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spk10: Good morning and thank you for attending today's first Interstate Bank System first quarter earnings call. My name is Jason and I'll be the moderator for your call today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. I would now like to pass the conference over to Lisa Slater-Bray.
spk01: Thanks, Jason. Good morning. Thank you for joining us for our first quarter earnings conference call. As we begin, please note that the information provided during this call will contain forward-looking statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those expressed by those statements. I'd like to direct all listeners to read the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements contained in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC and in our earnings release. as well as the risk factors identified in the annual report and our more recent periodic reports filed with the SEC. Relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements are included in the earnings release and in our SEC filings. The company does not undertake to update any of forward-looking statements made today. A copy of our earnings release, which contains non-GAAP financial measures, is available on our website at fibk.com. Information regarding our use of non-GAAP financial measures may be found in the body of the earnings release, and a reconciliation to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included at the end of the earnings release for your reference. Joining us for management this morning are Kevin Riley, our Chief Executive Officer, and Marcie Much, our Chief Financial Officer, along with other members of our management team. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Kevin Riley. Kevin?
spk07: Thanks, Lisa. And just so everybody knows, I'm traveling, so it might sound a little different because I'm in a different location than my team. So let me start off. Good morning, and thanks again to all of you for joining us on our call today. Again, this quarter, along with our earnings release, we have published an updated investor presentation that has some additional disclosures that we believe will be helpful, especially to understand some of the purchase accounting and transaction costs impacting the quarter. The presentation can be accessed on our investor relations website. And if you have not downloaded a copy yet, I would encourage you to do so. I'm going to start off by providing an overview of the major highlights of the quarter and the progress we are making on the integration. And then I'll turn the call over to Marcie. to provide some more detail on our financials. In short, we feel really good where we stand just three months into this merger. Results of the quarter were strong. Our adjusted net interest margin saw meaningful expansion. Underlying trends in both loans and deposits are favorable. We made meaningful progress toward resolving acquired problem credits. Our balance sheet remains highly flexible, allowing us to take advantage of recent rate increases. The acquisition was accreted to our gambling book value, offsetting a significant portion of the OCI impact for the quarter. Our capital levels are strong, and we are well prepared for assistant integration in May. And the cultural integration of these two organizations is going extremely well. For the quarter, our loan production and deposit inflows were favorable relative to what is traditionally a seasonally slow period. As we complete our integration, we expect to capitalize on some of the most vibrant, fastest growing markets in the country. You may have seen the article published by CDN Business last week talking about which states have returned to pre-pandemic employment levels. An economist from Moody's Analytics was quoted as saying that Mountain West is clearly leaps and bounds above the rest of the country. In particular, Idaho and Montana were cited as two of the fastest growing states in terms of employment growth in the month of March. We are seeing these trends in our markets, largely driven by strong in-migration and population growth. Post-pandemic, This has translated into robust economic activity and job creation, allowing businesses to capitalize on increased demand to serve these growing communities. This has translated into increasing levels of activity coming through our credit approval process, which should lead to higher levels of book production going forward. Our Montana and Idaho markets were particularly strong this quarter in Wyoming, has stabilized and is no longer the headwind to loan growth that it was last year. Additionally, as we have quickly resolved many of the credit challenges related to the transaction, we have good momentum to grow in our expanded footprint. Within the legacy first interstate loan portfolio, as a result of an increase in utilization rate on commercial lines of credit, and the strong production levels. We grew our total loans held for investment by approximately 2% annualized in the first quarter, excluding PPP loans. Importantly, we experienced over 5% annualized growth from our branch network, which was partially offset by the decline in our home mortgages and indirect lending portfolios. This is a positive