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Transcript
EX
Executives
Management
James C. Smith - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of Executive Committee, Chairman of Webster Bank and Chief Executive Officer of Webster Bank Gerald P. Plush - President, Chief Operating Officer, Director, Chairman of Enterprise Risk Management Committee, Vice Chairman of Webster Bank, President of Webster Bank and Chief Operations Officer of Webster Bank Glenn I. MacInnes - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President
AN
Analysts
Management
David Rochester - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division Bob Ramsey - FBR Capital Markets & Co., Research Division Mark T. Fitzgibbon - Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P., Research Division Matthew Clarke - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division Casey Haire - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division David Darst - Guggenheim Securities, LLC, Research Division Russell Gunther - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division Jason A. O’Donnell - Merion Capital Group Collyn Bement Gilbert - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division Damon Paul DelMonte - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division Matthew Brandon Kelley - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division
OP
Operator
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to Webster Financial Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2012 Earnings Results Conference Call. This conference is being recorded. Also, this presentation includes forward-looking statements within the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, with respect to Webster's financial condition, results of operations and business and financial performance. Webster has based these forward-looking statements on current expectations and projections about future events. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in Webster Financial's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 8-K containing our earnings release for the fourth quarter of 2012. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jim Smith, Chairman and CEO of Webster. Please go ahead, sir.
JS
James C. Smith
Management
Thank you, Dan. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Webster's Fourth Quarter 2012 Earnings Call and Webcast. Our earnings release tables and slides are in the Investor Relations section of our website at wbst.com. I'll provide highlights of the quarter, Jerry Plush will discuss business unit performance, Glenn MacInnes will review the quarter's financial results and then we'll take your questions. As you can see, Webster finished a strong 2012 on a decidedly positive note, and we're excited to report measurable progress against our primary strategies. Fourth quarter net income of $0.52 a share increased 21% from last year and 8% linked-quarter. We again reported record core pretax pre-provision net revenue, that's PPNR. For the full year, earnings grew 16% to $1.86 a share. Record performance in the Commercial Bank and in Mortgage Banking, coupled with lower expenses against the linked and prior year's quarters, produced positive operating leverage of 4.6% for the linked-quarter and 4% for the year. ROE and ROA moved closer to our goals, while return on tangible common equity reached 13.4% in Q4. Total loan originations hit multiple records, rising overall by 44% linked-quarter and 40% year-over-year. Full-year originations increased $1.5 billion or 46% to $4.6 billion, and we clearly had momentum as a lender of choice in our markets. Our net interest margin held up better than we anticipated for the quarter, declining just 1 basis point to 3.27%, primarily due to stronger-than-estimated commercial loan growth and lower deposit costs and also benefiting from higher-than-normal prepayment activity. Total deposits grew about 1% in the quarter and 6.4% for the year. Transaction accounts grew 5% in the quarter and 18% for the year. They now account for 41% of total deposits and contributed to a continuing decline in deposit costs. The loan-to-deposit ratio stands at 83%, a…
GP
Gerald P. Plush
Management
Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. Let's start with a review of how our principal lines of business are performing. So if you turn to Slide 3, here you can see our Commercial Bank unit recorded strong loan and origination growth in the quarter and for the year. Overall loan growth was $300 million or 6.3% compared to September 30, and $748 million or 17% from 1 year ago. As you can see in the top chart, the real success story here in Commercial Banking is the greater than 20% growth in Middle Market and CRE loans over the past year and 8% over the last quarter. We've also stabilized our equipment finance and Asset-Based Lending businesses, and both areas exceeded our expectations in Q4. Take a look at the bottom chart. You can see loan origination fundings totaled $659 million in Q4 compared to $347 million in Q3 and $365 million 1 