F N B (NYSE:FNB) reported first-quarter financial results on Friday. The transcript from the company's first-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
F N B reported a solid first quarter with net income of $137 million and a 19% increase in EPS from the previous year, reaching $0.38.
The company saw a 17% increase in pre-provision net revenue and strong capital ratios, with a tangible book value per share up 11% from last year.
Strategic initiatives include an 8% increase in the quarterly cash dividend and an additional $250 million authorized for share repurchases.
F N B announced a partnership with Pennsylvania State University, enhancing its positioning as an exclusive retail bank and financial provider.
The company launched its first ATM offering foreign currency disbursement at Pittsburgh International Airport, highlighting innovative digital solutions.
Loan growth was driven by core middle market CNI, with a 3.9% annualized increase, while avoiding NDFI or private credit lending.
Credit metrics remain strong, with a slight increase in delinquencies and net charge-offs showing solid performance.
First quarter net interest margin was 3.25%, with modest declines due to previous Fed rate cuts, but positive outlook with gradual increases expected.
Non-interest income grew by 3.7%, with notable contributions from capital markets and wealth management.
The full year guidance maintains mid-single-digit growth in loans and deposits, with strategic investments expected to drive future success.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day and welcome to the FNB first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the Star key followed by zero. After today's presentation there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question you may press Star then one on a touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press Star and then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lisa Haidoo, Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Lisa Haidoo (Manager of Investor Relations)
Good morning and welcome to our earnings call. This conference call of F N B Corporation and the reports it files with the Securities and Exchange Commission often contain forward looking statements and non GAAP financial measures. Non GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to and not as an alternative for our reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of GAAP to non GAAP operating measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our presentation materials in our earnings release. Please refer to these non GAAP and forward looking statement disclosures contained in our related materials reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on our corporate website. A replay of this call will be available until Friday, April 24th and the webcast link will be posted to the About Us Investor Relations section of our corporate website. I will now turn the call over to Vince Dille, Chairman, President and CEO.
Vince Dille (Chairman, President and CEO)
Thank you and welcome to our first quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Vince Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer and Gary Guerreri, our Chief Credit Officer. F N B produced a solid quarter with net income of 137 million. EPS increased 19% over the first quarter of 2025 to $0.38 pre provision. Net revenue increased 17% from the year ago quarter as we generated positive operating leverage of 4.9%. Our capital ratios remained strong and continue to move favorably, all while producing a strong return on average tangible common equity of 13.2%. Tangible book value per share of $12.06 represents an 11% increase from the year ago quarter. Since 2009, which spans the tenor of our leadership team's management of the bank and holding company, we have focused on a disciplined and strategic approach to developing and executing our long term growth plan. Our actions have resulted in the company's robust capital accumulation, sustainable superior financial performance, investments in a resilient risk management framework and a strong balance sheet. Over time we have grown our capital to record levels and effectively managed a dividend payout ratio from nearly 80% down to 31% in line with our peers during that time period. We also grew the balance sheet 477% with an organic compounded annual growth rate of 8%. We invested in our enterprise Risk management framework, built out our advisory and capital markets businesses to diversify our revenue streams and established F N B as an industry innovator with an award winning digital and data analytics capability including the eStore. These significant investments occurred over time while maintaining an industry leading efficiency ratio in the low to mid 50% range. I can't emphasize enough the hard work and superior execution by our team to get to where we are today. These efforts have produced sustained levels of increased profitability, significant returns and strong capital generation. This strategy was fully aligned with shareholders interests. We recently announced an 8% increase to our quarterly cash dividend to 13 cents per share starting with the dividend to be paid in June. Our Board of Directors also unanimously approved our management's recommendation for an additional $250 million for the repurchase of our common stock on top of the 50 million remaining in our existing share repurchase program inclusive of the March dividend and 35 million repurchased in the first quarter of 2026. F N B has returned a total of 2.4 billion in capital to shareholders through both dividends and and repurchases since 2009, demonstrating our long term commitment to optimize value for our shareholders while also growing and reinvesting in the company for continued future success. F N B's financial performance is achieved through consistent execution and sustained growth in our engaged customer base. We were thrilled to recently announce our partnership as the official and exclusive retail bank and financial provider to the Pennsylvania State University. Beginning In July, Penn State's 90,000 students, faculty and staff will have exclusive access to F N B's on campus banking services including our proprietary eStore. F N B was also selected as the primary Treasury Management provider to all Penn State campuses. Our continued success of winning despite significant competition demonstrates our capabilities and leadership in the industry as a core business University Banking highlights another differentiated product offering in addition to significant investments in AI and digital, F N B's innovative solutions also extend to our ATM network. This month, our first ATM that offers foreign currency disbursement for Canadian dollars and Mexican pesos opened at the new Pittsburgh International Airport. Once again an industry leader, our ability to offer foreign currency disbursement through an ATM is very rare across the banking industry and builds upon our momentum to improve the ease of banking for current and new customers. We congratulate the Airport Authority and its leadership on the completion of the new terminal which includes F N B's State of the art, visually stunning banking center. We are proud to play a role in this transformational Pittsburgh asset with our ATMs and sponsorship. The first quarter reflected a promising start to 2026 with our ability to continue to attract top tier talent, deploy innovative solutions and deepen customer relationships. Period End loan growth of 3.9% annualized linked quarter was driven by core middle market CNI. It is important to note that our growth has not benefited from NDFI or lending into private credit, a category that
Gary Guerreri (Chief Credit Officer)
