使用警語:中文譯文來源為 Google 翻譯,僅供參考,實際內容請以英文原文為主
Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2007 The Bancorp Incorporated Earnings Conference Call.
My name is Shiquana and I will be your coordinator for today.
At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode.
We will facilitate a question and answer session towards the end of this conference.
(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS)
I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Mr.
Andres Viroslav, Director of Corporate Communications.
Please proceed.
Andres Viroslav - Director - Corporate Communications
Thank you, Shiquana, and good morning to everyone.
Thank you for joining us today to review The Bancorp Inc's fourth quarter and fiscal 2007 financial results.
On the call with me today are Betsy Cohen Chief Executive Officer; Frank Mastrangelo President; and Marty Egan, our Chief Financial Officer.
This morning's call is being webcast on our website at ww.thebancorp.com.
There will be a replay of the call beginning at approximately 1 p.m.
Eastern time today.
The dial-in number for the replay is 888-286-8010 with a confirmation code of 49214952.
Before I turn the call over to Betsy I would like to remind everyone that when used in this conference call the words believes, anticipates, expects and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or suggested by such statements.
For further discussion of these risks and uncertainties please see The Bancorp Inc filings with the SEC.
Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.
The Bancorp Inc undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to forward-looking statements which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Now I'd like to turn the call over to Betsy Cohen.
Betsy?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Thank you Andres and welcome to all of you, we're delighted to have you join us today for our fourth quarter call.
I'd like to start with I think are the high points of the year and the quarter, focusing first on the fact that in fiscal 2007 net income increased by 15% over fiscal year 2006.
Loans increased by approximately 21% to about $1.3 billion, but I think it's important to stop at that point and look at the categories in which the increases were felt.
Residential construction lending on a year-to-year basis, our traditional lending and we've done it here for many, many years, was up approximately 10% while the balance of the loan categories, primarily in the C&I area and commercial mortgages, were up about 30%.
This diversification effort away from residential construction lending began about 18 months, 24 months ago but it certainly takes time for it to build and to have balance sheet impact.
If you take a look at the balances for the last three quarters in the residential construction lending area, and I know that's an area of great concern, they have essentially been flat, up and down a little bit but basically flat.
And the statistic that we track that has provided us with some insight into the turnover is the, by dollar amount, the properties that are under agreement of sale.
And we've been running between 20% and 25%, we track it weekly so obviously it varies from time to time of the outstandings represented by properties under agreement of sales.
So the movement of the portfolio remains.
We are looking forward to what we believe will be a reduction in that total amount of residential construction lending outstanding, perhaps starting at the end of the second quarter as we're not replacing loans with new construction lending but rather the delivery of homes is proceeding apace.
In this particular area and just very recently we have seen signs of purchasing that apparently are not present in other parts of the country, or at least within our footprint we're seeing that.
So we remain optimistic as to the performance of that portfolio.
As of 11/30, November 30 of 2007 we added Stored Value Solutions by acquisition.
It came at the end of the quarter and so what you see is a little bit more expense than there is benefit during that quarter.
Non-interest expense expanded by $1 million, and that's an approximate number, in the months that they were with us and that represents an increase in our non-interest expense that is difficult to match with non-interest income because there is some time for start up that's required.
The other additional expense that was reflected in the quarter was the increase in the provisioning for loan loss.
It was increased on a quarterly basis from $850,000 to $3.2 million.
It reflected our view of essentially two loans that we felt were appropriately accounted for as a loss and so we felt that we should take that loss.
Now whether there will be recoveries I'm not prognosticating, we think that there will be some recoveries but at the moment we felt that it was best to address them frontally.
Only $200,000 of the charge was related to a construction loan and it was the last piece of a disposition which we began, I think, two quarters ago and had to take through foreclosure, had a purchaser, and then actually sold the property and had expenses that we hadn't anticipated.
Non-performing assets, or non-performing loans primarily, the increase is represented primarily and probably as much as 90% by residential first mortgage loans that are in the process of resolution at one place or another and where we will work toward disposition of those properties and/or the restoration of current payments, as in the case of one of them, over the course of the next 90 days.
Since September the 18th and through the fourth quarter there were three rate decreases totaling 100 basis points.
Two of those came at the middle and the end of that fourth quarter.
It takes us approximately 60 to 90 days to completely rebalance the portfolio, 65% approximately of our portfolio is floating, 35% fixed, and there are liabilities which don't reprice immediately.
