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Operator
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the UMB second quarter earnings conference call.
At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session for analysts will follow the formal presentation.
[OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS]
It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ms. Begonya Klumb, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. Ms. Klumb, you may begin.
Begonya Klumb - Director IR
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our conference call and webcast regarding our 2006 second quarter financial results. Before we begin, let me remind you that our comments in this conference call contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in our statements made during this call.
While management of UMB believes their assumptions are reasonable, UMB cautions that material changes in interest rates, the equity market, general economic conditions as they relate to the Company's loan and fee-based customers, competition in the financial services industry, the ability to integrate acquisitions and other risks and uncertainties, which are detailed in our filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission, may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in this call. UMB has no duty to update such statements and undertakes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Right now, we hope most of you on the call or listening to the webcast have had a chance to review our earnings release dated July 25. If not, you will find it on our website at umb.com.
On the call today are Mariner Kemper, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Peter deSilva, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Michael Hagedorn, our Chief Financial Officer. The agenda for today's call is as follows. First, Mariner will highlight our results and strategies. Then Mike will review the details of our second quarter and first half results. Peter will follow with a more detailed review of operating performance against our strategies. Following that, we will be happy to answer your questions.
Now I'll turn the call over to Mariner Kemper.
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Thank you, Begonya. It's great to be with you again. Thanks for joining us today.
Following the strong performance of our first quarter, we continue to deliver solid growth in 2006. Reported earnings per share in the second quarter increased 12.9% to $0.35 per diluted share from $0.31 in the first quarter of 2005.
Year-to-date earnings increased 12.1% to $0.65 per diluted share. This improved performance is a result of our focused and disciplined approach to executing our growth strategies.
Our performance was driven by organic growth led by outstanding loan growth and solid improvement in our fee business. Also, similar to the first quarter, we continued the momentum of driving greater accountability and improved results across the organization. As always, we continue to maintain our high credit quality underwriting standards while achieving significant growth.
Through the first half of 2006, we continue to focus on our 5 key strategies. As a reminder, they are first, a focus on yield enhancement in our investment portfolio, and growth in our loan portfolio. Second, continued growth in our strong and diverse fee-based businesses. Third, optimizing our branch distribution network including investing in our retail business. Fourth, strengthening our Asset Management business, and fifth, a focus on capital management.
Let me review how we're performing against each of them. The first strategy is a focus on yield enhancement. We made progress against this in the second quarter by increasing our earning assets, as well as our margin. Average loans grew 14.6% from the same quarter last year, as a result of several factors, including more aggressive outreach efforts by our sales force, increased share of wallet from existing customers, and gaining share from our competitors. This was the seventh consecutive quarter of loan growth under penned by our commitment to high-quality lending.
Commercial loans continue to be the driver of this growth up 15.4% over the second quarter of 2005. Our credit card balances also increased up 9.2% over the second quarter of last year, and 5.5% growth over the first quarter of 2006. Our credit card business represents an area of focus, and we plan to expand our portfolio through organic growth and potentially through acquisitions.
Despite the challenging environment, especially in the Midwest, we continue to maintain a significant low-cost, non-interest bearing deposit base, which for the quarter represented 34.6% of average total deposits. Our deposit composition is well positioned as the value of non-interest bearing deposits created a higher contribution in a rising rate environment.
While maintaining our traditionally strong liquidity position, we are also improving yield by moderately extending the average life of our investment portfolio over time. Our core portfolio's average life continued to moderately expand from 33.6 months at the end of the second quarter of 2006 from 31.4 months at the end of the first quarter of this year, and 24.1 months at the end of June of 2005.
Given the flat yield curve and our current interest rate risk tolerance, the average life of our core portfolio is not expected to change in any material way going forward. We expect moderate yield enhancement to continue with more than $440 million expected to roll off of our core portfolio and 54% of our loan portfolio re-pricing during the next two quarters.
Unlike many of our competitors, our balance sheet is well positioned to benefit from rising rate environment. With rising rates, balance growth, significant non-interest bearing deposits, and our improving investment portfolio, we expect net interest margin to be a larger driver of profitability in the near term. In the second quarter of 2006, our margin increased 15 basis points due to all of these factors.
We are also striving to improve yield through a better earning asset mix. Total average loans comprised 53.5% of the earning asset base for the second quarter of 2006 compared with 50.5% for the same period in 2005.
