Banner Corporation

good morning or good afternoon or welcome to the banner corporation third quarter 2024 conference call and webcast my name is Adam and I'll be your operator for today if you'd like to ask a question during the Q&A portion of today's call you may do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad I will now hand the floor to Mark Ruscovich to begin so Mark please go ahead when you're ready thank you Adam and good morning everyone

I would also like to welcome you to the third quarter 2024 earnings call for Banner Corporation. Joining me on the call today is Rob Butterfield, Banner Corporation's Chief Financial Officer, Joe Rice, our Chief Credit Officer, and Rich Arnold, our Head of Investor Relations. Rich, would you please read our forward-looking safe harbor statement?

Sure, Mark. TAB, Good morning, our presentation today discusses banners business outlook, I will include forward looking statements. TAB, Those statements include descriptions of management's plans objectives or goals for future operations products or services. TAB, forecast of financial or other performance measures and statements about banners general outlook for economic and other conditions. TAB, We also may make other forward looking statements in the question and answer period following management's discussion. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those discussed today. Information on the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ are available from the earnings press release that was released yesterday and the most recently filed form 10Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2024. Forward-looking statements are effective only as of the day they are made, and Banner assumes no obligation to update information concerning its expectations. Mark?

Thank you, Rich. As is customary, today we will cover four primary items with you. First, I will provide you high-level comments on Banner's third quarter 2024 performance. Second, the actions Banner continues to take to support all of our stakeholders, including our Banner team, our clients, our communities, and our shareholders. Third, Joe Rice will provide comments on the status of our loan portfolio. And finally, Rob Butterfield will provide more detail on our operating performance for the quarter, as well as comments on our balance sheet. Before I get started, I want to again thank all of my 2,000 colleagues in our company who are working extremely hard to assist our clients and communities. Banner has lived our core values summed up as doing the right thing for the past 134 years. Our overarching goal continues to be to do the right thing for our clients, our communities, our colleagues, our company, and our shareholders, and to provide a consistent and reliable source of commerce and capital through all economic cycles and change events. I am pleased to report again to you that is exactly what we continue to do. I'm very proud of the entire Banner team that are living our core values. Now, let me turn to an overview of our performance. As announced, Banner Corporation reported a net profit available to common shareholders of $45.2 million, or $1.30 per diluted share, for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. This compares to a net profit to common shareholders of $1.15 per share for the second quarter of 2024. Our strategy to maintain a moderate risk profile and the investments we have made and continue to make to improve our operating performance have positioned the company well to weather recent market headwinds, and we saw that in this quarter's results. Rob will discuss these items in more detail with his remarks. To illustrate the core earnings power of Banner, I would direct your attention to pre-tax, pre-provision earnings excluding gains and losses on the sale of securities and changes in fair value of financial instruments. Our third quarter 2024 core earnings were $57 million compared to $52 million for the prior quarter. Banner's third quarter 2024 revenue from core operations was approximately $154 million an increase of $3 million compared to the second quarter of 2024. We continue to have a strong core deposit base that has proven to be resilient and loyal to Banner in the wake of a highly competitive environment and a very good net interest margin. Overall, this resulted in a return on average assets of 1.13% for the third quarter of 2024. Although we are in a very difficult operating environment for commercial banks, our core performance reflects continued execution on our super community bank strategy. That is growing new client relationships, maintaining our core funding position, promoting client loyalty and advocacy through our responsive service model and demonstrating our safety and soundness through all economic cycles and change events. To that point, our core deposits represent 89% of total deposits. Further, we continue our organic generation of new relationships and our loans increased 6% over the same period last year. Reflective of the solid performance, coupled with our strong regulatory capital ratios and the fact that we increased our tangible common equity per share by 24% from the same period last year, We announced a core dividend of 48 cents per common share. Earlier this year, we released our environmental, social, and governance report, which reflects the continued maturation of our approach to ESG. Banner has always been committed to doing the right thing in support of our clients, the many communities that we serve, and our colleagues. The accomplishments highlighted in this report are meant to reflect the deep connection we have with all of our stakeholders and our commitment to creating positive change in the communities we serve. Finally, I am pleased to say that we continue to receive marketplace recognition and validation of our business model and our value proposition. Banner was again named one of America's 100 best banks and one of the best banks in the world by Forbes. Newsweek named Banner one of the best, most trustworthy companies in America and the world again this year, and just recently named Banner one of the best regional banks in the country. S&P Global Market Intelligence ranked Banner's financial performance among the top 50 public banks with more than $10 billion in assets. And the digital banking provider Q2 Holdings awarded Banner their Bank of the Year for Excellence. Additionally, the Kroll Bond Rating Agency affirmed all of Banner's investment grade debt and deposit ratings. And as we've noted previously, Banner Bank received an outstanding CRA rating in our most recent CRA examination. Let me now turn the call over to Jill to discuss the trends in our portfolio and her comments on Banner's credit quality. Jill?

Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. Our overall credit metrics remain strong in spite of the slight deterioration reported. Delinquent loans ended the quarter at 0.40%, up from 0.29% as of the linked quarter, and from 0.27% as of September 30, 2023. Adversely classified loans increased by $28 million in the quarter, driven in large part by three isolated relationships and now represent 1.33% of total loans, up 24 basis points when compared to June 30th. Non-performing assets increased $12 million in the quarter, represent 0.28% of total assets, and consist of $43 million in non-performing loans and $2.2 million in REO. The net provision for credit losses for the quarter was $1.7 million and include the $2 million provision for loan losses and a $262,000 release related to unfunded loan commitments. The provision this quarter was primarily driven by an increase in the reserve for individually evaluated collateral dependent loans. Loan losses in the quarter were a modest $964,000 and were partially offset by recoveries totaling $734,000. After the provision, the reserve for credit losses loans totals $154.6 million and provides 1.38% coverage of the portfolio and 359% coverage of our non-performing loans. By way of comparison, the reserve for loan losses provided 1.37% coverage of the loan portfolio as of the linked quarter and 1.38% coverage as of September, 2023. Loan growth was muted this quarter and was further impacted by the decision to move 48 million from our one to four family portfolio to held for sale. In total, portfolio loan balances increased a modest $81 million, or 1% from the linked quarter, with year-over-year growth of 6%. Given the limited loan growth, my comments will be brief. The large increase in the multifamily real estate portfolio reflects movement from construction to permanent as several projects transitioned into their mini-perm status. The growth in investor CRE was a combination of new originations as well as a shift from construction into the permanent portfolio, and we again reported solid growth in owner-occupied real estate this quarter, up 4% and 9% year-over-year with the growth spread across the footprint. Residential construction exposure remains moderate at 5% of the portfolio and reflects a slight shift in mix with approximately 70% for sale housing and 30% 1-4 family custom construction residential mortgage loans. Similar to previous quarters, when we include multifamily, commercial construction, and land, the total construction exposure is 14%. Given the market dynamics that continue to be driven by limited resale inventories, the absorption of the speculative housing starts across our markets remains timely, with builders continuing to slowly rebuild inventory levels. Conversely, given the higher interest rate environment, our custom construction originations have slowed over the past few quarters. The decline reflected in CNI is driven by reduced line utilization, down 1% quarter over quarter. This was, however, largely offset by additional growth in the small business portfolio. And as expected, agricultural balances increased again this quarter due to line utilization, up 4% compared to last quarter. As I stated earlier, our overall credit metrics remain strong. While increasing, the level of adversely classified assets remains modest as a percentage of total loans with no concentration in any specific industry or market. The office and multifamily segments of the commercial real estate book continue to perform well and repricing risk continues to be manageable. The spike in agricultural non-accrual loans is a Northern California tree-nut relationship and we believe that we are adequately reserved for any potential loss exposure. As I stated last quarter, our credit underwriting criteria has not changed materially over the course of the last decade. The vast majority of our loan book has solid sponsorship, personal guarantees, and properly margined collateral support. Our reserve for loan losses remains strong, and we continue to have a robust capital base which further solidifies our balance sheet. We remain well positioned for the future. With that, I will hand the call over to Rob for his comments. Rob?