we continue to avoid. With that, I would like to now turn the call over to Gary to discuss all of our credit results for the quarter. Gary thank you Vince and good morning everyone. We ended the quarter with our asset quality metrics remaining at solid levels. Delinquency along with NPLs and Other Real Estate Owned (OREO) increased slightly each up 3basis points compared to the prior quarter totaling 74 and 34 basis points respectively. Net charge offs continued to Show Strong performance totaling 18 basis points, down one bit compared to the prior quarter. Criticized loans increased slightly consistent with the seasonality we have seen in the first quarter over the last several years. Total funded provision expense for the quarter stood at 19.4 million, supporting the CNI loan growth and charge offs. Our ending funded reserve now stands at $443 million, an increase of 3.5 million ending at 1.26% unchanged from the prior quarter. When including acquired unamortized loan discounts, our Reserve stands at 1.32% and our NPL coverage position remains strong at 393% inclusive of the discounts. While we have not experienced any impact related to tariffs, we are maintaining the related qualitative overlays from a year ago due to the ongoing conflict and uncertainty in the Middle East. Our comprehensive risk management oversight, including concentrations of credit line utilization, proactive CRE management stress testing and a 360 degree risk view of our client relationships allows us to maintain a strong risk profile throughout economic cycles and during periods of economic uncertainty. We are monitoring the situation in the Middle east closely as we have done in the past during the pandemic, the Ukrainian conflict, supply chain disruptions, inflationary periods and tariff increases. Throughout all of these periods of disruption, our loan portfolio and customer base have proved resilient and did not experience any material adverse impacts. Our consumer portfolio remains very strong with average origination FICO scores of 782 with delinquency and charge offs ending the quarter at multi year lows of 67 and 5 basis points respectively. We continue to originate loans within our commercial and consumer portfolios under our long standing and consistent credit underwriting philosophy. In the quarter we had solid CNI activity leading to increased loan growth with a slight uptick in line utilization. Additionally, we are seeing increased levels of high quality CRE opportunities. However, our exposure declined in the quarter ending at 194% of tier 1 capital plus allowance. In closing. Despite the continued volatility in the markets, we look forward to building on the momentum we had in the first quarter with our pipelines at near record levels across the majority of our portfolios. With the quality and diversification of our portfolio, we are well positioned to achieve our growth objectives in the year ahead. I will now turn the call over to Vince Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer for his remarks.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
Thanks Gary and good morning. Today I will review the first quarter's financial results, walk through our second quarter and full year guidance. First quarter net income totaled 137 million or $0.38 per share with total revenues up a strong 9.4% from the year ago period and coupled with prudent management of operating expenses, PPNR increased nearly 17%. Turning to the balance sheet, loan activity began to accelerate late in the quarter with spot total loans and leases ending the quarter at 35.1 billion, a 3.9% annualized linked quarter increase driven by growth of 198 million in consumer loans and and 136 million in commercial loans and leases. Spot CNI loan balances were up over 4% linked quarter unannualized or 314 million driven by growth in the Carolinas, Cleveland and the Mid Atlantic. Tre balances continued to be impacted by expected payoffs and were down 110 million linked quarter. Residential mortgages, indirect and HELOCs all contributed to the consumer loan growth. Spot total deposits ended the quarter at 38.9 billion, a linked quarter increase of 142 million. With the first quarter impacted by normal seasonal outflow, corporate deposits non interest bearing deposits increased 89 million or 3.6% linked quarter annualized and remained stable at 26% of total deposits. The loan to deposit ratio held steady at 90%. First quarter's net interest margin was 3.25%, down 3 basis points sequentially as the timing of the Fed rate cut in December 2025 impacted NIM for the quarter. Additionally, normal seasonal outflows and deposits were funded temporarily with higher cost short term borrowings. Interest bearing deposit costs declined 13 basis points linked quarter driven by lower rates paid on money market CD balances and total borrowing costs decreased 12 basis points. Our cumulative total spot deposit beta since the Fed interest rate cuts began in September of 2024 was 27%. At quarter end, the total yield on earning assets declined 11 basis points to 514 on an 11 basis point decline in loan yields and a slight 2 basis point decline in investment securities yields. Reinvestment rates on investment securities remained well above the overall portfolio yield. Looking ahead to next quarter, the margin for the month of March was at 330. Net interest income increased nearly 11% from the year ago period as the NIM expanded significantly increasing 22 basis points with earning asset growth of 3.5% year over year. Turning to non interest income and expense, Non interest income totaled 91 million, up 3.7% in the first quarter of 2025. Capital markets income increased 27.8% to 6.8 million on solid contributions from debt, capital markets, swap fees and international banking. Wealth management revenues increased 2.8% year over year to 21.8 million with contributions across the geographic footprint. Non interest expense totaled 257.9 million, a 4.5% increase from the year ago. Quarter salaries and employee Benefits increased less than 1 million or 0.4% as lower performance based compensation and health care costs offset strategic hiring and normal merit increases. Occupancy and equipment increased 5.1 million or 11% primarily due to technology related investments and higher occupancy costs which included unusually high seasonal snow removal costs. Other non interest expense increased 6.8 million or 30% due to a combination of higher fraud losses, litigation related expenses and the impact of our mortgage down payment assistance program. The first quarter efficiency ratio remained solid at 56.1%, down meaningfully from 58.5% a year ago and we continue to manage our expense base in a disciplined manner. FNB continues to actively manage our capital position to support balance sheet growth and optimize shareholder returns while appropriately managing risk. Given the new share repurchase authorization Vince mentioned earlier, we now have remaining capacity of 300 million after repurchasing a total of 35 million in the first quarter of this year. The 8% quarterly common dividend increase marks our first quarterly dividend increase since 2007 and reflects our strong financial performance and capital levels as evidenced by the TCE ratio of nearly 9% and the CET1 ratio of 11.4%. Let's now look at guidance for the second quarter and full year of 2026. All guidance is based on current expectations while remaining cognizant of the highly uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environments. We are maintaining our full year balance sheet guidance for spot balances, projecting period end loans and deposits to grow mid single digits on a full year basis as balances continue to build on the growth acceleration we experienced late in the first quarter. Our projected full year income statement guide is largely unchanged with last quarter full year net interest income is still expected to be between 1.495 and 1.535 billion. We are assuming no Fed interest rate cuts for 2026 versus our previous expectation for 2.25basis point cuts while maintaining our previous net interest income range due to our expectation of continued deposit pricing pressures in an environment with no Fed cuts and accelerating loan growth in the industry. Second quarter net interest income is projected between 370 and 380 million. The non interest income full year guide remains 370 to 390 million with second quarter levels expected between 90 and 95 million. The full year guidance range for non interest expense remains unchanged between 1 billion and 1.02 billion, but we now expect to be at the higher end of that range due to increased investments in franchise growth and new strategic initiatives. Second quarter non interest expense is expected to be between 250 and 255 million. We continue to expect strong positive operating leverage for the full year of 2026. Full year provision guidance is maintained at 85 to 105 million given the stability in our credit performance to start the year and will be dependent on net loan growth and charge off activity. Lastly, the full year effective tax rate should be between 21 and 22% which does not assume any investment tax credit activity that may occur. With that, I will turn the call back to Vince.
