CVB Financial (NASDAQ:CVBF) reported first-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company's first-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

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Summary

CVB Financial reported net earnings of $51 million, or $0.38 per share, for Q1 2026, marking their 196th consecutive quarter of profitability.

The company experienced solid growth across several financial metrics, including a 6% increase in pretax, pre-provision income and a 13 basis point expansion in net interest margin to 3.44%.

Average loans grew by $157 million year-over-year, with notable increases in commercial real estate and agribusiness loans, while total loans decreased slightly from the end of 2025 due to seasonal factors.

The company completed its merger with Heritage Bank of Commerce, marking its largest acquisition by asset size, and is focusing on integration, customer retention, and capturing growth opportunities in the Bay Area.

Management highlighted strong loan origination activity, with a 90% increase in Q1 2026 compared to Q1 2025, despite competitive pressures on pricing.

The company's capital position remains strong, with discussions around potential share buybacks once the Heritage integration is settled.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first quarter of 2026 earnings conference call for CVB Financial Corporation and its subsidiary Citizens Business Bank. My name is Cherie and I'm your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer period. Please note that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Alan Nicholson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. You may proceed. Thank you, Cherie and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us today to review our financial results for the first quarter of 2026.

Alan Nicholson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)

Joining me this morning is our Chief Executive Officer, Dave Brager, and our President, Clay Jones. Our comments today will refer to the financial information that was included in the earnings announcement released yesterday. To obtain a copy, please visit our website at www.cbbank.com and click on the Investors tab. The speakers on this call claim the protection of the safe harbor provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For a more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements, please see the Company's annual report on Form 10K for the year ended December 31, 2025, and in particular the information set forth in Item 1A, Risk Factors therein. For a more complete version of the Company's safe harbor disclosure, please see the Company's earnings release issued in connection with this call. I'll now turn the call over to Dave Brager. Dave? Thank you, Alan. Good morning everyone. For the first quarter of 2026, we reported net earnings of $51 million, or $0.38 per share, representing our 196th consecutive quarter of profitability, which is every quarter for 49 years. We previously declared a $0.20 per share dividend for the first quarter of 2026, representing our 146th consecutive quarter of paying a cash dividend to our shareholders. We produced a return on average tangible common equity of 13.4% and a return on average assets of 1.33% for the first quarter of 2026. Our net earnings were $51 million, or $0.38 per share, compares with $55 million for the fourth quarter of 2025, or $0.40 per share, and $51.1 million, or $0.36 per share, for the prior year. Quarter Results of the first quarter of 2026 reflect solid growth year over year across several financial metrics, including pretax, pre provision, income growth, net interest margin, expansion loan growth and growth in deposits and customer repurchase agreements. Pretax pre provision income grew by $4 million, or 6% over the first quarter of 2025. Our net interest margin expanded by 13 basis points over the prior year quarter to 3.44% as our earning asset yields increased by 7 basis points while our cost of funds decreased by 7 basis points. Average loans grew by $157 million, or approximately 2%, from the first quarter of 2025. We also increased our average total deposits and customer repurchase agreements by $288 million, or 2.4% from the first quarter of 2025. Now let's discuss loans further. Total loans at March 31, 2026 were $8.64 billion, a $280 million or 3.3% increase from the end of the first quarter of 2025. This increase was driven primarily by growth in commercial real estate loans of $141 million, a $62 million increase in dairy and livestock and agribusiness loans, and a $43 million increase in construction