4/24/2026

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Good morning and welcome to the SB Financial first quarter 2026 conference call and webcast. I would like to inform you that this conference call is being recorded and that all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will begin with remarks by management and then open the conference up to the investment community for questions and answers. I will now turn the conference over to Sara Mikas with SB Financial. Please go ahead, Sara.

speaker
Sara Mikas
Investor Relations

Thank you and good morning, everybody. I'd like to remind you that this conference call is being broadcast live over the internet and will be archived and available on our website. Joining me today are Mark Klein, Chairman, President, and CEO, Tony Cosentino, Chief Financial Officer, and Steve Walls, Chief Lending Officer. Today's presentation may contain forward-looking information, cautionary statements about this information, as well as reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures are included in today's earnings release materials as well as our SEC filings. These materials are available on our website and we encourage participants to refer to them for a complete discussion of risk factors and forward looking statements. These statements speak only as of April 24th, 2026, and SC Financials undertakes no obligations to update them. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Klein.

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

Thank you, Sarah, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2026 conference call and webcast. First quarter represented a solid start to the year for SB Financial and really reinforces the consistency and resilience of our operating model. Our results reflected balance sheet performance across the franchise, supported by loan growth, stable net interest income, improved fee-based revenue, disciplined expense management, and sound credit quality. This quarter also marked the first full anniversary of the Marblehead acquisition, and we now view that transaction as a solid contributor to our funding base, expanded presence in northern Ohio, and overall franchise stability. While the operating environment remains competitive, we continue to feel good about our position. Balance sheet remains sound, our credit metrics continue to compare favorably, and our business line provides a healthy mix of margin and fee-based revenue. We believe that combination, along with our disciplined approach to growth and capital deployment, supports our ability to build long-term shareholder value. Briefly, some highlights for the quarter. Net income $4.3 million with diluted EPS $0.69 compared to gap diluted EPS of $0.33 for the first quarter of 2025. This now marks our 61st consecutive quarter of profitability. Tangible book value per share ended the quarter at $18.45 compared to 1579 for the first quarter of 2025 and $18 at year end. Adjusted tangible book value per share excluding AOCI now comes in at nearly $22. Our net income totaled 12.7 million compared to 11.3 million in the first quarter of 2025 and 12.7 million in the linked quarter. The year over year improvement was driven by higher interest income on loans and a stable funding profile while the linked quarter comparison remained relatively consistent. Loan balances increased by approximately $92 million from the prior year quarter and approximately 500,000 from the link quarter, reflecting continued production across franchise and extended our trend of sequential quarterly growth. Total deposits in the quarter, 1.37 billion compared to 1.27 billion for the first quarter of 2025 and 1.3 billion at year end. On a year over year basis, deposits increased Over $100 million, or nearly 8%, reflecting continued organic deposit growth and stable client relationships across the franchise. Non-interest income improved to $4.7 million from 4.1 first quarter of the year and 3.7 from the linked quarter. Our percentage of fee income to total revenue of 27% was slightly higher than the prior year and well ahead of the linked quarter. Non-interest expense totaled $11.9 million and improved from the prior year quarter, while increasing modestly from the linked quarter. Prior quarter included acquisition related expenses and incremental operating costs associated with Marblehead, which elevated the comparison period. Asset quality continues to remain a strength of SB Financial. Non-performing assets totaled 4.8 million or 0.3% of total assets compared to 6.1 million or 0.41 the first quarter. While non-performing assets increased modestly from year