時間的流逝，您必須重新評估它們。所以——但我不想讓任何人認為我們將不再提供現金管理服務。這是我們所做工作的核心。而 SIN，我們的客戶已經開始依賴的 24/7 API 啟用的 sin 仍然可以通過 API 線等進行操作。我們將能夠提供更多顏色，正如 Ben 所提到的，一旦我們通知了我們的一些主要合作夥伴和我們的客戶，我們不想提前與所有合適的人進行單獨對話。但回到費用問題。托尼，你要拿那個嗎？

Yes, sure. Thanks for the question, Manan. So yes, as you indicated, the guidance that we provided was a $7 million to $8 million per quarter save related to the headcount reduction. As it relates to other core expenses as we indicated in our prepared remarks, I mean, we were intentional about saying the second half of the year because as you can appreciate, -- there are a lot of embedded costs and overhang coming into the new year. A lot of the challenges were in the ecosystem were towards the back end of the quarter. So as Alan had said, we're evaluating different products and services, we're evaluating vendor contracts we're evaluating all of those items that would drive core expenses.

是的，當然。謝謝你的問題，馬南。所以是的，正如您所指出的，我們提供的指導是與裁員相關的每季度節省 700 萬至 800 萬美元。正如我們在準備好的評論中指出的那樣，它與其他核心費用有關，我的意思是，我們有意說下半年，因為正如您所理解的那樣，新的成本和懸置成本很多年。生態系統中的許多挑戰都發生在本季度末。因此，正如艾倫所說，我們正在評估不同的產品和服務，我們正在評估供應商合同，我們正在評估所有會推動核心支出的項目。

And so at this point in time, we're not in a position yet to give further guidance. But as you indicated, we do intend to evaluate all categories and look to get to a good core expense base for the second half of the year

所以在這個時候，我們還不能提供進一步的指導。但正如您所指出的，我們確實打算評估所有類別，並希望在下半年獲得良好的核心支出基礎

But is it fair to take the $33 million expense base from 3Q remove the $78 million and then assume that you would move lower from there. Is that fair?

但是，從第三季度的 3300 萬美元支出基數中扣除 7800 萬美元，然後假設你會從那裡降低，這是否公平。這公平嗎？

It's not so straightforward because as you may or may not know, I mean, we were increasing headcount throughout the year. And so some of those headcount increases were in flight at the beginning of the quarter at the beginning of the fourth quarter. So it's -- like most things, it's not that straightforward. And there's some -- there are many moving parts, and there are a lot of puts and takes, as always. So I appreciate the question. But at this time, that's about all the guidance we can give

這並不是那麼簡單，因為你可能知道也可能不知道，我的意思是，我們全年都在增加員工人數。因此，其中一些員工人數的增加是在第四季度初的季度開始時進行的。所以它 - 就像大多數事情一樣，它並不是那麼簡單。還有一些 - 有很多活動部件，並且一如既往地有很多投入和投入。所以我很欣賞這個問題。但目前，這就是我們所能提供的所有指導

Got it. And then just a quick question on the deposit side. In the past, you've mentioned that about 45% of your deposits come from the top 10 clients. I would assume that concentration number has gone down meaningfully. Would you have that number as of the end of the fourth quarter?

知道了。然後只是關於存款方面的一個快速問題。過去，您曾提到您大約 45% 的存款來自前 10 大客戶。我會假設濃度數字已經有意義地下降了。截至第四季度末，您能得到這個數字嗎？

Yes. Let me jump back in and kick this over to Ben. We will certainly disclose more detail in our 10-K as I always do when it's filed. I'm not sure we're ready to disclose deposit concentrations today. But Ben can probably provide a little bit of color on our customer base. So Ben, do you have anything to add?

