WaFd Inc (WAFDP) 2007 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the First Mutual Bancshares' conference call. [OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS.] This conference is being recorded today, Wednesday, April 25th, 2007.

女士們、先生們，早安。 感謝您的支持。 歡迎參加 First Mutual Bancshares 的電話會議。 [操作員指示。 ]本次會議將於今天，即 2007 年 4 月 25 日星期三進行錄音。

I would now like to turn the conference over to John Valaas, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

現在，我想將會議交給執行長約翰·瓦拉斯 (John Valaas)。 先生，請繼續。

Thank you, Heidi. Good morning, everybody. I'll begin by reading our forward-looking statements disclaimer.

謝謝你，海蒂。 大家早安。 我將首先宣讀我們的前瞻性聲明免責聲明。

This presentation may include some statements regarding the Company's trends, objectives, anticipated growth, credit quality, and other expectations which will be forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor Provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in this presentation.

本簡報可能包含一些關於公司趨勢、目標、預期成長、信用品質和其他預期的陳述，這些陳述將根據 1995 年私人證券訴訟改革法案的安全港條款構成前瞻性陳述。多種風險和不確定因素的影響，可能導致實際結果與本報告中表達或暗示的結果有重大差異。

Additional information concerning the risks and uncertainties are discussed from time to time in filings made by the Company with the Securities & Exchange Commission. These risks and uncertainties should be considered in evaluating forward-looking statements and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. The Company does not have any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.

本公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中不時討論有關風險和不確定性的更多資訊。 在評估前瞻性陳述時應考慮這些風險和不確定性，且不應過度依賴此類陳述。 本公司沒有義務更新任何此類前瞻性陳述。

Well, as I said, good morning. Also with me this morning are Roger Mandery, our Chief Financial Officer, Scott Harlan, Executive Vice President and Head of Residential and Consumer Lending, Justin Haley, Vice President and Head of our Sales Finance area, and Charles Smith, Vice President and Financial Analyst.

好吧，正如我所說，早上好。 今天早上與我一起的還有我們的財務長 Roger Mandery、執行副總裁兼住宅和消費者貸款主管 Scott Harlan、副總裁兼銷售財務部門主管 Justin Haley 以及副總裁兼財務分析師 Charles Smith 。

Let me just begin by making a few comments on the press release. It is two to three pages longer than -- and we're known for the length of our press releases -- but it is two to three pages longer than we've historically issued at the quarter, and that's because we've inserted some additional information, which I think you'll find useful on the composition of our loan portfolios, particularly in Sales Finance and the Residential area, including the percentage of our portfolio balances ranked by credit score range, and I draw those to your attention, when you have the time to read that.

首先，我來就這份新聞稿發表幾點評論。 我們以新聞稿篇幅長而聞名，但它比我們本季度以往發布的新聞稿長了兩到三頁，這是因為我們插入了一些附加信息，我認為您會發現關於我們貸款組合的構成，特別是在銷售融資和住宅領域的組成，包括按信用評分範圍排名的投資組合餘額百分比，我提請您注意，當您有時間閱讀該內容。

Let's begin by talking a little bit about the quarter and the Bank, and then I'd like to finish by talking about the regional economy here, which is just incredibly strong. As you can see from the press release, $0.39 a share versus $0.40 a share a year ago, aided by mark-to-market gains. We did early adopt SFAS 159 and 157, so pretax mark-to market gains of about $447,000.

我們先來談談本季和銀行的情況，然後我想最後談談這裡的區域經濟，這裡的經濟非常強勁。 從新聞稿中可以看出，受市價上漲推動，每股收益為 0.39 美元，去年同期為 0.40 美元。 我們確實早期採用了 SFAS 159 和 157，因此稅前以市價計算的收益約為 447,000 美元。

Credit quality, credit quality is very good. NPAs as a percent of our total assets dropped to 19 basis points, down from 32 basis points at yearend. Modestly increased our loan loss reserves as a percent of gross loans, up from 1.11% at yearend to 1.13% at the end of the first quarter.

信用質量，信用品質非常好。 不良資產佔總資產的百分比從年底的 32 個基點下降到 19 個基點。 適度增加了貸款損失準備金佔總貸款的百分比，從年底的1.11％上升至第一季末的1.13％。

I would point out in the press release, where we're talking about our nonperforming assets, we talk about an $825,000 loan in Oregon that we're carrying as a nonperforming asset, residential loan, and we noted in the press release that it was current. I found out late yesterday that the last payment did not clear the bank. We are very well secured on that loan, and we will be taking fairly decisive action on that. But, anyway, no expectation of loss on that loan.

我想在新聞稿中指出，我們在談論不良資產時，我們談到了俄勒岡州一筆 825,000 美元的貸款，我們將其列為不良資產，即住宅貸款，我們在新聞稿中指出，這是當前的。 我昨天晚些時候發現最後一筆付款沒有通過銀行清算。 我們對這筆貸款的擔保非常牢固，我們將對此採取相當果斷的行動。 但無論如何，預計這筆貸款不會虧損。

I want to talk a little bit about the drivers of core income. Net interest margin declined 5 basis points, down to 3.73% from where we were at yearend. Loans declined about 3% from yearend, and deposits declined about 4% from yearend. We're very pleased with the continued shift in the mix of deposits that we have. CDs are down to about 57% now of our deposit base.

我想稍微談談核心收入的驅動因素。 淨利差較年底下降5個基點，至3.73%。 貸款較年末下降約3%，存款較年末下降約4%。 我們對存款組合的持續轉變感到非常高興。 目前，存單在我們的存款基礎中所佔比例已降至約 57%。

Noninterest income was up 31% from the fourth quarter of 2006. Loan portfolio mix, it's outlined in the press release, but just briefly, single family, these are our nonconforming [prem] loans, they're now 29% of the portfolio, up just a tiny bit from the end of the year. Income property down to 27% of the portfolio. It continues its decline. I would point out that about five years ago income property was about 65% of the portfolio. We continue to shift that mix, and that's declined in significance in our loan portfolio.

非利息收入比2006 年第四季度增長了31%。 %，較年底僅略有上漲。 收益型房地產佔投資組合的比重降至27%。 它還在繼續衰落。 我想指出的是，大約五年前，收益性房地產約佔投資組合的 65%。 我們繼續改變這種結構，其在我們的貸款組合中的重要性已經下降。

Business banking, up to 18% of the portfolio, a focus of our growth, and that's up from 16% at yearend and 14% of the portfolio a year ago.

商業銀行業務佔投資組合的比例高達 18%，是我們成長的重點，這一比例高於年底的 16% 和一年前 14%。

In the construction arena, again, changes from yearend, commercial construction at 5% of the portfolio, same as at the end of 2006. Single family spec down slightly, single family speculative construction loans down to 3% of the portfolio. Custom construction loans, those are single family custom loans down to 7% of the portfolio and consumer loans stayed unchanged at 11%.

在建築領域，與年底相比，商業建築佔投資組合的 5%，與 2006 年底相同。 客製化建築貸款，即單戶客製化貸款，佔投資組合的 7%，而消費貸款維持不變，為 11%。

I want to just talk briefly about the direction that we're taking in terms of where we're focusing our loan growth. We are not, we are not chasing after construction and land development loans. We have an active presence in custom construction, very different in our view from single family spec construction. We're not chasing particularly spec construction or land development loans. We have a [coterie] of builders that we deal with that are very, very strong, very good, that are in the single family spec arena, but that is not a big focus or growth area for, for this Bank.

我想簡單談談我們在貸款成長方面的重點方向。 我們不是，我們不是追逐建築和土地開發貸款。 我們積極參與客製化建築業務，在我們看來，這與單一家庭規格建築有很大不同。 我們不追求特定的建築或土地開發貸款。 我們與一些建築商打交道，他們都非常非常強大，非常優秀，專注於單戶住宅規格領域，但這並不是我們銀行的重點關注領域或成長領域。

We, again, are very focused on building the C&I portfolio, both from the point of view of the yields on the loans they get. They typically tend to still be priced at prime plus something, usually prime plus a half, prime plus a 1 on the lines of credit. And, of course, the deposits that we get from those business customers are very important to us.

我們再次非常注重建立 C&I 投資組合，無論是從他們獲得的貸款收益率的角度來看。 它們的定價通常仍為信用額度上最優惠利率加 1%，通常是最優惠利率加 50%，最優惠利率加 1。 當然，從這些商業客戶那裡獲得的存款對我們來說非常重要。

Local economy, very, very, very strong. Now, this doesn't solve the margin issues that we and many of our peers have, but I would say all in all this is probably one of the best regional economies in the U.S.