year ago. Our CRE business had a record quarter, with $234 million in originations and $205 million in fundings. The strong growth in commercial banking originations also included $31 million of loans that we'll be selling down in the first quarter. As we stated in our last earnings call, the yield on new originations in the quarter rebounded to more normalized levels. Our Commercial Bank relationship managers focused on the full banking relationship with our customers. It's also worth noting there were 28 interest rate risk management transactions, primarily swaps, caps and collars, that were booked for clients during the fourth quarter that generated $1.8 million in noninterest revenue. Our demand deposits at 800 -- or excuse me, at $935 million were essentially flat to September 30, but they're up $191 million from the prior year. Our Commercial Bank team opened 585 new demand deposit accounts in…
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Thank you, Jerry, and good morning, everyone. Let me start by turning to Slide 9, which provides a quarterly trend in net income available to common shareholders and return on common equity. The chart has reflected the progress that Jim and Jerry reviewed and how those actions translate into improving financial performance. The 21% increase in earnings over the past year corresponds to a fourth quarter return on assets of just under 1% and a return on common equity of just under 10%. The $47.9 million in net income to common shareholders in the quarter represents our highest level since the third quarter of 2004, which included 5.8 million in securities gains. Absent that, the quarter represents record net income. At $0.52 per share, this quarter also represents the third consecutive quarter of growth in EPS. As you see on the chart, our return on average common equity reflects consecutive increases over the last 4 quarters to 9.74%. Slide 10 highlights our core earnings drivers, which excludes the non-core categories, as noted on the bottom of the slide. Starting with average interest earning assets, virtually all of the $199 million or 1.1% growth in the third quarter resulted from growth in loans and loans held for sale. The key drivers of this growth were commercial and commercial real estate loans. The growth in average commercial loans from the third quarter was $98.8 million or 3.2%, and average commercial real estate loans grew $123 million or 4.8%. Net interest margin for the quarter was 327 basis points compared to 328 basis points in the third quarter. We realized an approximately 3 basis point benefit to the NIM in Q4 as a result of $1.3 million of deferred fee income from prepayments and past-due borrowers paying current in the period. Absent this,…
JS
James C. Smith
Management
Thanks, Glenn. Our fourth quarter caps a year of steady, measurable progress toward our goal to become a high-performing regional bank. We're stronger, deeper and better able to meet our customers' needs than ever before as we adapt well to the rapidly changing banking environment. This concludes our prepared remarks. We'll be happy to take your questions.
OP
Operator
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Dave Rochester of Deutsche Bank.
DD
David Rochester - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Analyst
Just quickly on the fee income side, I was wondering if you're expecting to make that switch to neutral check ordering this year, and can you update us on what that impact could potentially be?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
Sure. We are likely to make that switch some time in 2013. And I think the impact probably is somewhere in the $2.5 million to $3 million range annually.
DD
David Rochester - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Analyst
So probably impacting the latter part of the year?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
Probably, yes, yes.
DD
David Rochester - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Analyst
Okay. And on the capital side, with half of the repurchase plan done at this point, are you thinking you may reload that at some point later this year?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
We may do that later this year. For now, we're satisfied to have the 50 million and to really look at it opportunistically.
DD
David Rochester - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Analyst
Great. And just lastly, given the new QM rule, do you expect any changes to your strategy at all?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
No, we don't think it's going to affect the strategy. Actually, we were pleased that it was as broad as it is, that it has a Safe Harbor. If we actually looked at our production for 2012, I think that it wouldn't have affected more than 3% to 5% of our total originations. So at least at this point, and there's a lot of refinement to be done here, we do not believe it will affect our strategy, including in the pursuit of purchase, mortgages and Jumbo loans.
OP
Operator
Operator
The next question comes from Bob Ramsey of FBR.
