Earnings Labs

Banc of California, Inc. (BANC)

Q3 2020 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 22, 2020

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Hello, and welcome to Banc of California’s Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Today's call is being recorded and a copy of the recording will be available later today on the company's Investor Relations website. Today's presentation will also include non-GAAP measures. The reconciliation for these and additional required information is available in the earnings press release. The referenced presentation is available on the company's Investor Relations website. Before we begin, we would like to direct everyone to the company's Safe Harbor statement on forward-looking statements, included in both the earnings release and the earnings presentation. I would like to now turn the conference over to Mr. Jared Wolff, Banc of California's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Good morning, and welcome to Banc of California's third quarter earnings call. Joining me on today's call are Lynn Hopkins, our Chief Financial Officer, who will talk in more detail about our quarterly results; as well as Mike Smith, our Chief Accounting Officer; and Bob Dyck, our Chief Credit Officer, who will all be available during Q&A. As noted on our earnings call for the second quarter, we expected our third quarter to demonstrate the earnings momentum we had been building toward, following nearly 18 months of restructuring. I'm pleased to report that we executed well and delivered strong operating and financial results that we anticipated in the third quarter. We will get into more detail later in the call, but here are just a few highlights of the positive results we generated on many fronts this quarter. We had significant improvement in our level of profitability, generating net income available to common shareholders of $12.1 million or $0.24 per share this quarter, and $19.4 million in pre-tax pre-provision income. Our net income benefited from a lower than normal tax rate which Lin will detail later. Adjusted for a normalized 25% tax rate, net income available to common stockholders would still have been strong at $9.9 million or $0.20 per share. We were able to maintain a stable net interest margin due in large part to our continuing ability to improve our deposit base as we record our fifth consecutive quarter of DDA growth, while further lowering our cost of deposits. We've continued to reduce our cost structure without impacting our ability to service existing clients and bring in new business. And we're actively managing and monitoring our asset quality, with the majority of our deferred and non-SFR loans, returning to the regular payment schedules, in the firm is dropping…

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

Thank you, Jared. First, as mentioned please refer to our investor deck, which can be found on our Investor Relations website, as I review our third quarter performance. I'll start by reviewing some of the highlights of our income statement before moving on to our balance sheet trends. Net income available to common stockholders for the third quarter was $12.1 million or $0.24 per diluted share. Our adjusted pre-tax pre-provision income was $18.9 million, an increase of $2.8 million from the prior quarter. As Jared mentioned, our net income benefited from a lower than normal effective tax rate, which I will detail later. Adjusted for an effective tax rate of 25%, net income would have still been strong at an estimated $9.9 million or $0.20 per diluted share. Total revenue declined $1 million, or 1.7% compared to the prior quarter, as a 1% increase in net interest income was offset by a decline in non-interest income. The decrease in non-interest income is due primarily to a gain on sale securities of $2 million in the prior quarter versus none in the third quarter. The $0.5 million increase in net interest income was due mainly to lower funding costs, more than offset by a decline in interest income. Our net interest margin of $3.09% was unchanged from the prior quarter, as a decline in our cost of funds was largely offset by our lower yield on average earning assets. Our earning asset yield declined 20 basis points, due primarily to our CLO portfolio repricing down into the current market, as well as the impact of temporary excess liquidity being held in lower yielding assets. The average yield on our $686 million CLO portfolio declined from 3.22% in the second quarter to 2.16% in the third quarter. However, with LIBOR beginning to…