The flipside of raising rates has been the significant increase in our interest expense. In our case, during the second quarter of 2006, interest expense related to interest bearing liabilities almost doubled compared to the same period last year. The rising rate environment, together with our competitors' need for liquidity, are increasing the cost of gathering funds. We will monitor closely the competitive pressures as we gather low-cost core deposits.
Despite these challenges, we are committed to growing both sides of the balance sheet to ensure healthy, long-term growth. Our Grab a Great Rate deposit campaign has helped us meet this objective, and we are reinvigorating our retail franchise through customer acquisition and brand awareness.
Our second strategy is to continue to grow our strong fee-based business, which in the second quarter represented approximately 55% of total revenue. Trust and card services continue to be key drivers of growth in the fee income. Peter will cover the results of our fee-based business in his comments.
Our third strategy is to optimize our distribution network including continued investment in our retail business. This strategy includes gaining share and high-growth markets where we had established proven leadership. Consistent with our strategy, in May we announced an agreement to acquire Mountain States Bank in Denver for a projected purchase price of $83 million in an all-cash deal.
At the time of our announcement, the purchase price represented 2.16 times tangible book value and a 19.4% core deposit premium. Our analysis indicates that the acquisition will be a accretive earnings in the first year following closing, which is expected this fall.
The merger will result in a combined Colorado operation of $656 million in deposits. Mountain States Bank has a similar focus on a relationship-based banking and high non-interest bearing deposit base and deep family roots and a commitment to the communities that we both serve.
Its balance sheet, business model, and corporate culture are complimentary to ours. And its key managers will help manage our combined organization to ensure an effective integration. Part of our distribution network strategy includes re-invigorating our retail franchise by adding customers and core deposits.
In the second quarter of 2006, we grew our primary retail customers by 2.8% compared to the prior period last year. Another part of this strategy is to strengthen and grow our small business products and establish UMB as a leader in this segment. In support of that we are pleased that the Small Business Administration has authorized UMB as an official preferred SBA lender. As many of you know, this designation is only granted to the most active and experienced lenders in the country and will allow us to streamline the underwriting process and provide a quicker credit decision on behalf of the SBA for long-term loans.
By building on our portfolio of banking services, UMB will strengthen its position as a leader in delivering financial support to small businesses. An additional part of our strategy is to rationalize our distribution, which should lead to greater financial contribution at the branch level.
We continue to review our branch network to ensure that we have the right number of branches to serve the communities in which we operate. During the second quarter of 2006, we opened one branch and closed two, and the total of branches now stands at 140.
We also launched a HELOC campaign in the second quarter to aggressively promote a three-year, 6.75% fixed rate in order to compliment our HELOC program and continue to innovate in the web space. We also launched www.myuglyroom.com in June. This is something I'm particularly excited about.
This online contest marketed through viral channels was designed to attract new demographic to our brand and generate awareness for our HELOC product. Consumers are invited to post their ugly room for a chance to win a $10,000 room makeover. To date we've had more than 30,000 site visits from 20 states and two countries. And we currently sit with a hundred rooms posted on the site. This type of promotion, along with our innovative podcast series, has garnered a lot of media exposure for us as an innovative company targeting today's more active online customers, in our opinion, the future of retail customer base.
Our fourth strategy is to continue to strengthen our Asset Management business. Our Scout Funds continue to grow with net flows of $171 million during the second quarter, and we're also benefiting from the integration of our wealth management and brokerage businesses.
We have added talent and leadership to our Asset Management team. In this business, you're only as good as your people, and I'm very pleased with the strength and depth of our team. Peter will cover in more detail this business in his presentation.
Our fifth strategy is a proactive approach to capital management. We believe the best way to drive this strategy is to use a combination of share repurchases, dividend payments, and acquisition. To this end, we repurchased more than 176,000 shares at an average price of $32.96 per share during the second quarter for a total cost of $5.8 million. Also, the company paid its regular quarterly dividend of $0.13 per share post-split on July 3, for a total outlay of $5.6 million.
Finally, the announcement of our acquisition of Mountain States Bank in Colorado, which I covered earlier, will help us put our capital to work and is the result of an ongoing disciplined approach to finding acquisitions that are strategic and in high growth markets and are accretive to earnings. We expect this business combination to contribute to our growth and profitability next year.