end, overall credit performance remained sound and reserve coverage remained strong. We're especially pleased with the efforts of not only our lenders, but more importantly, our collection team, which drove our total delinquency level down to just 28 basis points a quarter in. As we've revealed in prior quarters, we continue to key on our five key strategic initiatives, growing and diversifying revenue, more scale for efficiency, a greater share of the client's wallet for more scope, operational excellence, and of course, asset quality. Looking a little closer at revenue diversity, mortgage originations totaled approximately 66 million compared to approximately 40 million for the first quarter of 2025 and approximately 72 million in the linked quarter. Mortgage business remains an important part of our franchise, helping us expand household relationships while also contributing meaningful fee income across the company. While weaker volume than we anticipated in the quarter, the pipeline has stabilized at approximately $35 million and we anticipate approximately 25% increase in volume for the second quarter sequentially from the length quarter. Peak title continued to perform well during the quarter benefiting both internal referrals and continued traction of clients outside of the bank. This business remains a valuable part of our product set and an important contributor to fee income diversification. On the scale front, the Marblehead acquisition continues to support our funding profile and we remain pleased with the stability of those client relationships Just one year after closing, deposit growth continued to provide meaningful support to our balance sheet. We remain pleased with the stability of the Marblehead relationships, and more broadly, we continue to see opportunities to grow deposits organically through client calling efforts, treasury management activities, and the broader relationship model that has served us well across our markets, particularly with the current market disruption and consolidation. As we discussed previously, we committed to two nearby markets recently, Angola, Indiana, and Napoleon, Ohio, and these results have exceeded our admittedly aggressive goals. We have closed nearly now 19 million in loans and approximately 17 million in deposits in just five months of operation. These two markets have clearly been at the forefront of market disruption I just mentioned, and we certainly have seized on that opportunity. client relationships more scope. We remain focused on serving clients through our relationship-based model that emphasizes responsiveness, local market knowledge, and a full suite of products and services. We continue to believe that that approach, combined with our hybrid office model and expanding digital capabilities, positions us well to serve our clients across both legacy and newer urban expansion markets. Referral activity continues to be an important tool in strengthening household relationships across our business line, and we continue to view that cross-functional approach as an important part of deepening client relationships across the franchise and delivering more scope and a greater share of the client wallet. On operational excellence, we remain focused on matching growth with disciplined execution. The first quarter reflected that mindset with expense levels improving from the prior year period, and remaining controlled relative to revenue. Plus, we continue to evaluate staffing, technology, and physical presence across the franchise to ensure resources are always aligned with current client activity and long-term market opportunities. Capital levels remain strong with improvement in total capital and higher ratios for both TCE and CTE-1 regulatory capital. And finally, before I turn it over to our CFO, Tony Costantino, asset quality. Credit performance remained sound for the quarter, while non-performing assets increased modestly from year end. They remained well below the prior year quarter level, and reserve coverage exceeded 400% and continued to reflect our conservative approach to risk management. The allowance for credit losses at 1.39% remained strong relative to total loans with criticized and classified loans at just 4.6 million down 2.5 million, or 35%, from the prior year. We continue to emphasize discipline underwriting, proactive management of problem assets, and prudent growth across all markets. We believe that combination remains one of the key differentiators for S&P Financial and an important metric for long-term performance. Now I'd like to ask Tony to give us some more details on our quarterly performance. Tony?

