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CVB Financial Corp. (CVBF) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

CVB Financial Corp. (CVBF)

Q2 2026 Earnings Call· Thu, Jul 23, 2026

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CVB Financial Corp. Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the second quarter of 2026 Earnings Conference Call for CVB Financial Corporation and its subsidiary, Citizens Business Bank. My name is Sherry, and I'm operator for today. Please note, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Allen Nicholson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. You may proceed.

E. Nicholson

Management

Thank you, Sherry, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to review our financial results for the second quarter of 2026. Joining me this morning is our Chief Executive Officer, Dave Brager, and our President, Clay Jones. Our comments today will refer to the financial information that was included in the earnings announcement released yesterday. To obtain a copy, please visit our website at www.cbbank.com and click on the Investors tab. The speakers on this call claim the protection of the safe harbor provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For a more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements, please see the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025. And in particular, the information set forth in Item 1A, risk factors therein. For a more complete version of the company's safe harbor disclosure, please see the company's earnings release issued in connection with this call. I'll now turn the call over to Dave Brager. Dave?

David Brager

Management

Thank you, Allen. Good morning, everyone. For the second quarter of 2026, we reported net earnings of $48.3 million or $0.29 per share representing our 197th consecutive quarter of profitability, which is every quarter for over 49 years. We previously declared a $0.20 per share dividend for the second quarter of 2026 representing our 147th consecutive quarter of paying a cash dividend to our shareholders. Our net earnings of $48.3 million or $0.29 per share compared with $51 million for the first quarter of 2026 or $0.38 per share and $50.6 million or $0.37 per share for the prior year quarter. Pretax income in the second quarter of 2026 was $65 million compared to $68.6 million in the first quarter of 2026. Results for the second quarter of 2026 reflect the impact of the acquisition of Heritage Bank of Commerce, which closed on April 17. The core banking systems of the 2 banks were integrated at the end of the second quarter. During the second quarter, we incurred $31.4 million in acquisition expenses, which was $30.3 million better than the first quarter. In addition, we incurred a provision for unfunded commitments of $4.25 million for the acquired heritage unfunded loan commitments. Excluding these unusual items, pretax income would have been $100.7 million in the second quarter. I'll now turn the call over to Allen to further discuss additional aspects of the merger and our balance sheet.

E. Nicholson

Management

Thanks, Dave. Including the acquisition of Heritage Bank of Commerce, our total assets grew from $15.5 billion at March 31, 2026 to $21.2 billion at June 30. Total consideration for the acquisition of Heritage was approximately $845 million and resulted in total intangible assets of approximately $450 million including $334 million of goodwill. The acquisition of Heritage included $1 billion of investment securities, of which we sold $490 million at the close of the merger and subsequently purchased $500 million of new securities with an average yield of approximately 4.7%. The fair value of the acquired Heritage loans was $3.8 billion and the initial allowance for credit losses on the acquired loans was $46.6 million. To further optimize the balance sheet, we also sold the SFR mortgage pools acquired from Heritage at their fair value of $327 million. The sale of these loans settled on June 10. With the benefit of the merger, average earning assets for the second quarter of 2026 were $17.6 billion, an increase over the first quarter of $3.7 billion. The growth in earning assets, combined with a 28 basis point expansion in our net interest margin, drove a $44.6 million increase in net interest income in the second quarter when compared to the first quarter of 2026. During the second quarter, we also adjusted our wholesale funding. In connection with our cash flow hedges, we replaced $300 million of maturing brokered CDs that were hedged with the pay-fixed swaps with 90-day federal home loan advances. In the month of May, we also chose not to replace $300 million of maturing potable FHLB advances that had a borrowing rate of 4.73%. As a result of these changes, we no longer have brokered CDs and our FHLB advances totaled $500 million, comprised of the $300 million of 90-day cash flow hedge advances and a $200 million [indiscernible] advance maturing in May of 2027 at a rate of 4.27%. As a result of the merger, we acquired Heritage $40 million of 5% fixed rate sub debt, which had a market value of $38.7 million at the close and a market rate of interest 6.7%. This debt is expected to be redeemed as early as possible date, which is May 2027. Although our cost of deposits increased modestly from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2026, these changes in borrowings resulted in a decrease in our overall cost of funds from 0.97% for the first quarter of this year to 0.96% in the second quarter of 2026. Our allowance for credit loss increased from $80.2 million at March 31, 2026 to $126.7 million at June 30, with the additional ACL from the acquisition of Heritage. The ACL as a percentage of loans increased from 0.93% at March 31, 2026 to 1.05% at June 30, 2026. Our ACL is based on our economic forecast that is a blend of multiple forecasts produced by Moody's. We continue to have the largest individual scenario waiting on Moody's baseline forecast with both upside and downside risk weighted among multiple forecasts. The resulting economic forecast at June 30, 2026, was generally consistent with our first quarter forecast. Real GDP growth is forecasted to stay below 2% through the end of 2027. The unemployment rate is forecasted to reach 5% by the beginning of 2027 and remain above 5% through 2028. Real estate prices are forecasted to continue their decline through the end of 2027 before experiencing growth in 2028. Now turning to our capital position. At June 30, 2026, our shareholders' equity was $3.2 billion compared to $2.3 billion at March 31, 2026. The acquisition of Heritage resulted in the issuance of 40.6 million shares of common stock. In June, our Board authorized a new $15 million share repurchase plan. From June 18 through July 21, we repurchased 409,000 shares for $8.9 million at an average share price of $21.72. Our tangible book value per share at June 30, 2026 was $11.07 compared to $11.42 at March 31, 2026. The company's tangible common equity ratio was 9.8% at June 30, 2026 compared to 10.5% at March 31, 2026 while our common equity Tier 1 capital ratio was 14.7% at June 30, 2026 compared to 16.3% at March 31. I'll now turn the call back to Dave for a further discussion of our loans and deposits.