是的。讓我跳回去，把這個交給本。我們肯定會在我們的 10-K 中披露更多細節，就像我在提交時所做的那樣。我不確定我們今天是否準備好披露存款集中度。但 Ben 可能會為我們的客戶群提供一點色彩。那麼本，你有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes. That's right, Alan. We -- so I'm not sure if we're planning on disclosing that number going forward. But when you do look at the table that shows the number of customers by category and the corresponding deposits, you can see that they've gone down in every category. And so we're certainly mindful of concentrations. But what we've seen is really, as we've said many times before, kind of a crisis of confidence and risk off across the entire industry. So I think from that table, you can probably see that deposits across the board in every segment are down. So not much more we can add beyond that at this point.

是的。沒錯，艾倫。我們——所以我不確定我們是否打算在未來披露這個數字。但是當你查看按類別顯示客戶數量和相應存款的表格時，你會發現它們在每個類別中都下降了。所以我們當然要注意濃度。但正如我們之前多次說過的那樣，我們所看到的確實是整個行業的信心危機和風險規避。因此，我認為從該表中，您可能會看到每個細分市場的存款都在下降。因此，此時我們可以添加的不多了。

Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Will Nance from Goldman Sachs.

謝謝你。今天的下一個問題來自高盛的 Will Nance。

So I'm looking at the end of period balance sheet. And even if I take into account the security sales in the first quarter, it looks like you'll still have around $5.3 billion in wholesale funding or around 50% of the balance sheet. So I know you don't want to provide guidance on deposit flows, but it seems from the outside looking in that either you're managing the balance sheet towards the sharp rebound in deposits in the near term or you need to sell substantially more securities than you have done or earmarked so far in order to bring the funding profile back in line. So assuming that 50% wholesale funding is higher than you or the regulators are comfortable with, and maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong there. Are there any guiderails that you could provide about how you plan to work that down and to what level?

所以我正在查看期末資產負債表。即使我考慮到第一季度的證券銷售，看起來你仍有大約 53 億美元的批發資金或資產負債表的 50% 左右。所以我知道您不想提供有關存款流量的指導，但從外部來看，您似乎正在管理資產負債表以在短期內實現存款的大幅反彈，或者您需要出售更多的證券比你到目前為止所做或指定的要多得多，以使資金狀況恢復正常。因此，假設 50% 的批發資金高於您或監管機構所接受的水平，如果我在那裡錯了，也許您可以糾正我。您是否可以提供任何指南，說明您計劃如何將其降低到什麼水平？

Yes. Well, it's a fair observation. And I think I've said, if I didn't say it on the -- in the Q&A session of the last call a couple of weeks ago, I certainly addressed this question and follow-up calls, which is that your observation is correct. When -- if you did zoom out and the way I frame it is, let's not make it specific to Silvergate, but let's just talk about the fact that in general, banks like to have their core deposits in excess of their noncore funding, which as you've alluded to, wholesale funding, whether that be short-term borrowings or brokered CDs. And so at this point, we're not providing any further guidance.

是的。好吧，這是一個公平的觀察。我想我已經說過，如果我在幾週前最後一次電話會議的問答環節中沒有說的話，我肯定會回答這個問題和後續電話會議，那就是你的觀察是正確的。什麼時候——如果你確實縮小了範圍，我的框架是這樣的，我們就不要讓它具體到 Silvergate，而是讓我們談談這樣一個事實，即一般來說，銀行喜歡讓核心存款超過非核心資金，這正如您所提到的，批發融資，無論是短期借款還是經紀 CD。所以在這一點上，我們不提供任何進一步的指導。

And so the comments that you made about how you might interpret us managing our balance sheet is an opinion that you're expressing, but it's not necessarily indicative of how we're thinking about it. I would just go back to everything I've said already, and I don't want to repeat it all for everybody, but we're managing the balance sheet to make sure that our customers know that they have access to 100% of their deposits, and we're going to do that for the foreseeable future. And as Tony mentioned, our securities portfolio, what remains of our securities portfolio is overwhelmingly adjustable rate. And it is all government agency, either government issued or government agency-sponsored investment securities. So we feel very good about our current balance sheet position.

