Mariner Kemper
Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead
Thank you, Kay, and thanks, everyone, for your interest in UMB. For the second quarter, we earned $57 million or $1.16 per share. On an operating basis, we earned $1.17 per share. We had another strong quarter of balance sheet growth with average loan balances increasing 10.3% on a linked-quarter annualized basis. C&I was the biggest contributor to our growth, followed by construction loans. Our most active markets for construction year-to-date have been Arizona and Missouri. Top-line loan production for the second quarter was again very strong at $844 million. Total payoffs and paydowns were $489 million this quarter and represented 3.8% of loans, in line with our longer-term quarterly averages. We continue to see activity in all our verticals, and the production pipeline remains strong as we look into the third quarter. Solid loan growth was the largest contributor to the increase in net interest income compared to the first quarter, while our net interest margin compressed 1 basis point. Although recent economic data has been relatively strong, the markets are anticipating a Fed rate cut this afternoon. While this may not be ideal for our industry, such actions may at least prevent the Fed from overextending its tightening cycle as it has in previous instances. More than likely, it will also extend the economic recovery that we have been experiencing. Given the outlook for lower short-term and long-term rates, we'd expect some margin pressure. As the likelihood of rate cuts increased over the past weeks, we've continued to extend the duration in our securities portfolio as well as add some longer tenure fixed-rate term debt in our loan portfolio. We will remain vigilant on deposit pricing to help mitigate margin pressure. And with the growth we've experienced on our robust pipeline, we expect to be able to grow net interest income. Ram will share more detail on the drivers and the outlook in a few minutes. On the fee income side, we continue to see opportunity in many of our businesses. In bond trading, both taxable and tax-free trading volumes have picked up, and in Corporate Trust, we continue to see attractive growth potential. We continue to look for partnerships and bolt-on acquisition opportunities to grow fee income and deepen our product offering. In June, we announced that our Investor Solutions team, which offers banking services and deposit solutions for broker-dealers, non-bank financial institutions and fintech companies, have partnered with Personal Capital to launch Personal Capital Cash, an account with FDIC insurance that covers balances up to $1.5 million. Additionally, just after quarter end, we closed on our previously announced strategic Corporate Trust acquisition in Iowa, which immediately gives us the #1 market share in the state. Our payment card business continues to grow. Record originations in our consumer book last quarter, along with steady growth in our commercial card products, helped drive card spend 11.3% higher on a year-over-year basis. The $3.1 billion in purchase volume for the second quarter is the strongest we've seen to date. In summary, prudent balance sheet growth, which has been above peer levels, coupled with momentum in our fee generation, should help mitigate the impact of margin pressure from a lower, flatter yield curve. Our business model is built to weather all economic cycles, driven by the diversity of our revenue sources. After further strengthening our foundational infrastructure through investments such as a dedicated disaster recovery site, a majority of our capital investments are now focused on revenue and customer experience-enhancing projects and should help us gain further traction in each of our business lines. Lastly, we will continue to focus on the efficient use of our capital, whether it is in supporting organic growth, funding potential acquisitions or returning more to shareholder opportunistically. Now I'll turn the call over to Ram for a more detailed discussion of our results. Ram?