Alex Ko
Analyst · D.A. Davidson
Thank you, Kevin. Beginning with Slide 5. I will start with our net interest income, which totaled $141.5 million for the second quarter of 2022, an increase of 6.3% from the preceding first quarter. Our net interest margin increased basis points quarter-over-quarter to 3.36%. The increase was largely due to increases in our loan yields driven primarily by the repricing of variable rate loans as well as higher average loan balances, which contributed to a more favorable mix of higher yielding earning assets. Overall, the yield on interest-earning assets increased by 26 basis points quarter-over-quarter. These benefits were partially offset by higher cost related to interest-bearing deposits and borrowings as a result of the rate hike since March 2022. Given our asset-sensitive position, we expect to continue to benefit from rising interest rates. Looking at the third quarter of 2022, we expect another quarter of margin expansion, but at modestly lower levels than we had in the second quarter as a lag in interest-bearing deposit cost increases will offset some of these benefits. Moving on to Slide 6. We remain in asset-sensitive position as of June 30, 2022 and are positioned to benefit from higher interest rates. Of our new loan production in the second quarter, 41% represented variable rate loans. And as of June 30, 2022, variable rate loans accounted for 44% of our total loan portfolio. Now moving on to Slide 7. Our noninterest income was $12.7 million for the second quarter, down by $440,000 from the preceding first quarter. We had increases in most of our major fee generating areas, but we did not sell much of our residential mortgage loan production in the second quarter. During the quarter, we recorded a loss of $547,000 on the sale of $35 million of previously identified problem CRE relationship that was transferred to held for sale as of March 31, 2022. Excluding this nonrecurring transaction, our core noninterest income trended higher quarter-over-quarter. Moving on to noninterest expense on Slide 8. Our noninterest expense was $80.4 million, representing an increase of 7% from the preceding first quarter. The most significant variance was a 7% increase in our salary and benefit expenses, largely due to the impact of annual merit increases that took effect at the beginning of the second quarter, plus new additions to support the continued growth of the company and higher costs associated with the retaining employees and an extremely competitive staffing market. Our advertising and marketing expenses were also higher as the second quarter includes the seasonal impact of our LPGA sponsorship. Our credit-related expenses increased by approximately $1.8 million due to a higher provision for accrued interest receivables and the legal collection expense that was higher than usual. Reflecting the higher salaries and benefit expenses, our efficiency ratio trended higher, but still remained in our target range in the low 50s. Now moving on to Slide 9. I will discuss our key deposit trends. As of June 30, 2022, our total deposits increased 3.5% from the end of the prior quarter primarily due to growth in our demand deposits and time deposit balances. As part of our interest rate management strategy, we increased our time deposits in the second quarter in order to lock in some longer-term funding before further increases in interest rates. The cost of our interest-bearing deposits increased by 16 basis points quarter-over-quarter due to higher rates on interest-bearing checking and time deposits. However, with the stability in our average noninterest-bearing demand deposits, our overall cost of deposits increased by only 9 basis points. Now moving on to Slide 10. I will review our asset quality. We saw generally positive trends in the portfolio in the second quarter, driven primarily by the continued upgrading of credits out of the criticized loan category as the borrowers demonstrate sustained performance. This resulted in total criticized loans declining by another 14% in the second quarter and represented our fourth consecutive quarter of steady reduction. Nonaccrual loans increased by $16.8 million, reflecting an $18.6 million relationship that was moved from troubled debt restructure status to nonaccrual during the quarter. Delinquent loans 90 days or more on accrued status increased by $12.5 million as of June 30, 2022. $10.7 million of this has already been addressed following the close of the quarter. $3.4 million represented a delay in renewing maturing loans, which have since been renewed and are no longer delinquent. Another $7.3 million relationship was paid off in the first week of the third quarter. Overall, our loss experience remains very low. We had just $712,000 in the charge-offs during the second quarter and $1.6 million in recoveries, resulting in net recoveries of $930,000. This is our third consecutive quarter of net recovery. We recorded a provision for credit losses of $3.2 million, which primarily reflects the growth in the loan portfolio during the second quarter and an adjustment in our outlook utilizing Moody's S2 economic scenario, which has a more recessionary outlook. Over the last 2 years, during the epidemic. We have significantly increased our credit administration processes, which better enables us to address portfolio risk. These enhancements include, among others, updated borrower financial statements on a more frequent basis. A more aggressive strategy to address nonmonetary default in real time and the requirement for projections as part of the underwriting process that includes at least a 300 basis point interest rate sensitivity analysis that helps drive tighter loan covenants and transaction structures. We have also further tightened our underwriting criteria in preparation for a possible recession. And for our corporate banking group, we conduct quarterly portfolio reviews to identify key risks for each industry vertical. So all in all, we believe our enhanced credit administration processes and tightened underwriting criteria has improved our ability to mitigate the recessionary downside risk. At June 30, 2022, our allowance for credit losses coverage ratio was 1.04% of loans compared with 1.05% as of March 31, 2022. While our coverage of nonperforming assets decreased to 137% from 144%. Now moving on to Slide 11. Let me provide an update on our capital position and returns. The increase in interest rates during the second quarter resulted in unrealized losses in our investment securities portfolio that negatively impacted tangible common equity to tangible asset ratio by approximately 37 basis points. Our tangible common equity to tangible asset ratio remained strong at 8.68% as of June 30, 2022, and there was no impact from changes in unrealized losses to our regulatory capital positions. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 1 million shares of our stock at an average price of $14.10 per share. As of today, we have $35.3 million remaining of our $50 million stock repurchase program. Despite the increase in unrealized losses in the second quarter and our stock repurchase activity, we remained at strong capital levels to support our continued balance sheet growth as shown on this slide. During the second quarter, we completed the transfer of $239 million of available-for-sale security to held-to-maturity securities. These securities reflected CRA investment that the bank normally would have held to maturity nonetheless. With that, let me turn the call back to Kevin.