Great. Thank you, Jill. We reported $1.31 or $1.30 per diluted share for the second quarter compared to $1.15 per diluted share for the prior quarter. The $0.15 increase in earnings per share was primarily due to an increase in net interest income and lower expenses compared to the prior quarter. Total loans increased $146 million during the quarter with portfolio loans increasing $81 million and held for sale loans increasing $65 million. The increase in health for sale loans was primarily due to transferring $48 million of loans from health for investment to health for sale. The loan to deposit ratio ended the quarter at 83%. Total securities increased $31 million primarily due to the fair value increases as a result of interest rate decreases during the quarter, partially offset by normal portfolio cash flows. Deposits increased by $459 million during the quarter due to quarter deposits increasing $462 million. which included an increase of $150 million in non-interest-bearing deposits. The increase in core deposits was partially offset by time deposits decreasing $3 million. Due to broker deposits decreasing $55 million, partially offset by retail time deposits increasing $52 million. Core deposits ended the quarter at 89% of total deposits. Total borrowings decreased 89 million during the quarter, as the growth in core deposits was used to fund loan growth and reduce FHLB advances. Banner's liquidity and capital profile continue to remain strong, with a robust core funding base, a low reliance on wholesale borrowings, and significant off-balance sheet borrowing capacity. In addition, all of our capital ratios are in excess of regulatory well-capitalized levels. Net interest income increased 3.1 million from the prior quarter, primarily due to average earning assets increasing 142 million and tax equivalent net interest margin increasing two basis points to 3.72%. Compared to the prior quarter, average loan balances increased 217 million. This increase was partially offset by total average interest-bearing cash and investment balances decreasing 75 million. The yield on earning assets increased eight basis points driven by loan yields increasing an equal amount. The increase in loan yields was the result of adjustable rate loan-free pricing higher, as well as new production continuing to come on at interest rates above the overall portfolio yield. The average rate on new loan production for the quarter was 8.23% compared to 8.47% in the prior quarter. Total cost of funds increased seven basis points to 173 basis points due to an increase in the cost of deposits, partially offset by lower borrowing balances. Total cost of deposits increased 11 basis points to 161 basis points, primarily due to much of the growth in core deposits during the quarter occurring in higher costing deposit products. The cost of deposits for the month of September were 162 basis points. Non-interest-bearing deposits ended at 35% of total deposits, identical to the prior quarter. The 50 basis point reduction in Fed funds in the middle of September had limited impact on our net interest margin in the current quarter. The 28% of our loan portfolio that are variable rate loans will reprice down in equal amount within 30 days of the rate reduction. We expect deposit cost reductions to lag the portfolio repricing, resulting in some moderate compression in net interest margin in the fourth quarter. Total non-interest income increased $864,000. from the prior quarter, primarily due to the prior quarter including a $562,000 loss on a bond called early. The current quarter also benefited from having lower fair value write downs on fair value instruments carried at fair value. Total non-interest expense decreased $1.8 million from the prior quarter. The decrease reflected lower benefit expense due to a payroll tax refund of $800,000 and self-insured medical expense decreasing by $1 million. The current quarter also had lower payment and card processing service expense and lower REO expense. These decreases were partially offset by higher legal expense as the prior quarter benefited from an $874,000 reversal of expense related to finalizing two legal matters. Our capital and liquidity positions continue to position as well to execute on our super community bank business model. This concludes my prepared comments. Now I'll turn it back over to Mark. Mark?

Thank you, Jill and Rob for your detailed comments. That concludes our prepared remarks. And Adam, we will now open the call and welcome questions.

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question on today's call, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. When preparing to ask a question, please ensure you are unmuted locally. And our first question comes from Andrew Terrell from Stevens. Andrew, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning.

Good morning, Andrew.

Hey, if I could just start on the expense side. So we saw kind of a $2 million drop in compensation this quarter. I think it was called out medical premiums and compensation. Just was that drop this quarter lower than you might have expected? Should the run rate normalize higher from here? Can you just help us better understand kind of the fluctuation in comp expense and then kind of the overall expense outlook into 4Q?

yeah thanks Andrews rob so. So yeah I mean I don't think it's unusual for expenses to kind of bounce around a couple million dollars quarter to quarter. Clearly, this quarter we benefited from a couple items that were were not expected, so the run rate was a bit lower this quarter, I would expect that to normalize certainly the payroll tax refund that we received I mean that's not an ongoing item. We could see the trend of self-insured medical expense carry over into Q4, but eventually it's going to normalize back to normal expected levels there, so I don't think that's a long-term item. So I'm expecting that we'll see some normalization as we move forward in our expenses.

Okay. And then if I just look back at kind of the past few years, you've generally been growing overall operating expenses and call it the low single digits range. I guess, you know, we've seen inflation come down quite a bit. Is it fair to think that, you know, absent any kind of M&A, you could continue that kind of low single digits type expense growth into 2025?