As you heard me say before, these five operational strategies serve as our roadmap to drive performance and results, and we've been sticking to those. In addition to our strategies, we are looking more closely at productivity measures, not only at the corporate level, but also at the individual and business unit levels to better evaluate organizational performance. With safety and soundness at our core, we're pleased with our results.
I'll come back to you with a few concluding remarks, but I'd like to turn it over to Mike Hagedorn for a detailed review of our second quarter financial results. Mike?
Michael Hagedorn - CFO
Thanks, Mariner, and good afternoon to everyone joining us today.
As Mariner indicated, we reported diluted EPS of $0.35 for the second quarter, up 12.9% from $0.31 per share in the prior year second quarter, primarily due to higher net interest income, non-interest income, partially offset by higher provision for loan losses and higher non-interest expense.
Net income increased to $14.9 million, an increase of 9.2% from $13.6 million in the second quarter of 2005. As we reported in prior earnings releases, non-interest income in the second quarter of 2005 included net gains of $1.2 million on the sale of branch facilities and other assets. Excluding adjustments in both periods from sales and closures of bank facilities, our 2006 second quarter net income would have increased 12.9% over the same period in 2005. A table reconciling GAAP net income for these items for both quarters can be found in our news release, which is available on our website at umb.com.
Excluding significant items in both quarters, our 2006 second quarter earnings improvement was driven by several factors including a 13.6% increase in net interest income to $53.5 million primarily due to a 14.6% increase in our average loan balances and improved yields.
Although net interest spread decreased by 19 basis points as compared to the same period in 2005, net interest margin increased 15 basis points due to the contribution of non-interest bearing demand deposits, which become more valuable in a rising-rate environment.
Compared to the same quarter a year ago, loan interest income increased 34.1% to $57.5 million, but a 27.1% increase in securities interest income also contributed to the improvement. The investment portfolio yield increased 107 basis points over the second quarter in 2005, represent -- finishing the period at 4.28%.
Despite the growth in interest expense, our net interest margin is benefiting as our loans and investment portfolio re-price. During the remaining two quarters of 2006, we expect $440 million in core portfolio securities to roll off at an average yield of 343. The scale of yield improvement through reinvestment of this cash flow will depend on the yield curve, as well as our investment purchase decisions over the coming months.
Non-interest income increased 5.1% to $65.7 million in the second quarter of 2006. This year-over-year gain was driven primarily by increases in trust and securities processing and Bankcard income.
The 2006 second quarter results included a $5 million or 25.2% increase in trust and securities processing income primarily due to a $1.7 billion increase in net assets in the UMB Scout Funds.
Non-interest expense increased 6.1% or $5.5 million compared with the same quarter in 2005. The increase was primarily the result of higher equipment costs, processing fees, and other expenses detailed in our press release. The higher equipment costs are primarily related to the completion of several large investments during the second quarter. Examples of these investments include Web Exchange, our online banking service for businesses, Client View, our customer relationship tool, and an improved umb.com website which were operational during the second quarter. The processing fees were mostly due to fees related to the flows and to our Scout Funds.
Credit quality ratios in the second quarter of 2006 reflected UMB's continued strong commitment to high quality lending. Non-performing loans at June 30, 2006, totaled $13.4 million or 0.37% of loans compared to $13.1 million or 0.41% in the same period last year.
Net loan charge-offs for the quarter totaled $1.6 million, or less than 0.05% of average total loans, compared with $1.9 million, or 0.06% of average total loans, for the prior year second quarter.
Turning the year-to-date, diluted EPS of $0.65 increased 12.1% compared with $0.58 for the first six months of 2005. This is based on net income of $28.1 million compared with $25.2 million for the same period last year.
Excluding certain items in both years, net gains and losses related to the sales and closures of banking facilities, the sale of employee benefit accounts, and charges related to voluntary separation plan, our net interest income would have increased 19.1%. A table reconciling GAAP net income for these items for both quarters can be found in our news release, which is available on our website at umb.com.
Our 2006 first half earnings improvement was driven by higher income from trust and securities processing, advisory fees, and Bankcard volumes. These favorable results were offset by decreases in deposit service charges and gains recognized in the same period in 2005.
Net interest margin was 3.33% for the 2006 six-month year-to-date compared with 3.12% for the same period in 2005.
Turning to the balance sheet, our solid earning asset growth for the second quarter was driven primarily by loan growth. At the end of June, loan balances totaled $3.6 billion, compared with $3.2 billion a year ago.