speaker
Tony Cosentino
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Mark, and good morning again, everyone. Let me outline some highlights and important details of our first quarter results. On the income statement, in the first quarter, total operating revenue increased to $17.4 million, representing a 13.2% increase from the $15.4 million in the prior year period and a 6.1% increase from the linked quarter. As Mark noted, this quarter reflected a balanced revenue performance with stable net interest income and a stronger contribution from our fee-based businesses. Mark also detailed our gap EPS earlier in the call and when we adjust both years for OMSR recapture and the Marblehead merger costs, EPS would be 63 cents for the current period compared to 42 cents in Q1 of 25, up over 50% on an adjusted basis. Net interest income was up 1.4 million or 12.7% from the first quarter of 25 and consistent to the linked quarter. The year-over-year increase was driven primarily by continued balance sheet growth, better mix, and the repricing benefits within the portfolio. Total interest expense increased modestly from the prior year quarter as higher volume driven deposit costs were partially offset by lower costs across other funding sources. While funding costs remain an important point of focus, the overall funding profile of the company remains well aligned with the asset growth we have achieved over the last year. Net interest margin for the quarter was 3.49% compared to 3.41% in the prior year quarter and 3.52% in the linked quarter. Even with net interest income remaining flat sequentially, the company continued to benefit from the larger balance sheet and the repricing of interest earning assets. Non-interest income increased to $4.7 million. On a percentage basis, that represents an increase of approximately 14.7% from the prior year period and 27% from the linked quarter. The quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year improvement was driven by higher mortgage loan servicing fees, stronger gains on sale of mortgage loans and OMSR, and improved gains on the sale of SBA loans. The total mortgage banking contribution to the quarter was $1.8 million, compared to $1.5 million in the prior year quarter and $1.5 million in the linked quarter. We continue to utilize our hedging program, which was in the money for the quarter, as it successfully offset the disruption in the rate markets. Operating expenses totaled $11.9 million in the quarter, down $500,000 from the prior year and up just $700,000 from the linked quarter. The year-over-year comparison benefited from the one-time merger-related costs that were present in the first quarter of 2025. The linked quarter increase was modest and reflects normal quarterly expense variability. Our efficiency ratio for the first quarter was 68.1%. representing a meaningful improvement from the prior year period and continued stability on a sequential basis. Our adjusted efficiency ratio was down by over 500 basis points in the prior period, and the adjusted operating leverage was a positive five times. Turning to the balance sheet, loan balances ended the quarter at approximately $1.18 billion, reflecting continued year-over-year growth and a modest increase from year-end. with loans to assets at a healthy 74%. We remain encouraged by the continued stability in production across the franchise, and we believe the current balance sheet remains well positioned to support additional disciplined loan growth during the year. Our loan-to-deposit ratio at quarter end was 86%, although we continue to view the low to mid-90s as a reasonable long-term operating range. The current funding profile gives us flexibility to support loan growth while maintaining strong liquidity and a balanced risk posture. On capital management, during the quarter, the company repurchased approximately 29,000 shares at an average price of $21.12. We have guided lower on the buyback for 2026 as prices are at or near our adjusted tangible book values. We are also cognizant of the impending potential call of our sub-debt that would require a capital outlay, potentially impacting an aggressive buyback posture moving forward. Turning lastly to asset quality, while non-performing assets totaled $4.8 million and relatively unchanged compared to the linked quarter, we did foreclose on a large property that elevated Oreo with a like-sized reduction in NPLs. We feel confident in our collateral position and do not anticipate further write-downs from this relationship. The allowance for credit losses as a percentage of total loans was 1.39% compared to 1.36% in the linked quarter and 1.41% in the prior year. Coverage of non-performing loans was higher than both the linked and prior year quarters, underscoring the continued strength of the company's reserve position and disciplined approach to credit risk management. Total delinquencies were also down substantially for both the linked and prior year. And when we exclude loans on non-accrual, the delinquency rate is effectively zero. I will now turn the call back over to Mark.

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

Thank you, Tony. We certainly remain encouraged by our positioning as we move through 2026, supported by strong credit fundamentals, as we mentioned, a growing balance sheet and continued discipline in expense control and capital management. We're focused on executing across all of our footprint, optimizing our lenders and lending capacity, and driving cross-sell activity to support core deposit growth while maintaining a balanced approach to risk. We will be announcing a quarterly dividend of 16 cents per share, equating to an annualized yield of approximately 2.8%, representing 25% of our earnings. We continue to believe the current environment presents attractive opportunities to build on our growth trends. Our capital levels provide flexibility. Our collective experience provides a clear path to a broader footprint. And our continued focus on improvement supports our long-term objective of scaling our franchise toward the $2 billion strategic goal of a balance sheet. Now I'll open it up for calls and questions. Sarah?