loans. We also had $34 million of growth in SBA504 loans, and C& I loan outstandings increased by $10 million over the prior year. Total loans declined by $56 million from the end of 2025 as dairy and livestock and agribusiness loans declined by $117 million due to the seasonal peak in line usage that occurs every calendar year. And this seasonal decline is evident by the decrease in line utilization rate from 78% at the end of 2025 to 69% at March 31, 2026. CNI loans decreased quarter over quarter by $21 million as line utilization decreased from 32% at the end of 2025 to 30% at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Partially offsetting the decline in line usage from the end of 2025 was commercial real estate loan growth of $57 million, SBA504 loan growth of $13 million, and construction loans increasing by $22 million. Loan originations have started off the year at a strong pace as originations for the first quarter of 2026 were approximately 90% higher than the first quarter of 2025 and 15% higher than the fourth quarter of 2025. Our loan pipelines remain relatively strong, although rate competition for high quality loans continues to be intense. CNI loan originations have stayed relatively consistent over the past five quarters, but commercial real estate loan originations have been strengthening. Loan originations in the first quarter had average yields of approximately 6% which was roughly 25 basis points lower than the prior quarter. Our average loan yield was 5.32% for the first quarter of 2026 compared to 5.40% for the fourth quarter of 2025 and 5.22% for the first quarter of 2025. During the fourth quarter of 2025, we collected $3.2 million of interest on a non-performing loan. Excluding this additional interest income, our loan yield would have been 5.32% for the fourth quarter of 2025. We experienced $9,000 of net recoveries during the first quarter of 2026 compared to $325,000 of net recoveries for the fourth quarter of 2025. Total non-performing loans increased by $1.5 million to $6.1 million at March 31, 2026, which represents 0.07% of total loans. The increase is primarily due to the downgrade of a $2.9 million CNI loan for which we established a specific reserve in our allowance for credit losses. Classified loans were $83.1 million at March 31, 2026 compared to $52.7 million at December 31, 2025 and $94.2 million at March 31, 2025. Classified loans as a percentage of total loans were less than 1% at March 31, 2026. Now on the deposits Our average total deposits and customer repurchase agreements for the first quarter of 2026 were $12.5 billion which compares to $12.2 billion for the first quarter of 2025 and $12.6 billion during the fourth quarter of 2025. Our non-interest bearing deposits declined on average by $112 million compared to the first quarter of 2025 and by $107 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2025 on average. Non-interest bearing deposits were 58% of total deposits for both the first quarter of 2026 and the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to 59% for the first quarter of 2025. Interest bearing non-maturity deposits and customer repurchase agreements grew on average by $400 million from the first quarter of 2025. Our cost of deposits and repurchase agreements was 82 basis points for the first quarter of 2026 compared to 86 basis points for the fourth quarter of 2025 and 87 basis points for the year ago quarter. I will now turn the call over to Alan to further discuss additional aspects of our balance sheet and income. Thanks Dave. Pretax pre Provision income was $71.6 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared to $71.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and $67.5 million in the first quarter of last year. After adjusting for acquisition expense and gains on OREO, our operating income grew from the first quarter of 2025 by $8 million, reflecting positive operating leverage of 6%. The growth in operating income was driven by growth in net interest income of $7.4 million by a 7% rate of growth. Net interest income was $117.8 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared to $122.7 million in 4Q25 and $110.4 million in the first quarter of 2025. Interest income decreased from the fourth quarter of 2025 by $6.9 million due primarily to two fewer calendar days in the first quarter, a $134 million decrease in earning assets and the $3.2 million of non-accrued interest paid during the fourth quarter. Interest income increased from the first quarter of 2025 by $6.1 million as our earning asset yield increased by 7 basis points from 4.28% to 4.35% and our average earning assets increased by $336 million. Interest expense declined from both the prior quarter and the prior year. Quarter interest expense was $31.3 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared to $33.