outcome As a seasonality, we typically see the beginning of the year offer results in flat or slightly declining loan balances during the first quarter. Compared to the fourth quarter, we are beginning to see some sanity return to loan pricing as interest rates have increased, along with marginally less competitive environment. This quarter, the average rate on new loan production in our legacy footprint is now over 4%. Moving to Great Western, excluding PPP loans, production levels remain strong in the quarter. Since the close of the acquisition, we've been able to make formal announcements affirming continued, consistent leadership in those markets, which has minimized the uncertainty created in any acquisition. The teams, many of which I have personally visited, are excited about the future, and I'm impressed with this talented group of bankers. With the motivation we are seeing from this team, combined with the substantial progress that we have made to work down levels of problem loans, we are optimistic that we will see growth in these new markets faster than we anticipated. In terms of problem loan resolution, if you recall the time of the transaction announcements, we identified $1.2 billion in PCD loans. When we closed the acquisition, that number was down to $722 million. And we've made more progress on working down problem loans since the closing. Criticized loans from Great Western were down to $655 million at quarter end. And to accelerate the workout process, we transferred $241 million of credits to loans held for sale at the close of the transaction. And we expect these loans will be substantially off our books by the end of the second quarter. Considering these factors, many of the headwinds to total loan growth that we initially anticipated in the first two years of the combined operation from the disposition of problem loans have been substantially reduced. We now expect Great Western's footprint to be a contributor to the growth of the combined company this year. While we are very excited about the acquisition We haven't lost focus on expanding the digital lending capabilities that we introduced over the last couple of years. We continue to refine digital business banking loan origination platform that we launched late last year, offering lines of credit up to $100,000. We are currently focused on increasing the automation on score products up to $250,000 and are prepared to launch this later this year. The digital capabilities and the access to small business lending centers will be rolled out into the new footprint at system conversion. Before I turn the call over to Marcy to provide additional details around our first quarter results, I'd like to say that I have never experienced an acquisition where there's been so much enthusiasm and excitement for our new colleagues. This has been a rewarding experience, and I am excited about the possibilities going forward. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Marcia.
spk03: Thanks, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. As I walk through our financial results, unless otherwise noted, all of the prior period comparisons will be with the fourth quarter of 2021. Of course, the primary driver of the variances in each area will be the partial quarter impact from the Great Western merger, which closed on February 1st. I'll begin with our income statement. On a GAAP basis, our net interest income increased by $56.2 million. While the growth in our earning assets from the acquisition was a primary driver, so too was the sequential expansion of our adjusted net interest margin, as well as the increased contributions from accretion on purchase loans. Our reported net interest margin increased 11 basis points from the prior quarter to 2.8%. Excluding purchase accounting accretion and PPP-related income, Our adjusted net interest margin increased 19 basis points from the prior quarter to 2.65%. This was driven by a favorable mixed shift and an expansion in our yield on earning assets, primarily in our investment securities portfolio. On an average basis, loans increased to 56% of earning assets in the first quarter, up from 53% in the prior quarter. Our securities yield expanded 23 basis points, which was partially attributable to the repositioning we did after adding Great Western's investment portfolio, along with higher new investment yields, which were 2.2% in the first quarter. Looking ahead, we believe we are well positioned to see a continued expansion in our net interest margin due to a number of factors. We anticipate a continuation of the positive mixed changes to our earning assets in the second quarter. Investment securities purchases continue to be accretive to book yields in the current environment, and we expect to invest additional cash in the second quarter. Loans should begin repricing with a recent Fed rate hike. Loan accretion should be modestly higher in the second quarter with a full quarter impact from Great Western. And at this point, we've seen nothing in deposit trends after the first rate increase, to change our expectation that we will have a very low deposit data during the initial stages of this rate hike cycle. While the expansion will vary from quarter to quarter, we expect the general trend in our net interest