因此，您就如何解釋我們管理資產負債表發表的評論是您表達的一種觀點，但這並不一定表明我們是如何考慮的。我只想回到我已經說過的一切，我不想對每個人都重複一遍，但我們正在管理資產負債表，以確保我們的客戶知道他們可以 100% 地使用他們的存款，我們將在可預見的未來這樣做。正如托尼提到的，我們的證券投資組合，我們的證券投資組合中剩下的是絕大多數可調整的利率。而且都是政府機構，無論是政府發行的還是政府機構發起的投資證券。因此，我們對當前的資產負債表狀況感覺非常好。

Got it. Appreciate that. And then maybe kind of dovetailing off of the last comment you made on the securities portfolio on the balance sheet. You guys have been profitable at this level of noninterest-bearing deposits in the past. But I think one thing that's different now is you sold a lot of the duration in the balance sheet. And looking ahead, it seems like the strategy of maintaining a lot of digital currency deposits or all in cash, presents a lot of downside interest rate risk if we see rates kind of normalize back to, well, something approximating what we see in the current forward curve today. So how are you guys thinking about mitigating downside interest rate exposure with a significantly higher cash position, which Tony, maybe you could talk about the -- your ability to hedge kind of like Fed funds rate type of cash

知道了。感謝。然後可能有點吻合你對資產負債表上的證券投資組合所做的最後評論。你們過去一直在這種無息存款水平上獲利。但我認為現在不同的一件事是你在資產負債表中出售了很多久期。展望未來，如果我們看到利率恢復正常，那麼維持大量數字貨幣存款或全部現金的策略似乎會帶來很多下行利率風險今天的遠期曲線。那麼你們如何考慮通過顯著增加現金頭寸來減輕下行利率風險，托尼，也許你可以談談——你對沖聯邦基金利率類型現金的能力

Yes, Tony, do you want to [audio jumps] the question?

是的，托尼，你想 [音頻跳轉] 這個問題嗎？

Yes. Yes. So well, yes, no, that's an appropriate observation. As first thing I'll say is, yes, we do have and we've disclosed that we've got derivatives in place. to mitigate downward moves in interest rates. So that's obviously part of it. So that becomes an important component of balance sheet management strategy as it relates to NIM going forward. But also, as Alan said, for the foreseeable future, we want to make sure that we've got cash in place for customers. But I kind of want to reinforce the point that with all of our securities being government issued or government agency backed, they're also -- they also continue to be fully pledgeable for liquidity.

是的。是的。那麼好吧，是的，不，這是一個恰當的觀察。我要說的第一件事是，是的，我們確實有，而且我們已經透露我們已經有了衍生品。以減輕利率下行的影響。所以這顯然是其中的一部分。因此，這成為資產負債表管理策略的重要組成部分，因為它與未來的 NIM 相關。但是，正如艾倫所說，在可預見的未來，我們希望確保為客戶準備好現金。但我有點想強調的一點是，由於我們所有的證券都是政府發行或政府機構支持的，它們也——它們也繼續完全可抵押以提供流動性。

And so all those things that we've put in place that we've talked about for several years continue to be in place, perhaps the proportions changed, but we're mindful of of managing interest rate risk. As Alan said, we don't predict rates, but we try to plan for all the outcomes and the size of the derivatives that we've got is part of that strategy.

因此，我們已經討論了幾年的所有這些事情都將繼續存在，也許比例會發生變化，但我們會注意管理利率風險。正如艾倫所說，我們不預測利率，但我們試圖為所有結果制定計劃，而我們所擁有的衍生品的規模是該戰略的一部分。

Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Jared Shaw from Wells Fargo.