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and $32.6 million in the first quarter of 2025. Our cost of funds decreased from 1.01% in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 97 basis points in the first quarter of 2026. Our cost of funds was 7 basis points lower than the first quarter of 2025 even though the average balance of interest-bearing deposits in repos increased by $400 million. Non-interest income was $14.3 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared to $11.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and $16.2 million in the first quarter of 2025. The fourth quarter of 2025 included a $2.8 million loss on the sale of securities, while the first quarter of 2025 included a gain on sale of OREO of $2.2 million. The quarter over quarter increase in non-interest income also included a $1.1 million increase in the cash render value of bank owned, life insurance, trust and investment services. Income grew by $313,000 or 9% from the first quarter of 2025 but decreased by $307,000 over the fourth quarter of 2025 due to lower brokerage fee income. Our allowance for credit loss was $80.2 million at March 31, 2026. In comparison, our allowance for credit losses was $77 million at December 31, 2025. The $3 million increase in the allowance was primarily due to the establishment of a specific reserve totaling $3.2 million. Our economic forecast continues to be a blend of multiple forecasts produced by Moody's. We continue to have the largest individual scenario weighting on Moody's baseline forecast with both upside and downside risks weighted among multiple forecasts. The resulting economic forecast at March 31, 2025 was modestly different from our forecast at the end of 2020. The resulting economic forecast at March 31, 2026 was modestly different from the forecast at the end of 2025. Real GDP is forecasted to be below 1% in the second half of 2026 and stay below 2% through 2027. The unemployment rate is forecasted to reach 5% by the middle of 2026 and remain above 5% through 2028. Commercial real estate prices are forecasted to continue their decline through the end of 2026 before experiencing growth in the back half of 2027, so switching to our investment portfolio. Investment securities totaled $4.8 billion at March 31, 2026, a $116 million decrease from the end of 2025. Available for sale or AFS investment securities were $2.59 billion and their held to maturity investments totaled $2.25 billion. The unrealized loss on AFS securities increased by $2 million from $308 million on December 31, 2025 to $310 million. Our $700 million in fair value hedges generated negative carry in the first quarter of 2026, resulting in a $1.1 million and $750,000 decrease in interest income compared to the first and fourth quarters of 2025 respectively. Now turning to our capital position at March 31, 2026, our shareholders equity was $2.3 billion, a $93 million increase from the first quarter of 2025. Including the $52 million increase in other comprehensive income. The company's tangible common equity ratio was 10.5% at March 31, 2026, while our common equity tier 1 capital ratio was 16.3%. Our tangible book value per share increased over the last 12 months by 9% from $10.45 at March 31, 2025, to $11.42. I'll now turn the call back to Dave for further discussion of our expenses. Thank you, Alan. Noninterest expense for the first quarter of 2026 was $60.6 million, which includes $1.1 million in one-time acquisition of Heritage Bank of Commerce and $500,000 in provision for off balance sheet reserves. Regulatory assessment expense decreased by $1.6 million as a result of unwinding the remaining accrual for the special FDIC assessment. Excluding acquisition expense and the provision for off balance sheet reserves, the level of core operating expense was essentially flat compared to both the prior quarter and the first quarter of 2025. Our efficiency ratio was 45.8% in the first quarter of 2026, compared to 46.3% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 46.7% in the first quarter of 2025. Non-interest expense, excluding acquisition expense as a percentage of average assets totaled 1.55% for the first quarter of 2026, compared to 1.53% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 1.58% for the first quarter of 2025. This concludes today's presentation. Now, Alan and I and Clay will be happy to take any questions that you might have.

