Earnings Labs

WSFS Financial Corporation (WSFS)

Q4 2011 Earnings Call· Fri, Jan 27, 2012

$72.25

-0.23%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the WSFS Financial Corporation Fourth Quarter 2011 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today’s conference, Stephen Fowle, Chief Financial Officer.

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

Thank you, Juan, thank you all for taking the time to participate on this call. With me today is Mark Turner, President and CEO; Rodger Levenson, Director of Commercial Banking; Rick Wright, Director of Retail Banking; and Paul Geraghty, Chief Wealth Officer. Before I turn the call over to Mark for his opening remarks, I would like to read our Safe Harbor statement. This report contains estimates, predictions, opinions, projections, and other statements that may be interpreted as forward-looking statements as that phrase is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include without limitation references to our financial goals, management's plans and objectives for future operations, financial and business trends, business prospects, and our outlook or expectations for earnings, revenues, expenses, capital levels, liquidity levels, asset quality, or other future financial or business performance strategies or expectations. Such forward-looking statements are based on various assumptions; some of which may be beyond the Company's control, and are subject to risks and uncertainties which change over time, and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those related to the economic environment, particularly in the market areas in which the Company operates, the volatility of the financial and securities markets including changes with respect to the market value of our financial assets, changes in market interest rates, changes in government regulation affecting financial institutions, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the rules being issued in accordance with this stature, and potential expenses associated therewith. Changes resulting from our participation in the CPP including additional conditions that may be imposed in the future on participating companies, and the costs associated with resolving any problem loans, and other risks and uncertainties discussed in documents filed by WSFS Financial Corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company. Now with that read, I will turn the call over to Mark Turner for our opening comments.

Mark A. Turner

Analyst

Thanks, Steve. Thanks everyone for your time and attention. I have about 10 minutes of opening comments, and then we’ll take all questions. We’re pleased to report earnings in the fourth quarter, up $6.8 million, or $0.63 per share. This capped the year with net income increase 61% to $22.7 million, and earnings per share increased 56% to $2.28 per share. After an essentially break-even year in 2009, the bank has shown nice increases in profitability in each of the last two years. And there is much more room to improve. Earnings in 2010 and 2011 could have been even greater, but we chose to strategically focus on franchise investments and a once in a lifetime period of market disruption. Among other things in the last two years, we have grown our commercial lenders 40%, added, relocated or renovated over 40 % of our branch network, significantly grown our Cash Connect ATM services business and Cypress Capital, our registered investment advisory business, and completed the successful integration of Christiana Bank & Trust adding great leadership platform and brand in trust services. Those investments are bearing significant fruit. To that point, total customer funding was again up strongly in 2011, growing 10% and propelling us into a solid number three market share position in our primary market of Delaware. Moreover, core deposits were up 17% from prior year levels. Total loans were up 5% for the year, but more importantly our most profitable segment, C&I loans are loans to operating businesses, where we almost always get full relationships were up 18% in the year. This continues to improve our portfolio mix and risk profile as stress construction loans and lower margin residential mortgages have played lesser role in our balance sheet and earnings stream. Fee income excluding securities gains and losses…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And first up, we have Michael Sarcone with Sandler O'Neill. Michael Sarcone – Sandler O'Neill & Partners L.P.: Good afternoon, guys.

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

Good afternoon, Michael. Michael Sarcone – Sandler O'Neill & Partners L.P.: First question, I know you said continued reduction in credit costs. Is there anyway you guys can provide some quantitative guidance on total credit costs for the year?

Rodger Levenson

Analyst

Yeah, Mike, it’s Rodger Levenson. Our forecast for 2012 is that we anticipate total credit costs to be approximately $30 million, give or take and that would be broken out roughly $22 million provision and $8 million on workout and other OREO costs. The decline obviously is result of the reduction in our construction portfolio and we’re actually forecasting credit cost to be flat in our C&I businesses and a little bit better in the consumer portfolios. Obviously, this is predicated on an economy that’s showing modest growth and elevated unemployment to continue, and it doesn't obviously also include the impact of any potential accelerated disposition strategies, which as you know we've evaluated from time-to-time. Michael Sarcone – Sandler O'Neill & Partners L.P.: Okay, thanks. And just on the risk recalibration. Do you expect any further amplifications in either, classification changes or hit to the provisions going forward or do you feel like you’ve taken them all in 4Q?

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

We believe we’ve taken them in 4Q.