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Thank you, Lynn. Looking ahead, as long as we don't have any meaningful setbacks related to the pandemic, we are optimistic that we will be able to make additional progress on our key initiatives to deliver continued improvement in financial performance. As we mentioned on last quarter's call, having completed our restructuring, we are now in profitable growth mode, albeit temporary due to the pandemic and a slower economic environment. We are carefully managing credit and will be prepared to grow more rapidly as the economy improves. But we believe there are still good opportunities to be had even in this more cautious environment. Moreover, we expect to continue to make progress on improving our deposit base and managing expenses, as we did in the third quarter. And as we emerge from the current crisis and commercial loan demand returns to a more normalized level, we expect continued growth in earning assets to drive additional operating leverage, higher earnings and greater returns for shareholders. We will likely continue to see significant runoff in our single family portfolio, but our loan pipeline is steadily building and as previously communicated, we expect the balance sheet in terms of loans and investments to end the year more or less flat with the year end 2019. Looking at other areas of our balance sheet, we believe we have other levers that we can eventually pull that will positively impact our financial performance and create additional value for our shareholders. CDs that will reprice, preferred stock that we may redeem and CLO values we expect to continue to return to a more stabilized level to positively impacting our tangible book value per share. To expand a bit more on these opportunities, as Lynn mentioned, we have significant amount of CDs maturing over the next six…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. The first question comes from Timur Braziler of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Timur Braziler

Analyst

Hi, good morning.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Good morning.

Timur Braziler

Analyst

Maybe starting off where Jared left off, and looking at some of the remaining opportunities, you guys have done a good job in checking off a lot of the boxes that you outlined on slide four. Looking at the two remaining green marks there, the redemption of the preferred stock, we could start there. Is the conversation now is just what's the best option to replace it with or is there still a scenario on the table where you choose not to redeem that and keep that as part of the capital stack?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Well, good morning, it's nice to speak with you. We still intend to redeem our preferred stock and we'll likely find a way to do it, issuing sub debt. We do need regulatory approval to redeem preferred stock. And so any action that we take is subject to regulatory approval. The Fed has made it clear that banks -- they have -- my understanding is, based on everything that I've read, is that the Fed is not looking right now at allowing a bunch of banks to redeem capital. And so we just are waiting for the right time and when we think it's appropriate, we will approach them. We think that's something that we're likely to be able to do down the road.

Timur Braziler

Analyst

Okay, would you take advantage of the attractiveness of the market now and issuing sub-debt maybe in advance of the redemption, or would that be more of a concern?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

I think we would look at that. I mean, it's really hard to time it perfectly. And so market conditions being what they are, we're constantly looking at what would be a good option. But I think it would be too hard to time it to try to do both at the same time. So we're going to be opportunistic.

Timur Braziler

Analyst

Okay, great, and then switching over to the CLO portfolio of the reduction in unrealized losses, that reduction of $23 million, was that entirely on the CLO book, and I guess what's the remaining negative mark in that portfolio right now?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Lynn, you want to address that?

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

Sure. So the improvement in the unrealized net loss in the portfolio that moved to a slight gain was not entirely due to the CLO portfolio. There was an improvement generally in the markets across all the securities, but the majority was related to CLO portfolio and it has the remaining net unrealized loss, about $17 [ph] million.

Timur Braziler

Analyst

Okay, and…

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

And that's pre-tax, so after tax its little bit lower.

Timur Braziler

Analyst

Okay, thanks. So maybe looking out a little bit longer when more of that loss is recovered, can you just talk us through the transition out of that CLO book? Is that really as things mature, they just kind of replace with something else as a larger kind of broad sale on the table? Or is that going to be too detrimental to balance sheet levels where it is likely going to be piecemealed off?

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

Sure. So I think generally we recognize that we're working on a pretty low interest rate environment with a flat yield curve, to the extent that these are able to recover to their carrying costs, I think we would look to what other opportunities there are to transition out and to lower the concentration risk related to the CLOs on our balance sheet. That something that we've talked about. It is a goal. But I think from a transition standpoint, we would be needing to look at what other alternative investments would be available to us kind of on a risk-adjusted basis and what kind of returns we could get. I think we'll be opportunistic there as well.