Average total loans grew 14.6%, driven by a 21.8% increase in average commercial and industrial loans. This growth is attributed to a continued focus on sales throughout the organization, the incentive compensation plans implemented for commercial loan officers last year, an increased loan demand, and market share gains.
Compared to the second quarter of 2005, average total deposits grew 9.5% to $477 million. The second quarter average loan to deposit ratio was 64.1% for the current period, compared to 61.3% last year. Our ratio of average loans as a percent of earning assets also continued to increase 53.5% through the second quarter from 50.6% in the same period last year.
Return on average equity and return on average assets increased during the second quarter to 7.15% and 0.8%, compared to 6.59% and 0.79% respectively for the second quarter of 2005.
Finally, capital ratios remain strong with tier 1, total capital, and leverage ratios at 15.4%, 16.2%, and 10.8% respectively.
With that I'll turn it over to Peter for some comments on our operating performance.
Peter deSilva - President and COO
Thank you, Mike. Let me add my welcome to all of you today. I'd like to start by spending just a few minutes talking about our strategy to grow our fee business.
UMB has become one of the pre-eminent banks in the healthcare services industry along with a few large national banks. From the second quarter of 2006, our healthcare services division continued to see fast growth of accounts, cards, and deposits with more than $60 million in bank deposits and mutual fund assets. This is more than double the same period in 2005 and a 16.2% growth over the first quarter of this year.
The number of HSA and FSA debit cards is also experiencing significant growth with more than 245,000 cards issued at the end of the second quarter of 2006 or more than 200% growth over the prior year.
Our credit card business represents the second of our fee business strategies and has also delivered strong fee income during the second quarter of this year with more than 16% growth over the prior period -- prior year. The strong growth is primarily driven by our commercial and private label credit card programs where cardholder volume increased 25% and 28% respectively over the same period last year.
We are committed to growing our credit card business and recently hired a consultant to help us increase activation and penetration of our existing customer base, as well as to evaluate potential acquisitions.
The third strategy to grow our fee business is treasury management. During the second quarter, we launched Web Exchange, our online banking tool that provides as secure, efficient method for businesses to manage online banking services. We have stepped up our investment in building this front-end technology, and we will be releasing additional enhancements to provide our customers with cutting edge functionality to save them time and money and to provide us with a unique competitive advantage.
Also as part of our commitment to helping our customers migrate from paper payment methods to electronic solutions, we launched remote deposit functionality during the second quarter.
Next, I'd like to comment on our strategy to grow our Asset Management businesses. We advanced this strategy in the quarter with the addition of Clyde Wendel as President of UMB Asset Management. Clyde was most recently President of the Kansas City Region and Regional Executive for Bank of America's private bank. He brings more than 36 years of banking and financial services experience to UMB. As such, we expect Clyde to provide the leadership as we continue to aggressively grow our Asset Management businesses.
In addition to growing our fee business, we continue to focus on improving operating efficiencies and cost management. As Mariner referenced earlier, we have a renewed focus to improve productivity across the organization. We evaluate productivity measures on a full-time equivalent and branch basis for our lines of businesses and regions, and we are seeing nice improvement.
As an example, during the second quarter, average loans per FTE increased 15.2% to $1 million. Average deposits per FTE increased 10.1% to $1.6 million, and finally, non-interest income per FTE increased 5.6% to just over $19,000.
Also our efficiency ratio in the second quarter improved to 78.25% from 80.23% during the same period last year.
Another area of significant focus is risk management. I'm pleased to report that we have successfully implemented a state of the art, enterprise-wide risk management process and system that is providing UMB with a holistic solution to assess, quantify, prioritize, and track accountability and resolution of risk.
The implementation of this system met an ambitious deadline, and we expect that it will help us manage our business better by focusing management resources on the areas that represent the greatest risks.
And finally, we are effectively wrapping up several major technology investments to better satisfy our customers and increase our share of market and wallet. Web Exchange, remote deposit capture, ClientLink, and our new website are examples of how we're positioning UMB to improve profitability and better compete in the marketplace.
With that, let me turn it back to Mariner for some concluding remarks. Mariner?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Thanks, Peter. I'll conclude our remarks by simply stating that I'm pleased with our team's execution of our five key strategies for growth this quarter and the progress we have made since we started implementing these strategies over year ago. We remain focused on asset quality, improving productivity, and profitably growing both sides of our balance sheet, and our success would not be possible without our investments in people and technology, which are helping us drive performance throughout the organization and deliver on the unparalleled customer experience, with the being italicized.