Rodger Levenson

Analyst

And I’d just add to that, that the loans that were downgraded were granular, wasn’t a couple of big loans, it was a lot of small loans. It really had no common themes; they were across several portfolios except the common theme was that they showed some cash flow weakness and relied on some collateral and guarantor support for ultimate repayment. And many are already in stages of repair and with a couple of more positive quarters behind them, we’d expect a large percentage could actually be upgraded in 2012. That rating class the pass/watch was something that we used for many years to manage credits on the bubble and had standing in the old regulatory framework, but our consultants advice us that we were much better off drawing much wider line between pass and criticized loans and we agreed. Michael Sarcone – Sandler O'Neill & Partners L.P.: Okay, thanks. And last one from me. Is it possible to quantify the amount of the bulk OREO sale completed in the quarter?

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

Sure. Just to give you a little bit of detail, Mike, it was 18 individual residential properties that had a net book value at the time of disposition of $2.4 million and we sold them for a 1 – just over 1.7. Michael Sarcone – Sandler O'Neill & Partners L.P.: Okay. Thanks, guys.

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

All right, our next question comes from Matthew Clark with KBW. Matthew Clark – KBW: Hi, good afternoon, guys.

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

Good afternoon, Matt. Matthew Clark – KBW: Hi. Could you just remind us about the sensitivity of your loan portfolio to rates, now if the FED on hold through potentially late 2014 now, I’m just trying to get a sense of – if you could just remind us what percent of your loan book is floating in the index sort of Type 2, I’m just trying to get a sensitivity as to, how much if any more yield conversion we could see?

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

Yeah, to your specific question, our calculation of floating versus fixed rate loans is about across-the-board and including loans that are hybrid and the nature of their repricing. It’s about 75% to 76% of our loans are floating rate, and above 25% are fixed. Obviously, the Fed’s announcement the other day that rates will be low for a long time, I think at some point, we’ll catch up to banks. We think we’re relatively well positioned than we think we’re well positioned for the following reasons. One, over the last year we significantly reduced our asset sensitivity. So, now we’re only slightly asset sensitive. We still believe we have more room to improve on deposit costs and on wholesale funding costs. We have over $100 million of advances that are repricing in the next six months at an average rate of about 3.1% on those advances. We have obviously growth in loans, and an improving mix as I talked about in the call, and in my comments of our earning assets. And beyond that for a bank of our size, and certainly a bank of our history we have very strong profile in fee income, about a third of our total revenues comes from fee income. Matthew Clark – KBW: But those loans, I guess, can you give us a sense for what they’re tied to, is it something that adjust monthly or whether or not those, and whether or not you’re, are you dealing with borrowers that come back and say, I want 3.5%, and whether or not that can happen or not?

Rodger Levenson

Analyst

Yeah. Matt, it’s Rodger Levenson again. The significant majority of our floating rate commercial loans are tied to WSFS Prime not Wall Street Journal Prime. You may recall, several years ago when the Fed went down, Fed funds went down, and Wall Street Journal Prime went down at 3.25%. We did not, we kept it at 4%, that’s generally has not had a significant impact from a customer push back standpoint. And we continue to get pricing based on that even to today at that level or some margin above that. That’s the vast majority of what we’re doing, particularly in the C&I world. Matthew Clark – KBW: Okay, great. And then finally, on the regulatory consultant. Can you give us a sense for whether or not you believe there, obviously you’re not alone going through this transition, but just trying to get a sense for whether or not there is any additional expense that might be associated with enhancing processes, procedures, infrastructure to deal with the OCC going forward, whether or not you believe that there could be some or not?

Rodger Levenson

Analyst

I’ll answer that question generally. We put a ton of work in prior to the changing and regulators to add people, positions and obviously its related not only the regulatory change but the economic environment as well as Dodd-Frank and new systems. So, going into it we believe we’re very well prepared. We believe engaging this consultants and the work we did with them was, I don’t want to say icing on the cake but certainly the tail end of it, we will expect probably use them a little bit more into the first quarter of this year. But not nearly as much as we did at the latter part of last year and, we have a few changes to make here and there. Yes, but I think the resources that we’ve already put on board can accommodate them nicely. Steve, you got any?

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

No, no, I’d agree. Most of the work was done in the fourth quarter. Matthew Clark – KBW: Great. Thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from David Peppard with Janney Montgomery Scott. David Peppard – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Hello gentlemen.

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

Hello David. David Peppard – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: I just wanted to follow-up on your earlier comments regarding loan growth. Could you maybe talk about what’s in the commercial pipeline now and also when we’ll see less of a drag on the run-off from residential mortgage and construction loans?