Timur Braziler

Analyst

Okay, great. And then one last one, if I could, just looking at the remaining level of deferrals, it seems like roughly half of that balances is in resi. I know you made the comment that majority of what's remaining is second deferrals. Are the resi deferrals also on the second request, or is that still a portion six months that was originally granted?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

No, they're either in the second request -- they're in second deferral, or they're in the process of being reviewed. SFR, as we've we it is managed by a third party, and it's a legacy kind of, non-core portfolio for us. And the consumer rules being what they are, it's -- you got to manage it, obviously, in a very different way. We're focused on it, though. I mean, we're constantly having conversations with our servicer to get our arms around the portfolio. I think one thing that's really clear about the single family loans is, unlike some other deferments, you can't expect people after three months, six months, whatever the initial deferment period was, just to come up with a huge lump sum of money and make it make, a whole bunch of payments. And so if they were out of a job, they don't have the money. Or if they're on furlough, they don't have the money. And so it was, as it relates to single family. Generally, what happens is you take the missed payments, and you put them at the end of the loan, and you're going to get paid on him at a re-fire sale. And then they start making their new payments, they pay at start of the new period going forward, current. And so we manage that a little bit differently than then the rest of the portfolio. But I don't think there's a lot of lost content there. We're working really closely with our servicer, but yes, the answer your question is most of those loans are either in second deferment, or in the process of being reviewed for second deferment. There is a kind of a lag, it just depends on when it started, but most of them are, are moving to second. Bob Dyck, any comments there?

Bob Dyck

Analyst

No, Jared, I think that's a very accurate representation. We have moved through most of the first deferral buckets, because as Jared said, they didn't all come on at once. And most of them have moved either into a second or under consideration.

Timur Braziler

Analyst

Okay, that's great color. Nice quarter. I'll step back there. Thanks.

Bob Dyck

Analyst

Yes, thanks Timur.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Matthew Clark of Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Matthew Clark

Analyst

Hey, good morning.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Good morning, Matthew.

Matthew Clark

Analyst

I'm sorry, if I missed it. I'm juggling between another -- two calls here. But the PPP related income this quarter and net interest income. Do you happen to have that number offhand? So, we can isolate a core NIM?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Sure. Lynn you have that, I guess.

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

Sure. I believe it's $2.1 million is the fees that came to interest income this quarter. At that positively impacted our net interest margin 11 basis points.

Matthew Clark

Analyst

Okay. Got it. And then on the pipeline, both loans and deposits, can you give us an update there? Where are you seeing new business opportunities on the commercial side? And again, both on the deposit side as well?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Sure. So look, we had a great quarter and the pipelines are building as we thought that they would. We're seeing a lot of opportunities, continue to see opportunities in multifamily on the bridge side and, and on permanent financing. And we're taking opportunities there. We're seeing it throughout, all of our business units, in terms of good commercial opportunities for lending, lines of credit and in term loans, even some SBA opportunities as well. It's pretty balanced, opportunities in healthcare, opportunities in entertainment as things get back to normal. So we're looking across all of our business units to show production. We still believe that we're going to be able to end the quarter at a place where the production outpaces run off in terms of outstanding. So, that we end flat or slightly up from the, the end of last year. And that will provide a really good platform, especially with our lower expense base to, deliver really solid earnings next year and, keep improving quarter-over-quarter. On the deposit side, we're seeing the same thing. Even though we're starting to see some use of liquidity, as we mentioned, we're still we're bringing a lot of new relationships and new deposits. And so while the balances from our existing client base are going to fluctuate, that's being offset by new relationships that we're bringing in and deposit flows continue to be strong. I expect that this quarter we will show positive DDA growth as we have the last five quarters which we're really, really proud of. Everybody in this company is very focused on delivering very, very high quality services and bringing new relationships in, in terms of loans and deposits and making sure that we have the most that we can from our existing clients. And we're actively…

Matthew Clark

Analyst

Great. And then along those lines, did you happen to have the weighted average rate on new production this quarter?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Yes, not sure what that is. Production yield for this quarter was around 4%, weighted average. Last quarter, it's hard to see because it was lower because of all the PPP loans that came on.