I am optimistic about the opportunities to leverage our franchise and deliver for our shareholders on a go-forward basis. With that, I'll turn it back over to the conference call operator to open the session up for questions. And thank you very much for your time.
Operator
[OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS.]
Your first question comes from the line of Peyton Green with FTN Midwest Securities. Please state your question.
Peyton Green - Analyst
Hi. Good afternoon. Just a couple questions. One, I was wondering if you all could comment on your outlook for loan growth? It's certainly been very good and particularly good across the C&I piece of the business. But how do you feel? What are your customers telling you about the economy that gives you optimism?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Good afternoon, Peyton. How are you this afternoon?
Peyton Green - Analyst
I'm doing great. Thank you.
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
This is Mariner. Well, we obviously, as you know from previous conversations, we can't give a whole lot of specific guidance; however, our pipeline looks solid. Our offices are telling us that the customer base and prospects have deeper backlogs and the demand within the pipeline seems strong.
Peyton Green - Analyst
Okay. Great. And then there was a pretty good jump in other non-interest expense and then also the equipment line, and I have to imagine that was related to the three major initiatives with the CRM, the cash management, and the Internet rollouts in the quarter. But how much of that stays as a run rate, and how much of it is more one-time in nature?
Michael Hagedorn - CFO
Yes, Peyton, it's Mike Hagedorn. Good afternoon. Most of it is going to stay because this is depreciation, so you're talking about projects that have million-dollar price tags on them, and the depreciation expense will continue for a while.
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
There is some net against that at some level because we do have some projects rolling off all the time also.
Peyton Green - Analyst
Yes. Yes. But I guess my question - well, was there anything that was maybe legacy that was written off because it's being replaced that won't recur?
Michael Hagedorn - CFO
No, but to the point that Mariner raised, we do have a new model inside the company to help us manage older legacy projects as they come off depreciation, not being retired necessarily, but they come off the depreciation schedule, so we can actively manage our depreciation expense.
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Yes, I would just add, Peyton, we're very focused on making sure that we've got a good handle on what our current depreciation schedule carries so that we're not over-investing as we go forward.
Peyton Green - Analyst
Okay. And then what component of the personnel was incentive-based?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
You asking about the expense, Peyton? Or just -?
Peyton Green - Analyst
Yes. I mean the expense was very well managed year-over-year and late quarter, but is there a higher percentage of the overall personnel number that is incentive based in nature compared to - oh, in the past I don't think it ever was really incentive based.
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Well, pretty simply put, obviously without having them over a year ago, certainly we're a - a portion of the overall compensation is higher in the incentive compensation area, but we've also been able to manage the fixed costs at the same time -- better than we had in the past without the incentives.
Peter deSilva - President and COO
Yes, a couple thoughts on that Peyton - it's Peter. As you know, we've put our short and long-term incentive programs in place over the last 24 months, and those are proving very beneficial in terms of executive recruitment, retention, and some of the business results I think you're looking at.
We've added a number of new incentive compensation programs in our commercial area, our wealth management area, and I can tell you that almost every employee in this company now has some component of their compensation that can be variable in nature, including even operations resources if they perform at a certain level.
So, as a percentage of our overall compensation expense, it has gone up - our variable piece related to incentives, but I think you're seeing the results of that, I hope, on the bottom line.
Peyton Green - Analyst
Okay. Great. Thank you very much.
Peter deSilva - President and COO
Thanks, Peyton.
Operator
Your next question comes from Troy Ward of A.G. Edwards. Please state your question.
Troy Ward - Analyst
Yes. Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Unidentified Speakers
Good afternoon.
Troy Ward - Analyst
Quick question, Mariner. You made a comment about hiring personnel to focus - I think you had a couple hats, but one of them was definitely M&A. Is that someone you have hired or are looking to hire?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Oh, we have on the payroll currently a - I don't know what you call it, surrogate CEO, surrogate President, if you will. We got a consultant on the books to help really realign our credit card business more strategically. It is a very solid business, but I wanted it to perform more strategically within the overall balance sheet. And so it's marketing, it's sales, it's activation, it's acquisitions, all of those things.