David Brager

Management

Thank you, Allen. Loan originations continued at a strong pace in the second quarter as originations for the second quarter of 2026 were approximately 85% higher than the second quarter of 2025 and 40% higher than the first quarter of 2026. Our loan pipelines remain relatively strong, although rate competition for high-quality loans continues to be intense. Loan originations in the second quarter had average yields of approximately 6%, which was in line with the first quarter. Total loans were $12.1 billion at June 30, 2026 compared to $8.64 billion at March 31, 2026. The $3.37 billion increase includes $3.15 billion of loans acquired from the merger with Heritage, net of the SFR loan pools that were sold prior to quarter end. Our average loan yield was 5.53% for the second quarter of 2026 compared to 5.32% for the first quarter of 2026 and 5.22% for the second quarter of 2025. Excluding loan fees and discount accretion on acquired loans, our base loan yield increased from 5.14% at March 31 to 5.37% at June 30, 2026. The overall line utilization rate at June 30, 2026, was 41% compared to 44% at March 31, 2026. However, the C&I line utilization increased quarter-over-quarter from 30% at March 31 to 32% at the end of the second quarter. Dairy and livestock loan utilization decreased from 69% at March 31, 2026 to 63% at June 30, which is in line with the typical patterns for these types of loans. We experienced $137,000 of net charge-offs during the second quarter of 2026, and there was no provision for credit losses during the quarter. Total nonperforming assets increased by $10.5 million to $16.8 million at June 30, 2026, which represents 8 basis points of total assets. Classified loans were $109.7 million at June 30, 2026 or 0.91% -- loans. The $26.6 million increase from March 31, 2026 was due to the addition of $29 million in classified loans in classified heritage loans. Now on to deposits. Our total deposits and customer repurchase agreements as of June 30, 2026, were $16.9 billion, which compares to $12.4 billion on March 31, 2026. The $4.4 million increase was a result of $4.75 billion of deposits acquired from Heritage upon the close of the merger in April and the reduction in deposits from $300 million of brokered CDs that matured and were not rolled over during the second quarter. Our noninterest-bearing deposits were 53% of total deposits on June 30 compared to the premerger percentage of 59% on March 31, 2026. Our cost of deposits and repos was 86 basis points for the second quarter of 2026 compared to 82 basis points for the first quarter of 2026 and 87 basis points for the year ago quarter. Clay will now highlight the growth in noninterest income and give an update on the merger integration.