Matthew Clark

Analyst

Yeah.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

And I don't have it broken out without that in front of me. But it was around 4%, which, blended across everything that we're doing, I thought was pretty good.

Matthew Clark

Analyst

Yeah, okay. And then just on -- I know, you guys have been cutting costs for quite a while now. That run rates dropped even further here, just under $41 million adjusted overhead ratio around 2.1%. I assume we're kind of hitting a bottom here. But knowing a lot of other banks are announcing all these cost initiatives. Just curious if you ever be if you still think there might be some incremental opportunities?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Lynn, you want to?

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

Yeah, sure. Something here [ph]. I think you ordered it correct. I think there is opportunity -- incremental opportunities. I think we continue to look at expenses and, refine them and look for opportunities, whether it's operating efficiencies or leveraging technology, habits fit with our current objectives and operations. So I think there's probably some small opportunities that we're probably getting to where, we need to have an expense base, so that when things return to maybe more normal operations, that we'll be able to sort of leverage it when things return back to normal.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

I think we're at a pretty good, pretty good spot right now. We'll find incremental stuff we're at, we're constantly looking are constantly evaluating everything, as I've shared with our team, and our team is constantly looking at just because we've done something a certain way in the past doesn't mean we should be doing it that way in the future. And is that the most efficient way to do things. So we're constantly looking and we -- but we got to layer on we're earning assets on top of our existing base to keep growing earnings. And I'm confident we can do that.

Matthew Clark

Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Thanks, Matthew.

Operator

Operator

Next question comes from Gary Tenner of D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Gary Tenner

Analyst

Thanks. Good morning, folks.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Good morning.

Gary Tenner

Analyst

Hey, real strong quarter. I was curious about as you're thinking about 2021, we've talked about kind of the journey to 1% ROA as sort of an interim term target or goal, 81 basis points this quarter, I think, but with a lower tax rate and pretty low provision. So just kind of as you're thinking about 2021, is the path to that ROA level still in front of you, do you think for next year?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

I think we do. It's hard to know which quarter we're going to hit it in, but everything that I'm seeing suggests that we will. It's really about earning assets and putting them on. There's a tremendous amount of opportunity we have on the expense side still in terms of deposit costs. We have $500 million plus of CDs that are maturing, where we know we're going to be able to take out 100 basis points. We have some other mature -- we have some other deposits that are kind of time based with some larger relationships that are going to re-price. I talked about the preferred stock and incremental benefit that can give us. So I think there's really a lot of leverage on in -- still in the numbers on the expense side and then in terms of putting on earning assets, I believe that our teams can do that. And so I see, that is achieving a 1% ROA on a normalized basis is something that we'll be able to do next year. Hard to know exactly, but we're certainly pushing really hard to try to get there. The other thing is, just in terms of pure fundamentals, our tangible book value is just going to continue to climb. We still are finding plenty of opportunity of things that were missed in the past, that will be additive to our tangible assets. Not only are the CLOs going to continue to re-price as the economy improves, and we're obviously making money that's going straight to tangible value. But there's some legacy stuff that we're -- our teams have done an exceptional job of collecting on, whether they're reimbursements that the insurance company noticed that we didn't get, and things like that, that they've gone back and tried to find, whether it's litigation that we finally are resolving where we're the plaintiff, where we're going to get some money back for things that maybe have -- were charged off in the past. So all of those things are going to contribute to tangible book value, which we're going to contribute to a higher share price, in addition to the fact that we're going to be expanding our earnings. So I'm optimistic about both of those things.

Gary Tenner

Analyst

Great, thanks for the thoughts there. And then just to clarify, I think you'd said that you expect -- year end loans to be flat year-over-year, is that -- whatever you said?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Yes, I think we think about earning -- quality earning assets. So in terms of loans and investments, because we bought a whole bunch of bank sub debt, and which was a good replacement for -- in our investment portfolio earlier in the year, I think in terms of the combination of loans and investments, should be flat to up at the end of the year, relative to the end of year last year, the variable there being cash which, at different points we run with higher or lower amounts of cash.