Vince Dille (Chairman, President and CEO)
Thank you. Our team is cultivating an environment that succeeds through passion, collaboration, hard work and respect. We pair the advantages of our scale with a discipline of agility to win business that is heavily sought after by both large and small competitors. As a regional bank, FNB's differentiated investments in technology and product offerings have enabled us to win against competitors of all sizes to gain market share, drive shareholder value and meet the needs of our commercial and consumer customers. I would also like to thank our independent Lead Director, Bill Campbell, who announced his upcoming retirement from our board in May. I want to extend my great appreciation for his distinguished service, independence, dedication, leadership and mentorship to many, including myself. He instilled in all of us a desire to put the shareholders first and his insight on the board will be missed. Best wishes to Director Campbell in his future endeavors, his presence will be missed, but his legacy at FMB will live on. In closing, we are proud of our differentiated culture which continues to be one of the most recognized in the industry for leadership, innovation, employee engagement and client experiences. This quarter FNB received numerous awards including America's Best Customer Service and Financial Services by USA Today, America's Best Financial Services by Time, America's Greatest Workplaces for Entry Level Employees by Newsweek, a Top Workplace USA by Energage and a Greenwich Excellence Awards Winner for Client Service, a recognition we have earned annually since 2011. These awards and recognition occur because of the dedication and commitment of our employees. On behalf of the Board and executive team, I would like to thank them for their extraordinary accomplishments.
OPERATOR
With that, I will turn the call over to the operator for questions. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press Start and then two Our first question comes from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Daniel Tamayo (Equity Analyst)
Thank you. Good morning everyone. Maybe starting on the CNI loan, growth really strong in the first quarter. You made a comment in the release that it accelerated towards the end of the quarter. Maybe you can expand a little bit on what that looked like. And I think Gary made a comment about near record pipelines. Just curious what those look like in CNI and kind of the path forward given the strong quarter.
Gary Guerreri (Chief Credit Officer)
Yes Daniel, we saw a lot of activity. It started building fairly early in the quarter and finished up really strong. The pipelines have increased significantly and are pretty close to near record levels. It's really across the whole company. You know, on top of that we've seen a lot of high quality opportunities from very strong investment grade type of larger corporate borrowers. We saw some M and A activity, so it's really been across the board and very diverse. We did have one maturing loan that paid out which even impacted the growth even further right at the end of the quarter or that number would have even been stronger. So we really like the position of the pipeline right now and the activity that we're starting to see. We expect it to build throughout the year.
Daniel Tamayo (Equity Analyst)
Great. Thanks Gary. And maybe one for Vince. Just curious if you can expand on the strategic initiatives comment in the release about which drove the increase in the expense guide to the higher end of the range.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
There's a variety, you know, as you know, we've consistently been investing in our fix to brick strategy and you know, as part of kind of the normal capital investment that we're doing. I mean, there's a variety of things. You know, we've announced that we were going to be launching 30 de Novos over the next five years. So that's part of it. You know, we're fully launched now with DC Metro. As far as the ATMs throughout that network, we continue to invest in the ESTORE and have some new initiatives looking to create a 360 view of our customers. We began that initiative to be able to pull in internal data as well as external data so that our customer facing employees have all the data right at their fingertips on what customers have here and somewhere else and then, and then leverage AI to kind of say, well, what's the next product that would make sense for them. So it's really continuing those, those key tech investments that we've been making. Yeah, and I would say that, you know, we've redesigned how we're approaching development within the company. We, we moved from a traditional IT development environment where it coordinates all of the business analysts and interactions with the front line. They would coordinate all of the development assets that we have, which includes a large number of consultants. We've kind of changed the model. We're pushing those programmers to the three areas that we feel are the most impactful for us from a revenue and efficiency perspective. So you know, that's part of, of the expense built. You know, we're looking at some AI initiatives that we've invested in. So there's personnel expense related to bringing those development contractors on. That's reflected in the guide, you know, and most of it, you know, ends up being capitalized for software applications that we develop and then put it online. Vince mentioned the 360 view of the customer. That's essentially both an inward and outward tool. It's a tool for clients to review their relationship. With an fmb, there's an AI overlay that permits those clients to see, you know, the products and services that they're using and how they can best, you know, best improve their, their circumstances either from a cash flow perspective or, or from managing risk. It's a really cool product. It's proprietary. I don't see it anywhere. We're slated to put it out by the end of the year. It should be in production at the end of the year and then into the first quarter of next year. But it'll also help internally because what it does is it evaluates it actually evaluates what's going on. It looks at numerous data fields based on what the customer is doing within our organization. And when we open it up to outside, it will be opened up to bring in, you know, external aggregation as well. That'll help us guide the customer to better products and services and a better solution within FNB's product offering. So if they have a high rate mortgage somewhere else and we offer a better product, it's this, this tool will actually tell them and it will actually explain that they could save X amount of dollars by refinancing and then, you know, to tie it all together because we've built out this platform that enables us to apply for multiple products simultaneously, which is also being improved with AI, we will be able to move those clients into an environment where they're seeing their 360 view. They're actually getting recommendations on things that they should be doing to improve their banking relationship. And then they'll be able to purchase the products because tab and it will actually, you know, they can just put them in the cart and then proceed to check out. We have automated data flooding and authentication and all that stuff built in to the common app. So that's the game plan and that's why there's a little extra, you know, we're saying there's going to be a little extra spend in the, in the forecast. Yeah. Part of that we've also baked in investing in treasury management, some of our offerings to make it easier for customers, wealth management, there's initiatives that are, that are part of that as well. And then on top of that, just normal process improvement. I mean leveraging AI and machine learning that we've, some of that we've had in place for many years. You know, leveraging those tools to then to extract costs as we move forward which will help improve the run rate. Yes. Some of this is transitory though. This is not embedded in the run rate of the company and there's quite a bit of contract expense or contractor expense built into that guide the change that we're providing.
Daniel Tamayo (Equity Analyst)
That's great color Vince. And Vince, appreciate that.
Dean
I'll step up. Okay, thanks Dean.