Yeah, in general, the way I would think about it is that we would expect normal inflationary increases, whatever inflation is for a particular period, You know, if you think about you know compensation expenses two thirds of our expenses so there's going to be obviously some increases in that. Next year, just due to normal inflationary pressures on it beyond that I would say that you know we continue to make strategic investments in the organization. And so, if we were going to continue to make those investments, there could be a little bit of additional expense related to that.

Okay. And then, you know, moving over to the margin, just quickly, can you talk about, you know, where were spot deposit costs, either interest bearing or total, at the end of the period? And then just more broadly, kind of what your approach is to repricing deposits lower for the 50 basis points and cuts we've already seen, as well as, you know, kind of expected future cuts?

Sure, just first on the cost of deposits for September, it was 162 basis points, so one basis point higher than the quarter number. If we think about how we approached kind of the reduction in deposit of cost related to the reduction in fed funds in the middle of September, we did make some reductions subsequent to that rate reduction. If you look at our advertised CD specials, those went down by 25 basis points initially. We also did some repricing of our exception price deposits and then also the tiers in our high-yield savings account. And I would say overall probably the reductions that we did in those was similar to what we did on the CD book. And at this point, we're just monitoring what competitors are doing in the environment, and we think that we'll be able to take some additional steps portion of that 50 basis points in a month or so.

Okay, great. I appreciate the color. I'll hop back in the queue. Thank you.

Thank you, Andrew.

The next question comes from Jeff from DA Davidson. Jeff, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. Rob, maybe just to follow on. on the margin. So got your comments about expectations into the fourth quarter and it sounds like a kind of a wait and see a little bit on the competition, you know, a little bit further out into 25 and where the balance sheets position, I think you've mentioned 28% of loans variable. If we do see, you know, further cuts, could you either specific to margin or big picture, and how you think the balance of margin, how that reacts in its 25?

Yeah, sure. So I would point to the ramp-down scenarios that we provided in the investor presentation. We use moves for the interest rate forecast, and their forecast right now seems to be kind of a gradual decline in the Fed funds rate. And if that's the scenario that comes to play, if you look at our downside, 100 basis point ramp scenario, it suggests that we're slightly asset sensitive where we would see a negative 1% reduction in our net interest income over the next 12 months. Of course, that assumes a flat balance sheet, which isn't the reality of the situation. And then also what that's assuming is that it has a deposit beta on the downside of 28%. The deposit beta that we've experienced on the upside is 45%. So I think we have a chance to outperform that. But, you know, I think we want to see kind of what depositor behavior is as rates start to decline, what competitor behavior is to get a better read on that.

Thanks, Rob. Jill, just hopping over to credit. The $12 million increase in non-accruals, I think you mentioned a Northern California ag credit. Could you just outline the additions this quarter? Sounds like it was isolated into a few credits.

Yeah, good morning, Jeff. So in that non-performing, the primary driver was that one larger egg relationship in the tree nuts. But outside of that, it was primarily consumer in the one to four family home equity space and then small business related. The average loan size of the rest of the non-performing were roughly $200,000. Got it.

Okay. And the not to get the ag credit is that sort of commodity pricing? It's been a challenged industry. Is this more operator or more climate sort of pressures on the industry? Or is it the operator issues?

This one I would suggest is a mix of both of those issues. This is a large egg processing operation, walnuts and almonds, and yeah, it involves not just the commodities pricing.

Okay, thank you. And then lastly, yeah, I guess a question for Mark. Any thoughts on, you know, the credit unions in the Northwest in terms of M&A activity? You've been pretty aggressive, but, you know, I guess I'm just interested in your thoughts on how that impacts expectations as you have conversations or little to no impact. Just thought I'd bounce it off you to see if you have any thoughts on that activity.

Well, probably, Jeff, thank you for the question. Probably nothing I want published. um as it relates to the credit unions and how there is an unfair you know advantage in terms of their business models but what i would suggest to you is that as you might anticipate specifically on the west coast there are a limited number of buyers that that can afford to absorb some of these banks Tad Piper- banner, fortunately, is one of those So what you can suspect is that if if some of these institutions that the credit unions are purchasing are in the market to be acquired. Tad Piper- I think the buyers, not just banner, but the other buyers in our market have looked at them as well, so i'm not here to criticize. Tad Piper- Their business decisions. However, they do warrant an unfair advantage in terms of pricing. And to the extent that, you know, some of these institutions want to take cash, you know, that creates a whole different dynamic as well. So I think it's fair to say that, you know, the buyers in the West Coast have looked at the institutions that the credit unions are purchasing.

