On Friday, SB Finl Gr (NASDAQ:SBFG) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.

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The full earnings call is available at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/460786975

Summary

SB Financial Group Inc reported a solid start to 2026 with net income of $4.3 million and diluted EPS of $0.69, marking the 61st consecutive quarter of profitability.

The company's balance sheet showed strong performance with loan growth of approximately $92 million year-over-year and deposit growth of over $100 million, reflecting nearly 8% annual increase.

The Marblehead acquisition was highlighted as a significant contributor to funding base and franchise stability, particularly in Northern Ohio.

SB Financial Group Inc's net interest margin was 3.49%, with stable net interest income and improved fee-based revenue contributing to a 13.2% increase in total operating revenue year-over-year.

Asset quality remains strong with non-performing assets at 0.3% of total assets and an allowance for credit losses at 1.39% of total loans.

Strategic initiatives focused on revenue diversification, efficiency, client relationship expansion, and operational excellence were emphasized as key growth drivers.

Management expressed optimism for 2026 with a focus on disciplined growth, capital management, and potential M&A opportunities.

The company plans to maintain a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share, representing a 2.8% annualized yield.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Good morning and welcome to the SB Financial Group Inc First Quarter 2026 Conference Call and webcast. I would like to inform you that this conference call is being recorded and that all participants are in a listen only mode. We will begin with remarks by management and then open the conference up to the investment community for questions and answers. I will now turn the conference over to Sara Mikas with SB Financial Group Inc. Please go ahead Sara.

Sara Mikas

Thank you and good morning everybody. I'd like to remind you that this conference call is being broadcast live over the Internet and will be archived and available on our website. Joining me today are Mark Klein, Chairman, President and CEO, Tony Cosentino, Chief Financial Officer and Steve Walls, Chief Lending Officer. Today's presentation may contain forward looking information. Cautionary statements about this information as well as reconciliations of non GAAP financial measures are included in today's earnings release materials as well as our SEC filings. These materials are available on our website and we encourage participants to refer to them for a complete discussion of risk factors and forward looking statements. These statements speak Only as of April 24, 2026 and SB Financial Group Inc undertakes no obligation to update them. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Klein.