Gary Tenner

Analyst

Okay, so it sounds like though, actually, if I was to isolate loans, because of where we are right now, versus the end of '19, loans will be lower. But the overall combination of loans and investments you're saying likely up?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Loans might -- let's see fourth quarter of '19 -- go ahead, Lynn.

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

Let me make one comment. And I think we have some visibility into where we think there are growth opportunities. The one thing that the PPP loans, we only have about $260 million of those on our balance sheet at the end of the third quarter. We believe the forgiveness process may be starting, so expect that there would be some decrease actually, in that portfolio. I think that may somewhat drive the overall loan balance, in addition to other growth in our loan portfolio. So to pinpoint that number, I think there is -- that's a little bit beyond our control. And as I mentioned in my comments, it's dependent on the governmental agency to help move that through the process.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

We are most focused on obviously, putting on high quality loans. And then where we have the ability, putting on high quality investments, and between the two of those earning enough to continue this company earning more and more each quarter. And so if we find really high quality investments that have a great duration and proper duration and integrate yield, then obviously, we're going to put those on as well. But we want to get this company to the right place from an earning asset perspective to make sure that we keep earning well going forward.

Gary Tenner

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from David Feaster of Raymond James. Please go ahead.

David Feaster

Analyst

Hey, good morning, everybody.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Good morning, David.

David Feaster

Analyst

I just wanted to kind of follow-up on that earning asset topic. You guys have done a great job on the growth front. First of all, I guess, how much of the C&I was up [ph] this quarter, just curious how much of that was warehouse and what you're seeing on there? And then I guess as we look out to 2021, as the run-off of single family kind of abate somewhat and you continue to be that go to business bank, as you alluded to, are you thinking about loan growth as we head into next year?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Well, let me take the second part first. I don't think we broke out what's warehouse versus other parts of C&I. So I don't think we have that in our publicly disclosed stuff that, like I said before, it was pretty balanced. I mean, we had production across all of our business units. And we feel good about it. Hard to predict in terms of next year. If you're trying to figure out kind of how the balance sheet is going to grow. I mean it's really economy dependent. There's no reason why we would be growing slower than the economy. And certainly not slower than our peers. If the economy holds up in this environment, specifically we're taking a relatively conservative approach, and trying to go after the highest quality credits, because we feel we need the visibility to make good decisions, not knowing how long this pandemic is going to last. And so we're sticking to what we know and doing it well and trying to lend to the strongest borrowers. That's not to say we aren't looking at everything, we are. But I think our pipelines are building. I really have a lot of confidence in our teams that have come here. They're working really hard to bring in new relationships and mine existing relationships. So David, I don't have a number that I'm throwing out there in terms of production for next year. But I know that we need to put on the highest level of earning assets that we can on our existing expense base to march toward and past a 1% ROA. And so if assuming the economy gets better, and provisioning returns to normal levels, I think that's what's going to happen.

David Feaster

Analyst

Okay.

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

I would just add one comment, I think in the investor materials, we do provide some additional detail related to our C&I portfolio. So I think that's in both the second quarter and the third quarter. And you can see, I think the finance and insurance sector within our C&I portfolio. So the majority of the C&I growth is centered in the finance and insurance part of our portfolio, which includes our warehouse credit lines.

David Feaster

Analyst

Okay, that makes --

Jared Wolff

Analyst

And I would say, regarding warehouse, we haven't built our company around it. And we've said that we're going to make it an appropriate portion of our growth. But it's very favorable from a CECL perspective, in that it's very short duration. We've never had a loss in that portfolio, and our team is very experienced. And I'd say that we get above average yields, because we focus on midsized mortgage bankers, as opposed to the largest folks. And we have several hundred million of very low cost deposits, below 10 basis points that come out of that portfolio. It's because we're lending to institutions that have their positive relationships with us. So it's very balanced. But we keep it within a size range, so that doesn't become -- kind of take over our portfolio.