謝謝你。今天的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Jared Shaw。

I guess looking at capital, especially Tier 1 leverage took obviously a big move down. You commented in the opening comments about rebuilding that organically. Is that organic growth rate going to be enough to satisfy your expectations or need for Tier 1 leverage in terms of trying to get closer to a double-digit Tier 1 leverage ratio? Or should we think that there may have to be some additional capital raising or other alternatives looking at?

我想看看資本，尤其是一級槓桿率明顯下降了一大步。你在開場評論中評論了有機地重建它。在試圖接近兩位數的一級槓桿比率方面，該有機增長率是否足以滿足您對一級槓桿的期望或需求？或者我們是否應該認為可能需要進行一些額外的融資或其他替代方案？

Yes, Jared. I appreciate the question. I'm going to ask Tony to comment in just a minute. But the one thing that I would point out is, and again, of course, we're not going to provide guidance on if and when we might "raise capital" -- but I think Tony will touch on this. It's important to recognize that, number one, our risk-based capital ratios continue to be extremely robust, which just is reflective of the very low credit risk on our balance sheet. But importantly, that Tier 1 ratio is based on average assets. And so it's really important to think about that as we move into the first quarter here. And without feeling anymore of Tony's thunder. Tony, do you want to address that in a little bit more detail?

是的，賈里德。我很欣賞這個問題。稍後我會請 Tony 發表評論。但我要指出的一件事是，當然，我們不會就是否以及何時可以“籌集資金”提供指導——但我認為托尼會談到這一點。重要的是要認識到，第一，我們基於風險的資本比率仍然非常強勁，這恰恰反映了我們資產負債表上的信用風險非常低。但重要的是，一級比率是基於平均資產。因此，在我們進入第一季度時考慮這一點非常重要。而且再也感覺不到托尼的雷聲了。托尼，你想更詳細地解決這個問題嗎？

Yes. Thanks, Alan. Thanks for the question, Joe. So yes, as Alan mentioned, the Tier 1 leverage ratio that we discuss 5.36%, it's based on average assets of approximately $15 billion, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks. But the balance sheet ended at $11.3 billion. So on a pro forma basis with the Tier 1 capital that we had at year-end, that would imply an entry point above 7%. And then with the further guidance of -- or subsequent event disclosure that we've sold down $1.5 billion in securities to reduce wholesale funding. That implies a further reduction. So that's kind of step 1 in terms of the organic path of rebuilding the Tier 1 leverage ratio.

是的。謝謝，艾倫。謝謝你的問題，喬。所以是的，正如艾倫提到的，我們討論的一級槓桿率為 5.36%，它是基於大約 150 億美元的平均資產，正如我在準備好的發言中提到的那樣。但資產負債表最終為 113 億美元。因此，根據我們在年底擁有的一級資本的備考基礎，這意味著進入點高於 7%。然後根據進一步的指導或隨後的事件披露，我們已經出售了 15 億美元的證券以減少批發資金。這意味著進一步減少。因此，就重建一級槓桿率的有機路徑而言，這是第一步。

Okay. And then my follow-up, I guess, just on the securities portfolio. What is the -- after the sale, what's the expected cash flow quarterly from that and the remaining duration?

好的。然後我想我的後續行動只是關於證券投資組合。什麼是 - 出售後，預期的季度現金流量和剩餘期限是多少？

Yes. Tony Yes.

是的。托尼 是的。

So I don't have the expected cash flow handy in terms of expected duration. I mean, we were -- we had disclosed approximately 4 years at as an effective duration in the third quarter. That's substantially reduced. It's closer to 1 at present 1 to 1.5. And in reference to, again, what Alan was mentioning in terms of risk-based capital ratios, a significant amount of those securities are now at 0 risk weight a 20% risk weight. So significant change between the third and fourth quarter and (inaudible)

因此，就預期持續時間而言，我手頭沒有預期的現金流量。我的意思是，我們 - 我們在第三季度披露了大約 4 年的有效期限。這大大減少了。目前 1 比 1.5 更接近 1。再次參考艾倫在基於風險的資本比率方面提到的內容，這些證券中有很大一部分現在的風險權重為 0，風險權重為 20%。第三季度和第四季度之間發生瞭如此重大的變化（聽不清）

Thank you. Our next question today comes from the line of George Sutton from Craig-Hallum.

