Donald Hinson
Analyst · Raymond James. Your line is open, sir
Thank you, Jeff. As reported on our earnings release, we recognized a loss of $0.17 cents per share in Q2, due primarily to a $28.6 million provision for credit losses. However, our pre-tax pre-provision income increased to $21.5 million in Q2 from $20.8 million in Q1. Moving on to the balance sheet, net loan balances increased $790 million in Q2. Of that amount, $856.5 million was due to the SBA PPP loans. Offsetting the impacts of the PPP loans was the decline in utilization rates for operating lines of credit on C&I loans to 26.2% at June 30 from 37.5% at March 31. Bryan McDonald will further discuss this and loan production in a few minutes. Deposits increased $950 million in Q2, due primarily to the deposit accounts that increased or established as a result of the PPP loans. The most significant increase was the noninterest demand deposits, which grew $585 million during Q2, thus increasing noninterest demand deposits to 35.9% of total deposits at June 30, from 30.6% at the end of the prior quarter. In addition, we also experienced significant growth in other non-maturity deposit categories, leaving CDs as the only deposit category showing a decline. We continue to have very strong balance sheet liquidity. At quarter end, we maintained combined credit facilities at the Federal Home Loan Bank and Federal Reserve Bank of over $1 billion. And fed fund lines at other banks totaling $215 million. In addition, we have unpledged investment securities totaling $619 million and brokered deposits currently make up less than 5 basis points of total deposits. Our loan to deposit ratio is 83.8%. We continue our longstanding strategy of operating with a balance sheet with low leverage, which we believe will serve us well during our current economic situation. We have also been approved to use the fed’s PPP liquidity facility in conjunction with our PPP lending, but we have not yet needed it. Regarding credit quality, our net charge offs for Q2 were approximately $2 million. A substantial portion of this amount was due to one charge off in the amount of $1.7 million related to a borrower who was experiencing financial difficulties not related to COVID-19. The entire loan balance was charged off due to issues with the collateral. But we are hopeful that we will recover a portion of this amount over time. Even during this pandemic, our non-accrual loans and potential problem loans actually decreased slightly from the prior quarter, as we continue to proactively manage the portfolio. We are carefully monitoring our exposure to high-risk industries during this pandemic, Our commercial exposure to at-risk categories excluding PPP is relatively low at $564 million or just less than 15% the portfolio and primarily includes outstanding balances in the following categories: healthcare, $251 million or 6.6% of the portfolio; hotels, $126 million or 3.3% of the portfolio; restaurants $76 million or 2.0% of the portfolio. Other high-risk categories are senior living, recreation and entertainment, transportation, including ground and air. Page 21 of our investor presentation has more information on our at-risk industries. Moving on to loan modifications, at the end of Q2, we had modified 839 commercial loans for a total of approximately $527 million, with approximately 56% being interest-only deferrals, 36% being full payment deferrals and the remainder being other modification structures. Almost all modifications were for 90 days. While consumer loan modifications and number are higher than on the commercial loan portfolio, the dollar amount of consumer loan modifications is less than 5% of commercial loan modifications. While we were taking a conservative approach to risk rating and leaving modified loans at their pre-pandemic risk rating, if it is clear that the operating entity will quickly return to its pre-pandemic performance. In total, as of June 30, we have modified €591 million or 12.7% of loan portfolio, 15.5% ex-PPP loans. Of this amount, €28 million have been granted a second modification as of June 30. We have downgraded 124 of these modified loans, totaling $122 million in response to pandemic-related issues. Most of these downgrades occurred at the time of the modification. In addition, we downgraded another $50.5 million of loans due to COVID-19 that did not receive a modification. Most of our COVID-19 downgrades are to watch and are not included in potential upon loan numbers. Our expectations for the next round of modifications, is that we’ll see deterioration of borrower sustainability and some downgrades to substandard. However, we also expect to see fewer modifications in the second round since some businesses, such as medical, dental practitioners are back up and running. We’re just now reaching the expiration of the first round of modifications, but so far, second requests have been nominal. The provision for credit losses for Q2 was €28.6 million compared to $7.9 million in Q1. The total provision for Q2 included a provision for unfunded commitments in the amount of €2.6 million due to a combination of an increase in forecasted loss rates and the lower utilization rates I previously mentioned. The increase in prudent for loan losses was due mostly to worsening economic forecasts from the loan used for the Q1 allowance for credit losses. At the end of Q2, the allowance for credit losses on loans increased to 1.53% of total loans for 1.23% at the end of Q1. Excluding PPP loans, which are guaranteed not provided for the allowance for credit losses on loans was at 1.88% at June 30. As a result of the increase in the allowance and the decrease in non-accrual loans, the allowance to non-accrual loans increased 213% at the end of Q2 from 139% at the end of Q1. The magnitude of future provisions will be dependent on a combination of factors including economic forecast, charge-off experience and loan growth. Our net interest margin decreased 42 basis points in Q2. This occurred due to a combination of factors including the impact on floating rate instruments from the 150 basis points of rate cuts in March. New loans and investments having lower than current portfolio rates due to a low yield curve, a higher percentage of lower yielding overnight cash balances, and the PPP loans which have a much lower yield than the rest of loan portfolio. Partially offsetting the lower loan and investment yields is a decrease in the cost of deposits. Cost decrease in all categories of deposits with the cost of total deposits decreasing 11 basis points in Q2. Although, we experienced margin compression in 2Q. Net interest income increased 3.6% from the prior quarter due to the impact of the PPP loans. Noninterest expense decreased slightly from the prior quarter due mostly to a $579,000 decrease in comp and benefits. This decrease was a result of the deferred costs of approximately $900,000 associated with the PPP loan originations. Partially offsetting the expense benefit from the PPP loan originations was an increase of $212,000 in overtime expenses due mostly to PPP loan processing. And $410,000 in bonus paid to retail branch staff, due to customer facing interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. We do not expect these Q2 expenses to repeat themselves in Q3. Professional services increased $792,000 from the prior quarter during the implementation of Heritage Direct, our new mobile and online commercial banking platform, which we discussed last quarter. Although initially expected to be completed in Q3, we were able to complete this implementation of Heritage Direct in Q2, approximately $1.1 million of the $2.2 million of professional service expense in Q2 was due to the implementation and won’t be recurring. And finally, moving on to capital. We remain well capitalized for all regulatory capital ratios, although our TCE ratio dropped 8.5% in June 30. The ratio was 9.9% when you moved the impact of the PPP loans. Yesterday, the board declared $0.20 dividend, which is unchanged in the prior quarter. Based on our capital position and long-term outlook, we did not believe the loss in Q2 should impact the dividend level for this quarter. However, we are continually monitoring our capitalization and our ability to pay dividends in the future. Bryan McDonald will now have an update on loan production and the PPP status.