speaker
Sara Mikas
Investor Relations

Nick, you can open up the questions, please.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touch tone phone. If you are using a speaker phone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star and then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And the first question will come from Brian Martin with Breen Capital. Please go ahead.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Hey, good morning, guys. Morning, Brian. Hey, just maybe just a couple of things here. And if you guys cover me, you talked a little bit there on the call about it, but just the particularly the success you've had in, you know, the newer markets, Mark, you mentioned that just kind of trying to get a handle on, you know, when you look at loan growth and going forward here, just even the deposit growth, you know, the benefits you've gotten from these new markets, just Can you frame up just kind of your outlook on loan growth here? Is there more to come from those new markets? I mean, since maybe you've kind of got the low-hanging fruit, but there's still more upside. But just frame up kind of your outlook on loan growth in the pipeline here.

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

Sure. As I'm sure you know, Brian, Angola was a mortgage production office originally, and COVID hit, and we left it a mortgage production office and some wealth management business. And then, uh, recently here, uh, we knew that there was some, certainly some opportunities in Angola to, uh, develop as into full service office. And, uh, it's been really good. We've got a great staff and there's certainly a lot of opportunity. We used to spend some time up in that market, but when COVID hit, we kind of pulled back, but, uh, Angola is doing well. And, uh, we are right on the verge of, uh, having black numbers coming out of that with, uh, you know, positive P and L. And then Napoleon was specifically a result of the disruption in the market that we all know about, which is a result of consolidation and mergers. And that's got great potential. As I mentioned before in webcast, there's probably a billion dollars in that market that has now become deposits of larger regional banks, whereas before they were deposits of smaller community banks. And so we feel there's a great opportunity in continuing to lever that. We've got a great staff and That's going to not only provide lending growth, but also nice deposit opportunities in a market that is longing for a community bank that lost a couple of them prior, as well as some merger consolidation and disruption. So we're pretty bullish on those. And then lastly, we've been in Gahanna for a period of time, and it's been generally a mortgage loan production office. And most likely by the end of the year, we'll be having more conversations about opening that as a full-service office there in Columbus, because we know there's certainly some opportunities down there with just the one office we have in Dublin. So that's a little update on those offices in terms of opportunities for de novo expansion.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Okay. And as far as just kind of the pipeline and kind of what you're expecting here in the coming quarters?

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

TAB, Mark McIntyre, yeah Steve can speak to the pipeline thing you know we've had a few payoffs here here recently, not because you know they they wanted to leave us because they sold one of their projects, but I think it's generally pretty pretty decent we know and we've discussed many times about an outweighed. TAB, Mark McIntyre, segment of our growth has come from Columbus and continues to do so. But we also indicated this year we were hoping that our other markets like Fort Wayne and Indianapolis and Toledo and Finley all kick in and provide their portion of our $75 to $100 million growth. But Steve, any comments on what that pipeline looks like?

speaker
Steve Walls
Chief Lending Officer

Yeah, no, Mark. I think consistent with that, that high single digits we talked about previously, as we discussed in previous calls, you know, to remember Brian, We are focusing on expanding the breadth. Certainly Columbus delivers a lot of growth for us and we'll continue to do so, but we are committed to expanding that growth story to those other urban markets. And that even does include, as Mark referenced earlier, entering the Angola and Napoleon offices. That story remains further to be told. There's more growth there and we think our model serves those markets well.