Robertson Jones

Management

Thank you, Dave. Noninterest income was $17 million in the second quarter of 2026 compared to $14.3 million in the first quarter of this year. The $2.7 million quarter-over-quarter increase in noninterest income was the result of increased fee income across almost all categories. Deposit and other banking service fees grew by $850,000 and trust and investment services income grew by $460,000 or 12% from the first quarter of 2026. International Banking income grew by $200,000 and income from bank-owned life insurance increased by $350,000 with the additional policies for the merger. I also want to provide a brief update on our merger integration and the revenue opportunities we see from the Heritage combination. We completed the conversion of Heritage into Citizens operating to June 19 through June 21 weekend. This was an important milestone and a significant undertaking, supporting -- supported by strong execution across our teams and dedicated internal and external resources focused on customer readiness and support. Overall, the conversion was successful. As we expected, we worked through individual customer transition items, and we're already seeing customers benefit from our enhanced online banking platform. We're also beginning to see the strategic benefits bringing the 2 banks together. The combined company gives us greater lending capacity and has created additional opportunities across our broader banking platform including trust and wealth management, home mortgage and international services. Today, we are operating as one bank with a stronger presence across California's major economic markets and a broader platform to serve our customers. I will now turn the call back over to Dave for further discussion of our noninterest expense.

David Brager

Management

Thank you, Clay. Noninterest expense for the second quarter of 2026 was $114.4 million, including $31.4 million of acquisition expense related to the Heritage merger. Core noninterest expense, which excludes acquisition expense, amortization of intangible assets and provision for unfunded commitments was $75.2 million in the second quarter of 2026, compared to $58.1 million in the first quarter and $56.4 million in the second quarter of 2025. After excluding acquisition expense and provision for unfunded commitments, our adjusted efficiency ratio was 43.9% in the second quarter of 2026 compared to 44.6% in the first quarter of 2026 and 45.5% in the second quarter of 2025. In conclusion, we continue to focus on the successful integration of the merged companies and the opportunities for accelerated growth in the Bay Area while achieving the projected returns we outlined for this acquisition. Our current outlook continues to align with our stated objectives of achieving EPS accretion of 13% or greater in 2027 while generating a return on hedge assets of 1.50% and a return on tangible common equity of 17%. This concludes today's presentation. We are now happy to take any questions that you might have.

Operator

Operator

Our first question will come from the line of Matthew Clark with Piper Sandler.

Matthew Clark

Analyst · Piper Sandler

First one for me, just on the accretion. I wanted to confirm the number that was in the net interest income, I've got the loan piece based on the core loan yield comment, but I wanted to see if there was some additional securities marks in there.

E. Nicholson

Management

From a security standpoint, it would have been I mean, I guess I don't really distinguish that, Matt, because that -- it's all AFS, everything we acquired is AFS. So it will change as the market value changes every quarter.

Matthew Clark

Analyst · Piper Sandler

Got it. Yes. Okay. So roughly $4.6 million of accretion this quarter.

E. Nicholson

Management

Are you talking about exclusive or in total?

Matthew Clark

Analyst · Piper Sandler

In total, for the quarter for the 74 days. In net interest income?

E. Nicholson

Management

Let me check that in follow-up, I'll take a look at that. $2.7 million, by the way, Matt, specifically for the merger.

Matthew Clark

Analyst · Piper Sandler

2.7, okay. All right. And then just on the cost saves, how far along are you, just so we can get a sense for what might be left coming out of the run rate?

E. Nicholson

Management

Of course, Q3 will still have some noise. We'll still be a heightened level of acquisition expense but not the same level as Q2. That will trickle down into Q4. I think Q4 will be fairly clean, but the full impact of the expense synergies won't be seen at the beginning of 2027.

Matthew Clark

Analyst · Piper Sandler

Okay. Okay. Got it. And then if I can just sneak 1 in here. On the pipeline and just the overall integration, getting into the Bay Area given the rebound that's happening there. Any updated thoughts on loan growth going forward, whether or not you might be able to step it up relative to your legacy CVB.