Bob Ramsey - FBR Capital Markets & Co., Research Division: To follow up on this question about QM, it's helpful to know it's 3% to 5% of your 2012 originations. When you say you don't expect much of an impact, does that mean that you would be willing to portfolio a non-QM mortgage that otherwise met your criteria that was maybe part of that 3% to 5%? Or are you suggesting that it's just not a material amount and you would discontinue with the margin?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
Well, the first is that it's not a material amount, that's true, and I made a comment that there's a lot of refinement to be done here in -- also including our understanding of what the impacts are, what the exposures would be to the extent we went outside the QM. But I would say, at this point, there's a good possibility that we will not be confined only by QM, that we'll look a little more broadly than that, but it's premature to conclude at this point.
Bob Ramsey - FBR Capital Markets & Co., Research Division: Okay, great, that's helpful. And then I want to talk a little bit about loan growth. You guys obviously had a very strong quarter for commercial loan growth. It seems a bit for a long time any loan growth in the industry has been predominantly about taking market share, and we're starting to see more growth from more of our companies this quarter. I'm curious if you're sensing an increased willingness on the part of your customers to borrow, or how much of this may be related to sort of year-end issues? Just kind of any bigger thoughts on growth?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
Sure. Some of it, we think, was related to year-end issues. It's hard to pin it down exactly, but we would say -- you could say somewhere 10% to 15% or so of volume may have been as a result of borrowers anticipating the tax changes. And I think that may have drawn down the pipeline more than we'd normally would seen it contributed to the record origination volume. We think that usage is about the same quarter-over-quarter, maybe a little tiny increase there. We do think that the borrowers keep talking about how uncertain the environment is, but they are investing in their businesses. There is very modest economic growth. But a lot of our gain has come from the increase in the size of our production force, from the quality of our brand in the market. I think some of the larger institutions are having some difficulties with the negative psychology toward them, which enhances the likelihood that we're going to win, and we have won a larger share of Middle Market loans than otherwise would be the case. So it's really is this confluence of factors coming together that favor a regional bank in this kind of an environment, and particularly, we think, favor us.
Bob Ramsey - FBR Capital Markets & Co., Research Division: All right, that's great. And then I know you all sort of said you expect an increase in loans in the first quarter of about 2% to 3%, on average, given some of the strong growth late in the fourth quarter. I'm curious if you think more, instead about end of period, how you're thinking about the first quarter, and in -- I know it's only been 2 weeks, but are you seeing continued strong demand so far in the first quarter?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
I think we'd say demand is not quite as strong as it was in the fourth quarter for some of the seasonal reasons that we've already discussed, but it's there. And then we're building on what we've created to this point. Our pipelines are down, but we'll start to refill them. And we noted that even though the pipeline's down on the mortgage side, it's still over $500 million going into the quarter. So it isn't just going to be the average that holds up the earning assets there in the quarter. I think there will be some true growth.
OP
Operator
Operator
Next question comes from Mark Fitzgibbon of Sandler O'Neill.
Mark T. Fitzgibbon - Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P., Research Division: You've done some -- quite a bit of remixing on the loan portfolio, and commercial credits, I guess, are slightly over 50% of loans now. Is the goal to sort of have a 50-50 mix between commercial and consumer? Or are you comfortable taking that up to a 60% or 70% kind of level?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
The goal is to grow the portfolios that will, over time, generate the highest economic profit. It isn't simply what should be the size of the portfolio. But I am glad you brought it up. I want to let -- to say again that our commercial footings now exceed our consumer footings, and that was one of the overarching goals of the company for a long time now, so we're delighted to be at that point. We talk about our focus on relationship development. So as we move up market and into the commercial mix, there's an opportunity to build stronger, longer-term, valuable relationships for clients that also generate economic profits for us. And so a lot of our resources are being invested accordingly. At the same time, we're trying to right-size the consumer bank, investing in the electronics. But I would anticipate that the footings in the Commercial Bank will continue to increase relative to the loan portfolio.
Mark T. Fitzgibbon - Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P., Research Division: Okay. And then secondly, of the $2.5 billion of CDs that you have, what does the maturity schedule of those look like?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
So I believe we have markets -- it's Glenn, about $1 billion coming off over the year and -- I'm just looking. That is at about $1.5 billion in the year at about 105, 105 basis points, and that'll come back in at about 30, 40 bps if we -- and we've been very successful in retaining, so up to 90% is rolling back into the book. So that should help us on our funding going forward.