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

Yeah, a lot of disruption, Brian, in those markets, which has really played well into our hand. You know, we could have gone there even before the disruption, but it wouldn't be quite as robust as we're finding it today.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Okay, so now with the geopolitical risks out there, you know, we've heard more people just kind of, you know, the sentiment's a little bit, you know, near term isn't quite as positive on the loan growth side, but it sounds like at least your pipeline is still good and you're still optimistic about achieving kind of your targeted goals for the year?

speaker
Steve Walls
Chief Lending Officer

Yes, I think that's true, Brian. And certainly we have not seen, yet anyway, a whole lot of blowback from what's going on in the Middle East. Our ag portfolio, which is not insignificant, as you know. Our farmers, by and large, have pre-purchased all those supplies that are impacted by that. So we wouldn't expect any hit to our ag portfolio, certainly this year. And hopefully, obviously, things don't persist beyond this

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

And, Brian, I have to go on record and reiterate our credit culture, which is we're never going to get enough of yield to compensate for an undue amount of risk. We walk away from some deals. We could grow – I think we could grow, Steve, in the low double digit easily if we wanted to, but we stay pretty disciplined. We like our credit quality, and we know the effect that potential is going to have on profitability should we lose what we've worked hard to get.

speaker
Steve Walls
Chief Lending Officer

Yeah, certainly. Yeah. The markets we're in would afford that kind of opportunity with our presence there, but we walk away from deals that don't make sense for our credit culture.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Okay. Well, stay tuned for some progress in the other markets. Maybe just, Tony, on the margin, just the liquidity that you have today. I know you've talked about competition. At least the liquidity you have today seems to give you a little cover on the potential deposit competition, but just Can you talk about how you feel about the margin here in kind of the next couple quarters, just in the backdrop of maybe a stable rate environment?

speaker
Tony Cosentino
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I mean, we're down five basis points from the link quarter, which is really a function of being very liquid. We did a lot of deposit growth, $65 million in In the quarter, we didn't really go out and were terribly aggressive on the rate side, even in the new markets that were maybe 25 basis points above market, nothing crazy. I do think there's been a little bit of, call it parking of money, a little bit in the markets, and we were the benefactor of that. And a number of the new clients that we've gotten via disruption have been some deposit dollars that we've gotten. I do think liquidity will wane a little bit here in the coming quarters. And we've already started to get a little bit stickier on deposit pricing, not really matching on some aggressive rates. I do think we're in a pretty good spot. I do think, you know, 347, you know, is probably going to move up a few basis points here in the second quarter, just because I think we'll get back to having, you know, call it 15 to 20 million of loan growth in the quarter versus, you know, the kind of the 1 million we had in the quarter that we just finished.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Okay. And in terms of the cost of deposits, I guess you still think that we're we're trending higher from here than lower in terms of thinking about that as you go into next year with the competition?

speaker
Tony Cosentino
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. I mean, I've been pretty confident that deposit costs would trend higher and they continue to trend a bit lower. So I've missed that so far, but I still believe the market disruption we've had, I don't think that's going to continue. I do think those those competitors are going to become aggressive and they're certainly in, I've read their earnings release, they're certainly focused on growing loans. They're going to have to fund it.

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

And I think, Tony, you would agree that deviating from CRE a bit to more ag-based C&I brings that deposit base that we're very, very happy about that we didn't have prior to six months ago. So not only are we acquiring similar balances, the full relationship comes with deposits, which has been a real needle mover. Okay. Absolutely.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Yeah. Okay. And in terms of, you know, the mortgage outlook, you know, or just kind of big picture, I think you talked about it being 20 or 25%. I think that was a production maybe next quarter, but just bigger picture kind of where rates are today and kind of what you're seeing in terms of the outlook for mortgage, you know, maybe full year, just kind of, zooming out a bit, just bigger picture, kind of how you're thinking about it.