Robertson Jones

Management

Yes. Thanks, Matthew. Clay here. I think the pipelines look very good. As noted in the presentation here, no question about it, we still see continued pricing pressure and lots of competition, but loan demand is strong, and we continue to execute on that with the combination of the 2 organizations and full integration of the production teams, we're full steam ahead as 1 bank here and are looking for all those opportunities going forward.

David Brager

Management

Yes. The only thing I would add, Matt, obviously, we feel good about looking out 90-ish days or so. I mean there's a lot of pressure on interest rates right now. With the 5-year, 10-year treasuries righting pretty substantially. So -- we'll see if that impacts customer prospect behaviors just with rates -- so that would be potentially the only tailwind, but the things that we mentioned and Clay mentioned with respect to the integration and the combined capacity of the 2 organizations, which will really have an impact on the opportunities that we're seeing in the former HBC offices. And our pipelines for the legacy CVB offices continue to remain strong. So look, we want to deal in the top 25% of relationships out there. And so we're going to always side on credit quality. We'll compete on price for the full relationship. But at the end of the day, I think at least what we're seeing today, is pretty positive going forward.

Operator

Operator

One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Kelly Motta with KBW.

Kelly Motta

Analyst · KBW

Congrats on getting the deal done quickly and the conversion done quickly. I'm sure that's a great feeling.

David Brager

Management

It's a great feeling most of the time...

Kelly Motta

Analyst · KBW

I hope you guys all get a vacation after this. I guess building off what was really stood out to me in your slides was just like a remarkable amount of organic growth to kick it off. Can you provide additional color as to like the drivers of that? And if there was anything, I imagine some of it is chunky, but if you could provide additional color given that it was quite notable, the organic growth you highlighted?

David Brager

Management

Yes. So I'll answer that, and Clay can jump in if he has anything to add. I think just generally, when you look at the last 5 or 6 quarters, 4 or 5 quarters, we've had very strong pipelines. And with the combination of the 2 organizations that opportunity has just continued. So with the increased capacity and round numbers, Heritage had their store to help limit and our house limit is bigger 2.5x bigger than their house than it was. So relationships that may be -- and use the term out grows probably overstating it, but they may have had to participate on a deal that was growing, whereas now we don't have to and we can consider that. So I think the loan growth is primarily the increases in loan growth, as I've said the last couple of quarters has primarily come from investor commercial real estate all the other asset classes, we had solid production. But with C&I in a 31% utilization rate, you just don't get the totals -- so I think with investor commercial real estate coming back, I think it's really helped us sort of fill that gap of what was missing sort of through '23 and '24. So I don't know, Clay, if you have anything to add.

Robertson Jones

Management

Yes. Just 2 things to add there. I think both organizations pre-close had strong momentum going into the close. And so the momentum of both organizations combined really was very powerful. And then secondly, what I would say is the collaboration of the teams in terms of their credit sales partnership moving loans from origination through boarding worked very well in terms of the pathing of those loans. So we really didn't see any delays or hiccups through that pathing. So the momentum, including the hard work and making sure that the throughput came through really worked.

Kelly Motta

Analyst · KBW

Great. That's super helpful. A balance sheet question perhaps for Allen. Cash is elevated at the end of the quarter. You obviously sold the HFS book that from Heritage that you had planned at announcement. I know you had mentioned in your prepared remarks some repayment of some borrowings down the pike, you have an active buyback just like -- how should we be thinking about the reinvestment of the liquidity of that book? And yes, I'll leave it that.

E. Nicholson

Management

Sure, Kelly. So as I said in the prepared remarks, we did at close about half of the $1 billion portfolio we inherited. And we reinvested that pretty much throughout the quarter. So we didn't get the full benefit from an average perspective. We did settle the sale of the SFR mortgages sort of late in the quarter on June 10 and did not deploy that cash during the quarter, but we have subsequently deployed that -- and so we don't anticipate carrying as much balances at the Fed going forward. But certainly, it will be higher than premerger. We'll keep something north of what we typically did prior to the merger just because the overall increase in the balance sheet side.