During the first quarter we will have the repricing, for example, of $150 million in CDs, our highest cost of funds, and anticipate that they will be reduced in cost by approximately 120 basis points.
So that's the last piece of the cycle.
We of course will then have the absorption of the further rate decreases so that you may see during the first and the second quarter some pressure on the margin.
We hope to some extent it will be offset by the low-cost deposits that we're experience in two areas, one as a result of our Stored Value acquisition.
At the time of acquisition the deposits that were transferred that now have an interest rate of just over 1% on average were $160 million.
Those increased during January to about $180 million and we hope to see further increases as the business grows.
The second stream of low-cost deposits is as a result of our Health Savings Account programs.
Those deposits, as of now, are about $120 million, about double the amount that they were last year at this time.
So we do have excellent low-cost deposit growth and repricing opportunities within the highest-cost deposits, which we believe over the course of 60 or 90 days, as I said, will rebalance at our goal of approximately 400 basis points.
But again, as I said, may be slightly during this quarter during the rebalancing period.
If we take a look at transaction accounts for ending -- December 31, 2007, you'll see there $865 million as opposed to $611 million at the end of 2006.
Significant growth and it meant that we were able to reduce our time deposits from $457 million to $412 million.
If you take a look at the average loans outstanding, and I think that's probably the best way to do it, you will see again what I was talking about before, the difference in the growth rates among the various categories of loans.
But you will see that total loans grew during the course of this year from, on average during the fourth quarter of last year, a $1.064 billion to a $1.286 billion
We continue to grow our deposit program significantly and to manage our loan portfolio we think appropriately.
To talk about our private label businesses I'm going to ask Frank to talk for a few minutes.
Frank Mastrangelo - President
Thank you, Betsy.
As Betsy had mentioned, we've seen continued growth in our Health Savings Account portfolio.
Our year-over-year increase in deposits has been significant, even our quarter-to-quarter growth rate has been significant.
We actually ended the year with just about $92 million in deposits, which was up a little over $10 million from the previous quarter.
But, as Betsy mentioned, as of today we have slightly over $120 million in health care deposits.
We're seeing continued strong funding of our health care accounts that we've had on balance sheet for some time and expect to continue to see that.
We're seeing a very strong season for account openings there also.
In our Private Client Group segment, on a year-over-year basis, we increased outstanding loans by 21%, continue to see escalation of commitments quarter over quarter, commitments in that business segment are up $11 million or 4.5% from last quarter, 18% year over year.
And we're seeing continued growth in our Safe Harbor IRA business as a segment of our Private Client Group.
We ended the year there with $32 million in deposits and increased that actually in the first quarter up to $37 million as a current number.
And that was beginning at a starting point of zero in the beginning of 2007, so that's a business line that we fully grew during the calendar year.
Merchant Processing, we continue to see growth there on a year-over-year basis.
Our volume has increased almost 13% and we believe we'll see continued opportunity to grow that business segment.
And lastly, our Remote Deposit Capture business continues to grow at a very, very healthy pace.
We processed an increase of 44% in transactional volume quarter over quarter and processed almost $200 million in deposit transactions in the fourth quarter and almost $600 million in total deposits during calendar year 2007.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Thanks, Frank.
I think it's important to underscore the Remote Deposit.
Gathering function is one of the things we do naturally as a bank without branches and the increases from $160 million to almost $600 million in processing, in that methodology or as a distribution mechanism, and therefore gathering core deposits to us I think will be more and more significant and certainly adds to what will be an ongoing efficient operation.
We have recently added in the Remote Deposit area electronic safes as an additional mechanism for gathering deposits remotely.
And we're beginning to see some real traction with chains of restaurants and other cash-dependent organizations.
I think that the only last statistic in that regard that I would like highlight is that during Q4, with the addition of Stored Value Systems which I think many of you know is the second or third largest prepaid card, open loop issuer and what I think is the largest nationally gift card programmatic issuer, we continue to expand our deposit gathering within high growth segments of the industry.
The addition of those deposits at the end of '07 meant that, as of that date, our affinity programs represented 48% of our core deposits and over a quarter of our total deposits.
I think with that information I'm going to pause and ask whether there are any questions.
Operator
(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS).
Your first question comes from the line of James Abbott with FBR Capital Markets.
Please proceed.
James Abbott - Analyst
Yes hi, good morning.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Hi, how are you doing?
James Abbott - Analyst
Good thank you.
I had a couple of questions on the credit quality front.