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

Well, Brian, do you want my number? Do you want Tony's number? I'm still landing on the $350 million number, just because I thought we were going to get a little bit of a play in the 10-year, which is, as we all know, has been temporarily disrupted. So that's going to be a bit of a flan ointment here going forward. But we just hired a couple new high-producing MLOs in some of our urban markets. gaining some traction and a little more representation in some of our legacy markets. So we know that the average production has gone down, which is why we brought on more MLOs. So when we get closer to 30, and they do 12 to 13, 14 million on average, because we have some high producers, just the 80-20 rule, you know, 80% comes from 20% of the producers, but I'm still pretty optimistic that we can deliver something closer to that 350 to 400 number, but I'm sure Tony's got a different number.

speaker
Tony Cosentino
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think, you know, March we did 45% of our total, you know, first quarter volume. So I was very pleased with, you know, how the quarter ended. You know, we did just shy of $30 million in the month of March. You know, our pipeline is kind of at that $35 million number. I think we're going to do $90-ish type million in the second quarter, and I would suspect we're going to repeat that probably in the third quarter if things are where they are. As Mark said, you know, I'm encouraged that we're able to hire some high-performing folks in various markets. That tells you that our model is still working and that the volume's out there. So that would kind of put you on pace to get to 310 to 325, you know, on kind of the high end. So for the full year and, you know, I think rates are going to be relatively stable where they are. I mean, the mortgage rates have fought back against, I would call it the increase in the long end of the curve. And as long as we're at six or five and seven-eighths, I think we can hang in there. You're starting to see a lot of the secondary people really get aggressive to try to get volume on. The FHLB is getting aggressive on doing very low-rate type opportunities to sell, and so we're going to be participating in all of those, which I think inures to our benefits.

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

So, Tony, said differently, you don't think Warsh is going to bend to every whim of President Trump and drop rates to get us something below four in a 10-year? I wouldn't. I do think it'll get there by the end of the year, but I don't know that it'll be that. I'm hopeful, Brian, that we'll get a play on the 10-year. I'm still optimistic with that. But, again, with the larger balance sheet, it's the gift that keeps on giving every month. You don't have to do 100 million in mortgages every month. We've got the balance sheet size, and we've got the operating revenue now.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Yeah, and the mortgage folks you hired, you're still planning to hire more, but those were in metro markets, or what markets did you add people in?

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

Yes, we've added one in Cincinnati and Indianapolis, and we've got a couple other individuals that are considering, which has been kind of a gap for us in some of our legacy markets. Finley's been a gap for us, but we've had enough people, Brian, to cover all those markets, so it's not like we haven't had anybody there. We just haven't had anybody that lives, works, plays, and does their thing in the market, which is more a creative to all the business lines. If you have people that work, play, and live right there, like Angola, we're currently hunting down somebody in Angola market. So we're committed to the business line. We love the gain on sale, but getting another household with more products and services is a big deal. Yeah.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Okay. And then how about just last two for me, just on expenses, big picture, you know, how you're thinking about, you know, the full year, just, ebbs and flows here, any initiatives or things that take it off, you know, kind of the current run rate or is the current run rate kind of a decent level to think about here in the coming quarters?

speaker
Tony Cosentino
Chief Financial Officer

I do think, you know, the run rate is in pretty good shape. I mean, we've had some opportunities here, I think, as we've seen some opportunities in the market that we've consolidated some areas in our operational sections and we've made some efficiencies. which I think will continue to help us. I think the bulk of our technology spend on new things is kind of in the rearview mirror a little bit. We do have the conversion to Fiserv that's going to happen here at the end of the year that I think will be a net zero in 26, and will be a bit of a headwind as we go into 27 as we try to find some opportunities. So I'm very hopeful on the expense side. As we've gotten bigger, we've founded more opportunities to do things than to do more with less, which I think is what we need to get to continually every month. Gotcha.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Okay. And in capital, you said, Tony, the buyback's a little bit lower, but I mean, I guess it's, you know, the near term is, I think you talked about the sub debt and then maybe potentially M&A. Is that kind of where, you know, how to think about capital deployment today or just, you know, what you're doing there?

speaker
Tony Cosentino
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think so. I think we've obviously been very aggressive on the buyback, and I still think it's a great use of our internal generated capital. But it's kind of at the price where it is today that I think we can afford to slow down a bit. We do have the sub-debt here in June that we've got to think about some things, and then we have a lot of opportunities to deploy. And if we do another $160 million, which I don't anticipate of asset growth, In 26, like we did in 25, we're going to be stressed a little bit on regulatory capital, so we've got to be cognizant of that in our rearview mirror.