margin to be higher as the Fed raises rates, which should help lead sequential improvement in the net interest income as the year progresses. Before I discuss fees and expenses, I would like to level set on one area and address the realignment of Great Western's accounting practices to our own, as you'll see referenced in the investor presentation on page eight. Previously, Great Western netted certain expenses against non-interest income, which, for accounting clarity, we don't do at First Interstate. This practice was most notable in our payment services business. While the unwinding of this practice has zero impact to net income, It will result in both fees and expenses being approximately $13 million higher for the calendar year 2022 or approximately $1.8 million for the first quarter. So with that, our non-interest income increased $11.8 million quarter over quarter to $49.2 million, which included a $3.4 million recovery of mortgage servicing rights impairment and a $1.4 million gain on the repayment of Great Western sub-debt. We saw strong results from our payment services business, which we expect to continue, along with nice improvement in our SWOT fee revenue as compared to prior periods. With higher rates reducing demand for refinancing and continued housing supply constraints impacting purchase volumes, we anticipate the environment to become more challenging in the mortgage banking business. We expect to offset some of these headwinds as we expand our production into the new great Western markets, particularly through our digital loan origination platform, which will be available to them at system conversion. Looking ahead by the fourth quarter of 2022 we expect our run rate for non interest income to be in the range of 52 to $54 million excluding any impact from MSR. This also takes into consideration the reduction related to the full impact of our new NSF and overdraft policies. Moving to non-interest expense, we recorded $65.2 million in acquisition-related expenses in the first quarter. This, along with the partial quarter impact of adding Great Western's operations, resulted in total non-interest expense of $207.2 million. Looking ahead, as most of the cost savings will not come out until after system conversion, the additional month of Great Western's operations will increase our adjusted operating expense by approximately $20 million in the second quarter. Additionally, we expect to incur another $60 to $70 million in merger expenses, which should also fall mostly into the second quarter. We are on track for the system conversion in late May, after which we'll start to realize the cost savings projected for the transaction. By the fourth quarter of 2022, we expect our quarterly run rate for total operating expenses to be approximately $160 million, which includes approximately $4 million of reclassified expenses related to the realignment of Great Western's accounting practices that I mentioned earlier. This should put us right in line with original expectations, even after considering inflationary wage adjustments we expect to make later this year. Moving to the balance sheet, excluding the addition of Great Western, the legacy first interstate loan portfolio increased $37 million, excluding PPP loans, from the end of the prior quarter, primarily due to growth in the commercial loan portfolio. As of March 31st, we had approximately $56.7 million of total PPP loans remaining on our balance sheet, net of $1.3 million of remaining associated deferred loan fees. Our investment portfolio increased by approximately $3 billion from the end of the prior quarter, largely due to the securities added from Great Western. Immediately after closing, we repositioned part of that portfolio, selling securities that didn't meet our risk profile, and moved $464 million of securities from available for sale to health maturity. This reduced the impact of higher interest rates on OCI and our tangible book value. At the end of the quarter, the duration of the investment portfolio was 3.8 years or 3.6 years when you include the impact of our interest rate hedges. On the liability side, our total deposits continue to increase in what is historically a flat-to-down quarter, and we were up 3.2% on an annualized basis from the end of the prior quarter. Moving to asset quality, while our non-performing and criticized loans increased due to the acquisition, credit trends in both portfolios continue to improve. Within the Legacy First Interstate portfolio, we had just six basis points of net charge-offs on an annualized basis in the quarter. Outside of those charge-offs, we recorded approximately $15 million of net charge-offs on loans acquired from Great Western, most of which were specifically reserved and taken in anticipation of restructuring these loans in future quarters. We recorded $68.3 million through the loan loss provision on non-PCD loans from Great Western, which was partially offset by a release of reserves on the Legacy First Interstate portfolio. Our allowance as a percentage of loans held for investment was 1.46% at March 31st, up from 1.31% at December 31st. Our reserve remains strong with coverage of our non-performing loans at over 200% post-transaction. And with that, I'll turn the call back to Kevin.