I was wondering if you could give us a sense of the commercial loans that were charged off and what they were by type.
Are these true C&I loans or are they more commercial real estate?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
No, true C&I loans.
One was a receivables loan and we had spoke on a call, James, about this I believe, and I'm going to estimate, but I believe it was in June at the end of the June quarter.
One was a receivables loan in which broad appeared and so we were making an estimate of our ongoing recovery and we said we look at this again at the end of the year, which we did and this is our best guess.
The second was just a loan to a corporate entity in which the business itself, which was in the music publication business, he lost a contract and therefore had less ability to repay.
And so we decided even if there are recoveries down the road that this is the time to write it off.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
So on each of those can you give a sense as to the dollar amount from each one of those that was incorporated in the charge off number?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
They were approximately $1 million each.
James Abbott - Analyst
About $1 million each.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
It might have been a little over or a little under, but approximately.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
And of the receivables loans, is there a lot left or have you written most of it off?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
We've written most of it off, we see in the payment pipeline the ability for it to be reduced further and we'll look at it again probably March 31st or June 30th, we'll see which is appropriate.
James Abbott - Analyst
And the receivables are from --?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
From food companies, the food distribution company.
James Abbott - Analyst
Larger corporations.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Absolutely.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
And could you tell us a little bit about are there any personal guarantees or any other -- I'm trying to get at underwriting a little bit on these loans.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Sure.
There were personal guarantees from the founder of the company, it was a family company going back several generations, I'm going to say two generations, and they brought into the business a second and third person.
There are guarantees from all of those people.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
So there is a possibility for some recovery in the future.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Yes.
But I'm not promising.
James Abbott - Analyst
Right.
Okay.
And is it fair to suggest then that this is not a run rate in terms of charge offs and that this was a --?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I agree with you it is not a run rate.
James Abbott - Analyst
Right.
Do you have a sense, because the non-performing assets also went up as well --?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Yes I think I mentioned earlier in the conversation that those are primarily and very substantially residential first mortgages that are either delinquent and we're waiting for some -- and I don't remember what the life of them was that intervened but you may remember this occurred to us once before.
In my mind, if somebody's late, death is too good but I'm not sure that these people died.
So they are delinquent and I believe in the process of bringing of occurrence.
I don't know what the disruption was.
And in the second case we're in the process of taking the property through foreclosure and are pretty firm on a letter of intent, at this point, to sell.
But it just has to come through the process.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
And the loan to values on those?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Will we recover 100%, is that what you're asking?
James Abbott - Analyst
I guess that's another way of asking, yes I was trying --.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Yes, I mean on the ones that are delinquent and where we believe that it's just an interruption and not a consistent pattern, the properties I think are fine.
I think we will recover, and there are all always expenses, so we'll recover most of what, if not all, on the sale of the property that we're taking through foreclosure.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
Maybe I'll circle back at the end of the call if nobody else asks questions.
But my final question is just kind of a more housekeeping issue but on the fee income line item, can you give us --.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Let me get back to that.
Yes?
James Abbott - Analyst
Yes, definitely switching gears.
Is there a run rate that you would help us out with there for the first quarter?
Because that was a little bit higher than what we had expected for the fourth quarter, given the amount of time that Stored Value Solutions was embedded in the company.
Are there any nonrecurring items in that line in the fourth quarter --?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I think that there are some fourth quarter items, which is a little different response.
Remember the fourth quarter is always a higher quarter for us in terms of non-interest income.
So the run rate is really -- you know it's a seasonal business and that will be true even to a greater extent with Stored Value.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
But it only includes a little bit of Stored Value and so I would like to just take a pass on saying that that's a run rate or not a run rate.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
All right I'll step back for now and circle back on others later if no one else asks.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Okay.
James Abbott - Analyst
Thanks.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Thank you for your good questions.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Kelley with Sterne, Agee.
Please proceed.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Yes just following up on a couple of those questions, I guess the tangible dilution came in a little bit more significant, it looks like there must have been a higher goodwill piece booked with the deal.
I mean you got 32% tangible dilution with this transaction, I know that in the past two previous calls you had indicated pretty significant accretion levels from the Stored Value transaction.
I believe --.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Let me just, Matt --.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Yes?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Nobody could have accretion in the month.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
No I understand.
I really want to get to going forward and --.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Yes I think Marty --.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
-- dilution, you need a lot of earnings accretion to make that deal math work.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Yes.
Marty Egan - CFO
And were you accounting for there was $44 million of goodwill on the books already.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Right.