Thanks, Mark. Thanks, Joe.

The next question comes from David Feaster from Raymond James. David, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everybody. I wanted to touch on the deposit landscape. You guys have done a great job growing core deposits broadly, especially good to see the increase in NIB. I'm just curious, how do you think about your ability to continue to drive core deposits? Where are you having success there? And would you kind of expect core deposit growth to continue outpacing loan growth and maybe be able to reduce borrowings and brokered deposits continuing to do that?

Yeah, David, it's Rob, and I'll see if Mark or Jill has any additional comments, but Maybe on the last point first, I don't think long-term we would expect that deposit growth would outpace loan growth. We would expect that loan growth would probably outpace deposit growth. But, you know, long-term we have to grow our core deposits if we're going to grow our loan book. You know, I mean, I think we saw some seasonality in Q3. I mean, we talked about that before we went into Q3 that we expected it to be a good quarter. Historically, Q3 is our best quarter for us. Um, better than better than historical is the way I described third quarter. I think where, what we saw is we saw some carry over from the second quarter. Normally we see some building deposits as we move through the second quarter into June, especially, and we really didn't see that in the second quarter. So I think there was some carry over from the second quarter, just normal build back after the payment of taxes and stuff like that. Um, beyond that, you know, we, we also. had some success this quarter in kind of bringing some core deposits back to the bank, some core deposits that had left to some brokerage accounts, that type of stuff. And so we had some success in bringing some of those core deposits back to the organization. I think long-term, if you think about it, you know, really where the core deposit growth comes from is really the small business area as a percentage of the loan balances. That's been very good for us historically. We have a focus really on small business lending, and as part of that small business lending, the deposits come with it and typically are pretty rich from a loan-to-deposit ratio standpoint. So pause there. I don't know, Mark or Jill, if you guys want to add anything there.

No, I think you covered well.

Okay, that's great. And then maybe, you know, touching on the other side, touching on loan growth, we've kind of talked about that low to mid single digit pace. I'm curious, how do you think about loan growth as we look forward? How's demand trending? What do you expect to be key drivers of growth? And, you know, just given kind of where the five year is and potential for, are you starting, are you starting where CRE pricing is? Are you, are you seeing any early payoffs or refi activity within the CRE book, which could maybe weigh on growth?

Yeah, thanks, David. Starting with that last part of your question, we really haven't started to see any of that accelerated CRE payoffs yet. And I guess the way I would address that is that as they come to looking to refinance, we should be looking to see if we want to hold that as well, if we can do it at a market rate. The commercial pipelines have continued to rebuild throughout the year. They're being bolstered by the success of our newer relationship managers. So I feel good about that. You know, we're still projecting that low to mid single digit for 2024. And I think that I would, you know, if I was looking further out into 2025, probably mid single digit is where we would anticipate barring, you know, a massive real estate refinance.

Okay. Okay. That's helpful. And then just going back to the margin, I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but just kind of thinking, how do you think about the trajectory? I mean, cause you did talk about the lag impact on the repricing side. I mean, you know, assuming the forward curve kind of comes to fruition, I'm just kind of curious, how do you think about the timing of a potential trough in 2025 or, you know, cause there's other, there's like you said, the, the, you know, the rate assumptions assume a static balance sheet. There's a lot of other moving parts into that, obviously. I'm just kind of curious how you think about the margin trajectory as we look forward.

Yeah, the way I think about it, David, is, you know, I mean, I talked about some of the scenarios we have out there as far as the ramp scenarios and stuff. And so I would certainly point back to those as well. But if I just think about it from a from a big picture standpoint, I mean, you know, we did see an increase in net interest margin during the current quarter, which was before the Fed started to cut. So, you know, during the up cycle, I guess, or the long higher for longer cycle, we kind of troughed there. And I think what's going to happen there just overall that is as long as the Fed takes kind of a balanced approach to things where, you know, it's a more, you know, balanced approach, 25 basis points a quarter or something like that. I think we can overcome that, and we certainly could see margin flat to up in that scenario. If the Fed's more aggressive and takes 50 basis points or higher a quarter, we could see some initial decline there, moderate compression as the lag in the deposit cost funding there. But longer term, I think really what we want to get back to, and I think the whole industry wants to get back to, is a normal shape yield curve. And so, you know, if I think out longer, I think that's where we can really start to really expand margin again once we get back to that normal shape yield curve.