OPERATOR

Thank you. To ask a question, Please press Star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, press star 11 again. One moment while we compile the Q and A roster. And our first question will come from the line of David Feaster with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Dave Brager (Chief Executive Officer)

Hey, good morning, everybody. Morning, Dave.

David Feaster (Equity Analyst)

I wanted to start on the deal, and welcome Clay to the call. So I know we're only a week into this, but I just wanted to get a sense of how it's. How has it gone thus far? Like, what are your top priorities just in these first few weeks after the deals close from an operational perspective? And, Dave, I know, like, the goal is always to CBB the bank. Like, where are you focused initially and where Like, where are you focused initially and you see the most opportunity to add value? Yeah, so I think initially, David, obviously, we're just trying to acclimate all the new associates that have joined us through the merger. So, you know, Clay has been. Clay and his team, the former Heritage folks, have been drinking from a fire hose. There's a lot of training, a lot of information that's going on. We're looking at how we set up accounts, how we structure relationships. All of those things are part of that initial time frame. Clay and Julie, who joined our board, were at our first board meeting yesterday. So they're getting acclimated. Clay is going to be spending a lot of time down here. We'll be spending a lot of time together. We sort of restructured the organization to involve the new senior leaders that are joining us, Clay and his former senior leadership team that are remaining. So there's just a lot of education about the culture of our bank, the way we do things. And that's not an event, it's a process. So it's going to take some time to do that. But all in all, things went very well on closed weekend and it'll continue to get easier and better as we go forward. But I'd love to Clay can give his perspective as well. Yeah, David, I think Dave, the integration is going just fine. As Dave said, the team is just getting acclimated to new reporting lines and new systems and reporting lines. So it's all going just fine. I think the primary focus we have is one staying close to our customers and clients and making sure that they hear from us often and also just keeping a close eye on our associates to make sure that they're keeping pace with the integration and the training. Okay, that's great. And I know, you know, I know we didn't include much in the way of optimization. Look, the deal gives you a ton of financial flexibility, right? Didn't really include any optimization and guidance outside of maybe some of the purchase mortgages that we talked about. With the deal closed and all this financial flexibility, has your thoughts change at all about opportunities to optimize things or deploy excess liquidity just given the fully marked balance sheet. David, you're right. We do have some ability to restructure the balance sheet a little bit. We have announced and do have a sale in place for the single family mortgage pools of heritage. Beyond that, we're still evaluating it. I think we'll come out of the quarter with a balance sheet and a plan that you'll be able to see on the next quarterly earnings, but a lot of moving parts right now because it does give us a fair amount of optionality. Okay. Okay. And then just last one from me. You know, the commentary on the origination activity is extremely encouraging. I wanted to dig into that a bit. How much of the improvement that you're seeing is you gaining share at this point. And your bankers being more productive versus improving demand. And just kind of curious, how do you think about the growth outlook just in light of the competitive landscape that you alluded to, which it sounds like it's primarily on the pricing side and then just again, the expansion of the Bay Area? Yeah, well, obviously we're not going to compete on the credit quality side. We're going to maintain that pristine credit quality. And when you're fighting for those types of deals, you have to price them in a way that you can win them, assuming that you're monetizing the rest of the relationship as well. But I think initially, I would say, to answer your question more specifically, I would say initially it was just there was more opportunity out there. I think what's happened over the last couple quarters, for example, and with the increase in the opportunities that we're seeing, I think that we're in a very good position from a liquidity perspective, from a market perspective. Obviously from the heritage, the former heritage perspective, there's some significant opportunity there just with the capacity of the combined organization relative to hold limits, house lending limits, those types of things. So we view it as very positively. We need to get them integrated and understand how we look at it. But from a credit perspective, very similar. From a pricing perspective on the lending side, very similar. On the deposit pricing side, that's probably a little more work that we're going to have to do ultimately. But at the end of the day, we're going after the same types of relationships. We were going after the same types of relationships. So I think it's our people recognizing that, hey, we're ready. But a lot of it is just there's a lot going on out there, but there's a lot of competition. So that's primarily why, even though in some ways the treasury rates have gone up a little bit, our loan origination yields have gone down slightly just because we're having to compete if we want to win. Our pipeline still holding up pretty solid. And do you think you can kind of hold new origination yields in this 6% realm? Yeah, I mean, I would say that it's going to be around that 6% range going forward. Obviously it depends on the mix of real estate versus C and I and then the utilization of that because we're actually going to getting better rates on the CNI stuff than on the real estate stuff. And that was part of the reason. The net interest margin. Well, there's a lot of. The Fed lowered rates in December. There was a number of things that happened and Our yield stayed the same, essentially the same, if you exclude the NAIP. And so I think that was a big victory for us. And if this loan demand remains and we're continuing to, to book what we've been booking, I think that's a big tailwind for us as we keep going through the year. But yes, pipelines are holding up and there's plenty of opportunities for us out there for the right relationships. That's terrific. Thanks, everybody.

OPERATOR

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Kelly Mata with kbw. Your line is open.