Rodger Levenson

Analyst

Yeah. Hi, David. It’s Roger. Our plight, as Mark said, we had a really good last few weeks of December. And close to several very significant transactions for us. So, our pipeline is a bit lower than it has been that 90 day weighted average is around $100 million. Right now, it’s a little bit when we were carrying it most of last year. But as we’ve said before and as Mark said in his comments, we really expect that to be the driver of our growth this year. We think that it will be, maybe at a little bit lower level than last year because of the economy and some competitive pressures, but it will be the driver and we really think we’ve hit the bottom on the runoff of the construction portfolio. We’re trying to see some small but nice opportunities. We want to do some commercial construction. So, we’re forecasting a little bit of growth there and we’re essentially forecasting that our consumer businesses will be flat this year. That’s versus a runoff of almost $60 million last year. So, you put all those things together and that’s the high single-digit forecast that Mark referenced. David Peppard – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Okay. And on the deposit capture side, I know last quarter you said you hadn’t but have you starting paying interest on your business deposits or is there anything you’re entertaining in order capture more market share?

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

We haven’t done that yet. We’re kind of waiting and watching to see what others might do, we don’t think it’s critical for the majority of the business that we do, because most of our business deposits are tied to these C&I relationships that we’re bringing over. David Peppard – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Okay.

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

And we haven’t seen pressure in the marketplace on that either, David. David Peppard – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Okay. But it is something you would entertain to defend you share or grow your share if need be?

Rodger Levenson

Analyst

Sure. If need be, we absolutely. David Peppard – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: And my last question I guess for you guys is an update on TARP repayment plans?

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

Yeah, we have recently begun very – I don’t want to stress very, very preliminary discussions with our regulators on this. So given the very, very preliminary nature of that, and at this point we’re discussing this process and expectations, there really isn't much to report on that, we’ll keep you updated as there’s more meaningful report. The only thing I’ll say is, just to reiterate that our goal was to do it without impacting common shareholders. And to do it in a prudent way, and that suggests that doing it in tranches over time, hopefully before the reset date, which for us is the first quarter of 2014 would hit. And so, that’s where we are at this point. As I said, we will keep you updated as there’s meaningful developments in the time and form obviously that’s fair. David Peppard – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Did the regulators appear to be responsive to a non-dilutive strategy?

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

The discussions are too early to really give anything meaningful on that. David Peppard – Janney Montgomery Scott LLC: Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And next on line we have Ross Haberman with Haberman Management. Ross Haberman – Haberman Management: Gentlemen, how are you? Just one follow-up regarding the prior call, a question did you guys hold a fairly large securities portfolio. Would one option be selling some of the securities in order to pay down the TARP?

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

As you know, it's not just a cash availability issue. The criteria get at capital levels after you would pay it down, as well as asset quality trends and earnings trends and things like those. All of which, we believe, we've made substantial progress on and the trends are heading in the right direction. And also, it would depend on being able to show stress test that no wonder increased the economics stress and still be well capitalized even after repayment. And again, we’ve done those internal analysis on all those trends, and we believe we’re in a good position, but the economy is uncertain and we’re in a new regulatory framework. So we have some work to do to plough that field. Ross Haberman – Haberman Management: And just one other technical question. Are you at this point allowed to pay dividend money, up from the bank to the holding company?

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

We have no prohibition against that. Obviously, that would need to go through our primary regulator. Ross Haberman – Haberman Management: Okay, all right. Thank you guys. Best of luck.

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And our next question is a follow-up with Michael Sarcone with Sandler O'Neill. Michael Sarcone – Sandler O'Neill: Hey guys, looking at the loan portfolio yield it’s held in pretty well over the quarter, and was down around 3 bps. Looks like the most compression on the loan yields came from both [really] mortgage side and the commercial side. On that, the commercial loans, is that just basically pricing pressure from increased competition or can you speak to that?

Stephen A. Fowle

Analyst

No, it’s just predominantly having to deal with the portion of that portfolio that is fixed rate, so as those loans are gradually maturing over time and either renewing or paying down that’s causing that fixed rate portion to decrease. Michael Sarcone – Sandler O'Neill: Okay. And on the continued deposit cost reduction, do you expect that to primarily come just from CDs?

Rodger Levenson

Analyst

I would say it’s still as possible to get it across-the-broad. At the present time, we’re pricing, our street pricing is basically the same as our large competitors in the marketplace, but we do have some legacy product out there both in the CD side and in the money market side that we have similar amount. Michael Sarcone – Sandler O'Neill: Okay. Thank you.

Rodger Levenson

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

At this time, I’d like to turn it to our speakers for our any closing remark.

Mark A. Turner

Analyst

Thank everybody again for your time and attention today. As always, we appreciate your interest in us and your faith in us. And we’re available for calls obliviously and at the appropriate way and hope to see you as we get out and about over the next couple of months. Everybody have a good weekend.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for you participating in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.