spk07: Thanks, Marcy. I'll wrap up with a few comments on our outlook. Despite inflationary pressures, and higher interest rates, loan demand remains robust and our pipeline remains strong across all asset classes and all markets. Pricing appears to be firming and we expect to see the usual seasonal increases in ag and construction lines during the second and third quarters of this year. With the progress that we have made in reducing Great Western's problem loans, The headwinds that we expected to have to total loan growth post-closing have been meaningfully reduced. Based on our strong pipeline, we are optimistic for growth in excess of low single-digit outlook we previously gained for the combined company over the remainder of 2022. This should lead to further improvement in our earning asset mix and additional expansion of net interest margin. Combined with cost savings, that we will see after the system conversion, we are optimistic about the level of profitability that we'll be able to generate during the second half of the year. Another benefit of resolving the problem loans at a faster pace than initially expected is that we have been able to devote more time and attention to executing on potential revenue synergies. We've been able to make more progress than we expected on putting the groundwork in place to take advantage of our larger footprint to drive growth in home loans, indirect lending, commercial and consumer credit cards, and treasury management solutions. While we may see some small incremental benefits in 2022, we are setting the stage this year to see positive impacts from these efforts in 2023. And finally, we've been relatively conservative with respect to capital leading up to the closing of the merger. But with the merger completed and more clarity around the credit quality in the acquired loan portfolio, we have the ability to evaluate and consider options to optimize our capital. So with that, I'd like to open the call up to questions.
spk10: Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. If for any reason you'd like to remove that question, please press star followed by 2. Again, to ask a question, press star 1. And as a reminder, if you're using a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your handset before asking your question. We will pause here briefly as questions are registered. Our first question is from Jeff Rulis with DA Davidson. Please proceed.
spk08: Thanks. Good morning. Good morning, Jeff. Just a question on, you know, assuming there are some lockups or incentives aligned with, I guess, through the conversion in mid-May, any preliminary thoughts on on retention or harchers that you might see? I guess it could be a little to be determined, but what's your gauge on that as we approach conversion?
spk07: The lockups that we put into place for our producers are lockups that are in place for a year. So we're hoping that that will continue to lock them up as they've been locked up so far since the transaction closed.
spk08: Got it. I guess, you know, the folks that, you know, you'd sock through conversion, that departure is to be assumed, I suppose, or... Yeah, the ones who gave retention bonuses, yeah, the ones who gave retention bonuses through conversions, they'll get the retention bonus once the conversion is done, and they'll move on.
spk07: But the producers, we gave lockups for over a 12-month period.
spk08: Fair enough. Kevin, on the... Just taking a different angle, would a buyback be considered now with the deal closed? I guess there was discussion of some technical trading headwinds as you approached the close and just wanted to check in on capital use as we head forward. Is buyback part of that discussion?
spk07: Well, as you know, we've always talked about the different things that we use capital for, and buyback is always part of the discussion. Right now, we have more capital than we had pre-pandemic. And as you saw around pandemic hit, we did some special dividends. We did some shared buyback. So everything is on the table, and we're looking at the options as we speak. So time will tell where we go.
spk08: Okay. And one last one. Just looking forward on maybe the credit path of NPA resolution from here, noting that the PCD balance is down and what you've moved into health for sale, but any kind of major mileposts that you see on the remaining NPAs going forward on potential resolution, or is it more of that group's going to be a methodical work down from here?
spk07: Yeah, I would say that from this point on, it's kind of more like business as usual. There's no real big pool of anything. I think you'll see some upgrades as the economy is improving in some areas, and you'll see some that will show the door, and then we'll rewrite other ones. So it's just going to be normal kind of working out of where we are with regards to these classified assets. There's no real bucket that we're concerned of, you know, as a bunch that we have to work on. So it's kind of just kind of working through them. So it's kind of like we've done with First Interstate over the years.
spk08: Okay. So, again, no super low-hanging fruit that you, you know, chunky resolution. It's going to be the 139 left is sort of a work-down process from here is the idea? Yes. Okay. Okay. Great, thank you.
spk10: Thank you for your question. Our next question is with Matthew Clark from Piper Sandler. Please proceed. Good morning.
spk07: Good morning, Matt.