OPERATOR
And the next question comes from Casey Hare with Autonomous. Please go ahead.
Casey Hare (Equity Analyst)
Yeah, great. Thanks guys. So, wanted to touch on the NIM outlook. The 330NIM in March. So you get some pretty good momentum entering the second quarter here. I'm guessing that was on the, on the funding side of things given the seasonal outflows in dda. But just a little color on, on where that's trending. Maybe the spot deposit cost rate at the end of the quarter and some thoughts on how the two Q NIM trends. Thanks.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
I guess just looking at net interest income overall, you know, the $6 million decrease from the fourth quarter, you know, right in the middle, the number we landed at at 359was right in the middle of our range. We provided in January, which was 355 to 365. You know, the timing of the last Fed cut, you know, clearly makes a difference on loan yields for us. As you know from talking about that in the past, that 45% or so of our loan portfolio replace reprices based on silver changes. So initially, originally we had that in January and that coming forward to December kind of affects the net interest income for the, for the first quarter. You know, the other element is, you know, we have our normal trough in deposits that happens every year in the first quarter and, and you know, we fund that temporarily with short term borrowings. That was about two basis points of margin, two and a half million dollars in net interest income in the first quarter and then that kind of goes away as we move forward. But we have been operating with a dual mandate of trying to grow deposits to fund the loan growth that Gary talked about and Vince talked about that we saw to accelerate in March and the expected loan growth as we go forward. So we're trying to balance growing deposits to help fund that loan growth as well as managing the deposit cost down. So there's, there's clearly a balancing act there. And then Casey, as you, as you mentioned, the 330 exit margin for the month of March is key. And as we look forward, I mean our guidance implies, you know, that going up, you know, gradually a few basis points or so a quarter between the first quarter and the end of the year and without the Fed cut, you know, expected for the rest of the year. At this point there's several levers we have to support net interest income growth. I mean average earning asset growth obviously is the key. In our investment portfolio we're reinvesting, you know, 75 to 125 basis points above the roll off rate for CDs. We're still picking up 20 to 25 basis points next quarter alone. That's on $3.3 billion worth of CDs maturing. And then in our fixed rate loan portfolio we're picking up about 35 basis points on two and a half billion over the next 12 months. So there's a lot of, a lot of levers There that you know, will kind of work off of that 3:30 launch point. The spot deposit cost 177 total. And IVD versus the two plus total deposits. Total IBD 236. Casey, it's interest bearing 177 includes the non interest.
Casey Hare (Equity Analyst)
Okay, great. Just one more on, on the capital front. So very strong buyback this quarter. The CET1 ratio kind of held flat. I'm just wondering, is that, is that kind of what you guys want to, is that how you're going to manage it here?
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
Just keep it at this level in balancing in between loan growth and buyback. And then any, any thoughts on the, the Basel III proposal? Yeah, I would say, I mean with the CET ratio at 11:4, you know, the parent ratio now in the low 30s, you know, combined with our guidance, you know, implying continued strong internal capital generation. You know, as we talked about last quarter, we're in the best position to deploy capital, which is why we made announcement that we made earlier in the week. You know, beyond supporting the expected balance sheet growth, we continue to see buybacks attractive at current valuation levels for sure. You know, I think the earn back is maybe three years at this point with where the stock's trading. You know, we bought back 50 million for the full year of last year and it talked about buying at least that or more. First quarter we did 35 million. So I think, you know, we'll continue to be opportunistic on the buyback program. You know, we were down to 50 million, so it was the right time to increase the authorization. So kind of have $300 million worth of powder there. And with the earnings generation level, we would expect capital ratios to still build. I mean I would just say off the cuff, not looking to reduce 11 4, but being active on the buyback, the dividend, you know, another component of that which isn't a lot in dollars from the capital standpoint. But I think it's important. If you go back to last time we had raised dividend was 2007. And in 2009, for those that were following us, you know, when everybody went to a nickel or a penny, you know, we went from 24 cents to 12. So you know, our board made a decision only to go at that point. So we had this super high payout ratio, but investors were getting paid a very nice dividend yield over that entire period. So that was important. And you know, we reached a point with the way capital is building that we were comfortable not only having A buyback, but increasing the dividend, you know, at this point in time and you know, the goal would be over time to be able to, to move that up as we grow and as earnings continue to grow. So I think that's another important point.
Casey Hare (Equity Analyst)
Great, thanks Vince.
OPERATOR
And the next question.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
Oh, I guess Casey on Basel 3 2. Casey, I'm sorry, that was the last part of your question. I mean we're studying it. I mean it has a meaningful impact if it gets in place the way it is. I mean we've looked at different ways of analyzing it and it's definitely meaningful. So I guess we'll see how that plays out in the end. We've studied what's in the proposal. And that's not baked into our plans here as far as capital deployment. That would be a new factor if it gets approved the way it's proposed.
OPERATOR
And the next question comes from Russell Gunther with Stevens.