Marty Egan - CFO
That might be the difference you're looking at.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
What was the final goodwill book for the transaction?
Marty Egan - CFO
The goodwill is approximately $48 million and the customer list intangible is going to be around $10 million.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Okay.
Well that's the piece that's different, because just going back to the last transcript we were looking for about $50 million, $55 million.
So that's the one that came in a little bit higher then.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I think we were looking at $55 million and it did come in at $58 million.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Right, okay.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
But it's really hard to make that estimate before you actually get into the --.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Well, I guess more important than that specific question, deal accretion going forward, building off of James' question there on fee income, I mean the two big pieces here are the $160 million in deposits at 1% but the fee income piece is also the second part of the puzzle here to making this deal work.
And so help us understand what fee income is going to look like in Q1 as we think about your ability to meet some of those deal accretion numbers that have been provided over the last two quarters.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Sure.
I mean I don't think that we have any different view of the deal accretion items.
I think that Frank can talk to the non-interest income.
Frank Mastrangelo - President
Matt, I think that's exactly right, we don't expect the metrics of the deal to be changed in the manner the range of earnings impact.
I think if you recall we gave a high and low range of that impact being somewhere in the $0.21 to $0.41 range and had mentioned that we expected the impact to land somewhere in the middle of that as we would take down deposits over time and lend them out.
We believe that's exactly what will occur across calendar year 2008.
The impact specifically from the non-interest income was last year running in the range of $2 million to $2.2 million a quarter, it was a growing year over year at an almost 40% clip and we expect that to continue to play out through calendar year 2008.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
That was $2 million to $2.1 million per quarter for SVS you said?
Frank Mastrangelo - President
I believe that's correct yes.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Okay.
And what was the expense run rate that they were running in 2007?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
We'll get back to you on that number, I don't think that that was a number that we brought with us today.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Okay.
I guess are there any cost savings opportunities that you've identified?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Well the only cost saving that we see at the moment, and I don't think we went into this suggesting there were any cost savings other than those as a result of the lower cost of deposits and the increased business being done expanding our own base businesses such as Health Savings Accounts to 50% of their portfolio that is payroll oriented.
But we did speak about the fact that there would be a range in accretion and it has to be at the low end of that range for the first six months, because essentially the only impact you'll see would be the repayment of the highest cost deposits as they come down to the 1%.
The benefit from lending out those funds incrementally you'll see in the second half, so the accretion rate will increase but not until Q3 and 4.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Okay.
So I mean the magnitude of the margin compression that we saw this quarter, I mean 25 basis points, should not be repeated then?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
No.
And in the sense that we had -- it should not be repeated below the level at which it was, yes.
But remember we've had another rate decrease during this quarter.
We've rebalanced, we think, pretty quickly but there is, as I gave you an example, some slide in that $150 million of CDs will reprice down 120 basis points, but not on day one of the quarter.
So you'll have a little bit of lag.
What we looked at during the month of January is what the net interest margin was and on an estimated basis it's 375.
So that's before we get the benefit of the down tick in repricing the CDs.
So you know is there a little bit of room in there?
Yes.
To pick up for the quarter we think yes, and it's been a good loan production month.
But we're not through the quarter yet.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Okay.
And then just a last question on the construction portfolio, have there been kind of any restructured or renegotiated types of terms on the loans?
I mean it sounds like you continue to believe that portfolio is holding up okay, just any more detail there would be helpful.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Yes I would say no really, which doesn't mean that it might have taken somebody 90 days longer to sell the houses.
But I just don't think there's really anything major that's shifted in terms of a restructure.
I think that the obviously the down tick in interest rates makes it easier for the borrowers to make payments and that's a helpful thing, it makes it easier for the buyers to get mortgages at a low rate and that's a good thing.
So we've begun to see some up tick in momentum in terms of sales so I think all in all it's an in-balance portfolio.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Okay.
And then some of your comments at the beginning just indicated that that portfolio would be coming down in terms of dollar amount of percentage composition of the portfolio.
Is that --?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Yes, I mean, I think you've seen that we've kept it relatively flat over the last three quarters.
Really the ins and outs of it hasn't varied more than $10 million and that's really a result of when a house pays of or when you make an advance so it's essentially a flat portfolio.
I think, as I said at the beginning of the call, about a year and a half ago we began to strengthen our lending core in terms of C&I loans and focus more on income producing commercial real estate.