謝謝你。我們今天的下一個問題來自 Craig-Hallum 的 George Sutton。

Also on the call, you did not hear from Signature, they suggested a bit of a de-emphasis of the digital landscape. And you are clearly trying to indicate a continued importance relative to how you are doing your business. I just wanted to think about that in the context of the off-boarding of clients that you mentioned. Can you just give us a sense? I assume this is a relatively small number. And can you give us any sense of the additional scrutiny that's been taken to make this decision?

同樣在電話會議上，您沒有聽到 Signature 的消息，他們建議稍微淡化數字景觀。而且您顯然是在嘗試表明相對於您開展業務的方式的持續重要性。我只是想在您提到的客戶離職的背景下考慮這個問題。你能給我們一個感覺嗎？我認為這是一個相對較小的數字。您能否讓我們了解為做出此決定而進行的額外審查？

Yes, George, I'm going to pass it over to Ben for that first part of your question. But as to additional scrutiny, let's just dispel that right now. And let's just frame it in the context that we've been doing this business with the full focused on regulation and risk management for 9 years. We went into this business very intentionally in 2014. We engaged with our regulators that year to say this at the time, as I've said many times before, it was Bitcoin only. And we were essentially describing to our regulators at the time. This is what bitcoin is. These are the types of institutional market participants that are coming into this space to invest in Bitcoin.

是的，喬治，對於你問題的第一部分，我將把它轉交給本。但至於額外的審查，讓我們現在就取消它。讓我們把它放在我們已經開展這項業務的背景下，9 年來一直專注於監管和風險管理。我們在 2014 年非常有意地進入了這項業務。那年我們與監管機構進行了接觸，當時我已經說過很多次，這只是比特幣。我們當時基本上是在向我們的監管機構描述。這就是比特幣。這些是進入這個領域投資比特幣的機構市場參與者的類型。

Obviously, that has expanded now to other digital assets such as Ethereum, stable coins, et cetera. But for the entire tenure of this business, we have been operating with a fully regulated offering. And with the with the requisite regulatory scrutiny, if you will, in terms of looking at our program every single year. And so any decisions that we're making to trim products and/or customers are really business decisions and not related to any specific scrutiny as you said. But Ben, do you -- would you like to comment further?

顯然，現在已經擴展到其他數字資產，如以太坊、穩定幣等。但在這項業務的整個任期內，我們一直在以完全受監管的產品運營。通過必要的監管審查，如果您願意的話，可以每年查看我們的計劃。因此，我們為削減產品和/或客戶所做的任何決定實際上都是商業決策，與您所說的任何具體審查無關。但是本，你想進一步評論嗎？

Yes. Yes. So thanks for the question, George. It was a difficult decision to offboard some of our noncore customers. It was our choice, though. And I think it's an example of our focus on operating a profitable business in 2023. As with any business over time, you end up accumulating customer relationships that simply aren't profitable because even they end up being smaller than what they had originally expected or they don't end up using your core products Consistent with the comments Palmas just making it probably isn't a surprise to anyone that there are significant compliance and operational costs associated with every customer that we serve. So now more than ever, we want to be deliberate and working with clients that are adding value to the platform.