Russell Gunther (Equity Analyst)
Please go ahead. Hey, good morning guys. Good morning. I wanted to follow up on the deposit pricing pressure commentary you guys made. Would be helpful to get a sense for how you would expect deposit cost to trend from here. The spot rates you gave us were pretty darn close to the full quarter average. And I think in the past you've Talked about a mid-30s terminal deposit beta versus the 27 we've got right now. So it would be helpful to just understand whether we should expect some upward pressure on total deposit cost. That that's what's embedded in that kind of March 3030 guide moving higher.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, no, I would say, I mean there's still opportunity for that cost of deposits to come down. You know, I mentioned the CDs, you know, picking up 20 to 25 basis points on 3.3 billion. So that obviously affects that, you know, our success bringing in non interest bearing deposits, which has been a strategy forever, obviously is key to the overall cost of deposits there and the cost of funds. So I think there's still room for us to, to bring it down strategically. Russell is the way I would say it because without the COVID of the Fed cuts, you know, you have to be very strategic and I think our team has done a very nice job analyzing the different components and you know, maybe customers that don't have as much with us, you're a little more aggressive on how you adjust their rates and it's just a constant day to day process for us to look at. Where are there opportunities? But there's still opportunities for the total deposit cost to come down. And you know, the, like I said, the focus on ownership bearing is key. The going after some larger kind of accounts to bring in larger deposit balances has been something we've focused on over the past year and have had some good success bringing in some, some larger deposit. Yeah, no, go ahead. We basically we brought some very attractive, large, complex treasury management relationships over. You know, they're in the pipeline, they're moving over to us and they're coming from all over. I mean some of the larger banks bank them today. So that's going to have an impact, it'll have an impact on our free balances because they use balances to pay for services. So there's a, there's quite a bit in that pipeline. That's what Vince is referring to. But if you look at it globally, take a step back, you know, that's one of the only ways we can really control. We're not a price setter. We have to react to the marketplace. So the way we drive our cost down is by increasing the non interest bearing component in the mix. And that's a strategy that we have talked about for a long time. Continue to do so. I think there's some optimism here from a cost, funding cost perspective because of those opportunities that we have and some success that we're seeing particularly in the consumer bank as well with new clients coming over and increasing house, you know, shared wallets with the consumer. Some of the things we've done, we've invested in a number of tools to create client primacy and it's really starting to pay off. And the investment in our AI tools to analyze lots of data to make pricing decisions is also paying off. So large corporate calling efforts. Right. It's helping on the loan side as well as deposit side. So we're, you know, we've got, you know, some good, there are some good things coming. But, but if you look at it overall, what Vince was saying in his comments, you know, if, if the industry is going to be trying to, to loan up, particularly in cni, you know, there's going to be pricing pressure from a funding perspective kind of globally. That's the expectation. So that's the uncertain part about it is, you know, how aggressive do others get from a pricing perspective? We're sitting in one of the best positions we've been in from a loan to deposit standpoint at this point in the year too. So there's a point, there's definitely, we're definitely sitting in a much more favorable place to give us some flexibility on pricing.
Russell Gunther (Equity Analyst)
That's really helpful guys. I appreciate all of that. Color. And then let me just follow up, follow up on the capital front. If you guys could just remind us of how you think about a CET1 floor and how active you would expect to be with the buyback against your kind of mid single digit loan growth expectation.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
I mean, we've been using 11% as a floor for CET1. We're at 114 and we're not looking to really drive that down. We like to have the powder there. If the loan growth and when the loan growth really accelerates and comes on board, you want to have that capital to support the loan growth. So but I mean, if I had to stay to floor, I would say 11% would be a floor for that level. For the CET1 ratio. Previously we had said 10% and we grew above 10%. You know, now we're at 11:4, so I'd be okay with 10. I'm more concerned. He's very conservative. Just so you know. That's what I'm talking about. Let's see that 10%, guys.
Russell Gunther (Equity Analyst)
That's right. Let's do it. I appreciate the time. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Russell. Thank you.
OPERATOR
And the next question comes from David Smith with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.
David Smith (Equity Analyst)
Hey, good morning. So now that you've taken those cuts out of the outlook, seems like it's a little bit of a tougher backdrop for loan growth. Although you kept the guidance the same in that mid single digit range. Can you talk about any puts and takes there? Has your expectations for where that loan growth is coming from evolved over the last three months?
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, I mean we, as we've said, our short term, if you look at the short term, CNI pipelines, commercial pipelines, they're up 10%, you know, same period. So this is, this is typically a seasonally slower period. So we're starting to see more activity. If you look at our, our leasing and finance, you know, project finance area, they've had, you know, they continue to have, you know, really strong pipelines and had great production last year. There's, because of the tax law changes that's going to continue. If you look at the commercial bank or the consumer bank, we, our pipelines are up significantly in the consumer bank. So I think nearly at an all time high. Correct. So there are some bright spots out there. On the flip side of that, you know, CRE still continues to try because we, yes, we've already gotten into all this but you know, we've pulled back a little bit and we're just letting those large loans Go to the permanent market. Right, Gary?
Gary Guerreri (Chief Credit Officer)
Yeah. And even, even with that, we are starting to see some extremely strong new CRE credit opportunities. So there are some shoots there that are starting to show and we've liked what we've seen so far.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah. So, you know, as I mentioned on the last call, you know, our capital growth, the reduction in that exposure, we're below 200%, you know, I expect that probably. So it gives us the ability to go out and pick, you know, good high quality projects to do in the CRA space. Yeah. But that's not even reflected in our pipeline jet because that all comes should be coming in the second half of the year. But there are some bright spots. So that's why we're not changing our guide, you know, and that's why we still believe pretty strongly in our ability to produce the net interest income that we, that's reflected in our guide.
David Smith (Equity Analyst)
Okay. And then the fee guidance implies a little bit of a ramp up in the second half from 90 million in the first quarter and 90 to 95 this coming quarter. Can you just unpack your expectations there, like where you see that growth coming from?
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
Sure. The investment banking segment should produce some pretty significant fee events. So you know, the public finance and the investment banking group that we brought on, there are some deals that are slated to happen in the second half of the year that will contribute to that that are already in the works. You know, I think that's one contributor. We also think that, you know, when there's less interest rate volatility here, if things settle down a little bit, there should be a pickup in derivative activity. You know, we're still pretty optimistic about our ability to grow market share in the mortgage business. So there's, there's gain on sale opportunities up and down the eastern seaboard because those markets are continuing to, to grow. We've got wealth growing. You know, we have some, some great momentum in our wealth shop. So we're building out a group to handle, you know, family office opportunities. So you know, we're going to be moving up market in that space and there's some promising opportunities there. So I think, you know, we, the income and mortgage too. Right. Treasury management, as I mentioned earlier, we have some fairly significant treasury management clients, Penn State's one of them. There are others that, that we have won that are even larger that will come over. So fee income in the treasury management space should continue to expand. And then there's interchange. You know, we've seen a pickup lately in interchange activity. We've not even you know, really spent a lot of time activating our debit portfolio and it's a fairly sizable, you know, fee income stream for us. So there's going to be a focus on that, particularly with the use of AI and some tools that we have to try to drive more activity in our debit card platform and with our small credit card portfolio. But it's small relative to the debit side. Those are the drivers. This is our fourth consecutive quarter with fee income at 90 million or above. So I think that's a key point for us and I think there's good momentum in the businesses that Vince talked about in debt, capital markets and public finance. So there's a lot of excitement about what the rest of the year holds for us on the fee side. Yeah, and we've been doing really well from an international perspective as well. We just won, you know, another award. I'm not allowed to mention what it is, but you know, those people have done, done well. You know, the person that runs it, Yenner, is a longtime associate of mine and I respect him and, you know, he's done a terrific job and that continues to grow too. So we're seeing more and more opportunities with international banking, with hedging and spot transactions for our clients, particularly as we're moving up market. So, you know, I'd say given that we have a really low relative share to some of these large players in the capital market space and you know, the revenue lines associated with some of these businesses is relatively small and it's already reflected in the run rate. There's upside. Plus public finance is another newer business network. So that, yeah, I mentioned it earlier with investment banking, that's another one. We bank hundreds, maybe thousands of municipalities across our footprint. We have a specialization in handling their principal treasury management needs. And I think that that will open the door. Building out that team opens the door to some significant opportunities in the public finance space for us. And that's a highly competitive business. But we have the relationships already. We've been farming it out or turning it over to others and, you know, we now can capitalize on it. So very granular. You know, I mentioned all these areas, so there's a lot of granularity. So it doesn't take much if, you know, a number of those areas increase even, you know, low single digits, it starts to really drive the total revenue number. Got it.