當地經濟非常非常強勁。 現在，這並不能解決我們和許多同行所面臨的利潤問題，但我想說總的來說，這可能是美國最好的區域經濟之一。

Microsoft just announced that it is taking 1.3 million square feet of new office space in Bellevue, right here in Bellevue. They will be adding 4,000 employees into that space, and that comes on top of 317,000 square feet that they have already taken down and will be moving into in July, here in downtown Bellevue, and that's about 1,400 new employees.

微軟剛剛宣布將在貝爾維尤租用 130 萬平方英尺的新辦公空間。 他們將在這個空間增加 4,000 名員工，在此之前，他們已經拆除了位於貝爾維尤市中心的 317,000 平方英尺的空間，並將於 7 月搬入，這意味著大約有 1,400 名新員工。

So, all told, Microsoft is adding about 1.6 million square feet of office space in Bellevue and about 5,000 employees in Bellevue. I would point out that the majority of their employees live here on the east side. And, just as an aside, Microsoft has about 40,000 employees, including contract employees here in the Puget Sound area, but the vast majority of those work here on the east side.

因此，總而言之，微軟在貝爾維尤增加了約 160 萬平方英尺的辦公空間，並在貝爾維尤增加了約 5,000 名員工。 我想指出的是，他們的大多數員工都住在東區。 順便說一句，微軟在普吉特海灣地區擁有約 4 萬名員工，包括合約工，但絕大多數員工都在東區工作。

Boeing, Boeing continues to do very well. They, they are not adding to the employment roles as impressively as, say, Microsoft is, but nonetheless they are adding employees and they continue to add orders for the 787 Dreamliner, which is -- has its final assembly here in Everett, in Sonoma County, just north of us.

波音，波音持續表現良好。 他們沒有像微軟那樣令人印象深刻地增加就業崗位，但他們仍在增加員工，並繼續增加 787 夢想飛機的訂單，該飛機的總裝在埃弗雷特和索諾瑪進行。北邊。

A little bit about the residential real estate market. Home prices in King and Sonoma County up in marks. They were stable in January and February. The single family residential inventory supply declined in March for King, Sonoma and Pierce County. In fact, inventory has declined steadily since January in all three of those Counties. As a reminder for those of you who are not familiar with the geography, Bellevue and Seattle are in King County, Sonoma County is the County immediately to the north of us, Pierce County is the County immediately to the south of us. All three of those counties have had declines in months of inventory on the market since January.

簡單介紹一下住宅房地產市場。 金縣和索諾瑪縣的房價大幅上漲。 一月和二月情況穩定。 3月份，金縣、索諾瑪縣和皮爾斯縣的獨戶住宅庫存供應下降。 事實上，自一月份以來，這三個縣的庫存一直在穩步下降。 提醒那些不熟悉地理的人，貝爾維尤和西雅圖位於金縣，索諾瑪縣是我們正北的縣，皮爾斯縣是我們正南的縣。 自一月份以來，這三個縣的市場庫存月數均有所下降。

Also, on multifamily, apartment vacancies in King County are at 3.9% overall, and rents are up about 8% a year ago, so the housing market continues fairly strong. I don't think it's a -- I wouldn't characterize it as a bubble. And on the multifamily side it also continues to be very strong.

此外，就多戶住宅而言，金縣公寓空置率整體為 3.9%，租金比去年同期上漲了約 8%，因此房地產市場持續保持強勁。 我不認為這是一個——我不會將其描述為泡沫。 在多戶型住宅方面，其表現也持續十分強勁。

I'll wrap-up at this point with just some concluding comments. Obviously, as you can see, the margin pressure continues. We are staying focused on being disciplined, and what we add in terms of loans, trying to stay very focused on long-term credit quality of the institution. Very pleased with the growth in business banking. Credit quality, as I said, is excellent and, again, we, we really think we're in one of the best regional economies in the U.S.

我將就此結束我的演講，並做一些總結性的評論。 顯然，正如您所看到的，利潤壓力仍在持續。 我們將繼續注重紀律，並在貸款方面增加內容，並努力高度關注機構的長期信用品質。 對商業銀行業務的成長感到非常高興。 正如我所說，信用品質非常優秀，而且我們真的認為我們處於美國最好的區域經濟體之一。

At that point, I will stop and be glad to respond to any questions.

此時，我會停下來並很樂意回答任何問題。

[OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS.]

[操作員指令。

Our first question comes from Louis Feldman with Punk, Ziegel & Co. Please go ahead.

我們的第一個問題來自 Punk, Ziegel & Co. 的 Louis Feldman。

Good morning.

早安.

Good morning, Lou.

早安，盧。

How much are you attributing the deposit decline to the seasonal factor? I mean certainly you touched on, you know, April you see an outflow for tax purposes, but how much of that is flowing elsewhere on overall deposit costs or price, pricing competition?

您認為存款下降在多大程度上是季節性因素造成的？ 我當然提到了這一點，你知道，四月你看到了稅收方面的資金流出，但其中有多少流向了其他地方，例如整體存款成本或價格、定價競爭？

Well, we are, we are steering away from renewing CDs. The deposit market is still very competitive here. We have several local competitors offering one-year CDs of 5.35%. We are, we're not offering those rates, we do not intend to offer those rates. We're managing the growth of the loan portfolio, so our objective is to run-off to the extent we can CDs and wholesale funds, so planning those with transaction accounts.

嗯，我們正在避免更新 CD。 這裡的存款市場競爭仍然非常激烈。 我們有幾個本地競爭對手提供 5.35% 的一年期 CD。 我們不會提供這些利率，我們也不打算提供這些利率。 我們正在管理貸款組合的成長，因此我們的目標是盡可能減少 CD 和批發資金，從而規劃那些擁有交易帳戶的資金。

You know, I would and I think we've pointed this out in the press release, right now transaction accounts, particularly money market accounts aren't particularly cheap. They're certainly cheaper, less expensive than CDs, and I think over time as the yield curve resumes a more normal shape we'll be very glad we have those accounts. But we are not aggressively courting the CD customer who comes in and is shopping rates with half a dozen other banks.

你知道，我想我們已經在新聞稿中指出了這一點，目前交易帳戶，特別是貨幣市場帳戶並不是特別便宜。 它們肯定比 CD 更便宜，而且我認為隨著時間的推移，隨著收益率曲線恢復更正常的形狀，我們會很高興我們擁有這些帳戶。 但我們並沒有積極爭取那些來與其他六家銀行比較利率的 CD 客戶。

Well, I mean I kind of figured that, but in terms -- I mean I guess what I'm looking at more in terms of are you seeing people that have had, you know, noninterest bearing or a NOW account moving funds to money market accounts or saying that they're moving from you to another bank for money market account transaction accounts?

嗯，我的意思是我有點明白了，但就這一點而言——我的意思是，我想我更關注的是，你是否看到人們透過無息帳戶或 NOW 帳戶將資金轉移到現金市場帳戶，或者說他們正在將貨幣市場帳戶交易帳戶從您的帳戶轉移到另一家銀行？

No, I don't think we're seeing any of that movement. What the movement we're seeing is really just the, the rate shopper on the CD side. And, by the way, we have -- obviously, if we have a relationship with the customer who has a CD, a relationship in the sense that we've got loan balances and transaction accounts, as well, we will be aggressive in hanging on to that relationship. What we're not interested in hanging on to is the solo rate shopper who is only shopping around a CD.

不，我認為我們沒有看到任何這樣的動靜。 我們看到的動向其實只是 CD 方面的利率購物者。 順便說一句，我們——顯然，如果我們與擁有 CD 的客戶有關係，這種關係意味著我們也有貸款餘額和交易帳戶，那麼我們將積極地建立這種關係。 我們不想留住那些只購買 CD 的單獨費率購物者。

Okay. And then you, you touched a bit on business banking, but there was no paragraph on that within the press release in terms of what you're doing, what line usage is like, things like that. Can you give us a little color on that?

好的。 然後，您稍微談到了商業銀行業務，但是新聞稿中沒有提到您正在做的事情、線路使用情況如何等等。 您能給我們稍微解釋一下嗎？

Well, it's pretty hard to comment on line usage. It tends to decline a little bit in the winter, you know, depending on the type of business. For example, contractors tend to use their lines very little in the, in the winter season. As the construction season starts to pick-up, they pick-up the usage of the lines. So, you know, the line usage factors I think are more driven by seasonal factors than anything else, and we generally expect to see a little bit of a pick-up, you know, in the second and third quarters of the year.