Mark T. Fitzgibbon - Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P., Research Division: Great. And then the last question, I guess, is for Jim on -- it relates to acquisitions. You've done some great work internally. You haven't been focused on acquisitions for a while. Do you feel as though your house is in order sufficiently that you'd be ready to get more proactive on the acquisition front?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
Actually we do, Mark, and a lot of it is about making sure your house is in order, and you're performing well at what you do, particularly if you think you might be exporting that to somebody else. And I think we have made a lot of progress. There's still some to go. Our focus is riveted on improving what we do here. We're not spending a lot of time focusing on the acquisition front at this point, but we think there will be some opportunities. We have geared up internally to take advantage of them on a selective basis. Ideally, in negotiated transactions with like-minded partners that think together, we could be a bigger, stronger regional bank. So something may come off it, but it may not. It's not an active prong in our overall strategy. We're really focused on organic growth. There's so much we could do with what we have.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Matthew Clarke of Crédit Suisse.
Matthew Clarke - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division: On the coverage ratio, nonaccruals, I understand the situation this quarter, but could we assume that, that coverage will rebuild back above 100%? And just along those lines, whether or not we might see a more swift decline in the problem loans, maybe like we saw in the TDR bucket, and just curious what really drove that improvement on the -- in the TDRs.
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Yes. So it's Glenn, and I think that you would expect coverage to go from the 91 basis points above 100. That's the answer to your first question. And I think that if you just look at our progression, I mean, it has slowed down, as Jim highlighted, on some of the metrics, but we continue to make progress across all lines. The TDRs, in part, were -- a part of that is prepayments or refinancing out of the banks, so hard to predict what that's going to look like. I mean, some of it's dependent on the borrower. So I couldn't give you guidance on what that number's going to look like over the next 3 quarters, but I think you would expect it to decline over the next 3 quarters.
Matthew Clarke - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division: Okay. And then on the securities portfolio, that -- that's kind of held the line on a dollar basis. Is that the expectation, that you'll continue to kind of hold the line there and let the loan contribution continue to increase relative to earning assets?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Yes, and I highlighted that all our interest-earning asset growth was from loans, and that -- we've talked about that. It used to be almost 2/3-1/3, and now, it's the loans and it's commercial loans which have a yield of about 414 basis points, at least as far as funding in the quarter. So absolutely, that's our strategy to keep that flat to down and grow the loan book.
Matthew Clarke - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division: Okay, great. And then I -- when you think about the margin going forward, I appreciate the guidance there, but I guess is there any lumpiness in the -- in some of the repricing on the CD book and FHLB book that we might see maybe a more meaningful drop in funding costs in any given quarter this year?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
No, there's no lumpiness there. I think we do have some things that matures over Q1, but we factored this into our guidance that I provided. There's sub-debt that comes in during Q1, which is at 3.42. But there's no large items that are going to move it either way.
OP
Operator
Operator
Next question comes from Casey Haire of Jefferies & Company.
Casey Haire - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: Just a quick question on the -- so the Mortgage Banking sounds like it's normalizing a little bit lower here. Can you just talk a little bit about what kind of expense leverage you get on lower Mortgage Banking?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Meaning, how quick we are to react to drops in volume?
Casey Haire - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: Exactly. Like what -- so Mortgage Banking down $1 million, what happens on the expense side?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Yes, I don't have the exact number, but I will tell you that a large part -- we use -- what our business use calls the accordion method. So -- and that involves temporary help to sort of hit the peaks and lows. So we can be very responsive to changes in volume. And so to the extent that drives up a large portion of processing side is on the temporary help side. But I don't have the exact number of that stats.
Casey Haire - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: Okay. And then just following up on some of the reserve coverage ratio down below 1.5 here, I think you guys talked about 1.25 is the lowest you'd want to go on a loan loss reserve ratio. Does that still hold?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Yes, it does.