David Smith (Equity Analyst)
Thank you. Yeah, thanks.
OPERATOR
And the next question comes from Kelly Motto with kbw. Please go ahead.
Kelly Motto (Equity Analyst)
Hey, good morning. Thanks for the question. Hey, Kelly. Hi, Kelly. You know, we've talked a lot about your capital as well as the organic loan pipeline and the opportunities in cni. I'd like to circle back to M and A and get another updated thoughts here on your appetite for deals and a reminder of what you look for given it does seem like your organic outlook is quite strong. Thanks.
Vince Dille (Chairman, President and CEO)
Yeah, I've said it a number of times that we're going to be opportunistic. There's not a lot out there that we see that is high value. Even if it were available, there are things that we could look at that would make a lot of sense. But you know, a bank has to be for sale to do a transaction. We're not actively in the market. I'm just referring to deals that have been done and things that are done hearing in the marketplace. But you know, I think our early drive to do M and A was to gain the scale, to get over some of the regulatory hurdles and to be able to do some of the things that we're doing today. And I think given the size of the organization, we're in the sweet spot. Even though some don't believe it, we're able to compete very effectively with everybody and we have a very deep product set. And I think what you get from US is a $50 billion balance sheet and you know, maybe a trillion dollar bank's product offering, at least for our clients. Right. Because we're not banking, you know, Fortune 100 companies as their primary bank. So, you know, the middle market and large, you know, large middle market clients that we bank, we can do everything that a lot of the other banks that are much, much larger than us do. But we do it in a way that is more boutique ish. There's more attention paid to getting stuff done. There's less bureaucracy. You know, we're a little more creative because, you know, we don't have the same level of infrastructure or systemic methods of doing things. So it lets us be a little more entrepreneurial and I think the customers enjoy that. And you know, we're seeing great opportunities because of that. And I think that. And I've said this, you know, I just did a podcast, it's not out yet with the aba. But the smaller banks have an incredible opportunity right now to build product that's unique because of AI, because of the changes that are occurring from a tech perspective with cloud based computing, the speed of computing, the ability to develop software with AI, I think you're going to see some pretty interesting things come about. And I think it's changing the equation on scale, particularly relative to technology. So, you know, that's. And if you look at our cost of funds and you look at, you know, our returns and our return profile and our efficiency ratio, you know, we're right there with the larger bank. So, you know, efficiency within the consumer bank was actually better when we did the analysis. So, you know, we're able to do that because we're very smart about how we deploy our resources. We're able to do it because we don't have the bureaucracy. We're able to do it because we're not arrogant. There's a bunch of things that, you know, we've seen out there that certainly play in our favor. I'm sorry for the long answer, but you know, we've talked a lot about this internally.
Kelly Motto (Equity Analyst)
I really appreciate all the color that's, that's very helpful maybe, maybe to turn back on the margin. I appreciate the commentary about, you know, CNI growth being really strong and pipelines near record levels. Hoping, I apologize if I missed it, but if you could provide additional color as to how loan pricing and spreads are holding up. I know you gave some, some color about, you know, the continued repricing opportunities here, but just hoping to get more on pricing. Thank you.
Vince Dille (Chairman, President and CEO)
Yeah. You would expect in this environment for credit spreads to broaden just because of the geopolitical environment that we're in. You know, we're not seeing that necessarily in the middle market. You know, I think there's still some pretty significant tailwinds from an economic perspective that keep people optimistic. And I think that the tax law changes were very favorable for capital investment. So you're not seeing what you typically would see when we have the geopolitical environment that we have. So I would say what that means is that you're not going to see a broadening of credit spreads because of issues with repayment or problems. I don't know, Gary, you could speak to that. But there is competitive pressure, obviously, but there's always competitive pressure. I've been doing this for a long, long time. I've been in corporate banking my whole career. And one of my pet peeves is when I sit there with the commercial bankers and they tell me that it's so competitive. I can remember back 30 years ago when I was competing for deals in the upper middle market and transactions were priced at 50 basis points over Libor on a sub investment grade credit opportunity, that pricing doesn't exist today. So the margins are better today. So it goes through ebbs and flows, it changes and credit spreads impact how Pricing is impacted. So we'll see what happens. With the economy. We've always benefited because we were more conservative. So when credit spreads were broadening, what that means is that we're going to get paid more for lower risk transactions because we have the capital and the appetite to deploy capital. And Gary's talked about that many times. Others will get out over their skis from a lending perspective and then have to pull back during those periods. And you know, they're. During frothy periods, credit spreads are thinner. So I would say, if you want to. Short answer. Sorry for all these long answers, Kelly, but the reality is it's a complicated business. And, you know, in certain segments, like if you move deep down into, you know, small business lending, I think spreads have come in because there's increased competition for CNI opportunities. When you move up into the larger end of the spectrum, you know, I think spreads are pretty consistent with how they've been underwritten, particularly on syndicated deals. They may have come in a little bit. I don't know. Gary, do you have any. I mean, I think. I think Vinci hit it pretty well. Spreads. Spreads are where you expect them to be today on a transaction by transaction basis. You can get squeezed a little bit. But we're very comfortable with the spreads that we're seeing in the marketplace today. And based on where the economy is, is it going to probably get a little more competitive as we move forward? It wouldn't surprise me, Kelly. So we'll keep an eye on that and continue to manage it accordingly.