嗯，很難評論線路使用情況。 你知道，根據業務類型，冬季的時候這個數字往往會略有下降。 例如，承包商在冬季往往很少使用他們的線路。 隨著施工季節的到來，他們也增加了線路的使用量。 所以，我認為線路使用率因素更受季節性因素的影響，而不是其他因素，我們普遍預期在今年第二季和第三季會出現一定程度的回升。

Is that, is that what's leading you to your guidance of the increase in outstandings for second quarter, in part?

這是否是導致您預期第二季未償還債務將增加的部分原因？

Well, I would say our expectations are primary that where we're going to see growth is going to be in the business banking area.

嗯，我想說我們的主要預期是，我們將看到的成長將出現在商業銀行領域。

Okay. I'll step back. Thank you.

好的。 我就退後一步。 謝謝。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jim Bradshaw with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Jim Bradshaw。戴維森。 請繼續。

Good morning. Thank you.

早安. 謝謝。

Hi, Jim.

你好，吉姆。

Good morning, Jim.

早安，吉姆。

Hi, John. Roger. My question is about the $87 million portfolio that's in trading now. I notice that you're, you're planning to hedge it. And I thought I'd sort of take a crack at trying to figure out what the mark-to-market might be each quarter. So, with that in mind, I wondered what, what hedging instruments you're thinking about using to, to match that portfolio?

你好，約翰。 收到。 我的問題是關於目前正在交易的 8700 萬美元的投資組合。 我注意到你正計劃對其進行對沖。 我想我應該嘗試弄清楚每個季度的市價是多少。 所以，考慮到這一點，我想知道您正在考慮使用什麼對沖工具來匹配該投資組合？

We think we've found a pretty good match in Brazilian bonds. No, just kidding, Jim.

我們認為，巴西債券是我們的一個很好的選擇。 不，只是開玩笑，吉姆。

Hi, Jim. It's Roger. This -- our second choice, though, is -- it appears to be interest rate swaps, setting kind of a base in interest rate swaps, and then using some type of options on swaps to manage the risk in terms of rising and falling rates when we experience convexity and prepayments. So that's our -- that's kind of our current approach at this point in time.

你好，吉姆。 是羅傑。 不過，我們的第二選擇似乎是利率互換，在利率互換中設定某種基礎，然後使用某種互換期權來管理利率上升和下降的風險當我們經歷凸性和預付款時。 這就是我們目前的做法。

About what's the duration in the, the weighted average coupon of that portfolio?

該投資組合的加權平均票面利率約為多少？

Jeez, we haven't -- I know what the number is but we haven't disclosed it, so I guess I probably should pass on that question at this point in time.

天哪，我們還沒有——我知道這個數字是多少，但我們還沒有透露，所以我想我現在應該不再問這個問題。

Okay, okay. That's it for me.

好的，好的。 對我來說就是這樣了。

That's not a satisfying answer, I --

這不是一個令人滿意的答案，我——

It isn't. I'll, I'll see if I can comb through your, your K and get a guess at least on it. Appreciate it, guys. Thanks.

事實並非如此。 我會看看是否可以梳理你的 K 並至少對此做出猜測。 感謝你們，夥計們。 謝謝。

Okay. Thanks, Jim.

好的。 謝謝，吉姆。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Sara Hasan with McAdams Wright Ragen. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 下一個問題來自 McAdams Wright Ragen 的 Sara Hasan。 請繼續。

Hi, all, good morning.

大家好，早安。

Hi, Sara.

你好，薩拉。

Hi, Sara.

你好，薩拉。

Just a couple of quick questions. I'm not sure if you mentioned this before, how many basis points of improvement, and then net interest margin guidance is attributable to the balance sheet restructuring? It would be [inaudible?]

只想問幾個簡單的問題。 我不確定您之前是否提到過這一點，那麼淨利差指引有多少基點的改善可以歸因於資產負債表重組？ 這將是 [聽不清楚？

Sara, it's Roger. Not a lot of it is due to the -- if you're thinking of the SFAS 91 -- I'm sorry, the SFAS 159 adoption, it's more due to the fact that we had a big runoff in time deposits in first quarter and we had some improvement, I think about $11 million, in transaction accounts. And that kind of mix sort of sets a little better funding base than we saw in first quarter, so that sort of sets the stage for second quarter, so we're hoping for a little improvement in the margin because of that.

莎拉，我是羅傑。 這在很大程度上並不是由於——如果您考慮的是 SFAS 91——抱歉，SFAS 159 的採用，更多的是因為我們在第一季的定期存款大幅減少我們的交易帳戶也有一些改善，大概有1100 萬美元。 這種組合比我們在第一季看到的融資基礎要好一些，為第二季奠定了基礎，因此我們希望利潤率能有所提高。

Okay. And then, an additional question, did you see any demand, change in demand in the secondary market for your Sales Finance product in the quarter?

好的。 然後，還有一個問題，您是否看到本季二級市場對您的銷售融資產品的需求有任何變化？

I'm sorry, you cut out at the very beginning of the question, can you repeat it?

抱歉，您在問題一開始就打斷了，能再說一次嗎？

Yes, did you see any change in demand in the secondary market for the Sales Finance product in the quarter?

是的，您是否看到本季銷售融資產品二級市場的需求有任何變化？

No.

不。

Great. Thanks.

偉大的。 謝謝。

I can elaborate, but no reason to.

我可以詳細說明，但沒有理由這樣做。

Okay. Perfect.

好的。 完美的。

Hey, Sara, this is Roger. I would just add a footnote to that, that we've had reasonably strong demands for the Sales Finance product, that is over the last year or so we've not run into any issues where we've had product we've wanted to sell and there being a difficulty in placing it. So, so far, we've been able to sell anything that we've wanted to sell on a quarter-to-quarter basis.

嘿，莎拉，我是羅傑。 我只想補充一點，我們對銷售財務產品的需求相當強烈，也就是說，在過去一年左右的時間裡，我們沒有遇到任何問題，我們有我們想要的產品出售且放置有困難。 所以，到目前為止，我們已經能夠按季度銷售我們想銷售的任何東西。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。 謝謝。

Sure.

當然。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ross Haberman with Haberman Funds. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 我們的下一個問題來自 Haberman Funds 的 Ross Haberman。 請繼續。

How are you gentlemen?

先生們，你們好嗎？

Good morning, Ross.

早安，羅斯。

I just had a quick question about the, about the consumer loans, what you're seeing on that in terms of what you're getting, has that changed? And what do you attribute to the better lack of nonperformance or delinquencies in that group? Well, you guys, you were going to replace, I believe or needed to replace I guess someone on, in the Carolinas, was that ever done and is that part of the equation?

我只是想快速問一下，關於消費貸款，就您所看到的而言，您得到的貸款有變化嗎？ 您認為該集團之所以沒有出現不履約或拖欠的情況，原因何在？ 好吧，你們，我相信你們要替換或需要替換卡羅來納州的某個人，這件事做過嗎？

Hi, this is Scott. The first -- oh, pricing. The pricing that we are hosting on our Sales finance homes have been moving up over time. I don't, do not believe we've raised rates over the last couple three months, but the yields that we've been receiving have been slowly increasing over time as, as loans have been closing.

你好，我是史考特。 第一個——哦，定價。 我們銷售融資房屋的定價一直在隨著時間的推移而上漲。 我不相信我們在過去三個月裡提高了利率，但隨著貸款的結束，我們所獲得的收益率一直在緩慢增加。

I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to on the replacement of the sales staff. We have added one or two.

我不太清楚您提到的更換銷售人員具體是指什麼。 我們添加了一兩個。

I think a gentleman had passed away or something, or left, I want to say a quarter or two ago?

我認為一位先生已經去世了，或者發生了什麼事，或者離開了，我想說是在一兩個季度前？

Yes, that was --

是的，那是——

In the Carolinas, was it?

是在卡羅來納州嗎？

No, he was based in Jacksonville, and that was actually I think May of last year.

不，他駐紮在傑克遜維爾，那實際上是去年五月的事了。

I'm sorry.

對不起。

And since that time we have added probably three or four additional sales staff for that.

從那時起，我們可能又增加了三到四名銷售人員。

Are you fully staffed in that group now, from a sales or lending level?

從銷售或貸款層面來看，該部門現在是否已配備齊全？

Ross, like the Marines, we're always looking for good men and women.

羅斯，就像海軍陸戰隊一樣，我們一直在尋找優秀的男女士兵。

Okay. And, and just one, one question -- will you continue to sell -- I didn't have a chance to read the whole press release yet, but will you continue to sell at the rate which you did this past quarter?