David Brager

Management

Yes. Kelly, the only thing I would add to that, and Allen can opine as well, obviously, with the combined investment securities portfolio, the runoff of the loans, if loan demand stays where it's at, we're averaging and we put a new slide in our deck that talked about the investment portfolio and the cash flow that's generated from that. And round numbers, it ranges from $150 million to $200 million a quarter. . And so that's additional assuming the loan demand stays where it's at, that's additional pickup for us if we can reinvest that in loans at least 200 basis points over the light treasury, that should be a good pickup for us as well, combined with the runoff on the loan portfolio, there's another slide in the deck that shows what those average yields are to. So there is opportunity for pickup if the loan demand stays where it's at.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from the line of Gary Tenner with D.A. Davidson.

Gary Tenner

Analyst · D.A. Davidson

So it sounds like things are going really well on the loan front. And I'm just wondering, maybe from Clay's perspective, anything that your lenders have needed to kind of change or adjust the approach as it relates to kind of fitting with the Susan's style and philosophy in underwriting and sourcing business.

David Brager

Management

Thanks, Gary. Yes, no question about it. Both acquisitions had a very like-minded credit culture, client selection. So the combination of the 2, we didn't see any imbalances in terms of how we view and look at customer onboarding and selection but no question about it. There's a change and we fully integrated into the Citizens operating model as well as the loan pathing and loan processes. So yes, the former Heritage team members have learned the new process and are navigating that through with their credit administrators and loan underwriters. So we fully integrated that and are continuing that. I would expect to see us kind of at the very conclusion of all of the integration on the loan processing side, be somewhere around September time period. But contribution-wise, the Heritage, former Heritage team members are contributing at their proportion.

Gary Tenner

Analyst · D.A. Davidson

Great. Appreciate that. And then, Allen, I wonder if you could just put a little finer dime on kind of expectations for expenses in the third quarter, just given kind of the full quarter. Now post Heritage, some degree of cost saves post conversion -- just to give us a bit of a guide, if you will, in terms of the third quarter expense run rate.

E. Nicholson

Management

Well, I think from Q2, obviously, we mentioned more than $30 million in acquisition expense. So that will come down at least by half, probably more than half of that. We also don't anticipate having a $4 million provision crop balance sheet. That was a day 2 entry. So that will go back to what I would is typical. We'll see some cost saves. I can't quantify them for you at this point necessarily. But Q3 will look a little better. As I said, Q4 will be a true run rate in line with what we talked about in the announcement, we'll probably achieve by the fourth quarter, 90% to 95% of what we said we would achieve in terms of cost saves and then have it fully loaded by the beginning of 2027.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come the line of Andrew Terrell with Stephens.

Andrew Terrell

Analyst

Just wanted to ask on, Dave, I think right at the end of your prepared remarks, you just reminded the kind of earnings accretion, the 1.50% ROAA and 17% ROATCE expectations. I mean you're kind of pretty darn close, if not there on ROAA on an operating basis. This quarter, do you feel like there's a chance to outperform the ROAA expectation with this deal? And then on the ROATCE specifically, I feel like it could be tough given how profitable you are and where capital is at unless you leverage capital a bit more active on the buyback. So I guess I'm just kind of curious like should we lean on the ROA target more or the ROATCE target more? And it's kind of a question around how much capital you're willing to leverage?

David Brager

Management

Yes. Look, I mean, the question is, do I think we can outperform it? That's always the goal. I'm talking about the ROAA. I absolutely think we can outperform it. And we'll be evaluating -- continuing to evaluate all capital deployment management aspects of what we're doing. With the share repurchase program, we'll be evaluating dividends once we get a more clear run rate. I mean there's a number of things that we're going to be doing from a capital perspective. And we do have a it's a good problem to have. I mean, we generate an enormous amount of capital. And so we'll be evaluating that to ensure that the ROATCE projections we can get there as well. So I mean, all in all, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, I believe that we can outperform it. We're already on a strong pathway towards outperforming it. And as Allen mentioned, we projected a certain cost save recognition of that within a year -- within this year and then 100% going forward. And I think that's still accurate. So we'll see how it all plays out. I mean the market for financial stocks has been pretty strong. I mean there's been one-off days, and we are buying back shares as I -- as we mentioned, we gave you the number through yesterday r excuse me, through Tuesday. So we'll continue to be in the market from a share repurchase program perspective, and we'll evaluate the other ways that we return to shareholder capital as well. I don't know, Allen, do you have anything to add to that?