Kelly Motto (Equity Analyst)
I really do appreciate all the color. I'll step back. Thank you so much.
OPERATOR
Thank you.
Manuel Nevask
And the next question comes from Manuel Nevask with Piper Sandler.
OPERATOR
Please go ahead.
Manuel Nevask
Hey, just a quick follow up on Kelly's question. What are kind of new loans coming in at what yield? Well, it depends on the category.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
I can say total. Yeah. You know, new loans originated during the first quarter came out at 557. If you look at it compared to the fourth quarter on average, I mean, it's 589 in the fourth quarter. You had two fed cuts affecting fourth quarter levels. So on a spot basis. So the overall portfolio yield, you know, is at 561, only down a basis point in total, you know, which includes all of the different categories of loans. You know, no Fed cuts during the quarter. So total moving a basis point. The lines have kind of have approached each other now where we have been, you know, if you go back a few quarters to new loans were coming on, you know, 2530 basis points higher than the portfolio yield. It's kind of more in line based on the mix of what we originated during the first quarter.
Manuel Nevask
Okay, I appreciate that. The deposit pipeline, you, you're speaking to some commercial clients that are going to come on over time with Treasury Management Solutions is that pipeline also, how does that compare to your current deposit costs?
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
It's a hard, that's a hard, that's a good question. It's a hard one to answer on the fly because you're going to have different levels of demand deposits based upon, you know, floor balances that are set because they use an earnings credit to pay for services. So it depends on, it depends on the client and the level of services. So I, you know, I don't know, I don't know if I have a good answer for you, but it's a
Manuel Nevask
great question in the pipeline. Some of it you really don't know yet because. Yes, I mean, well, I think most
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
of the stuff we're doing, we're the op, we're the operating bank. Right. So you will see higher cost deposits coming on board as well. But that's the excess balances that are being swept. So you know, if you, if you look at that, typically they're swept into our standard pricing. It doesn't change our, our stated pricing. So we don't exception price that the focus is, is on, you know, setting the floor balance and whether the client's going to pay with fees or use demand deposits. So, and the level. Cost is for us. But I would just add one thing too, Manuel. The commercial deposit pipeline is up meaningfully. I mean we were a little under a billion at the end of the year and you know, we're around a billion two now. So we continue, we convert and we continue to add new names into that.
Manuel Nevask
Well, that's great, I appreciate that. Just my last one is can you talk about how quickly some of your investments in account privacy or AI and when they should kind of pay off and how should we track your progress beyond deposit growth, Solid returns, you've pointed to some market share gains. Any other metrics you'd like to point us to, to kind of see how this is paying off?
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
Well, we, you know, we have mentioned in the past applications, you know, our application volumes up considerably, you know, using the platform that we've developed that utilizes AI in our common app. So I think 38% increase in deposit applications through that network. It's kind of hard to give a global number because you know, you've got disintermediation going on with traditional origination methods. But you know, we track how many come through that channel and it's up significantly, continues to grow significantly. I think loans were up, I don't remember what the number is. Thank you. Yeah. 5% actually. Loan application volumes up 5% quarter over quarter and 31% is the increase in deposit applications. So you're seeing increases in those categories that should accelerate over time. The best way to look at this, I think for any bank would be to look at their overall performance because it's so dispersed throughout the organization. And you know, we're trying to balance. Obviously we have limited resources as I've said earlier, so we don't want our expenses to grow and then not get a benefit. So you know, we're not a tech company. We can't burn cash and then tell you, hey, we're not going to make any money. So we're a bank. So we basically have to gain the efficiency, pick the project, deploy it, gain the efficiency. And that's reflected in the, in the numbers. But I will say, you know, we have a number of things that we've already pulled off. We, you know, we have upgraded our ability to monitor deposit betas and affect deposit betas with analysis that we've done. And we had a system before Opportunity iq. We have a new Opportunity IQ too, which is much more sophisticated and speedy because we're using AI to assist with it, not just machine learning tools and insights. So I think that's one example. We've got a project underway to automate our call center based on some research that we've done. So there's some pretty spectacular AI software that's available that really could have a significant impact on the customer experience and our cost of servicing a customer via the call center. So we're, we're engaged in and looking at that. We are in the, in the throes of building out our 360 view, which has an AI overlay. I mentioned it earlier, you know, that we're in, you know, I'd say mid phase there and we're moving very quickly. We're building out a proprietary mortgage application that's going to be embedded into the common app. You know that that's coming, which you know will help us in the long run with cross sell Opportunity because we'll be able to, to, you know, as we originate a mortgage loan, use those data fields instantly for the customer to purchase other products like in insurance, homeowners insurance, you know, depository products. And then we've already Announced. We have embedded in our mobile app, you know, the ability to move your direct deposit instantly and repetitive ACH transactions. You know, we're working on bill pay. We're going to get there. We're integrating that into the origination platform and we have pushed that common app origination platform into the field. So the entire branch network is originating on the same digital platform that consumers use online. So there's a lot, we've done a lot. There's a lot that's already done that's reflected in the expense run rate. And then there are some things that we're finalizing that should come online very shortly here and be additive, probably in 27, either from an efficiency perspective or generating additional revenue for us. I don't know if that's helpful, but I don't have a precise number to give you. I can only tell you we're going to be building out external dashboards. We've been building internal and we mentioned before, you know, having more dashboard type data that we'll be sharing as we proceed with these initiatives.
Manuel Nevask
No, I thought the answer was very thoughtful. I appreciate it.
OPERATOR
Thank you.
Brian Martin (Equity Analyst)
The next question comes from Brian Martin with Breen Capital.
OPERATOR
Please go ahead.
Brian Martin (Equity Analyst)
Hey, good morning guys. Thanks for all the insight so far. Maybe one follow up for Gary just. Or maybe it's Vince. Just on the loan growth just on the CRE side in terms of the sales in the secondary market and just, just kind of managing that.