And so to the extent that we began our diversification early and securities backed loans you're beginning to see the rebalancing of the portfolio.
I don't think we're exiting the business, we're just looking at the business with a more jaundiced eye, as we should be.
And so I would not be surprised to find that that remains flat for a quarter or two and then trends down on a dollar basis and, as the portfolio grows, reduces as a percentage.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Okay.
All right, thank you very much.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Alper Sungur with Sidoti.
Please proceed.
Alper Sungur - Analyst
Hi, good morning.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Hi, how are you?
Alper Sungur - Analyst
Good thank you, Betsy, how are you?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Okay.
Alper Sungur - Analyst
Out of the $1.3 billion of deposits at the end of '07 how much was from affiliated companies within that?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I don't have that number right in front of me, Alper, but I will get it to you off line.
Alper Sungur - Analyst
Okay.
And also, has the buy-back program started?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
No it hasn't.
We were watching our calculations on being well capitalized in terms of the SVS acquisition and once that all settles down we'll be able to take another look.
Alper Sungur - Analyst
Okay.
Like do you have a time line when it might be starting?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
No.
Alper Sungur - Analyst
I see.
Okay thank you very much.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Brian Hagler with Kennedy Capital.
Please proceed.
Brian Hagler - Analyst
Good morning.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Hi.
Brian Hagler - Analyst
I guess a lot of my questions have been touched on but expanding on a couple, going back to the non-performing assets, I know you said that 90% plus are first residential mortgages.
What was the average LPV on those at origination roughly?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I don't want to give it to you without having it, I don't have that number in front of me.
Brian Hagler - Analyst
Okay I can --.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Yes I'll get that for you.
And you're asking at origination.
Brian Hagler - Analyst
Right.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I will absolutely get that for you.
Brian Hagler - Analyst
And can I get an update on your Private Label Banking business?
Maybe you touched on this and I missed it, but just kind of what the deposits look like in that segment maybe last quarter and into this quarter?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Sure.
I think that the summary numbers, and I did touch on it and I'd be glad to get you more detail if you'd like, but the summary numbers are at the end of Q3 of 2007 Private Label core deposits represented about 30% of our core deposits.
And as of the end of Q4 they represented about 48%.
As of the end of Q3 they represented about 14% of total deposits and at the end of Q4 about 26%.
Brian Hagler - Analyst
Okay great, I appreciate that.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
It's due to two drivers, one being Stored Value Systems and the other being Health Care.
Brian Hagler - Analyst
Okay.
I'm sorry to jump around but back to the MPAs again, what's your average first home mortgage?
I mean is it a couple hundred thousand?
I'm just trying to get a sense of how many mortgages this may represent.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
No I think that these are all jumbos.
Remember that that's essentially what we would do on our balance sheet for people because we are doing relationship lending.
Brian Hagler - Analyst
Okay.
So over the $417,000 threshold mostly on average?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I'd say over $1 million on average, Brian.
Brian Hagler - Analyst
Oh, okay.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Because otherwise it wouldn't make sense to come to us.
Brian Hagler - Analyst
Okay that's it for now, thanks.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Thank you.
Operator
You have a follow-up question from the line of James Abbott with FBR Capital Markets.
Please proceed.
James Abbott - Analyst
Yes, I warned you I'd be back.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Okay well we girded ourselves for the effort.
James Abbott - Analyst
You did build the reserve loan ratio this quarter and I was wondering if you could give us a sense as to whether you changed some factors in there, or is that a function of loans that have moved into non-performing status.
And then as you look out into the year I would imagine that every company would be building reserves, it's just from our side of the table it's a little harder to project exactly how fast that'll go, we don't know what the formulas are.
Have you looked out and do have a sense as to where they might be trending towards?
Do you think they'll be at 100 basis points by the end of the year?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I don't think they'll be at 100 basis points but I think it will be higher.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
And is that based on incoming non-performing assets?
Is that based on economic factors that you're --?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I think it's a macroeconomic analysis.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
So you wouldn't expect non-performing assets to increase going forward.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
No, I hope not, no.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
And then one other question that I had was on the client-based loans.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
On the, I'm sorry?
James Abbott - Analyst
What percentage of the loan portfolio is variable rate, prime based or LIBOR?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
The total variable, it varies between 65% and 68% pretty consistently.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
And the typical life of a CD is --.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Marty?
Marty Egan - CFO
About six months.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Six months.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
So you might have actually more compression on the margin because of the strong rate cuts then.