Kelly Mata (Equity Analyst)

Hi, good morning. Thanks for the question. Maybe building upon David's question, I do appreciate the color on pipelines and it's all quite encouraging. I'm wondering in your markets if you're seeing any increased competitive dynamics. Notably, I think growth at Wells was a lot stronger with the asset cap coming off. I'm just wondering if there's been any notable shifts or change in dynamics in your markets. Thanks. Yeah, I don't know if I would say there's been any noticeable shift. I mean, it's always extremely competitive, especially for the types of relationships that we're looking for. There are some banks. You mentioned Wells Fargo. I would, you know, there's other banks. You know, Pac Premier was not as active for the last few years. Columbia is going to be much more active. I mean, there's a number of organizations, organizations, you know, the fifth thirds, the regional banks, bmo. There's a number of banks that are coming into our market and, you know, plus you always have the big guys. And so I think there is, you know, maybe some increase at the higher end of sort of our typical type relationship we go after, but it's not significantly different than before. I don't know. Clay, do you want to. I echo Dave's comments here. The market continues to be very competitive. I don't think there's been any recent shifts in the competitive nature of the clients that we go after in the Bay Area. It continues to be just as competitive as it is here. Yeah. And Kelly, I would just say this. Our bankers are most successful in their new customer origination, new relationship origination business. It's with the biggest banks, we provide a super high level of service that allows us to compete. We have the product array. And I think that's another sort of tailwind from the Heritage merger as far as both combined organizations being able to provide that wide array of products and services to our relationships and prospects. So there are some very positive things that are occurring. And as we get everybody integrated and acclimated, it should improve. Got it. That's really helpful. Color. Thank you. Turning to capital, your level should still be quite robust pro forma for the merger just closed. You had been a bit active in the buyback prior to announcing the deal, which put that on hold. Wondering, any updated thoughts on capital management? Buybacks, future deals, the works.

Alan Nicholson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)

Thanks. Yeah. So I'll sort of start with the tail end of your question first. Look, we want to make sure we integrate Heritage appropriately. That is our number one focus. So unless there's something that's really unique or an opportunity that's really unique and something we've been looking at, I would say we're more focused on the integration of Heritage than additional M and A. We do recognize that we have an enormous amount of capital, and prior to us getting in conversations with Clay and Heritage, that was something that we were very active in. We repurchased 4.2 million shares last year, and we'll continue to evaluate that. Obviously, the combined company's earnings will be looking at the dividend. Ultimately, this quarter's really where we're going to get all the. Alan can opine on this as well, but where we're going to get the balance sheet set up the way that we want it set up. And then we'll be working on those capital management things. And definitely buybacks are going to be part of that strategy going forward. So I don't know. Alan, do you have anything you want to add? Kelly, as Dave said, it will be noisy in Q2, a little bit more noise in Q3, but as we get into Q Q3, I think we'll have a lot more visibility into our capital. And of course, as you pointed out, a pro forma is already very strong. And historically we've been able to generate a lot of organic capital. And we'll definitely have to evaluate all those things that Dave mentioned.

Kelly Mata (Equity Analyst)

Got it. If I could just slip it in. As a follow up, you mentioned the Resi mortgage. It's held for sale right now. Do you anticipate that off the balance sheets by quarter end, or is there a possibility that could stick around a bit longer than perhaps we expected at announcement? Thanks. No, we do expect it to be off the balance sheet by the end of the quarter. Great. Thank you so much. I'll step back.

OPERATOR

Thanks. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Matthew Clark with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Alan Nicholson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)