Gary Guerreri (Chief Credit Officer)
How are you thinking about that? It sounds like there's opportunities but you're still seeing payoffs. Just in terms of contribution to growth this year, it sounds like CNI is obviously strong this quarter. The pipelines are good there, but just on the CRE side, given your capacity and how you're thinking about that in the secondary market. Yeah, Brian, we still have projects that we've been involved with for the last couple of years that are coming on a quarterly basis regularly that are moving into the secondary market. So we will continue to see that as we work our way through, you know, the year ahead here. That being said, we were pleasantly surprised by the ramp up in new CRA opportunities and pretty much across the board those opportunities have been really solid. So we're going to aggressively pursue those solar transactions in that space. I will tell you that is as we talked about competition earlier, it's very competitive because many banks are getting back in the CRE business. So, you know, we're seeing that there's a lot of activity there and we expect that to build throughout the year. So in terms of those payouts and moves into the secondary market, they will continue. That will be a headwind in that category. But we're going to be very choosy of the assets that we're putting on and we will see, we will see activity from a new booking standpoint there build throughout the year.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
By the way, the CNI growth that we have does not include ndfi. So you know, I've been saying this for a long time. People finally started looking at it. But when you look at the H8 data, it included, you know, basically warehouse lending for consumer borrowings that get reflected in the commercial line because, you know, you can't segment it out or there's another category that you can't really figure out, you know, what's sitting in that bucket when you look at the public disclosures. But you know, we don't have that. So you know, we're not really. We're not. We're growing with traditional cni. So we haven't had any help in any way right from NDF buying and I think that's an important distinction. So as the economy starts to accelerate, you'll see us perform even better as we continue to build out some of these tools that I mentioned. We'll see better penetration in the small business segment. We should get some help there. The consumer business that we talked about, we're starting to see, you know, pretty explosive opportunities in certain segments in consumer. Right?
Gary Guerreri (Chief Credit Officer)
Yeah, the consumer. The consumer book has been really strong. The performance of it continues to be exceptional at record low credit metric levels at this point. High, high quality paper and the teams are doing a really good job generating opportunities in those pipelines. Really very high. Yeah, just as a reference point too, you know, if you looked at our changes since the end of the year, there are NDFI balances which are very low and we're in probably the lowest decile there. Ours came down 5, 7%. The other all banks were up 7%. So it's driving a lot of the loan growth at some of our competitors.
Brian Martin (Equity Analyst)
That's a great segue. Just one last one on the CRE, Gary. I'm assuming that that CRE concent level around 200 PI stands or it's not moving a whole lot based on origination potential originations with payoffs. So that's not like it's going to ramp up.
Gary Guerreri (Chief Credit Officer)
We're at 194 at the end of the quarter, Brian, to Tier 1 plus the allowance. I would tell you that I would expect that to be lower as we move into the second and third quarters before we start to see some stabilization.
Brian Martin (Equity Analyst)
Okay. And then just to Vince's comment or both Vince's comments on ndfi, can you just remind us how low that exposure is today just so we have that clarity in terms of, you know, that exposure relative to other banks.
Gary Guerreri (Chief Credit Officer)
Yeah. In terms of our bucket, the largest bucket that we have in there is the other category which is a mix of wealth management, advisory, family, office and insurance companies for non lending purposes. The credit facilities that we have in place there support working capital acquisitions and lift out strategies for our clients. Remaining is a handful of customer REITs which is a little over $100 million. Clients who we do CNI business with that have formed some REITs and our BDCs which we got from an acquisition a number of years ago. And we paired it back to the strongest of the Strong. There are five of them there. In four of them are investment grade companies. The balance is $40 million.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
So it's really small, right? Yes, $40 million. And again, we've not focused. That is not a focus of this company. That's, you know, the byproduct of acquisitions and clients accommodating certain clients. But we don't have a practice of going out and originating in that space. And it's only 1% of the total loan book too. So it's tiny. Yep. The minimum. Yep.
Brian Martin (Equity Analyst)
Okay, good to highlight that. And just maybe the last one. Yeah, maybe just the last one for me was your comments on the cost of deposits. Sounds like it sounds as, as though they are kind of flat to down maybe over the balance of the year. Just with that balance of the CNI potential growth. And I guess that's assuming that there's no rapid growth in loans and no change in rates. But that funding cost trending down seems like the outlook we should be looking at. A, is that right? And B, just can you talk about that pipeline of commercial deposits? Is that. Do you see the baseline of 26% today trending a bit higher given your outlook for that pipeline?
Gary Guerreri (Chief Credit Officer)
It's too hard to say given the inflows and outflows in that bucket, what can happen potentially with disintermediation? I think that's a hard thing to say. Right. We've been pretty steady at that level. It's risen and then the yield curve changes and then it migrates away and then comes back. So it's kind of hard to say. But you know, we, we tend to target that level. Right. So it's reflected in our guide and that's what, you know, that's what you have. You know, if we can do better, it's going to come from the things that I mentioned earlier.
Vince Calabrese (Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, yeah. Just in a higher, for longer environment, Brian. I mean, there's still some room for the deposits to come down, but it's going to be a function of the overall loan growth and the competitiveness like Vince mentioned earlier on the deposit pricing side. So I think there's room for it to come down a little bit from here. But the rest of, you know, the back half of the year is going to be function of what's happening with the overall loan growth. Yeah.
Brian Martin (Equity Analyst)
Makes sense. All right, thanks for taking the questions, guys.
OPERATOR
All right, thanks, Brian.
Vince Dille (Chairman, President and CEO)
This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Vince Dilly for any closing remarks.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Thank you for the questions. And I want to thank our shareholders for sticking with us for so long. I think it's great to be able to deliver a dividend increase. We've accumulated capital, we have capital flexibility. So it gives us the opportunity to defend the company from a risk perspective, to invest in some of the great things we're investing in that drive returns. We're very return oriented. And now, because of the capital position we're in, we could continue to repatriate capital at even higher levels. We've returned $2.4 billion in capital since I became CEO here. We're focused on taking care of our shareholders. We did that all while we acquired banks and grew 8 to 9% on an organic basis over sustained periods. So, anyway, thank you and it's a great honor. I also want to say one more thing. I want to thank Bill Campbell again because he was a tremendous director and a phenomenal advocate for shareholders. He's done a lot of creative things over time. Early in his board career, he was focused heavily on governance and that built the framework for what we have today. He was kind of ahead of his time and he's a great person, a great mentor, and we're going to miss him. So thank you for everything you've done, Bill.
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