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

Thank you Sarah and good morning everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2026 conference call and webcast. First quarter represented a solid start to the year for SB Financial Group Inc and really reinforces the consistency and resilience of our operating model. Our results reflected balance sheet performance across the franchise supported by loan growth, stable net interest income, improved fee based revenue disciplined expense management and sound credit quality. This quarter also marked the first full anniversary of the Marblehead acquisition and we now view that transaction as a solid contributor to our funding base, expanded presence in Northern Ohio and overall franchise stability. While the operating environment remains competitive, we continue to feel good about our position, Balance sheet remains sound, our credit metrics continue to compare favorably and our business line provides a healthy mix of margin and fee based revenue. We believe that combination, along with our disciplined approach to growth and capital deployment supports our ability to build long term shareholder value. Briefly, some highlights for the quarter. Net income 4.3 million with diluted EPS $0.69 compared to GAAP diluted EPS of $0.33 for the first quarter of 2025. This now marks our 61st consecutive quarter of profitability. Tangible book value per share ended the quarter at 18.45 compared to 15.79 for the first quarter of 2025 and $18 at year end. Adjusted tangible book value per share excluding AOCI now comes in at nearly $22. Our Net interest income totaled 12.7 million compared to 11.3 million in the first quarter of 2025 and 12.7 million in the linked quarter. The year over year improvement was driven by higher interest income on loans and a stable funding profile, while the linked quarter comparison remained relatively consistent. Loan balances increased by approximately $92 million from the prior year quarter and approximately 500,000 from the linked quarter, reflecting continued production across franchise and extended our trend of sequential quarterly growth. Total deposits in the quarter 1.37 billion compared to 1.27 billion for the first quarter of 2025 and 1.3 billion at year end. On a year over year basis, deposits increased over 100 million or nearly 8% reflecting continued organic deposit growth and stable client relationships. Across the franchise. Non inch income improved to 4.7 million from 4.1 first quarter of the year and 3.7 from the linked quarter. Our percentage of fee income to total revenue of 27% was slightly higher than the prior year and well ahead of the linked quarter. Non interest expense totaled 11.9 million and improved from the prior year quarter while increasing modestly from the linked quarter. Prior year quarter included acquisition expense, related expenses and incremental operating costs associated with Marblehead which elevated the comparison period. Asset quality continues to remain a strength of SB Financial Group Inc. Non performing assets total 4.8 million or 0.3% of total assets compared to 6.1 million or 0.41% in the first quarter. While non performing assets increased modestly from year end, overall credit performance remained sound and reserve coverage remains strong. We're especially pleased with the efforts of not only our lenders but more importantly our collection team which drove our total delinquency level down to just 28 basis points a quarter end. As we've revealed in prior quarters, we continue to key on our five key strategic initiatives, growing and diversifying revenue, more scale for efficiency, a greater share of the client's wallet for more scope, operational and excellence and of course asset quality. Looking a little closer at revenue diversity, mortgage originations totaled approximately 66 million compared to approximately 40 million for the first quarter of 2025 and approximately 72 million in the linked quarter. Mortgage business remains an important part of a franchise, helping us expand household relationships while also contributing meaningful fee income across the company. While weaker volume than we anticipated in the quarter, the pipeline has stabilized at approximately $35 million and we anticipate approximately 25% increase in volume for the second quarter sequentially from the linked quarter. Peak title continued to perform well during the quarter, benefiting both internal referrals and continued traction of clients outside of the bank. This business remains a valuable part of our product set and an important contributor to fee income diversification. On the scale front, the Marblehead acquisition continues to support our funding profile and we remain pleased with the stability of those client relationships. Just one year after closing, deposit growth continued to provide meaningful support to our balance sheet. We remain pleased with the stability of the marbled relationships and more broadly, we continue to see opportunities to grow deposits organically through client calling efforts, treasure management activities and the broader relationship model that has served us well across our markets, particularly with the current market disruption and consolidation. As we discussed previously, we committed to two nearby markets recently, Angola, Indiana and Napoleon, Ohio, and these results have exceeded our admittedly aggressive goals. We have closed nearly now 19 million in loans and approximately 17 million in deposits in just five months of operation. These two markets have clearly been at the forefront of market disruption I just mentioned and we certainly have seized on that opportunity. Client Relationships More Scope we remain focused on serving clients through our relationship based model that emphasizes responsiveness, local market knowledge and a full suite of products and services. We continue to believe that that approach, combined with our hybrid office model and expanding digital capabilities positions us well to serve our clients across both legacy and newer urban expansion markets. Referral activity continues to be an important tool in strengthening household relationships across our business line and we continue to view that cross functional approach as an important part of deepening client relationships across the franchise and delivering more scope and a greater share of the client wallet. On operational excellence, we remain focused on matching growth with disciplined execution. The first quarter reflected that mindset with expense levels improving from the prior year period and remaining controlled relative to revenue. Plus, we continue to evaluate staffing, technology and physical presence across the franchise to ensure resources are always aligned with current client activity and long term market opportunities. Capital levels remain strong with improvement in total capital and higher ratios for both TCE and CTE1 regulatory capital. And finally, before I turn it over to our cfo, Tony Cosentino, Asset quality credit performance remained sound for the quarter while non performing assets increased modestly from year end, they remained well below the prior year. Quarter level and Reserve coverage exceeded 400% and continue to reflect our conservative approach to risk management. The allowance for credit losses at 1.39% remains strong relative to total loans with criticized and classified loans at just 4.6 million, down 2.5 million or 35% from the prior year. We continue to emphasize disciplined underwriting, proactive management of problem assets and prudent growth across all markets. We believe that combination remains one of the key differentiators for SV Financial and an important metric for our long term performance. Now I'd like to ask Tony to give us some more details on our quarterly performance.