Hey, good morning, guys. Good morning. Want to start on the CNI credit that you Assigned some specific reserves to. And then the other classified credits that migrated. I know classified overall still sub 1%, but just wanted to get some color on what happened there and, you know, plans for resolution and timing, if possible. Yes. So I'll start with the non performer. So that CNI loan was impacted by one of their customers who declared bankruptcy. So we have shored up our collateral position. We did put a specific reserve because at the time we had not shored up the collateral position in the way that we wanted to. So I don't really anticipate there could be some challenges there. But we're very proactive when we grade things and when we look at things and how we classify them. So just being very transparent, you know, it's. They're, you know, for lack of a better term, they're a marketing company for a larger organization and they sell agricultural products. So, you know, it's something that we've been involved with since one of these customers, but we just wanted to make sure that we elevated it to that level. As far as the classified loans, it's really centered in two relationships. They both happen to be cni. We're in very good collateral positions in both of those deals. That makes up the majority of the increase in the classified loans. One of the companies is in the midst of a sale and that could happen. I mean, we're obviously prepared if it doesn't. But they're both within their collateral guidelines and we think one of them. It's just a situation with the operations and they're working hard on that. So again, just being very proactive and it's something that happens now and again, but nothing systematic or endemic of the rest of the portfolio. These are just two separate situations. Okay, great. And then just a few housekeeping items. Do you plan to do this CECL double count here in two Q, you know, resulting in an outsized provision, or are you going to opt out of that? Matthew, we elected the new accounting, so there won't be a double count.

Matthew Clark (Equity Analyst)

Okay, great. And then accretion expectations. I know the marks can still move around a little bit, but I assume you have preliminary marks at this stage. Any guesstimate? I mean, we have our own, but I just want to check in to see what you thought. Maybe quarterly or normal accretion. A normal accretion might be per quarter. Too early, Matt. Too early, sorry. We'll have. We'll be able to give you better answers next quarter. Okay. And then just the. I think there was a special FHLB dividend. You just Quantify that this quarter, I think it was about 400,000. Okay, great. Thank you.

OPERATOR

You're welcome. And one moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Andrew Terrell with Stevens. Your line is open.

Dave Brager (Chief Executive Officer)

Hey, good morning. Good morning. Hey, Tom. Maybe just wanted to start off. I know you guys don't generally guide, but with the merger close in the second quarter, the kind of range of forecasts for the margin for 2Q are pretty widespread. I was hoping you could maybe just help us out. I don't know if you have day one pro forma margin, what the general impact is to your reported margin when you layer in Heritage. Just any guardrails you could put around margin expectations for us. Andrew, once again, sorry it's a little bit too early. Dave said we closed four days ago. We did include on page 31 of the Investor presentation the pro forma loans and deposits for the combined organization, excluding the mortgages we're selling. So at least, I mean, you can look at that from a starting point. But we are still evaluating the balance sheet in terms of what we're going to do with repositioning the bond portfolio, repositioning some of our wholesale funds. So unfortunately it's just too preliminary for me to give you much more information.

Andrew Terrell (Equity Analyst)

Okay. Does the Yield on page 31 of the deck for HDBK loans, the 560, does that include the single family yield? And I'm assuming the 560 is pretty free. Any kind of mark? Yeah, there's no marks. And if you look at the pro forma yield of 547, that's excluding the single family. And that's on a combined basis, of course. Got it. Okay. You know, we talked some in the past just about maybe some of the opportunity to upsize, you know, some of the legacy Heritage relationships and maybe that some of that was, you know, already occurring pre deal close. Just can you remind us, you know, general kind of opportunity set there, how that influences kind of how you're thinking about loan growth throughout the year? Yeah, Andrew, no question about it. At deal announcement, we gave them on trial to the team to make sure that, you know, we captured all of those clients that were growing and that we're reaching our upper limits at Heritage. We, we now have greatly expanded that capacity and those clients obviously have extended their Runway with Heritage significantly. So there's great opportunities in terms of our largest clients that on the going forward basis, I would add to that too. As Dave said, there's additional synergies amongst the two firms as Combined in terms of ag, dairy lending, mortgage origination, trust wealth services, international services. So there's just a wide variety of opportunities that our relationship management teams and calling officers are engaged in. So going forward, looks good. Yeah. And I would just say, you know, I wanted Clay to answer that first, just from the perspective of the former Heritage offices, but from the overall perspective. Andrew, just to your question, you know, a lot of this is, you know, four days in, they're drinking through the fire hose, trying to figure out everything. And so we're working on it, but just overall pipelines have remained strong. The relationships, we haven't had a lot of turnover in relationships. We're seeing opportunities for us to do maybe a little bit better than we did last year as far as loan growth. But I do think that as we get through the second quarter, we'll have a much better idea. And as you're right, I mean, I've always said sort of low single digit growth. I mean, that could be mid single digit growth. But we just need to make sure that we understand the relationships as we look at them, the opportunities that are out there. But for now, we're sort of just sticking with what we've been doing and what's been done in the past. So I don't know if that gives you a better answer, but we're still kind of in. We want quality stuff and we're having to price it aggressively. And so I think that is going to be somewhat of a limiting factor as well. But on the positive side are definitely the things Clay said, not just on the loan side, but on the overall relationship side. Great. Thank you for taking the questions. I appreciate it.

