Matt Scurlock
Analyst · Raymond James. Your line is open. Please go ahead
Thanks, Rob. Good morning. Beginning on Slide 8. Total revenue was up $32.6 million or 14% linked quarter, and increased $49.1 million or 23% when compared to the third quarter of 2021. Quarterly results benefited from a $33.6 million increase in net interest income mainly attributable to realize benefits of our asset sensitive balance sheet and augmented by continued C&I loan growth. Market-driven headwinds led to a linked-quarter decline in total noninterest income of $1 million, primarily driven by a reduction in investment banking and trading income coming off a strong second quarter. As Rob described, we are making progress on the execution of our fee-generating businesses, which will over time, grow in contribution as we improve our relevance with a now consistently expanding client base. The pace and complexion of non-interest expense growth continues to evolve consistent with our expectations as we focus investment on pre-identified high-value initiatives that are the foundational tenets for future scale. Q3 expenses included $13.7 million in salaries and benefits expense and $3 million and in legal and professional expense related to the sale of our insurance premium finance business. Salaries and benefits excluding transaction related expenses increased this quarter and are now up over 30% year-over-year, while total noninterest expense excluding transaction related expenses increased 18% marking continued success and repositioning the expense base towards expanded coverage and broadening capabilities needed to structurally improve earnings generation over time. Taken together, PPNR excluding transaction expenses increased 25% linked quarter to $84.1 million, marking a milestone in our transformation by achieving year-over-year quarterly PPNR growth one quarter earlier than previously guided. Net income to common was $37.1 million for the quarter, up 24% and $49.6 million excluding transaction expenses up 66% compared to the second quarter. The net income improved due in part to a $10 million reduction in quarter-over-quarter provision expense as we recorded a $12 million provision in the third quarter compared to a $22 million provision in the second. Overall credit quality remained strong. Criticized loans decreased $120 million quarter-over-quarter to 2.45% of LHI, primarily as a result of the resolution of the one mortgage-finance credit that was downgraded in Q2. And nonperforming loans contracted again to now just 0.18% of loans held for investment. This quarter's provision expense was impacted by our increasingly conservative views on the downside risks to the economic forecast, partially offset by the positive observed portfolio trends mentioned previously. Finally, the continued rapid rise in interest rates over the quarter resulted in a further decline in AOCI of $163.2 million. Portfolio sensitivity is primarily driven by changes along the two-year through ten-year points on the curve and less by changes in short-term rates. Turning to Slide 9, ending period C&I loans increased again this quarter, up $569 million or 6%, signifying focused execution on our defined strategy. Sustained loan growth over the past several quarters has driven C&I balances excluding PPP and insurance premium finance loans $2.7 billion or 38% higher year-over-year. Consistently delivering our improving value proposition to core Texas-based businesses is resulting in a balance sheet increasingly comprised the client base who benefits from our broadening platform and available product solutions. Growth continues to come primarily from new and expanded relationships as utilization rates moved only slightly higher in the quarter to 52% and remain in line with our pre-COVID average of low 50s. The announced divestiture of BankDirect Capital Finance in September resulted in the transfer of the associated C&I loan portfolio into loans held for sale. On a linked quarter basis, balances in this portfolio were flat at $3.1 billion. Moving to real estate, as expected period-end real estate balances declined by $100 million or 2% in the quarter as payoffs remained elevated and the pace of new origination moderated. As a reminder, this is a through cycle business for us, focused squarely on client selection and manage with established and well-tested concentration limits. Consistent with our long-standing strategy and previous disclosure, new origination volume is focused on multi-family, reflecting both our deep experience in the space and preference for this property type given observed performance through credit and interest rate cycles. Average mortgage-finance loans declined by 10% in the quarter, comparing favorably to estimated levels, a broader industry contraction, as the breadth of our segment specific offerings prove increasingly compelling and what is and is likely to continue to be a historically challenging market environment. Year-over-year industry originations contracted over 55% this quarter compared to the 42% decline in ending balances we experienced. And we would expect, traditional fourth and first quarter seasonal declines to be exacerbated by the tightening rate environment. Current near-term pipelines are reflective of a more cautious client sentiment. As we've said before, our strategy is focused on client selection not timing cycles, and we would expect future loan growth to simply be an output of our stated strategy. Moving to Slide 10. We have consistently communicated that transitioning the funding base to our target state would be both difficult and take time to a series of actions, most recently the announced sale of BankDirect Capital Finance. We have increasingly shifted our balance sheet away from a model reliant on a collection of separate funding sources and credit distribution channels and instead to businesses where we believe multiple client touch points will over time result in a higher quality funding base increasingly comprised of our clients' core operating deposits. Performance through the third quarter affirms the outlook shared on the last call. While we are not at target state, the early improvements made to the balance sheet and business model are yielding positive results thus far relative to the last tightening cycle. However, we are still in the early stages and we do anticipate deposit costs increasing as market pricing response to the rapid pace of Fed increases. Total ending period deposits declined 4% quarter-over-quarter with changes in the underlying mix reflective of a continued funding transition in a tightening rate environment noninterest-bearing deposits represented 47% of total deposits at period end and were down 8% linked quarter as mortgage finance deposits continue to be pressured by the sustained contraction and industry-wide liquidity. Commercial deposit accounts on analysis have now increased 18% year-over-year, reflecting our focused strategy to generate and sustain core operating account growth. The increase in short-term rates experienced over the last 90 days also drove additional repositioning within our interest-bearing deposit base resulting in continued de-emphasis of our highest cost, most rate-sensitive deposit sources in favor of more granular and modestly less rate sensitive options including