Casey Haire - Jefferies & Company, Inc., Research Division: Okay. Is that something we might see this in the next couple of quarters here?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Further out, I think you'd see it. Not the next 2 quarters, but maybe in the fourth quarter. Volume, of course, commensurate, as I indicated, with loan growth and credit quality continuing to follow the path that it has.
JS
James C. Smith
Management
Actually, I just want to add that the 1.25 is not a hard limit, and Glenn makes the point that it's relative to the loan quality overall. And I think that in the last call, we suggested it even could be 1.20 or so, but it's in that range.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from David Darst of Guggenheim Securities.
DD
David Darst - Guggenheim Securities, LLC, Research Division
Analyst
Could you talk about how many more branches you think you could relocate? And then what's the savings per unit? And then maybe what's the cadence that you would look at relocating the units?
GP
Gerald P. Plush
Management
Dave, it's Jerry. Great question to try and get us to disclose the sequence in cadence. I would just share with you that we are looking very, very carefully at each of our markets, evaluating each location, trying to make sure that it's the best location, that it's the right size to serve the market, that we are getting the most through that particular location, both on the investment services, the small business, as well as, obviously, on the mass consumer side. So the way I would approach it is, what we did in Simsbury, you'll see us go from much, much larger, in the thousands of square feet, to just a several thousand or fewer square -- or less square foot location that's just got more foot traffic to it, that's got better visibility. As we noted with Greenwich, we're obviously still going to look at being opportunistic in certain markets, but there's a number of markets in 2013 that we've got some combinations lined up to do to try and go from a couple of facilities into one that's going to be a much better location, and we're going to continue to do that for the foreseeable future. I think this is something that you've got to be -- continuously look at. I think that, additionally, we've built them, and I mean, as an industry, they've been built and they stay. We're looking at this much more like what you would see retailers in other lines of business do. We are looking to make sure that we're best location, appropriate size. We're also taking into account what's happening in the demographics in each of those markets. We've got some markets where there's just an incredible amount of foot traffic that we expect to continue to occur, and therefore,…
DD
David Darst - Guggenheim Securities, LLC, Research Division
Analyst
Okay. And then would you say that the number of FTEs per brand is changing as you roll out the Universal Banker program, or is it just the activity?
GP
Gerald P. Plush
Management
Yes, absolutely. Good question. Yes, because in terms of what's happening is, you're becoming much more of a -- instead of a transaction-based facility, you're becoming much more of a sales consultative-based, and that just requires a shift to be able to spend more time with the customer. They're performing most of their routine transactions electronically or at the ATM. So our view is -- we're not physically, obviously, walking up to an ATM. So our view is the Universal Banker will clearly shift staffing needs. There'll also be a big shift in terms of the education, the certification of the banker serving in those locations. So taking all of that into account, there definitely will be some shift in terms of the number of people per location.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Russell Gunther of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
RD
Russell Gunther - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division
Analyst
Appreciate the color on where you'd expect the reserve to trend near-term. You have had a chance to assess any potential impact of the recent FASB proposal for life of loan loss reserves and maybe -- instead of to keep reserves higher, ultimately?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
No. I -- Russell, it's Glenn. We're still working through that, so that -- I would not factor that into our outlook right now.
RD
Russell Gunther - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division
Analyst
Okay. And then just lastly, on the loan growth front, through a good chunk of earnings this season and mixed commentary from some of your peers in terms of what the uncertainty in Washington and the impact there on loan demand, what are you guys seeing? And if we do get some resolution down there, could we see loan growth pick up beyond sort of the expectation you laid out in the first quarter?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
I think we would say, it isn't simply what happens in Washington. It's how strong the economy is. And our sense is that the underpinnings of the economy may be a little bit stronger than people have thought. And so we're anticipating there will continue to be modest growth, that if there's a resolution, of course, depending on what that is, that gives some certainty, along with that would go some stability, would that increase confidence and would business people be more likely to invest? Probably so. That would be a modest improvement over what our expectations are currently.