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

And on M&A, Brian, we continue to keep our ear to the ground. That's downstream as well as middle stream and everything in the middle and everything above, but nothing transformative at this point other than we know that organic is great, but clearly M&A is divine. we continue to look at opportunities that are in the region.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Gotcha. And credit all sounds good. You know, a little bit of, I guess, improvement, I guess, or just continued success on the credit front, nothing really causing any problems in terms of, you know, things you're seeing out there in terms of risk?

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

Yeah, no, again, from a high level, you know, we like to think we've, You know, when you have a downturn, as we all know, that's when you get a good idea of your underwriting administration. And as we all know, we haven't had really much of a downturn. You know, our clients' balance sheets are pretty liquid. We get personal guarantees. We rely on makers. We have good projects in urban markets. You know, generally all is good, but as we all know, you have it until you don't. So we're pretty, pretty precautious on the risk we take and the deals we do. And as I mentioned, uh, if we wanted to really light it up, uh, we've got great opportunities because we have 17 different lenders running around out there trying to find deals. So, uh, what our job is, Steve and me, Steve, myself, and Tony is pulled back on the range to make sure, you know, we keep this thing measured and we keep it on the tracks. And, uh, Steve, any, any more perspective on credit quality?

speaker
Steve Walls
Chief Lending Officer

Yeah, no, certainly. I echo everything you said, Mark, and talked about previously, Brian, the, um, The stability of our asset quality, those credits we're working through, it's not a function of turnover and new credits coming into our non-accrual loans. It's kind of the same ones we've talked about in the past. Unfortunately, the wheels of justice grind a little more slowly than we might like. As Tony referenced, we did get control of one of those pieces of collateral that we are very confident in our position, all those credits, where we think we are and we're going to get out where ultimately we want.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Okay, so a bit more progress there. And last one, Tony, I meant to ask you, you commented earlier, somebody, just the deposit growth and the liquidity, I guess, do deposits maybe tail off a bit here given, you know, kind of what you've gotten some good growth, but I mean, I guess is that a, it sounds like some money may be going out the door, but just how are you thinking about deposit growth from here?

speaker
Tony Cosentino
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think, I do think, you know, we're going to have a down quarter in the second quarter and On the deposit side, we already know of some kind of larger relationships that are, you know, moving out through normal business cases. So, you know, I don't think we'll have enough to overcome that on the retail side. So I do think, you know, we're probably going to be at the 90% loan to deposit ratio here in the rest of the year. And I think that's a comfort level for us. I don't think we need to be overly priced on the deposit side to get there. And I think we're only nervous about liquidity if the loan pipeline gets to be on the upper end of our range. I think we're comfortable at mid to high single digits and funding that based upon all the things that we've got going on. And if we get above that level is when we might have some stress.

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

My only comment, Brian, is I don't think we want to downplay or trivialize the market disruption, which has been absolutely wonderful for us because we've garnered relationships that we never would have probably been able to bring over to our company as a result of that. And that's really just begun. It's not like it's ending. We're nine months into our plan to find more of disrupted companies' assets, and we're at that $150 110 million number. So, you know, we're cruising along to our strategic goal of a few hundred million. So a lot of opportunities and a bigger job to be done. Gotcha.

speaker
Brian Martin
Analyst at Breen Capital

Okay. Well, thanks for taking the questions, guys. I appreciate it.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

All right. Thanks, Ryan. See you, Brian. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Mark Klein for any closing remarks.

speaker
Mark Klein
Chairman, President, and CEO

Thank you, and again, thanks for joining us this morning. We certainly look forward to having you join us in July for our second quarter 2026 results. Thanks for joining us. Goodbye. Have a great day.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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