spk05: First one on on the expense outlook. The fourth quarter. run rate expectations of 160 million. I'm a little surprised that it won't be lower than that, given all the cost saves that are still yet to come, you know, 56 million on an annualized basis. Can you just give us a sense for what might be, you know, masking some of that?
spk03: Well, again, Matt, I think when you take that extra $13 million and add it to the expenses that we did at deal announcement, Plus, you know, our couple of percent just increased year over year in our budget. And then we also have built into there some inflationary wage increases, our wage increases related to inflationary pressures. And between all of that, that will be the run rate. And if you look at where we were last year, you know, at announcement and you add the, on an annual basis, $14 million to that, we're kind of right in line with where we thought we'd be.
spk05: Okay. And then on the fee income run rate of 52 to 54 million by the fourth quarter, I think some of that's accounting related too, but you know, what, what else is getting you from that 44 and a half million this quarter on a core basis up to that 52 to $54 million range by the fourth quarter?
spk03: Again, I just think when you include the run rate from great Western, you know, we expect mortgage to be, you know, pretty, you know, MSR impact, you know, as we go into the back half of the year, you know, we're just feeling pretty positive about where we expect to be from a fee perspective. And, again, part of that's the $14 million reclass.
spk05: Right. And there was $1.8 million of that in this quarter. Is that right, for the reclass? Yes. Did I hear that correctly? Okay. Okay. And then... On the pipeline, Kevin, you mentioned it's strong. I know the comparisons are distorted having just closed on the deal, but I guess how would you size up that pipeline, you know, relative to the growth you might anticipate coming out of it and where it's coming from?
spk07: Yeah, all I can say from what I get from my chief credit officer is that they have approved $1.6 billion in loans. And we're hoping some of that sticks to the bones. They're, you know, it doesn't mean they're all going to be booked because they could be booked by some other institution. But the approval process is probably at the highest level we ever seen.
spk05: Okay, great. Thank you.
spk10: Thank you for your question. Our next question comes from Jared Shaw with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.
spk06: Hey, good morning, everybody. Good morning, Jared. Just going back to the growth, Kevin, you sound pretty optimistic about the geography and the job formation, people moving in, strong credit. You referenced competition, slackening. Why not be more optimistic on growth? I guess you're saying we're off of the low single digits, but with the faster cleanup, What would have to happen to get you up to mid-single digits or high single digits?
spk07: It's always our goal, Jared, to grow as fast as we could possibly grow. But again, we're in the risk business and we want to make sure we're taking the appropriate risks in that growth. We're very optimistic that growth is going to be better than what we have seen maybe in the past, but the fact of the matter, you know me, I don't want to ever get out too far ahead of people and promise too much and under deliver. So I'd rather hedge my bet with regards to what we think growth might be. If it comes out better than that, you can trust me, I'm not going to turn down the business.
spk03: Yeah, I think we're optimistic about line usage. We're optimistic about line usage. We're seeing a slowdown in the pace of payoffs. And so both those things, too, are encouraging to us.
spk06: Okay. All right. That's a great call. Thanks. And then, you know, I'm just looking at the asset quality slide, and you referenced the $31 million remaining loan balances that could be exited. Are those already exited? I guess a couple questions. One, are they already marked? Is that sort of reflective of what you expect they're worth, and is that included in the held for sale category?
spk02: Yes. It is. Oh, excuse me. It is not. Hold on, Michael.
spk04: Yeah, this is Michael. The $31 million that you're referring to relates to the TDRs that we're anticipating doing over the next couple quarters, so we right-sized some loan in the first quarter. And so what you're seeing is that will be through, we've taken the charge, so now we just need to put together and redocument the loan so that we can upgrade the remaining balances up from classified.
spk06: Okay. So not necessarily a charge as you take that next step. That's already been reflected in the valuation. That's correct. Okay. And then just finally for me, I guess with the stronger environment for purchasing securities, where do you see securities potentially going as a percentage of assets? And is that something that would be spaced out over the year? Or if there's good pricing, good opportunity, you'd potentially get there faster?