Troy Ward - Analyst
There's somebody on a - it's a consultant basis?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Currently we are looking to make that arrangement, either with him or with someone else more permanent - or permanent I should say. You can't make something more permanent can you - to make that permanent.
Troy Ward - Analyst
So, from a strategic standpoint, you still see the credit card business as a core strategic part of UMB?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Yes, and then let me - obviously it's a maturing business at the industry level. But for - if you take our per branch, per customer, our footprint, we don't have our share of that business. So we think there are pretty significant legs on the business, and I think the way you probably are thinking about it, you're thinking about it largely at the retail level, and there are several other legs to that business that we have a foothold in, such as the institutional or the purchasing card business, the private label business, the small business credit card, the commercial credit card, all areas where we've just barely touched our - what we perceive to be our share of those markets.
Troy Ward - Analyst
But your analysis is to keep all of that in-house versus outsourcing?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Definitely.
Peter deSilva - President and COO
Correct.
Michael Hagedorn - CFO
Yes.
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
We've proven to ourselves that we can be very successful running that. It's a very scalable business. The systems are very scalable and doesn't require a lot of overhead.
Troy Ward - Analyst
Okay. And then further on M&A, just quickly, how was the Mountain States acquisition sourced? Meaning, was it an auction or through a relationship?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
It's kind of a combination. St. Charles is a Rocky Mountain region investment banker and I've developed a relationship with them, which allowed us to be closer to them as they developed that list. And I also personally had a relationship with the management of the bank. And the bank actually gave the investment banking firm a list of banks they wanted to talk to, and we were one of them. So it was a combination. It was a competitive bidding process.
Troy Ward - Analyst
But it was a limited audience?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Yes.
Troy Ward - Analyst
Okay. And, Mariner, could you just compare and contrast maybe a little bit, give us some color on the three major markets with St. Louis, KC, and your Colorado markets? Where do you see the most potential for growth, both organic and potentially through acquisition?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Can you repeat that?
Troy Ward - Analyst
Just give us a little color on how you view your key markets and what is the potential for organic growth versus M&A?
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Okay. Well, certainly one of the things we're very excited about as a team is exactly that, that we have tremendous opportunity across our footprint. St. Louis is a city that's as big, if not a little bit larger, than Kansas City. Denver is approximately the same size as Kansas City, but Denver and St. Louis, by any measure, are both larger than Kansas City, but they're all relatively in the same size.
If we were able to over the near future garner a similar market share that we have in Kansas City in those two markets, you can only imagine what that would make our balance sheet look like. So we are definitely looking to St. Louis and Denver, and really all of our markets, but as it relates to population and population growth is, as you can tell, those are two major markets. We're just now entering Phoenix, and that's bigger than any of the three of those markets.
We've got a foothold in Oklahoma, and between Oklahoma City and Tulsa that's a market about the same size as Kansas City.
And so you can see there's pretty significant leverage opportunity for our operation, and so we'll be focused on talent and going to market in each of those places based on what our current branch distribution model is, and what we think we can - whether we think we can do retail or more of a commercial approach in any of those markets based on our current retail distribution.
I don't know if that answers your question or if either of you want to add --?
Peter deSilva - President and COO
I just had a point, Mariner.
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Please.
Peter deSilva - President and COO
This is Peter. One of the things we - that's core to our strategy is to gain market share in the markets that we're already in. And even in our M&A - thinking around M&A, it's probably going to be more heavily concentrated in markets where we already exist, where we have brand equity, where we have distribution, where we have people, as opposed to going into markets necessarily where we have none of that to start with.
So gaining market share in our three principal metro markets, four if you include Phoenix, is absolute core to the strategy of the organization.
Troy Ward - Analyst
Great. Thanks, Peter.
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Penetration over expansion. Definitely.
Troy Ward - Analyst
Great. Thanks, guys.
Operator
[OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS.]
There are no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Begonya Klumb for any closing remarks.
Begonya Klumb - Director IR
Well, thank you very much for your interest in UMB. The call can be accessed via replay at our website beginning in about two hours, and it will run through August 25. And as always, you can contact UMB Investor Relations with any follow-up questions by calling 816-860-7906. Again, we appreciate your interest and time.
Mariner Kemper - Chairman and CEO
Thank you, all.
Michael Hagedorn - CFO
Thank you.
Begonya Klumb - Director IR
Thank you.
Peter deSilva - President and COO
Thank you.
Operator
This concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.