OP
Operator
Operator
Next question comes from Jason O'Donnell of Merion Capital Group.
Jason A. O’Donnell - Merion Capital Group: Glenn, I know you made some comments about a potential seasonal pickup in borrowings in the first quarter. Can you just give us some sense of how you're seeing the funding strategy play out in 2013 and, I guess, 2014 given the stronger loan outlook and how things were funded this quarter? I mean, should we expect to see higher borrowings bounce to be part of that equation post the first quarter? Or are you more likely to manage your securities to assets ratio below that 30% threshold?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Yes. I think the latter. We -- and we've been pretty clear about that. I mean, we, on the Treasury side, they're actually doing a great job in timing where the market was, if you go back 2 quarters. So I think as we see loan growth, you'll likely see more of an offset on the securities portfolio.
Jason A. O’Donnell - Merion Capital Group: Okay, okay, that's helpful. And then I apologize if I missed it, but can you address the shift in banking activity you've been seeing toward mobile channels? I'm just curious what percentage of your customers are accessing their accounts through their mobile devices today versus, say, maybe a year ago?
GP
Gerald P. Plush
Management
Yes, Jas, it's Jerry. In terms of the uptick in transactions, I think we're going to be able to give you a much, much better picture of that given the downloadable app went out in the middle of the quarter and then the final enhancement for the iPhone went out later in December. So in terms of being able to give you true mobile statistics, I would prefer to hold on that. But we are seeing -- we obviously had a bookmark that folks were using. So there was definitely some traffic that we saw, but basically, that's combined in our online statistics previously.
OP
Operator
Operator
Next question comes from Collyn Gilbert of Stifel, Nicolaus.
Collyn Bement Gilbert - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: Just a follow-up a little bit on the funding question. Glenn, is there anything that you can do -- I mean, as we look at kind of the repos at 1.72 and the FHLB advances at 1.11, and I know the duration there maybe is a little bit longer, but is there anything that you can do on the funding side, keeping deposits off the table at the moment, to lower those? Or is this a decision that you're consciously making to try to keep that duration a little bit longer?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Yes. I think we are -- the decision is to keep the duration a little longer, so we're not contemplating any action against that.
Collyn Bement Gilbert - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: Okay, okay. And then just kind of a big picture question, which I think people have kind of asked around it in terms of the reserves, but you guys have obviously made great strides in the last year or so with a lot of the new initiatives and some of the momentum you're gaining. Do you think that, that is sustainable enough or that the momentum can increase enough that -- I guess the way I'm looking at my model and looking out, given that the loan growth probably needs to stay more or less or will -- could potentially stay more or less where it is, that you're really going to need to grow the provision again? So if we -- again, my numbers look like maybe, say, $45 million sort of pickup in the provision over the next 2 years, which is a big number to try to find earnings to sort of supplement that provision growth in the wake of relatively flat net interest income, if Mortgage Banking starts to slow. I mean, is this something that's consciously on your mind, as management and the Board? Am I overstating the impact that this reserve build's going to be on the kind of the earnings trajectory? If you could just give a little color as to what your thoughts are on that.
JS
James C. Smith
Management
I think the reserves are something that's on everyone's minds in the industry, right? But I also think that the other missing piece here is that our charge-off level is still at the 50, 56 to 60 basis points. And so there's more -- as we clean up the quality of our balance sheet, you -- presumably, that would come down as well. That's sort of the third way, right?
Collyn Bement Gilbert - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division: Yes.
JS
James C. Smith
Management
But I think -- and again, it's commensurate upon our loan growth that we would make the decision whether we're doing in it [ph] build or not, right, on an expense basis. So we have to see how that comes out over the year.
