Bank7 Corp.

home growth is kind of what we expect. And again, I feel really good about that for the full year. And so as you mentioned, going quarter to quarter, you can see some blips, spikes, peaks, valleys, whatever you want to call them. But just if you look over the course of the year, I feel really good about that high single digit. But the other side of that, and we've talked about this previously as well, you really have to remember we're so focused on maintaining profit margins we do sacrifice growth for that and i think this quarter is a really really good example of that and you know we like that some investors may not but that's that's how we're going to continue to operate and and we just think it's the right thing to do yep that uh that uh that makes sense and then lastly

Capital's grown really nicely over the past couple quarters. How do you think about deploying some of that excess capital in the current environment? I'm assuming the preference would be through M&A? Clearly, that's correct.

We're very aware of the fact that we've had quite a few discussions over the last year, especially with potential targets and I think the industry refers to some of the banks as zombie banks, but there's a large number of banks that would like to do something, but their hands are tied and they're wanting to wait until they can unwind some AOCI. And so we're mindful of that, and if you believe that we're on the precipice of some rate reductions, then I think you could see opportunities that arise in the near future, and so we're not in any hurry. And I would say this, too, that we hear folks talk to us from time to time about share repurchase, and we hear those things. But let's remember, one of the great strengths of Bank 7 is this. When you're making, call it 20% to 22% return on average tangible common equity, there really shouldn't be a hyper focus on share repurchases because if we can produce really high returns, far better than most any other bank, and do it safely, we're not as driven to worry about running out and making share repurchases to support or for whatever reason the share price. And so I think it's a combination of providing great returns, reduces a sense of urgency, and at the same time, against the backdrop of knowing that there are people out there that are going to want to sell when the AOCI unwinds. And that's our view. And clearly, I think I would say that we certainly don't predict, and we're not saying that that we're going to do something at the end of the year or first quarter. But if we're sitting here in nine months and it doesn't look like there's any opportunities, then I think at some point it would be prudent to revisit that concept. But for now, we're steady as she goes.