好的。 還有一個問題，您會繼續銷售嗎？ 我還沒有機會閱讀整個新聞稿，但您會繼續以上個季度的速度銷售嗎？

Right, that's, that's our forecast. I think it's something in the neighborhood of $16 to $18 million is what we're looking to sell in second quarter.

是的，這就是我們的預測。 我認為我們希望在第二季銷售的價格在 1600 萬到 1800 萬美元之間。

And just one further question for John. Lending locally, do you need to hire more lenders or additional or different lenders given how good the market is to grow your net loans? Or, again, did they shrink because, one, you're being more picky or, two, you're seeing more payoffs than otherwise?

還有一個問題要問約翰。 在本地貸款方面，考慮到市場成長情況良好，您是否需要雇用更多貸款人或其他或不同的貸款人來增加您的淨貸款？ 或者，它們是否再次縮水，是因為，第一，你變得更挑剔了，或者，第二，你看到的回報比其他情況更多？

We are aggressively looking for loan officers, particularly in the business banking area. We've added a couple new ones in the commercial real estate area, but we are aggressively looking for lenders in the business banking area. And we note in the outlook for expenses in the second quarter that we anticipate some headhunter expenses in the second quarter, assuming a success on finding lending officers, and it's a very tough market. I think we've commented in these calls before, no new lending officers are being made, and we are starting a program to grow our own, but in the meantime we are out also looking for the experienced lending officers. It's a very tight market.

我們正在積極尋找貸款員，特別是在商業銀行領域的貸款員。 我們在商業房地產領域增加了一些新銀行，但我們正在積極尋找商業銀行領域的貸款人。 我們在第二季的費用展望中指出，我們預計第二季將產生一些獵人頭費用，假設成功找到貸款人員，那麼這是一個非常艱難的市場。 我想我們之前在這些電話會議中已經評論過，沒有任命新的貸款官員，我們正在啟動一個發展我們自己的貸款官員的計劃，但與此同時，我們也在尋找經驗豐富的貸款官員。 這是一個非常緊張的市場。

And you haven't been able to hire Roger's 20-year younger brother? I guess there's no 20-year younger clone, yet?

你還沒能僱用羅傑小20歲的弟弟嗎？ 我猜還沒有年輕 20 歲的克隆人吧？

You know, we've had some good interviews. We're looking at a small handful of candidates that we're all very pleased with and, you know, we hope we have something to say before too long.

你知道，我們進行過一些很好的訪談。 我們正在尋找少數幾位令我們非常滿意的候選人，你知道，我們希望很快就能有消息公佈。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。 謝謝。

Thank you. Our next question comes from [Bill Gizello] with Titan Capital Management. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 我們的下一個問題來自 Titan Capital Management 的 [Bill Gizello]。 請繼續。

Thank you. We had a couple of questions. First of all, relative to business banking, it was our impression that as of several quarters ago you had felt you were fully staffed on the, on the loan officer front. Was that a correct perception at that time, and, if so, what has changed since then?

謝謝。 我們有幾個問題。 首先，關於商業銀行業務，我們的印像是，從幾個季度前開始，您就感覺在貸款人員方面已經配備了充足的人員。 這在當時是一種正確的看法嗎？

Well, you know, I think that we felt that the way the business was growing at that time that we had room with our portfolios, but quite honestly we had strong growth in that business banking loan portfolio last year, and we have several of our loan officers now whose plates are basically full. We lost one loan officer about two months ago, so we need a replacement there. And then, you know, we, as a result of the economy and the opportunities we see, we have, we've had to say we're going to have to add the staff. We just don't have room anymore with our existing staff to take on any more credit.

嗯，你知道，我認為我們當時的業務成長方式讓我們的投資組合有了空間，但坦白說，去年我們的商業銀行貸款組合增長強勁，我們有幾家貸款人員的工作基本上已經滿了。 大約兩個月前，我們失去了一名貸款員，因此我們需要一名替代者。 然後，你知道，由於經濟狀況和我們看到的機遇，我們不得不說我們必須增加員工。 我們現有的員工已沒有足夠的空間來承擔更多的信貸。

And when looking at the segment results in the last K, the impression that we came away with was that the biggest opportunity to increase profitability for, for the institution is in the business banking arena. And we're curious kind of if you would, number one, agree with that? And, if so, how, how you view that opportunity going forward, especially in light of the fact that you have the increasing overhead allocation, just as that, as that segment becomes larger and the other ones become respectively smaller?

當我們回顧過去 K 季度的分部業績時，我們得出的印像是，對於該機構來說，提高獲利能力的最大機會是在商業銀行領域。 我們很好奇您是否先同意這一點？ 如果是的話，您如何看待這個未來的機會，特別是考慮到您的間接費用分配不斷增加，同時該部分變得越來越大，而其他部分變得越來越小？

Well, I'll let, I'll let Roger respond to the overhead allocation issue, but let me just say that we've got really four business lines, five business lines counting our retail banking operation, all of which we're very pleased with. And yet as we look ahead over the longer term I think one of our concerns, the Bank has had a history of focusing on niche businesses, and let's just talk about commercial real estate for awhile. That continues to be a very good business for us, but a lot of the income property prem lending has become commoditized and almost created by mini-lenders, very much like a single family residential loan in terms of the credit rigor they put on it and the pricing they put on it, plus you have conduits coming in and going down to very low levels now, I've kind of seen offerings, willing to make loans as low as $750,000, where they used to draw the floor at $10 million.

好吧，我讓羅傑來回答間接費用分配問題，但我只想說，我們實際上有四條業務線，五條業務線，包括我們的零售銀行業務，所有這些我們都非常滿意。 然而，當我們放眼長遠時，我認為我們擔心的問題之一是，銀行歷來專注於利基業務，我們現在就來談論商業房地產。 這對我們來說仍然是一項非常好的業務，但許多收入型房地產抵押貸款已經商品化，幾乎是由小額貸款機構創造的，就信貸嚴格性而言，它們非常類似於單戶住宅貸款，他們給出的定價，加上現在進來的管道，已經降到了很低的水平，我已經看到了願意提供低至 75 萬美元的貸款的報價，而他們過去的底價是 1000 萬美元。

So in terms of prem loans there and commercial real estate, if you look farther out in the future, there's some concern about the superior profitability that we used to enjoy there. And if you look at business banking, on the other hand, other than on owner occupied real estate where pricing pressures seem to be as evident as they are in just ordinary commercial real estate, the normal financial needs of business banking customers still seem to be well priced, at typically prime plus something, whether it's a revolving line of credit or working capital needs or term finance for equipment or other purchases. So, yes, in response to your question, longer term we think there's a very good opportunity in business banking.

因此，就那裡的優質貸款和商業房地產而言，如果展望未來，我們會對過去在那裡享有的卓越盈利能力感到擔憂。 另一方面，如果你看看商業銀行業務，除了自住房地產的定價壓力似乎與普通商業房地產一樣明顯之外，商業銀行客戶的正常金融需求似乎仍然價格合理，通常是優惠利率加上一些額外費用，無論是循環信用額度或營運資金需求，或是設備或其他採購的定期融資。 是的，回答您的問題，從長遠來看，我們認為商業銀行業務存在非常好的機會。

Now, the other attraction to business banking, and this is true in both segments of business banking that we do, community business, that's companies where, with credit needs less than $250,000, and in business banking, that's companies with credit needs more than $350,000, is the very attractive deposit relationships that you pick-up with them.

現在，商業銀行業務的另一個吸引力在於，在我們開展的商業銀行業務的兩個領域中，社區業務（即信貸需求低於25 萬美元的公司）和商業銀行（即信貸需求超過35 萬美元的公司）都是如此，就是你與他們建立的非常有吸引力的存款關係。

Now, none of these companies are dummies, and in today's interest rate environment they are looking at money market funds to put their idle cash into, but over time those are cheaper than CDs, so the deposit relationships, the total relationship that you achieve including the deposits with the business banking customers is very, very attractive over the, over the long term.

現在，這些公司都不是傻子，在今天的利率環境下，他們正在尋找貨幣市場基金來投入閒置現金，但隨著時間的推移，這些基金比存單更便宜，所以存款關係，你所實現的總關係包括從長期來看，商業銀行客戶的存款非常有吸引力。

And with our remote deposit product that we have that allows business banking customers to deposit their checks from their office, we don't think that business banking demands a lot of bricks-and-mortar infrastructure the way it might have, say, five years ago. Does that answer your question?