David Feaster

Analyst

Okay. And then just kind of following-up on that a bit. I mean the path to margin expansion is pretty clear, right? I mean, through the positive pricing, you're getting good yields. The CLOs aren't a headwind. I guess, as you think forward, kind of where do you think the margin expands back to like, kind of what's your target for where we should get that then back to, based on the earnings power of your franchise?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Yes, it's a good question. So the way that we're trying to set the company up right now is to feel somewhat liability sensitive. Because we're obviously, emphasizing the ability to drive down our deposit costs, but because we're putting on non-interest bearing deposits and low cost check-in, from businesses that really neither have really much expectation of yield, because they're very service focused. That deposit base will not reprice when rates move back up, certainly not as fast as interest rates are going to move. And we're putting floors on all the loans that we’re originating today. And so we expect to participate heavily in a rising rate environment. And we'll be able to take opportunity, more so than on the upside than the downside. So in terms of where our margin would go to, it's a function of how quickly rates move. But in a -- I don't know why our margin wouldn't. I think we'd have to play with some scenarios, David, where interest rates relative today. Lynn, I don't know if you have any comments on that?

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

No, I think that's a good summary. And I think it would be difficult to pay a number. I think, we're working with the same interest rate environment and would take advantage of the opportunities to improve the mix and costs of deposits, through our business initiatives. And then, as Jared mentioned, I think those -- the loan pricing, the loan structure is important. And then, obviously, in a rising rate environment we'd expect stronger earnings growth, which would help with NIM expansion as well. But all things being equal, I think we're still in a good position to have some improvement there.

David Feaster

Analyst

That's for sure. So okay, I appreciate that. And then just last one, so on the $89 million you guys have done a great job on the deferral front. Of the $89 million in CRE deferrals that are remaining, just curious whether there's any concentrations in there. Was there any trends that you noticed in there? And then I guess, as the second deferrals expire, how do you think about a potential third round for those borrowers that might need additional relief? Or would you rather just kind of put it on non-accrual or TDR at that point, and go ahead and work it out?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Well, let me address that first and open up to Bob and Lynn. So when we look at putting a loan on deferral, and we're looking at second deferral, we're actively looking at whether or not that loan needs to be risk rate changed as well. So it's not a blind, it's on deferral, let's leave everything as it is. We're actively looking at the loans, and making sure that we're aware of any loss content to the extent that we can see it, and making sure that our risk ratings are appropriate. So it's not just kind of a -- let's check it, let's look at it again in another couple months. That being said, we're also giving our clients if they have a path, and we're fundamentally a secured recourse lender. So we're looking at our borrowers, looking at their statements, we're looking at what collateral they have, if they have a path to recovery and fundamentally, it's been the pandemic that has kept them where they are, then we're working with them. And I don't think there's any reason we shouldn't. The rules are there for a reason. And we're doing everything we can to help our borrowers in this time while still holding their -- holding the ground and making sure that we're not being taken advantage of and that we're working through things more -- as quickly as possible. In terms of -- we've been really giving three months deferments, not -- and kind of monitoring it every three months. So we're not doing longer deferments. I'll let Bob answer if there's any that I'm not aware of, but generally we've been doing three month deferrals. Bob, any color there on our deferment strategy?

Bob Dyck

Analyst

Jared, you're absolutely right. Three months is our philosophy and our practice. That gives us an opportunity to, as you indicated, examine the borrowers and their fundamentals. And the phrase that you used I think is the most appropriate. We're looking at them to determine a path to recovery. If -- but David, to answer your question, if we get to a need for a third, it's going to be only considered if we do continue to see improvement and movement down that path to recovery. Otherwise, if it doesn't look like we're going to get there, it's better to deal with that problem right away.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

And then on the CRE, I do look at retail. On Page 20 of our deck, we have a breakout of what's in CRE and where we have concentration and what's it’s [indiscernible], whether it's office retail, multifamily hospitality, we have very low exposures as you know to the high risk areas. So retail is an area where I have a lot of focus. Our top 25 retail borrowers represent about 68% of our retail exposure. As I mentioned last quarter, we were looking very carefully at that group. We went through every relationship and marked it red, yellow, and green. We have far more in the green category than we did last quarter. And so the migration of that group is moving along as we hoped it would. And so I feel good about it. Most of it is pharmacy and grocery anchored shopping centers that are with well-heeled borrowers. And so we're monitoring that very closely. But that's really kind of the CRE concentration that I would be most concerned about. Our office is holding up. As you know, we have very little hospitality.