E. Nicholson

Management

No. I mean I think are currently fairly confident about reaching all the goals, the ROATCE number, maybe that takes a little bit more time because there's more moving parts, but we are definitely focused on striving to hit all of those, Andrew.

Andrew Terrell

Analyst

Okay. Fair enough. I appreciate the color. And then I wanted to go back and see if you're maybe willing to put a little more of a fine point on the margin, the 3.72% this quarter definitely better than where I was at, and we're consensus with that, and there's obviously a lot of moving pieces, but it sounds like maybe some -- a little bit of headwind from just competitive dynamics in the market, but you've got, I would say, more unique tailwinds versus some peers as well with the acquisition. Can you just maybe frame for us general kind of expectations on the margin in the 3Q.

E. Nicholson

Management

So if you have our investor deck, we tried to provide some additional information towards the end of the quarter to at least provide a little more context to everyone. So if you start on Page 24, we actually provided what the -- what I'll call the base yield or coupon of our loan portfolio as June 30, which was 5.37%. So that excludes any accretion from purchase loans, any fees, you need prepays, anything like that. So it's not the reported number, and you can tell us there's a lot that goes into that. But you can see the difference between March 31 at 5.14% to see the sort of the lift of both the loans we acquired and what we've seen over the quarter in terms of improvement. On Page 25, we gave a lot more color around our organic growth in there. And as we mentioned, we've been generating loans that yields approximately 6%. If you go to Page 29 in the investment portfolio, we're demonstrating what the book yields were at the end of the quarter as well as the principal runoff and the coupons on that runoff on that chart for you as well. On the deposit side on Page 30, you'll see the point in time cost of deposits and repos at the end of the month. So hopefully, that will help you as well. And you also see that on Page 32. And so we also provided a little more color around interest rate risk on Page 34. And I think you can get a sense from there of some of the back book, and there's the same chart we had from last quarter in our appendix, which shows the scheduled payments of our loans over the next number of periods and what the runoff coupons are -- of course, we see a lot more prepayments than that. So it will probably be larger than that. So hopefully, you could live that information to help you with your forecast.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from the line of David Feaster with Raymond James.

David Feaster

Analyst · Raymond James

I wanted to start off with the integration completed now, I wanted to -- I was hoping you guys could elaborate a bit about what's on the docket for the Heritage team. You touched on some opportunities maybe in the trust and wealth side, some increasing capacity with existing clients as you deepen the relationships there and some lending opportunities. But I'm just kind of curious, with the integration completed now, like what are you focused on? And where do you see the most opportunity near term?

David Brager

Management

Yes, I'll start and then Clay can add on. So just a couple of things. Obviously, the systems conversion was an important step to bring them on to the CVB platform. There's still work to be done, and we're still working on those things. There are some, as Clay mentioned, just process stuff that we'll continue to work on through September, October time frame. But all in all, it's business as usual. They're dealing with one-off customer situations and those types of things, and there's still work to be done there. But all in all, I think it's gone pretty well. And Heritage previously like us, as Clay mentioned, they went after the best customers, the best relationships in their markets. It's very similar to us. I mentioned previously in calls that our original credit due diligence and moving forward now that everything is on our platform. We can see that the book was very similar. The type of relationship was very similar. There are differences in how we do things, and they're still learning that. It doesn't happen magically on June 22. But at the end of the day, we'll continue just to integrate not only from a process standpoint but from a culture standpoint and how we view all of this. So I do think that for the former Heritage associates, there's going to be a lot of opportunities for them to do things that they maybe couldn't have done before. So we have to get through this initial stage, but we'll continue to work on the integration, both process, culture, everything else.

Robertson Jones

Management

So Yes. No, David, the only thing I would add is there's a number of things that we had on the former heritage road map that were accelerated through the merger and integration. And those things included everything from CRM tools to sourcing production tools, not least of which the revenue synergies around wealth management, international mortgage, those that I touched on before that we did not have in our toolbox prior to the integration. And so now we've got those full set of tools ready for the team and we've already seen revenue benefits from those that obviously weren't in the model, but our revenue synergies going forward. So as David said, there is good momentum in there, but there's a lot of things in front of us that we're still working through today, but also are in front of us in terms of opportunities, '27 and beyond.