而且，我們的遠距存款產品允許商業銀行客戶從他們的辦公室存入支票，我們認為商業銀行業務不需要像過去那樣在實體基礎設施上投入大量資金，比如說五年前前。 這回答了你的問題嗎？

It, it does. And so really, in essence, the, the key now to taking, taking the business to the next level which in theory should take you nicely over the, the breakeven level for the segment is, is going to be loan originations, hence, the addition of more loan officers?

確實如此。 因此，實際上，現在將業務提升到新水平的關鍵是貸款發放，理論上應該能夠讓你順利達到該部門的盈虧平衡水平。

Yes, exactly.

是的，確實如此。

And are you feeling or maybe I should phrase it this way, when do you feel that the issue of overhead allocation will be overcome by the growth of the segment? Up to this point, it seems as though the growth of the segment has pretty much gone up in lockstep with the growth in the overhead allocation.

您是否感覺到，或者我應該這樣說，您感覺什麼時候間接費用分配問題能夠隨著部門的成長而克服？ 到目前為止，該部門的成長似乎與間接費用分配的成長基本上同步成長。

I'm going to -- Bill, I'm going to answer that -- it's Roger -- I'm going to answer that question in two parts. One, there's always the issue of critical mass, and we're hoping that we're either there or real close to it, and once we reach that point then the profitability of the business line, we've seen this in other business lines, tends to improve rather dramatically, once you hit a point where you've got enough portfolio to carry the basic infrastructure to support it.

我要──比爾，我要回答這個問題──羅傑──我要分兩部分來回答這個問題。 首先，始終存在臨界規模的問題，我們希望我們能夠達到或接近臨界規模，一旦達到臨界規模，那麼業務線的盈利能力就會提高，我們已經在其他業務線上看到了這種情況，一旦你達到足夠的投資組合來支撐其基本基礎設施的程度，往往會出現相當顯著的改善。

But, secondly, beginning with the first quarter here, we're going to take a look at our segment allocations, and you will see this in the table [2] that comes out, where we're going to break-out the banking centers and look at them as a segment. So one of the overhead allocations that's gone to all of the principal business lines we've had in the past has been the banking center overhead, and we're going to try, try and break that out and look at that separately. So it may give us a little different look at the segments and the relative probabilities when we, when we break-out those banking centers.

其次，從第一季開始，我們將看看我們的分部分配情況，你會在表格[2]中看到這一點，我們將在其中列出銀行業務中心並把它們看作一個片段。 因此，我們過去所有主要業務線的間接費用分配之一就是銀行中心間接費用，我們將嘗試將其分開並單獨研究。 因此，當我們拆分這些銀行中心時，我們可能會對各個部分和相對機率有一點不同的看法。

That's helpful. And, finally, relative to the whole banking center issue, the Canyon Park Branch, what is the update on that opening?

這很有幫助。 最後，關於整個銀行中心問題，峽谷公園支行開幕的最新情況是什麼？

We are hopeful for a midyear opening on that.

我們希望該技術能夠在年中投入使用。

All right. And do you have any additional branches in the, in the pipeline, either in progress or in planning stages?

好的。 您是否還有其他分支正在籌備中，無論是正在進行中還是計劃中？

No.

不。

All right. Thank you both.

好的。 謝謝你們兩位。

Bye, Bill.

再見，比爾。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Matthew Clark with KBW. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 下一個問題來自 KBW 的 Matthew Clark。 請繼續。

Yes, good morning, guys.

是的，大家早安。

Hey, Matthew.

嘿，馬修。

Can you talk about whether or not the recent comments out of the new affiliate at the AICPA and the SEC, whether or not that adjusted your decision as to whether or not to sell that newly elected securities portfolio, and now it looks like instead hedge it? And whether or not you might still consider selling it down the road and reinvesting?

您能否談談 AICPA 和 SEC 新成員最近的評論是否改變了您是否出售新選定的證券投資組合的決定，現在看來， ？ 您是否仍會考慮以後將其出售並再投資？

Hi, Matthew. This is Roger. Actually, we did, we did sell about a third of the portfolio. Two-thirds of that portfolio were securities that were pretty close to what we normally buy. That is we typically buy hybrids -- 3-1 or 5-1 hybrids. But about a third of our portfolio, securities portfolio was composed of long-term securities, with the remaining maturity of about 11 years, and that was about $30 million, and we've already sold that off and reinvested in 3-1 and 5-1 hybrids, so we've kind of cleaned up the portfolio.

你好，馬修。 這是羅傑。 事實上，我們確實出售了大約三分之一的投資組合。 該投資組合的三分之二是與我們通常購買的證券非常接近的證券。 也就是說，我們通常會購買混合動力車——3-1 或 5-1 混合動力車。 但我們投資組合中約有三分之一的證券投資組合是由長期證券組成的，剩餘期限約為 11 年，約為 3000 萬美元，我們已經將其出售並重新投資於 3-1 和 5 - 1 混合動力車，因此我們已經清理了投資組合。

In terms of the accounting treatment, the SEC has made it pretty clear, as you know, that fair value is the way to go from now on. And since, particularly in our case since we have adopted fair value accounting, so that pretty much, you know, leaves only the option of hedging at this point in time.

在會計處理方面，如你所知，美國證券交易委員會已經明確表示，從現在起，公允價值才是核算的基本方式。 並且由於，特別是在我們的情況下，我們已經採用了公允價值會計，因此目前基本上只剩下對沖的選擇。

But there's no expectation that you might have to go back and replace those newly reinvested securities with fair value securities.

但這並不代表你必須回去用公允價值證券取代那些新再投資的證券。

Well, they -- all of the securities that we've bought since -- and this has all occurred since the end of the quarter, all the securities that we bought are carried at fair value, as are virtually all of our other securities.

嗯，他們 - 自那時以來我們購買的所有證券 - 這一切都發生在本季度末之後，我們購買的所有證券都是按公允價值計價的，幾乎我們所有的其他證券也是如此。

Okay, got it. Okay. And then at the end of the press release, can you talk about what's driving the need to retain a key employee, I guess for $75 grand? And then along the lines of the 165, in terms of consulting costs for I guess evaluating the operating effectiveness, does that relate to your comments just a minute ago about the business banking segment? I mean not the business banking segment, the regular banking segment, I'm sorry?

好的，明白了。 好的。 然後在新聞稿的最後，您能否談談為什麼需要以 75,000 美元的價格留住一名關鍵員工？ 然後按照 165 的思路，就評估營運效率的諮詢成本而言，這與您剛才關於商業銀行部門的評論有關嗎？ 我的意思不是商業銀行業務部門，而是常規銀行業務部門，對不起？

No, well, let's -- the key employee retention bonus is actually for Mr. Mandery, sitting immediately to my right. And we filed an 8-K on Monday, I believe it was, that he was extending his stay here until the end of May. And the consulting arrangement is an arrangement to look at the overall operating effectiveness of the Bank and not directed to any particular business line, per se.

不，好吧，關鍵員工保留獎金實際上是給坐在我右邊的曼德利先生的。 我認為我們在周一提交了一份 8-K 文件，上面寫著他將在美國停留的時間延長至 5 月底。 此諮詢安排是為了檢視銀行整體的營運效率，而不是針對任何特定的業務線。

Is that something you've done in the past, or why, why the need to do it now?

這是您過去做過的事情嗎？

Well, you know, we had a consultant in here last year looking at primarily the commercial areas of the Bank, both on the operating side and the origination side, and that produced some pretty good results for us, we thought, in terms of some cost savings and efficiencies, and so we're looking for more. Obviously, as the margin is under pressure we want to make sure that we're operating as effectively as we can.

嗯，你知道，去年我們請了一位顧問來這裡，主要負責銀行的商業領域，包括運營方面和發起方面，這為我們帶來了一些相當不錯的結果，我們認為，就一些節省成本和提高效率，因此，我們還在尋求更多。 顯然，由於利潤率面臨壓力，我們希望確保盡可能有效地運作。

Great. Thanks, guys.

偉大的。 謝謝大家。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Porter Robinson with FTN Financial. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 我們的下一個問題來自 FTN Financial 的 Porter Robinson。 請繼續。

Good morning, Porter.

早上好，波特。

Hi, Porter.

你好，波特。

John, you've answered one of my questions, but the other question I had was related to your commercial real estate portfolio in general. Have you had any increased scrutiny by the regulatory agencies on how you look at your portfolio? I know that the regulators are really looking at banks now and seeing what they have, their processes, their systems in place. Any discussions on that front or are you in pretty good shape in that regard?