GP
Gerald P. Plush
Management
And we do think about it, Collyn, you're right. We think about it a lot, the way that it affects our -- but the conclusion is that the loan growth is valuable to us, and we'll provide as needed in order to support it. That's the fundamental conclusion.
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
And we do look at it, as I think everyone does, as what percent of earnings is release, and we were $9 million for this quarter, so it was the lowest that we've been for the last couple of quarters, so 12% versus the 20% number, and even higher in prior years. So we're very focused on it, as Jim highlighted, but we continue to work it.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Damon DelMonte of KBW.
Damon Paul DelMonte - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division: Most of my questions have been already answered, but just a couple more modeling-like questions. The -- in the fee income side, loan-related fees were up nicely over the quarter. And I may have missed what you described in your comments. Could you just go over what was driving that quarter-over-quarter growth, and is that sustainable going forward?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Yes. Loan-related fees were primarily in the commercial side, and so -- and we had a very strong fourth quarter, and we talked about the pipeline and the outlook for commercial. So I think you've got to assume that we'll continue to generate loan fees. I think that we are up, but from a modeling standpoint, I would say -- yes, I mean, the other side of it is -- so you have the loan originations, then you also have the swap income. And I don't know if we quoted the number of transactions, but that was 1.8 million for the quarter. So that is something that, as we book commercial real estate, that we're swapping out and we continue to get fees on as well. And that's been a good source of annuity income for us, so I think that will, in part, will continue through the year.
JS
James C. Smith
Management
And if you did miss it, Damon, we also mentioned some Webster-led agent transactions generated about $1 million in fees in the quarter. We expect that cash management fees will be on the rise. And so to the extent there's some volume decline there, there are some offsets in terms of fee income.
Damon Paul DelMonte - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division: Okay, that's helpful. And then Glenn, just to clarify on the margin, you said that the 3- to 5 basis point potential compression in the first quarter, that includes this quarter's benefit of 3?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
I take it off the 3.27.
OP
Operator
Operator
Next question comes from Matthew Kelley of Sterne Agee.
Matthew Brandon Kelley - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: I was just wondering, what were the origination yields during the quarter on the $309 million in investor-owner occupied CRE versus the third quarter? How did those trend?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
I think on the CRE, we were in the $318 million range, and the third quarter, I'm not sure I have that here. We can come back to you.
Matthew Brandon Kelley - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: Okay, yes. How much of the $309 million was kind of your portion that you kept of agent-led deals that you led -- larger transactions, what slice have you kept? How much of that was in the $309 million?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
Yes. I think we've got to come back to you on that too, Matt.
Matthew Brandon Kelley - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: Okay. And then just in that agent-led business which generated the $1 million in fees, when you sold down 78, I mean how much larger can that business kind of scale to as that team kind of build out their relationship networks?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
It can scale. We don't want to say what the potential is, but it's significantly greater than where we are now.
Matthew Brandon Kelley - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: Okay, got you. And was there anything going on one time in the BOLI income, it looked like it popped up just a little bit, we should back out?
GM
Glenn I. MacInnes
Management
We increased our BOLI, so that's revenue-associated. I think if you look at the -- if you just look at the cash surrender value, you'd see the increase in the -- at quarter-end September, you actually saw the increase, the $100 million higher policy.
Matthew Brandon Kelley - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: Got it. And then last question, deposit service fees. Any new initiatives planned for 2013 to help recapture what you've lost over the last couple of years? Anything changes in terms of the rate of fees relative to average deposits we should be thinking about?
JS
James C. Smith
Management
We're not thinking that's there's going to be a significant increase. We're always looking at the pricing of our products, and there could be a modest impact as a result of changes in pricing. But we think that the unit servicing fees are fairly stable at this point.
OP
Operator
Operator
It appears we have no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back to management for closing comments.
JS
James C. Smith
Management
Okay, Dan, thank you very much, and thank all of you for being with us today. Have a good day.
OP
Operator
Operator
This concludes today's teleconference. You may now disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.