David Feaster

Analyst · Raymond James

That's awesome. And then obviously, look, there's a lot of moving parts on the deposit side. You talked about some of the intentional moves, broker deposits, kind of curious, how do you think about deposit growth opportunities across the footprint and the deposit pipeline today? And how do you balance defending deposit costs in your low-cost core deposit base versus growing deposits -- growing core deposits, especially as competition is kind of intensifying?

David Brager

Management

Yes, I think there's a couple of pieces there. And as you said, there are a lot of moving parts on the deposit side. Most of the questions are always around loans and that process. But historically, we've grown core deposits, noninterest-bearing deposits in that kind of 3% range. So I don't think there's really that much difference in what's going to be happening going forward. I think it's just making sure that we continue to focus on the strength of our organization, which is our deposit book and we'll continue to streamline that. Look, we customize every solution. Heritage customized every solution. The way we did it was slightly different but ultimately, that will align with how Citizens Business Bank looks at it. But we want to protect relationships at the same time. So it's not like we just flip the switch and do it. There will be a process that we go over both with the deposit side, the loan side, all of everything that we're doing for revenue side. So I think the simple answer to your question is I don't foresee it changing from what's been historical for us. We're not going to compete on high-priced CDs or just be the highest provider out there. Clay disappointed in that. Just kidding. But we're not going to compete on that stuff and the bankers are incented to bring operating companies and operating deposits. And -- so once they figure out all of the moving parts, we'll be back to full strength on that side as well. Our deposit pipeline still remains strong as well. So there is good momentum for us with our type of deposit relationship, and we'll just continue to work towards that. So I don't know if you have anything to add.

Robertson Jones

Management

Yes. No, the only thing I would add is we have a very disciplined approach to relationship pricing in deposits and guess need to defend those that are valued clients in the book. But I think our disciplined approach continues pre-and post conversion here. Last thing I would just say is through the integration and conversion, we did move to an enhanced online banking system here at Citizens. And so the legacy Heritage customers are receiving the benefit of a very more -- very deeper, more robust online banking platform. And so we have deep integration into our customers from a full service banking platform.

David Feaster

Analyst · Raymond James

That's awesome. And maybe just last one. Look, you guys have been active managing the securities book. You've done that in the past. You've been investing. We talked about some of the investment of the excess liquidity. I know there's really no optimization included in the initial pro forma guidance, but I'm curious, how do you think about additional balance sheet optimization opportunities as you think about capital deployment and supporting the NIM just in addition to maybe some more of the mechanical tailwinds that Allen, you talked about.

E. Nicholson

Management

David, on the wholesale funding side, we did some things in the quarter I alluded to the fact that we have some of those also maturing through early 2027, and we'll evaluate it, but I think we'll continue to -- unless there's an opportunity to better position us from an interest rate risk perspective, we're likely not to replace those wholesale funding. So that would improve our cost of funds slightly. I think on the investment side, it's just really a function of how we're doing on loan and deposit growth. We have a lot of cash flow coming out of that portfolio that can be redeployed in much higher yields than what the portfolio is currently. But we've also been focused in one of the reasons we put a chart in our IP deck is reducing the duration of that portfolio. And so we've been adding more variable securities, more hybrid arms, things like that to overall reduce the duration of the bond portfolio.

Operator

Operator

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Brager for any closing remarks.

David Brager

Management

Thank you, Sherry. With the system integration behind us, we will continue to focus on our vision of serving the comprehensive financial needs of small to medium-sized businesses and their owners. We now operate in every major economic market of California and will continue to deliver our relationship-focused banking model throughout the state. The Citizens Business Bank team remains focused on building long-term relationships within the communities we serve. Our consistent financial performance is highlighted by the 197 consecutive quarters of profitability and the 147 consecutive quarters of paying cash dividends. I would like to thank our associates for their outstanding efforts and commitment during the systems conversion. I would also like to thank our customers for their continuing loyalty. Thank you for joining us this quarter. Appreciate your interest and look forward to speaking with you in October for our third quarter 2026 earnings call. Have a great day.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's program. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.