約翰，你回答了我的一個問題，但我的另一個問題與你的商業房地產投資組合總體有關。 監管機構是否對您的投資組合進行了更嚴格的審查？ 我知道監管機構現在正在密切關注銀行，了解它們擁有什麼、它們有哪些流程、它們現有的系統。 關於這方面有任何討論嗎，或者你在這方面的情況是否很好？

Well, I can't really comment on what the regulators' view of us is, but I will say that, you know, we for years, I mean years, before any CRE guidance came out, we had internal policy limits for commercial real estate that set policy limits by property type.

嗯，我無法評論監管機構對我們的看法，但我要說的是，你知道，多年來，我的意思是，在任何 CRE 指導出台之前，我們對商業房地產都有內部政策限制按財產類型設定保單限額的房地產。

Right.

正確的。

By location, I mean down to almost not quite zip code level but very, very tightly drawn policy limits. And in that respect the Bank has always had those policy limits, they've been overseen by the Board on a regular basis, and that's gone on for at least 10, 15, 20 years. So we really think we're in very, very good shape in that respect.

我所說的位置，是指幾乎不完全是郵遞區號級別，而是非常非常嚴格的政策限制。 在這方面，銀行一直都有這些政策限制，並受到董事會的定期監督，這種情況已經持續了至少 10、15、20 年。 因此我們確實認為我們在這方面的狀態非常非常好。

And, also, you know, we think the quality of the portfolio is quite good in the commercial real estate area. I know we've got some information in the press release that says, you know, our average loan there is about a little under $700,000 and the average LTV at about 62%, so we really, again to repeat myself, say that we think we're in very good shape in terms of the CRE guidance that's come out.

而且，您知道，我們認為商業房地產領域的投資組合品質相當好。 我知道我們在新聞稿中已經得到了一些信息，說我們的平均貸款額略低於 70 萬美元，平均貸款價值比約為 62%，所以我們真的，再重複一遍，我們認為就已經發布的CRE 指導而言，我們的狀況非常好。

Good. Okay. Thanks a lot, guys.

好的。 好的。 非常感謝大家。

Sure.

當然。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Louis Feldman with Punk, Ziegel & Co. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 下一個問題來自 Punk, Ziegel & Co. 的 Louis Feldman。

Yes. First off, John -- Roger, I'm delighted to see that you're still there. We will definitely miss you when you're gone. Hopefully, we can talk you out of it, again, but I'm beginning to doubt it.

是的。 首先，約翰——羅傑，我很高興看到你還在那裡。 當您離開後，我們一定會想念您的。 希望我們能夠再次說服您，但我開始懷疑了。

In terms of the Sales Finance if Roger made the comment that and Scott made the comment that you can pretty much place anything you want, if you're not holding it in your portfolio what is to eliminate, depending on the FICO score of the potential borrower, what's to eliminate you just simply opening the spigot and just essentially processing that and acting as a conduit into secondary hands?

就銷售財務而言，如果 Roger 和 Scott 都表示，你可以隨意放置任何你想要的東西，如果你沒有把它放在你的投資組合中，那麼要消除什麼，取決於潛在藉款人，什麼能阻止你只是簡單地打開水龍頭，然後進行本質上的處理，並充當進入次要手中的管道呢？

This is Scott, and I've got on my left here, [Justin Haley,] who runs the Sales Finance. I'll have him talk a little bit about the market for Sales Finance loans.

這位是史考特，我左邊的是賈斯汀·海利，他負責銷售財務。 我會讓他談談銷售融資貸款市場。

Well, both -- on both sides, both on originations and on sales the market is very strong. I mean we've obviously had some success historically originating loans and then also turning around and selling them, and, you know, I think macro economic factors lead us to whether or not we want to turn on the spigot and sell everything that we originate versus keep some of that in a portfolio. As we commented earlier, there's obviously a good secondary market that we've played a significant part in forging for these types of loans, and so we sell what's appropriate to sell and not others.

嗯，從雙方來看，無論是從發起還是從銷售來看，市場都非常強勁。 我的意思是，我們在發放貸款方面顯然取得了一些成功，然後也轉手出售它們，你知道，我認為宏觀經濟因素決定了我們是否要打開水龍頭，出售我們發放的所有貸款而不是將其中一部分保留在投資組合中。 正如我們之前所評論的，顯然我們在為這些類型的貸款打造一個良好的二級市場方面發揮了重要作用，因此我們只出售適合出售的貸款，而不出售其他貸款。

Lou, this is John. Perhaps to the point of your question, the --or part of your question, the home improvement market is, it's not kind of an intergalactic huge thing. It's a relatively small market, it's nowhere near the size, for example, of auto paper or something like that. It's, it's a fairly nichey market. People have many alternatives for financing home improvements. The, how can I put this, the thoughtful borrower might think about getting a home equity line of credit rather than borrowing from Justin at 11 or 12 or 13%. So it's, you know, relative to all consumer credit a fairly small market, so opening the spigot, so to speak, probably is not going to produce a huge amount of additional flow.

盧，這是約翰。 或許就您問題本身或部分問題而言，居家裝潢市場並不是什麼星際間的龐大市場。 這是一個相對較小的市場，遠不及汽車紙或類似產品的規模。 這是一個相當小眾的市場。 人們對於房屋裝修的融資有很多選擇。 那麼，我該怎麼說呢，有思想的借款人可能會考慮獲得房屋淨值信貸額度，而不是以 11% 或 12% 或 13% 的利率向賈斯汀借款。 所以，你知道，相對於所有消費信貸而言，這是一個相當小的市場，所以，打開水龍頭，也就是說，可能不會產生大量的額外流量。

Having said that, and we've talked about this in the last quarterly call and we are creeping closer on this, you know, I did mention we were look at some private extension possibilities. They're not going to add a ton of volume to our originations, but we've got a couple of thoughts for additional product lines that are very closely related in terms of how they're handled as credits and the types of borrowers. And, you know, we think that will provide some additional volume, but I wouldn't look for any significant movement on the needle.

話雖如此，我們在上次季度電話會議上已經討論過這個問題，而且我們正在逐步接近這個問題，你知道，我確實提到過，我們正在研究一些私​​人擴展的可能性。 它們不會為我們的貸款發放量增加很多，但是，我們對於新增產品線有一些想法，這些產品線在如何作為信貸處理以及借款人類型方面密切相關。 而且，您知道，我們認為這將提供一些額外的音量，但我不會期待針頭上有任何明顯的移動。

Does that, does that -- both our answers respond to your question, Lou?

是的，是這樣──我們的答案都回答了你的問題嗎，婁？

Yes. Thank you.

是的。 謝謝。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Bill Gizello with Titan Capital Management. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 我們的下一個問題來自 Titan Capital Management 的 Bill Gizello。 請繼續。

Thank you. We had a, a couple of additional questions. And starting, following up on this last line of questioning relative to additional Sales Finance originations, I mean one thing in the past that, that you have been constrained by is, is the fact that you focus on the quality builder and that's first and foremost of importance to you, hence, leading to in theory a better borrower. But you've also noted that you are hiring additional Sales Finance people, and so I guess we're curious, does that lead us to the idea that you should be able to increase originations simply because you have more people to analyze more builders in more parts of the country or what are the dynamics there, please?

謝謝。 我們還有幾個其他問題。 首先，關於額外的銷售融資起源的最後一個問題，我的意思是，過去你受到的一個限制是，你專注於品質建設者，這是最重要的對你來說很重要，因此從理論上講，這會為你帶來更好的借款人。 但你也提到你正在招募更多的銷售財務人員，所以我想我們很好奇，這是否讓我們想到，你應該能夠增加發起量，只是因為你有更多的人來分析更多的建築商請問全國更多地區的情況或那裡的動態是怎樣的？

it -- this is sort of a continuation of John's point, which is that the particular business we're in right now in direct home improvement lending is not a very, it is not a deep market by any means across the country. So, typically, and you know, I may characterize this slightly incorrectly but there's really maybe two dozen to 30 good home improvement originators, the kinds of folks that we hire in different states to work on our behalf. You know, we pretty much know all the players, and we look to, if one of them becomes available or wants to come work for us we're there and want to, and make that work for us.

這有點像約翰觀點的延續，也就是說，我們現在所從事的直接家居裝修貸款業務在全國範圍內並不是一個非常大的市場。 因此，通常情況下，你知道，我可能對此描述得稍微不正確，但實際上可能有二十到三十位優秀的家居裝修發起人，他​​們是我們在不同州僱用來為我們工作的人。 你知道，我們幾乎了解所有的球員，我們希望，如果他們中有人有空或想來為我們工作，我們就會在那裡，並希望讓他為我們工作。

But it is not, you know, an opposite parallel would be, you know, say the residential lending market where you want to go hire 150 originators and you just put an ad out and you get them instantly. This is a much longer recruit and a more specific recruit to a very small number of people, so we are always trying to find the best out there and have done a lot in that regard, over -- especially over the last year but over the existence of the program.