是的。是的。謝謝你的問題，喬治。離開我們的一些非核心客戶是一個艱難的決定。不過，這是我們的選擇。我認為這是我們專注於在 2023 年經營盈利業務的一個例子。隨著時間的推移，與任何業務一樣，您最終會積累根本無法盈利的客戶關係，因為即使它們最終比他們最初預期的要小，或者他們最終不會使用您的核心產品 與 Palmas 剛剛發表的評論一致，對於我們服務的每個客戶都存在顯著的合規性和運營成本，這對任何人來說都不足為奇。因此，現在我們比以往任何時候都更希望深思熟慮並與為平台增加價值的客戶合作。

Maybe the last thing I'll say is that -- and I think it is important to highlight that while we expect to offboard some of our noncore customers, we do expect that if there's a negative impact to deposit fee income and send metrics that it will be less significant than you might expect because these are smaller relationships overall and tend not to use our core products, but thanks for the question.

也許我要說的最後一件事是 - 我認為重要的是要強調，雖然我們希望離開我們的一些非核心客戶，但我們確實希望如果對存款費用收入產生負面影響並發送它的指標將沒有您預期的那麼重要，因為這些關係總體上較小，並且往往不使用我們的核心產品，但感謝您提出問題。

So my follow-up is related to the broader market. Obviously, none of us are smart enough to know the future per se, but very quickly, Bitcoin and the broader crypto markets have turned higher I'm just curious if we could talk about your flexibility to grow again potentially aggressively if that is the environment in front of us. Not saying that is just curious if you have the flexibility that you've had in the past to move forward.

所以我的跟進跟大盤有關。顯然，我們都不夠聰明，無法知道未來本身，但很快，比特幣和更廣泛的加密貨幣市場已經走高，我只是很好奇我們是否可以談談你的靈活性，如果這是環境的話，可能會再次積極增長在我們的前面。不是說那隻是好奇你是否有過去擁有的靈活性來前進。

Yes, George, it's a fair question. And I might tie the answer to one of the earlier questions that were one of your colleagues was commenting on the composition of our balance sheet at year-end. And clearly, as we work to reduce the wholesale funding that, by definition, then makes room for deposits to grow. That -- and again, and I know you're not asking us to predict the future. I agree with your comments. It's impossible to predict. But as Ben mentioned, we are focused on making sure that we are providing the critical services to our core customers and that we do, in fact, have room for them to grow their deposits when this turns around.

是的，喬治，這是一個公平的問題。我可能會將答案與您的一位同事在年底評論我們資產負債表的構成時提出的一個較早的問題聯繫起來。顯然，當我們努力減少批發融資時，根據定義，批發融資將為存款增長騰出空間。那——再一次，我知道你不是要我們預測未來。我同意你的意見。這是不可能預測的。但正如 Ben 所提到的，我們專注於確保我們正在為我們的核心客戶提供關鍵服務，而且我們確實有空間讓他們在這種情況好轉時增加存款。

And I do believe it's a win, not if. But I'm also not predicting when that will happen. If past is prologue, this industry tends to go in 4-year cycles and 2023 might continue to be a kind of a sideways market for this overall ecosystem. But that will give us the time we need to retool the business and we will be leaner and meaner and ready to go.

我確實相信這是一場胜利，而不是如果。但我也沒有預測什麼時候會發生。如果過去是序幕，這個行業往往以 4 年為周期，2023 年可能會繼續成為整個生態系統的橫向市場。但這將為我們提供重組業務所需的時間，我們將變得更精簡、更精簡，並準備好出發。

Thank you. This concludes today's question-and-answer session. So I would like to pass the call back over to Alan Lane for any closing remarks.

謝謝你。今天的問答環節到此結束。所以我想將電話轉回給 Alan Lane 以聽取任何結束語。

All right. Thank you very much, Bailey. Well, I just want to thank everybody for joining today. And I just want to, again, express our appreciation for all of the support that we get from our great customers, and we look forward to providing additional updates as we move through 2023. So thank you, everybody. Have a great day.

好的。非常感謝你，貝利。好吧，我只想感謝大家今天的加入。我只想再次對我們從偉大客戶那裡獲得的所有支持表示感謝，我們期待在 2023 年期間提供更多更新。謝謝大家。祝你有美好的一天。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。謝謝大家的參與。您現在可以斷開線路。