spk03: Yeah, so I do think we have the opportunity to deploy some of our cash into the investment securities portfolio. You know, we see some good opportunities there. So I would expect, you know, as a percentage of earning assets to go up a little bit. But, of course, our first, you know, hope is to deploy that into the loan portfolio.
spk06: Okay, thank you.
spk10: Thank you for your question. Our next question comes from Chris McGrady from KBW. Please proceed.
spk09: Hey, good morning. Good morning, Chris. I guess a question on the balance sheet, understanding the excess cash position and the ability to remix. How should we be thinking about just growth and balance sheet? Maybe a comment on what you're assuming for deposit growth over the balance of the year?
spk06: That's a good question, Chris. Go ahead. Go ahead, Marcy.
spk03: Go ahead. So deposit growth generally, Chris, goes up as we go through the next couple of quarters. We have seen a little bit higher pace of outflows for tax payments this quarter than normal. But overall, through the second and the third quarter, we'd expect deposits to grow modestly and then kind of flatten out as we go into the end of the year or potentially slightly decline.
spk09: Okay. And then is there a targeted mix that you're looking to get for the cash position? And if so, when do you think you can get there?
spk03: So there's not a targeted mix, but it's definitely down from where it is now. So I think we have a lot of flexibility to put that to work either in the loan portfolio or the investment portfolio to increase overall net interest income.
spk09: Okay, and then maybe a final one. You provided guidance on the fourth quarter for where fees and expenses were going to exit. One of the questions we're getting a lot on this quarter is exit run rate of net interest income for this year. And so I'm interested in your thoughts, if the forward curve were to play out, how should we think about, you know, putting all the pieces together and kind of an exit run rate for spread income?
spk03: So, Chris, that isn't really something that we've disclosed in the past. You know, I think if you look at, you know, I think we said we had three interest rate hikes in our budget. Most likely it could be more than that. I mean, I think we've given you all the pieces to be able to do the math there in terms of what our variable rate loans are, you know, that immediately reprice are like 27% of the loan portfolio. Investment portfolio is 13%. The investment portfolio immediately reprices. we expect deposit betas to be low. So, I mean, you know, you can make some assumptions and kind of get there on your own based on what you think rates are going to do. Your crystal ball is probably as clear as ours.
spk06: Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks, Marcy.
spk10: Thank you for your question. Our next question is from Andrew Terrell with Stevens Bank. Please proceed.
spk11: Hey, good morning. Good morning, Andrew.
spk00: Good morning, Andrew.
spk11: So most of them might have been asked an answer to this point, but just from a kind of bigger picture, Kevin, when we announced this transaction back in September, I know one of the slides in the presentation gave us kind of a rundown of the pro forma P&L and PEG kind of operating earnings in 2023 at 365. I know there were some kind of conservative assumptions already and a lot's changed since then, but Do you feel more comfortable in achieving that 365 pro forma EPS in 2023 today compared to when you announced the transaction?
spk07: I would say I would be very disappointed if we don't do better than the 365.
spk11: Okay, and then just back on the capital management piece, can you just remind us how much you have, if any, in buyback authorization right now? That would be helpful. Thanks.
spk07: Go ahead, Marcy.
spk03: Yeah, I think we have 1.9 million shares left under our current authorization.
spk11: Okay, thanks for the questions. You bet.
spk10: Thank you for your question. Our next question comes from Todd McKillen from RBC Wealth Management. Please proceed.
spk07: My questions have been answered. Thank you. Thanks, Todd. Well, coal miner, do you have any other questions?
spk10: There are no more questions waiting at this time.
spk07: Well, I'd like to thank everybody for your questions, and as always, we welcome calls from our investors and analysts. Please reach out to us if you have any further follow-up questions, and thank you for tuning in today, and have a good day. Take care. Bye.
spk10: That concludes the first Interstate Bank System first quarter earnings call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.
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