但事實並非如此，你知道，相反的情況是，比如說住宅貸款市場，你想僱用 150 名發起人，你只需發布廣告，就能立即得到他們。 這是一次更長期的招募，而且招募對象更具體，只針對極少數人，所以我們一直在努力尋找最優秀的人才，在這方面我們做了很多工作，特別是在過去的一年裡，但在過去該計劃的存在。

And as you find additional folks, you know, some of those that are the best out there, would it be fair to assume that they would be able to have an origination level equal to what your folks on staff currently are so over time total originations at the, at the Bank would be up in this area?

當你找到更多的人，你知道，其中一些是最好的，是否可以公平地假設他們能夠擁有與你目前員工相同的發起水平，那麼隨著時間的推移，總發起量銀行會在這個區域設立分支機構嗎？

Right. Yes.

正確的。 是的。

Okay. And then also relative to Sales Finance, the credit score spread that you provided in the release, how does that compare versus say a -- two years ago and versus the timeframe when you would have initially started the Sales Finance business? Credit score spectrum been roughly similar or shifted one way or another?

好的。 然後相對於銷售融資，您在新聞稿中提供的信用評分利差，與兩年前相比如何，與您最初開始銷售融資業務的時間範圍相比如何？ 信用評分範圍大致相似或發生了變化？

Yes, the -- there's a two-part answer to that. We just started restoring, what you see in the press release are current credit scores, and we just started doing that on a partial basis about four or five months ago. This, the data you see here is the first time we did the entire portfolio, so I don't have the trend lines to talk to, to talk about on that.

是的，這個問題的答案分為兩個部分。 我們剛開始恢復，您在新聞稿中看到的是當前的信用評分，大約四到五個月前我們才開始部分地進行這項工作。 您在此處看到的數據是我們第一次對整個投資組合進行分析時得到的數據，因此我沒有趨勢線可以與之討論。

What I can talk about, though, is, and we have talked about this in previous press releases is that the average credit score, both the average and the median credit score of the portfolio have been increasing over time as we have concentrated more on higher credit quality borrowers and discouraged lower credit quality borrowers.

不過，我可以說的是，我們在之前的新聞稿中也談到了這一點，隨著我們更加關注更高的信用評分，投資組合的平均信用評分（平均和中位數信用評分）一直在隨著時間的推移而增加。

A part -- that's partially a follow-up also to Lou's question, in terms of how you can turn on the spigot and generate more of this business. Again, because of the depth of the market the only place to really go on that is if you wanted to add quickly is to start buying at much, much lower credit scores. And we have seen a variety of competitors over the last ten years come in and try and get that lower credit quality borrower on an unsecured basis, and all of those, those originators have, you know, perished in the attempt. So that's really the only place to go, and we're not going there.

部分 — — 這部分也是對 Lou 的問題的後續回答，關於您如何打開水龍頭並創造更多這樣的業務。 再一次，由於市場的深度，如果你想快速增加，唯一真正可行的辦法就是開始以低得多的信用評分購買。 在過去的十年中，我們看到各種各樣的競爭對手湧入市場，試圖以無擔保的方式獲得信用品質較低的借款人，而所有這些發起人都在這一嚐試中失敗了。 所以那實際上是唯一可去的地方，而我們不會去那裡。

Thank you for not attempting, and with the follow-on, perish.

謝謝你沒有嘗試，隨之而來的是滅亡。

And, Bill, just a quick follow-up to the observation about hiring additional salespeople in Sales Finance, in many respects it's like looking for a good business and banking loan officer. When you're looking for a good business and banking loan officer, you're looking for somebody ideally with a book of business here in the local market and relationships that over time you hope they will be able to bring to your institution and if they move to your institution.

比爾，關於在銷售財務部門僱用更多銷售人員的觀察，我只想快速跟進一下，在很多方面，這就像尋找一位優秀的商業和銀行貸款員。 當你尋找一名優秀的商業和銀行貸款專員時，你理想情況下是在尋找一個在當地市場有業務記錄的人，並且你希望他們能夠隨著時間的推移將業務和關係帶到你的機構，如果他們轉到你的機構。

And it's exactly the same way with the Sales Finance professionals. These are people who have had typically, what we're looking for are people who have had typically long-term relationships with very good and very strong contractors, and the anticipation would be that over time they would or fairly quickly actually they would be able to bring those relationships to us. So it's not just a question of going out and hiring somebody who was selling razorblades last week. We're really looking for professionals in this, in this business.

銷售財務專業人員的情況也完全一樣。 這些人通常，我們正在尋找的是與非常優秀和強大的承包商建立長期關係的人，並且預期隨著時間的推移，他們實際上將能夠或很快地將這些關係帶給我們。 因此，這不僅僅是出去僱用上週銷售剃須刀片的人的問題。 我們確實在尋找這個行業的專業人士。

Great. That's helpful. And then shifting to an accounting question, I have to apologize in advance for my ignorance here, but what is the advantage of now classifying securities as trading versus available for sale, as you had before? And why have you chosen to keep some in the available for sale and some in the held to maturity categories?

偉大的。 這很有幫助。 然後轉到會計問題，我必須提前為我的無知道歉，但是現在將證券歸類為交易與可供出售有什麼好處，就像以前一樣？ 為什麼你們選擇將一部分保留在可供出售類別，而將一部分保留在持有至到期類別？

Hi, Bill. It's Roger. Sort of starting with the last question first, we had some securities that really are CRA securities bought to meet our investment obligations under the community Reinvestment Act, and they're instruments that really don't lend themselves to any kind of national market or anything, they're localized kind of securities, so that wouldn't be appropriate to have them on fair market value, nor would we ever have the intention of selling them and trying to find new securities, so they're sort of unique, and we just sort of left them in, under the old accounting rules.

你好，比爾。 是羅傑。 首先從最後一個問題開始，我們有一些證券實際上是加拿大稅務局的證券，是為了履行社區再投資法案規定的投資義務而購買的，這些證券實際上並不適合任何形式的全國市場或任何其他市場。了它們。

In terms of the advantage of moving to fair market value, one of the advantages that we've thought about is that under our previous system the securities portfolio was kind of a feast or famine thing. That is when interest rates were falling then it was feast time and we could sell securities and book gains and feel real good about a securities portfolio. When interest rates were rising we sort of ignored it and pretended that we didn't have a problem when, in fact, of course, we were getting squeezed on the margin on the securities portfolio.

就轉向公平市場價值的優勢而言，我們想到的優勢之一是，在我們之前的系統下，證券投資組合要么是盛宴，要么是飢荒。 那時利率正在下降，正是盛宴之時，我們可以出售證券，獲得收益，並對證券投資組合感到非常滿意。 當利率上升時，我們幾乎忽略了它，假裝我們沒有問題，但事實上，我們的證券投資組合的利潤受到了擠壓。

By moving to fair market value, putting a hedge on it, our spreads are going to be less than they were under the feast or famine process. However, if interest rates go up and we're appropriately hedged, we always have the opportunity of liquidating that securities portfolio and reinvesting in higher coupons. So we think over the long term there may be an advantage to us in terms of managing the securities portfolio for a smaller but a steadier contribution to earnings as opposed to the old feast or famine approach.

透過轉向公平市場價值並進行對沖，我們的利差將低於豐收或飢荒過程中的利差。 然而，如果利率上升並且我們進行了適當的對沖，我們總是有機會清算該證券投資組合併以更高的票面再投資。 因此，我們認為，從長期來看，與過去的「盛宴或飢荒」方式相比，管理證券投資組合可能對我們更有優勢，因為這種投資方式雖然規模較小，但對收益的貢獻更穩定。

And would it be fair to say given what you are anticipating on the hedging front that this should not introduce a lot of volatility into your earnings because if the portfolio goes up the hedges will go down and visa-versa, and should pretty well -- your goal will be to match those out?

考慮到您對對沖方面的預期，是否可以公平地說，這不會給您的收益帶來很大的波動，因為如果投資組合上漲，對沖就會下降，反之亦然，而且應該相當好——你的目標是將它們配對出來嗎？

You know, in the perfect world we do everything exactly correct, and our hedges would be wonderful. And, you know, there'd be no basis risk, and it would be great, and then I'd take credit. If anything goes wrongs, there's Charles' fault that he didn't hedge properly. And so, but I think in the real world that, you know, it's not possible or at least we haven't seen where it's likely that we will have perfect hedges and they will move and total [think] and the yield curve will be as we predict, and so on and so forth.