Has there been any change in your appetite for securities repositioning or anything to help, you know, maybe accelerate some of that margin? Just given, you know, the decline in rates and maybe the maps a little bit less, you know, painful?

Yeah, sure. So, you know, we've kind of had that barometer out there where we were willing to make a security repositioning if we were going to have an earn back within that three-year period of time. Currently, there's probably limited opportunities for us to stay within that three-year earn back, so we would have to expand that earn back in order to do that. Certainly, as the rate environment continues to change, we continue to evaluate whether that makes sense or not. I can't say that we have anything planned at this point in time, but we're also remaining flexible there and continuing to do evaluations. So I can't say that it never will happen or it won't happen, but we don't have anything currently planned.

All right. Great. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, David.

The next question comes from Andrew Leash from Piper Sandler. Andrew, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. No, just one question for me here on the M&A environment. Mark, you got much better currency over the last few months. I guess, how is the chatter in your markets? I mean, I guess going up and down the West Coast, because you can acquire in a lot of different regions. Are you getting inbound interest? Are you reaching out? How the... How's the M&A chatter? What's the M&A chatter been?

Great. Thank you, Andrew, for the question. You know, look, our philosophy has never changed. So you're probably tired of hearing my same story, which is, you know, we recognize there are some partners on the West Coast that would be a great fit for our organization. And we continue to have dialogue with them. with all of those parties. I think we have a great reputation. We have a very strong integration team. And so the conversations of when the timing's right, if the timing's right, that continues. But again, we are very focused on our organic business growth strategy. And to the extent there's something opportunistic that presents itself, we will The good news is we're in a position to take advantage of that.

Got it. From a size perspective, is there a certain size range that you're targeting that you would like to do or something too big or too small?

No, I don't think so. You know, I think certainly on the smaller end, something less than a billion dollars doesn't make a lot of sense with the current regulatory environment. What you don't want to do is find yourself in a position where just because an opportunity presents itself that the regulators lock you out for a period of time. So I think all parties, not just me, but all of my colleagues are being very thoughtful in what the approach is going to be to M&A. But I wouldn't rule out any size you know, variable that it doesn't make a lot of sense. We've done small deals as small as $350 or $400 million in asset size.

Right, right. All right. All my other questions have been asked and answered. Thanks so much. I'll step back.

Thank you, Andrew.

As a reminder, that's star followed by one on your telephone keypad to ask a question today. And the next question comes from Kelly Motor from KBW. Kelly, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. I guess circling back to the funding side, you had incredible deposit growth, and I think the release called out some seasonality. It's been a couple years where normal seasonal trends have kind of gotten buried in some of the just overall deposit trends here so i'm just hoping to get a better color and a better sense of how we should be thinking about the seasonality now and um if now that liquidity is more normalized to normal levels that that's something you see returning more prominently on a go-forward basis yeah kelly it's rob so so yeah i would i would say you know i mean this year overall i think we have seen more of a return to normal seasonality

You know, Q1, we saw a core deposit increase because of tax refunds starting to come in. Q2, we saw that outflow of deposits related to tax payments and, you know, some seasonality there and ag clients using their deposits to fund their operations on the initial side before they started to draw down their lines. Q3 here. was very strong for us, obviously, and even much stronger than we would normally see from a seasonality standpoint. And so it really does feel like we're, you know, we're returning to kind of those normal seasonal flows, plus or minus what we would expect. Of course, as we look forward, if you think about Q4, Q4 is more of a, I'd call it more characterized as more of a flat quarter for us. You know, we could certainly see our ag clients that had cash come in from crops that went into their deposit balances. Initially, we could see them start to pay down some of their lines in the fourth quarter. That's typical. And then also what we could see, too, is there are property tax payments in many of the states that we operate in that occur in October. So there's some seasonal output for that. But overall, I mean, I think it feels like we have returned to somewhat normal seasonality absent. There's always kind of It was just a crowd acre, one-off events that are out there that caused deposit balances to move. That wasn't expected, but it feels like it seasonally at this point.