Bask. Ending period balances and high beta index deposits contracted $700 million and now represents 15% of total deposits, consistent with our previously disclosed target level. During the quarter $610 million of brokered CDs matured at a rate of 70 basis points, and we purchased $730 million of new brokered CDs with a weighted average duration of 11 months and a coupon of 2.74%. Looking to the quarter ahead, mortgage-finance deposits will be impacted by seasonal factors, as property tax distributions are made from escrow accounts in December and January before starting to rebuild in mid-Q1. Turning to NII sensitivity on Page 11, shown in the middle on the slide is the results of our asset sensitivity modeling, which declined this quarter to 7.3% or $77 million and a plus 100 basis point shock scenario on a static balance sheet. During the quarter we continued to prudently reduce the amount of future earnings exposed to changes in forward interest rates beyond those already contemplated in the curve, by adding $2.25 billion in received fixed interest rate swaps largely tied to one month SOFR at an average receive rate of 3.1%. The core component of our asset sensitivity profile is the large portion of our earning asset mix that reprices with changes in short-term rates. After moving loans associated with the insurance premium finance business to held for sale, 92% of the total LHI portfolio, excluding MFLs is now variable rate, with 87% of these loans tied to either prime or one-month index. Assuming proceeds from the pending divestiture of our insurance premium finance business are reinvested in cash, adjusted net interest income sensitivity and a plus 100 basis point shock scenario increases by an estimated 1.7% over disclosed 3Q levels. The net interest income generated by our mortgage finance business will not be as sensitive as the rest of the portfolio to changes in index rates, due to the pricing dynamic of the associated deposits held noninterest-bearing accounts, which in some cases receive interest credit. As in previous quarters, the total asset sensitivity figures depicted on the slide account for this dynamic. We continue to have a variety of tools to prudently manage our balance sheet positioning, including expanded use of fixed rate loans, managing duration in the investment portfolio and the use of derivatives. If the current outlook remains intact over the quarter, we will continue to proactively use the levers at our disposal. Moving to slide 12. Net interest margin increased by 37 basis points this quarter. While net interest income rose 33.6 million, predominantly as a function of elevated loan balances repricing at higher yields, partially offset by an expected increase in funding costs. Similar to last quarter, the timing associated with the late quarter Fed moves coupled with observed spot rate at September month end suggests the full impact of the 3Q rate moves will be more fully realized in the fourth quarter. The investment portfolio declined slightly during the quarter with cash flow slowing from approximately $90 million last quarter to roughly $80 million this quarter. We purchased $28 million in three-year treasuries this quarter, which are coming on the books at a 4.2% yield versus those rolling off at around 1.5%. And we'll look to match purchase volume with cash flows based on market opportunities to redeploy at higher yields. Turning to Page 13, expense trends established over the last year remain intact and we continue the disciplined process of systematically aligning our expense base with our published strategic priorities. We continue to note that our primary objective is not absolute size, but instead productivity, and we remain focused on investing against what we believe is a significant and unique market opportunity. Consistent with our guidance, total noninterest expense when including transaction expenses increased $16 million or 10% quarter-over-quarter and $27.3 million from the third quarter of last year. As previously mentioned, the cadence of expense redeployment will not be linear. And given the noted pace of capability build, we are moving the full year expense guidance to the mid-teens, which is the high end of our previously disclosed range. Moving to capital, we remain committed to managing the capital base in a disciplined and analytically rigorous manner focused on driving long-term shareholder value. CET1 and total risk-based capital finished the quarter at 11.08% and 15.25% respectively. And the top 20% a peer medians and well ahead stated medium-term internal CET1 target of 10%. Of note, tangible common equity to tangible assets finished the quarter at 8.5%, an important characteristic of our financially resilient business model and a key metric as we manage the balance sheet to the next phases of the cycle. We expect the capital generation from the pending sale of our insurance premium finance portfolio to generate approximately 200 basis points of CET1 putting the firm in the top decile of the peer group. Consistent with our previously disclosed framework, a preference remains reinvesting capital into the value accretive growth of our Texas-based franchise and we are pleased to be operating with a strong hand heading into a potentially more challenged operating environment. Regarding asset quality, criticized loans declined this quarter as previously downgraded mortgage finance credit was resolved. As we anticipated, our proven structures response time and firm wide expertise resulted in a no loss event for both the firm and the credit risk transfer noteholders. Reserve levels, which are an important piece of our conservative capital structure are strong at 1.5% of loans held for investment, excluding MFLs and at 6.5 times non-accrual loans, also positioned favorably relative to our historical performance and our peers. An update to full0year 2022 guidance is contained on Page 14, consistent with the methodology disclosed last quarter to both account for the velocity of change in the interest rate environment and to better highlight the impact on our potential financial performance, our guidance accounts for the forward rate curve and assumes to Terminal 2022 Fed funds rate of 4.5%. Last quarter, mortgage industry market expectations for the year indicated a 40% decline in the total origination market. With the advancement rates, those expectations have now risen to 50%. Year-to-date we've outperformed the mortgage market. Based on our experience to date and the additional products, we can now offer our mortgage-finance clients through the investment bank. We expect to maintain outperformance with mortgage-finance loans declining mid-30% for the year. Due to the current and expected rate environment and the movement of loan rates off floors coupled with multi-quarter core loan build, we expect total revenue to increase year-over-year in the mid to high single-digit percent range. As I indicated earlier, in addition to already in-flight investments, we're pulling forward expenses related to planned infrastructure build and expect full year non-interest expense growth of mid-teens. Together, these expectations could result in the maintenance of operating leverage, as defined as year-over-year quarterly PPNR growth. With that, I'll hand the call back over to Rob.