你知道，在完美的世界裡，我們所做的一切都完全正確，我們的對沖也會很美妙。 而且你知道，這樣就不會有基礎風險，那就太好了，然後我就可以獲得信貸了。 如果出了什麼問題，那都是查爾斯的錯，因為他沒有做好適當的對沖。 所以，但我認為在現實世界中，你知道，這是不可能的，或者至少我們還沒有看到，我們有可能擁有完美的對沖，它們會移動，總和[想想]，收益率曲線將正如我們預測的那樣，等等。

So we're expecting some periods where we're going to have some small gains that we didn't expect and visa-versa that we're going to have, get from time to time small hits, but it won't be the same as if we left the entire securities portfolio to sort of move with the market and then take the gains or losses as they occur, so it will dampen down that activity and should, if we're able to execute like we would like to execute then we will have a small but consistent contribution from the securities portfolio and we will be less concerned with the movement in interest rates.

因此，我們預計，在某些時期，我們會獲得一些意想不到的小幅增長，反之亦然，我們有時會遭遇小幅打擊，但這不會是這就像我們讓整個證券投資組合隨市場波動，然後承擔收益或損失一樣，所以它會抑制這種活動，如果我們能夠像我們希望的那樣執行，那麼我們將從證券投資組合中獲得少量但穩定的貢獻，並且我們將不再那麼擔心利率的變動。

Thank you, all.

謝謝大家。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ross Haberman with Haberman Funds. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 我們的下一個問題來自 Haberman Funds 的 Ross Haberman。 請繼續。

John, have you -- I know you've reexamined your real estate holdings. I was wondering if you had any new revelations or thoughts about it today versus keeping it, selling it, leasing, releasing it or what? I'm referring to your main branch?

約翰，我知道你重新審視了你的房地產資產。 我想知道您今天對它有什麼新的啟示或想法，與保留它、出售它、租賃它、發布它或其他什麼相比？ 我指的是祢的主分支？

Ross, no, no current plans to change any of our holdings.

羅斯，不，目前沒有計劃改變我們的任何持股。

And just about, I think in prior discussions you've talked about upgrading your -- I think you upgraded most of your branches in the last year or two, have we gotten the, have you gotten the improvements that you thought out of them, or -- and, if so, how are you gauging it? Because I was hoping to see better deposits or higher deposits or just better mix. We've seen a little bit of it, but not as much as I had hoped to see.

而且，我認為在之前的討論中，您談到了升級您的——我認為您在過去一兩年內升級了您的大多數分支機構，我們是否已經獲得了，您是否已經獲得了您所想到的改進，或者—如果是的話，您如何衡量呢？ 因為我希望看到更好的存款或更高的存款或更好的組合。 我們已經看到了一點，但還沒有我希望看到的那麼多。

Well, we didn't really have a measure in terms of what we were expecting out of remodeling the facilities. There has been -- some had, I mean literally been untouched for 20, 25 years, and they just were desperately in need of presenting the image that we want to present to the market that this east side of Lake Washington has become, which is very different from what it was 20 or 25 years ago. So, you know, I can't really say, yes, checking accounts are up X percent strictly because we remodeled our banking centers.

嗯，我們對於改造設施的預期結果並沒有真正的衡量標準。 有些地方，我的意思是，實際上 20 到 25 年來都沒有被開發過，他們迫切需要向市場展示我們想要展示的華盛頓湖東岸的形象，也就是與20 或25 年前相比有很大不同。 所以，你知道，我不能真的說，是的，支票帳戶增加了 X%，這完全是因為我們改造了銀行中心。

Or, or we're selling another 1.5 products per customer, or something like that?

或者，我們向每位顧客另外銷售 1.5 種產品，或類似的情況？

No, I can't, I can't give you a metric like that, but we're done with that, we're very pleased with it, we get good comments from customers and prospects as they come in the door. So, you know, that's about all we can point to.

不，我不能，我不能給你這樣的指標，但我們已經完成了，我們對此非常滿意，當客戶和潛在客戶進門時，我們得到了很好的評價。 所以，你知道，這就是我們所能指出的全部。

And can we expect a stock dividend like we've seen in prior years?

我們是否可以期待像前幾年那樣的股票紅利？

That would be a forward-looking statement that we'll probably not be making today.

這將是一個前瞻性的聲明，我們今天可能不會做出這個聲明。

Okay. Oh, I figured we had an open forum here. It's not like you're telling me anything you're not telling everybody else.

好的。 哦，我想我們這裡有一個開放的論壇。 這並不是說你告訴我了一些你沒有告訴其他人的事情。

Good try, though.

不過，這是一次不錯的嘗試。

Oh, thanks, thank you. We'll see you in a week or two.

哦，謝謝，謝謝。 我們將在一兩週後見到您。

You bet. Look forward to it, Ross.

當然。 期待一下，羅斯。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Louis Feldman with Punk, Ziegel & Co. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 下一個問題來自 Punk, Ziegel & Co. 的 Louis Feldman。

Yes, John. The last time I was up there you commented about, you know, given all the cranes that are up, the amount of office space coming on, the Microsoft signing that you mentioned at the beginning of the call, does that cut into that, what you were saying was excess office space, any, or is that in addition to some of the projects that are going on?

是的，約翰。 上次我在那裡的時候，你評論說，考慮到所有的起重機，即將投入使用的辦公空間，以及你在電話會議開始時提到的微軟簽約，這些是否會減少你說的是多餘的辦公空間，還是除了正在進行的一些專案之外的辦公空間？

No, that cuts in significantly to the excess office space. I think that we were saying that in Bellevue there was about 2 million square feet of class A office space under construction, and then now with the Microsoft announcement 1.3 million of that will be taken up.

不，這會大大減少多餘的辦公空間。 我想我們之前說過，貝爾維尤有大約 200 萬平方英尺的 A 級辦公空間正在建設中，而現在隨著微軟的宣布，其中的 130 萬平方英尺將被佔用。

Okay.

好的。

So --

所以 -

In the past you've talked about Google, are they still looking in that area?

您過去曾談到谷歌，他們是否仍在關注該領域？

We've heard nothing about Google in the last several months.

過去幾個月我們沒有聽到任何關於谷歌的消息。

Okay.

好的。

Either in terms of taking space on the east side or Seattle, frankly.

坦白說，無論是佔據東區還是西雅圖的空間。

Okay. Or Eddie Bauer being another local --

好的。 或者 Eddie Bauer 是另一個當地人——

Eddie Bauer has -- will be -- I talked earlier in the call about 314,000 feet or so that Microsoft had already committed to taking in downtown Bellevue. That's in a new tower here in the Central Business District. That's about a 600,000, 700,000 square feet tower, and Eddie Bauer has taken the balance of that space, so they will both be moving in in July.

艾迪鮑爾 (Eddie Bauer) 已經——將會——我在之前的電話會議中談到了微軟已經承諾佔領貝爾維尤市中心約 314,000 英尺的高度。 那是位於中央商務區的一棟新大樓。 那是一座約 60 萬至 70 萬平方英尺的塔樓，Eddie Bauer 已佔據了該塔樓的剩餘空間，因此他們都將在 7 月搬入。

Okay. Okay, so I mean, in other words, they've cut in significantly into that open space?

好的。 好的，那我的意思是，換句話說，他們已經大面積侵占了那片開放空間？

Very significantly.

非常顯著。

Okay. Thank you much.

好的。 非常感謝。

You're welcome.

不客氣。

Thank you. We have no further questions. Do you have any closing remarks?

謝謝。 我們沒有其他問題了。 您還有什麼結束語嗎？

Thank you, all, for taking the time to listen this morning. We appreciate your interest, and we look forward to seeing some of you in about ten days or so, and talking to you again in another quarter.

感謝大家今天早上花時間聆聽我們的演講。 我們感謝您的關注，並期待在大約十天後與您見面，並在另一個季度再次與您交談。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Have a great day. Bye.

祝你有美好的一天。 再見。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the First Mutual Bancshares conference call. If you'd like to listen to a replay of today's conference, please dial 1-800-405-2236, or internationally at 303-590-3000. Please use access umber 11087107. Thank you for your participation today, you may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，第一互助銀行電話會議到此結束。 如果您想收聽今天會議的重播，請撥打1-800-405-2236，或國際撥打303-590-3000。 請使用接入號碼 11087107。