Got it. Thanks for that. That was helpful, Rob. Maybe last one for me. Most of my questions have been asked and answered at this point. You have, I think, about $100 million of sub-debt that is redeemable. in a couple quarters, potentially. Just wondering, as you look at your capital stack, I know we already discussed M&A, but just capital more broadly, how you're potentially looking at, you know, would that be on the table? And you also have the buyback authorization, your thoughts around that.

Sure. So if we think about the subdebt specifically, I mean, obviously we're evaluating that right now. to determine if we want to, you know, call and replace that sub debt or because of our capital position right now, which is very strong, whether we would just want to call that sub debt and pull it back. You know, it's going to move to a variable rate, which is less advantageous to us, you know, effectively July 1st of 2025. And at that point, we start to lose some of the capital treatment and then also the rate goes up as well. So at this point for that, I think we're just continuing to monitor what the subject market looks like and whether it makes sense to replace that or to call it at that point in time. If we just think about our overall capital stack right now, the core dividend, of course, is our priority. It continues to be at a very Mike SanClements, reasonable payout level there, which is, which is key to have a long term continued core dividend there, we do have the share repurchase authorization that our board put into place. Mike SanClements, Back in late July last this year and so we're continuing to evaluate whether at some point in time, it makes sense to restart those share purchases. Beyond that, I think we have done special dividends in the past. I would say those are a vehicle that we've used less, but we have done those in the past. So that's kind of how we're thinking about capital right now.

Awesome. Thanks for the questions. I'll step back.

Thank you, Kelly. The next question comes from Tim Coffey at JANI. Tim, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Robert Marlayson, Great Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question here. Robert Marlayson, If I could talk about a question about loan growth from the angle of loan originations clearly you know. Robert Marlayson, originations were up 100 million year over year and rates are coming down, is it your sense that there is pent up demand for credit from your customer base.

Yeah, thanks, Tim. The way I would answer that is, yes, there is demand. And I think that as we get past the election and get some, you know, understanding of what the economy maybe is going to look like under whatever the administration is, I think we'll start to see some of that break loose. Certainly there was, you know, waiting for rates and that playing in as well. But I do believe there is demand.

TAB, Mark McIntyre:" All right, great thanks, and then my second question was on the new chief banking officer role kind of a two part question first kind of. TAB, Mark McIntyre:" Insights into the strategy to to refilling that position and to just putting that seat in sacramento reflect greater emphasis on on original loans in California.

Yeah, thanks, Tim, for the question. Look, I think Banner has been very focused over many years on making sure that succession planning is a significant part of our operation. And as you know, in the commercial banking space, succession is a very big deal in finding talent, recruiting talent, and having great leadership. So we were very, very fortunate to have the opportunity for Mark to join our organization. He's got depth as the CEO. He has depth in the California and West Coast market in commercial banking and retail banking. So anytime you have an opportunity to add talent to the organization, I think it's a great scenario for the company. At the same time, I think it's really important to say that we have focused and you've heard us talk about improving operating efficiency so we've isolated the chief operating officer jim costa with with the operations and how we can improve efficiency from an operation standpoint cindy purcell from a strategy standpoint and integration if we were to do some combinations or acquisitions she has 45 years of experience with this organization and great a great background in integration, and now the opportunity to add all the revenue lines under a chief banking officer really streamlines the operations going forward. So I think it's a very focused approach on behalf of the company.

Okay. And then having that seat in Sacramento, does that imply a greater emphasis on original loans in California?

I think California is a fantastic market opportunity for us. So I would just leave it at that.

All right. Thank you. Those are my questions.

Thanks, Tim.

Just a final reminder that style one on your telephone keypad

We have no further questions, so I'll hand the call back to Mark for some concluding remarks.

Thank you all for your questions and certainly for your participation today in our third quarter earnings call. As I've stated, we're very proud of the Banner team and our results for the quarter. You know, given the current operating environment, it's been challenging, but it's nice to see that we're making great progress and it's been evidenced by our performance this quarter. Thank you for your interest in our company and joining the call. We look forward to reporting our results to you again in the future. Thank you, everyone, and have a wonderful day.

This concludes today's call. Thank you very much for your attendance. You may now disconnect your lines.