So the January number of 375 is probably not reflective of what it'll be for the quarter because of the mismatch on timing there for the quarter.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Well what we're saying is that we have 120 basis points, which is in excess of the rate cut, on certain portions of the deposit portfolio so it picks up a little bit of the slack.
So we're estimating for you that we can sustain the 375 over the quarter, by the end of which time, that being the end of March, we would have caught up, so to speak, in terms of balancing the portfolio.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
And the margin compression in the quarter, the 25 basis points, have you identified what was the primary source of that?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
In which quarter?
James Abbott - Analyst
I'm sorry, the fourth quarter.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
In the fourth quarter I think it was the timing of loans.
And I think on average, although you say, and I have to get back to the numbers so bear with me, Jim, just a second here, on an average basis, which is how we have to measure it, loans for the quarter were only up $25 million.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
So the timing of the loans, the lack of having them on the books for the whole quarter combined with the rate changes.
I mean it was like a three-ring circus.
James Abbott - Analyst
Okay.
All right, thank you very much again.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Okay.
Operator
You have a follow-up question from the line of Matthew Kelley with Sterne, Agee.
Please proceed.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Yes, just really trying to figure out what the next quarter is going to look like here on the expense side, I'm a little bit unclear on kind of what was driving the higher than anticipated fee income items during the quarter at $3.3 million with only a quarter worth of SVS.
Would it be fair to say that one month of SVS on the expense side could result in a full quarter's expenses of $10.5 million, $11 million for the first quarter of '08?
Is that the right ball park?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I think that's a little high.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Okay.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Yes.
But we'll get back to you with a number.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
$10 million, $11 million then?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
I mean you can use it but we can get back to you with a more precise number if you want.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
That would be helpful.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Yes that's fine.
Matthew Kelley - Analyst
Okay thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Michael Cohen with Sunova Capital.
Please proceed.
Michael Cohen - Analyst
Thank you, ma'am.
Hi Betsy.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Hi Mike.
Michael Cohen - Analyst
I'm just wondering if, I was just trying to sort of put all the puts and takes together to try to get a sense of --.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Me too.
Michael Cohen - Analyst
You know kind of where you see the run rate shaking out.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
On what ratio, Michael?
Michael Cohen - Analyst
More just on overall earnings on a quarterly basis where you think you'll end after March, given all the movements in the margin, where you think it will all add up to, given margin and then your outlook for credit being reasonably up but nothing catastrophic it doesn't sound like.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Well I can give you a data point but it doesn't have a lot of depth to it that during the month of December, which is a month in which we did experience the 25 basis point down tick but in which we had for the full month the $160 million in relatively low priced additional deposits, and in which the loans began to roll on, which is they were late and so you saw the low average but in fact they got there.
And I'll check with Marty to make sure my memory is right, the NIM for the month of December was 408.
Marty Egan - CFO
Four.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
404?
Marty Egan - CFO
Four even.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Oh four even, sorry.
So we're working our way back to the 400 basis point spread.
It's not as steady as one would like because there are ins and outs and small timing differences impact.
But is that an answer to your question?
Michael Cohen - Analyst
Yes, I mean that sort of frames the margin and I think you've kind of framed the fee income -- or let me phrase this differently.
Does the $0.20 to $0.40 benefit from the recent acquisition include the margin benefit?
Or is that just reflective of the fee income that's created?
Betsy Cohen - CEO
No I think it's an aggregate of both.
Michael Cohen - Analyst
Aggregate of both.
Okay.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
And I said further that in the first half of the year we would expect that we would only be experiencing the lower end of that range.
Michael Cohen - Analyst
Sure.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Right.
Okay.
Michael Cohen - Analyst
No, I heard that.
Thank you very much, have a great day.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Thank you, you too.
Operator
At this time there are no further questions.
I would now like to turn the call back over to Miss Betsy Cohen for closing remarks.
Betsy Cohen - CEO
Thank you.
I think with all of your good questions I really don't have any closing remarks other than to say that we're grateful for your continuing interest.
I apologize to the extent that we -- or part of it for in this macroeconomic situation.
We have our hand very firmly on the tiller, we are watching both the portfolio and the credit extensions very carefully and we are using this opportunity to pursue deposits, low-cost sticky deposits, that we think when the world rights itself will provide us with outside benefits.
So again my thanks to you and I look forward to talking with you at the end of next quarter.
Operator
Thank you for your participation in today's conference.
This concludes the presentation, you may now disconnect and have a good day.