OPERATOR

Of course. Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 11. One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Gary Tenner with DA Davidson. Your line is open. Thanks. Good morning. One follow up on the initial loan growth commentary. In terms of the strengthening of the commercial real estate segment from a demand and production perspective, how much could you kind of parse that a little bit in terms of more. Is it more customer activity? Is it, you know, borrowers getting more comfortable with the rate environment we're in and moving forward on projects? Is it CBB getting more competitive on pricing? Just kind of parse out kind of moving parts? That's attributed to that strength. Yeah. Well, I definitely think it starts with potential borrowers out there. It's, I mean, our existing customers, it's our banker's ability to go and attract new relationships to the bank. So I think that's driving some of it. I think also Gary, you know, I'd say our average size of new loan origination has creeped up a little bit as well. There are a number of things that are sort of assisting us in reaching that low single digit growth that we had last year. So I think that's part of it. I don't know that we're getting more aggressive on pricing than we have been in the past. We were always aggressive for the right relationships. Obviously the loan pricing is just one component of the overall relationship. We have to look at the deposit side, we look at the fee income side, we look at how we monetize the entire relationship. And so I don't know that we're getting more aggressive, but I definitely think customers are more used to the rate environment and money can't sit on the sidelines for that long. So there are people that are doing things and we're seeing some of that activity and capturing a good part of it. But yeah, I think it's all of those things that are sort of contributing to those opportunities. And we just.90% new loan originations in the first quarter over the first quarter of last year. It's basically double what we did last year. And that's. I think that speaks to just the opportunities that we're seeing and the opportunities that we're winning. Appreciate that. And actually as a follow up, there any particular asset class within CRE that you're seeing more activity in or maybe is driving more of the activity? Yeah, I don't know that there's a specific asset class. It's pretty well balanced between all asset classes, I will say. Even it's probably easier to parse it out by owner or non owner. We were doing a lot of owner occupied in the past. The thing that was really missing was investor commercial real estate. Really across all classes. Multifamily, industrial, retail. I mean we are seeing much more investor commercial real estate than we have in the past. I mean going back the last year it's been pretty steady in that area. But before that we weren't really seeing any investor commercial real estate. Nobody was doing anything. So I think it's just more investor real estate across all asset classes. And those opportunities we've been doing pretty well with. Interesting. All right, thanks Dave. You're welcome. Thank you. I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Brager for any closing remarks.

Dave Brager (Chief Executive Officer)

Great, thank you, cherie. First, I would like to welcome Heritage bank of Commerce customers, associates and shareholders to Citizens Business Bank. The merger with Heritage bank of Commerce marks the most strategic and largest acquisition by asset size in our history, bringing together two premier relationship focused business banks and advancing our long standing objective of expanding Citizens throughout the California by entering the Bay Area, our team is eager to build on the strong customer and community relationships that Heritage has established and our performance in the first quarter demonstrates our continued financial strength and focus on our vision of serving the comprehensive financial needs of small to medium sized businesses and their owners. Our consistent financial performance is highlighted by our 196th consecutive quarters of profitability and our 146 consecutive quarters of paying cash dividends. I would like to thank our customers and associates for their continuing commitment and loyalty. Thank you for joining us this quarter. We appreciate your interest and look forward to speaking with you in July for our second quarter 2026 earnings call. Please let Alan or I know if you have any questions. Have a great day.

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