David Feaster

Analyst

Okay, thank you very much.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Yeah, no problem, David.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And next question comes from Steve Moss of B. Riley. Please go ahead.

Steve Moss

Analyst

Good morning. Most of my questions have been -- Jared, most of my questions have been asked and answered here. A small one, just as we think about the balance sheet mix longer term, and obviously, you want to grow loans. I was just kind of curious how do we think about how large the securities portfolio should be relative to earning assets?

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Lynn, what's the target that we've talked about there?

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

So yeah, let me talk about that for a moment. There's been a lot of liquidity in the marketplace. So I think that generally speaking, cash and securities had probably a larger percentage than historically. So I think as liquidity is normalized, I would look for securities and cash to get a trend back down to between, call it, 10% to 15%, versus being above 15%. Given that a portion of our portfolio does have the concentrations of CLOs, and then we did invest in -- the triple B rated corporate debt is in that portfolio as well. I think it would probably be closer to the 15% versus driving down lower considering our own balance sheet liquidity.

Steve Moss

Analyst

Okay, great. I'm sorry, go ahead, Lynn.

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

No, go ahead.

Steve Moss

Analyst

Okay. And I guess just maybe, one just on the provision here, and how do -- how should we think about expense going forward. I mean, obviously, the economy seems to be heading in the right way. So should we just think about provision perhaps in future periods, relatively matching charge-offs. Kind of curious as to any thoughts you may have there?

Lynn Hopkins

Analyst

I think, with the adoption of CECL, I wish it was just as simple as you have a charge-off, and then you get to fill the bucket again. We are going through a robust process, taking a look at the portfolio, the macro economic variables that drive the models, what does the forecast look like. Fortunately, for us this quarter, I think, not only do we have our positive asset quality trends, but also the positive economic forecasts. We did have the modest loan growth, which we did factor into, and is reflected in the provision, but the provision is also a function of the mix of the loan portfolio. And some of the loan product has higher if you will, coverage ratios than others. So if I was to look forward, as the economy improves, I think we do have to remain cautious to the fact that we all recognize that the damage from the pandemic may have been not realized quite yet, and may be pushed into 2021. So to the extent that we're participating in loan growth, I would expect that there would be some provisions and then we would have to address what the charge-offs are. But even in the absence of charge offs, I think we still could expect some expense as we grow loans.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Yes, I think everybody's getting comfortable with CECL and it's a little bit, models are still getting tweaked. [Indiscernible] tends to have a lot of power these days, it seems if you're using Moody's. I think that the pandemic is a huge variable here. And when people get back to work. We are not back to work in Los Angeles, in terms of people being in an office environment. There are parts of Orange County which are, there are parts of San Diego, but LA fundamentally is still working remotely. And that's going to happen through the end of the year, most likely. And a lot of schools aren't back yet. And I think that the longer this lasts without a major stimulus bill, I think the economy is probably going to suffer. And we obviously would get hit like everybody else. I think, based on the makeup of our portfolio, we're going to get hit pretty late because we're 67% secured by residential real estate. And that has held up very, very well in this pandemic and other difficult times. But there'll be a lot of a lot of stuff to get to before us, but if it lasts long enough, we will too. Hopefully that's not the case. And hopefully more stimulus will be coming here if we don't have a vaccine.

Steve Moss

Analyst

All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Jared Wolff

Analyst

Thank you, Steve.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's Q&A session and teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.