Tony Cosentino (Chief Financial Officer)

Tony thanks Mark and good morning again everyone. Let me outline some highlights and important details of our first quarter results on the income statement. In the first quarter total operating revenue increased to 17.4 million, representing a 13.2% increase from the 15.4 million in the prior year period and a 6.1% increase from the linked quarter. As Mark noted, this quarter reflected a balanced revenue performance with stable net interest income and a stronger contribution from our fee based businesses. Mark also detailed our GAAP EPS earlier in the call and when we adjust both years for OMS Recapture Recapture and the Marblehead merger costs, eps would be $0.63 for the current period compared to $0.42 in Q1 of 25 up over 50% on an adjusted basis. Net interest income was up 1.4 million or 12.7% from 1Q25 and consistent to the linked quarter. The year over year increase was driven primarily by continued balance sheet growth, better mix and the repricing benefits with in the portfolio. Total interest expense increased modestly from the prior year quarter as higher volume driven deposit costs were partially offset by lower costs across other funding sources. While funding costs remain an important point of focus, the overall funding profile of the Company remains well aligned with the asset growth we have achieved over the last year. Net interest margin for the quarter was 3.49% compared to 3.41% in the prior year quarter and 3.52% in the linked quarter. Even with net interest income remaining flat sequentially, the Company continued to benefit from the larger balance sheet and the repricing of interest earning assets. Non interest income increased to 4.7 million on a percentage basis. That represents an increase of approximately 14.7% from the prior year period and 27% from the linked quarter. The quarter over quarter and year over year improvement was driven by higher mortgage loan servicing fees, stronger gains on sale of mortgage loans and OMS Recapture and improved gains on the sale of SBA loans. The total mortgage banking contribution for the quarter was 1.8 million compared to 1.5 million in the prior year quarter and 1.5 million in the linked quarter. We continue to utilize our hedging program which was in the money for the quarter as it successfully offset the disruption in the rate markets. Operating expenses totaled 11.9 million in the quarter down 500,000 from the prior year and up just 700,000 from the linked quarter. The year over year comparison benefited from the one time merger related costs that were present in the first quarter of 2025. The linked quarter increase was modest and reflects normal quarterly expense variability. Our efficiency ratio for the first quarter was 68.1% representing a meaningful improvement from the prior year period and continued stability on a sequential basis. Our adjusted efficiency ratio was down by over 500 basis points in the prior period and the adjusted operating leverage was a positive five times. Turning to the balance sheet, loan balances ended the quarter at approximately 1.18 billion reflecting continued year over year growth and a modest increase from year end with loans to assets at a healthy 74%. We remain encouraged by the continued stability in production across the franchise and we believe the current balance sheet remains well positioned to support additional disciplined loan growth during the year. Our loan to deposit ratio at quarter end was 86%, although we continue to view the low to mid-90s as a reasonable long term operating range. The current funding profile gives us flexibility to support loan growth while maintaining strong liquidity and a balanced risk posture on capital management. During the quarter the company repurchased approximately 29,000 shares at an average price of 21. We have guided lower on the payback on the buyback for 2026 as prices are at or near our adjusted tangible book value. We are also cognizant of the impending potential call of our sub debt that would require a capital outlay potentially impacting an aggressive buyback posture moving forward. Turning lastly to asset quality, while non Performing assets totaled 4.8 million and relatively unchanged compared to the linked quarter, we did foreclose on a large property that elevated OREO (Other Real Estate Owned) with a like size reduction in NPLs. We feel confident in our collateral position and do not anticipate further write downs from this relationship. The allowance for credit losses as a percentage of total loans was 1.39% compared to 1.36 in the linked quarter and 1.41 in the prior year. Coverage of non performing loans was higher than both the linked and prior year quarters underscoring the continued strength of the Company's reserve position and disciplined approach to credit risk management. Total delinquencies were also down substantially for both the linked and prior year and when we exclude loans on non accrual the delinquency rate is effectively zero. I will now turn the call back over to Mark.

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

Thank you Tony. We certainly remain encouraged by our positioning as we move through 2026 supported by strong credit fundamentals, as we mentioned, a growing balance sheet and continued discipline in expense control and capital management. We're focused on executing across all of our footprint, optimizing our lenders and lending capacity and driving cross sell activity to support core deposit growth while maintaining a balanced approach to risk. We will be announcing a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share, equating to an annualized yield of approximately 2.8%, representing 25% of our earnings. We continue to believe the current environment presents attractive opportunities to build on our growth trends. Our capital levels provide flexibility, our collective experience provides a clear path to a broader footprint and our continued focus on improvement supports our long term objective of scaling our franchise toward the $2 billion strategic goal of a balance sheet. Now I'll open it up for calls and questions.

OPERATOR

Sarah, Nick, you can open up the questions please. Thank you. 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 star and then two. At this time we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster and the first question will come from Brian Martin with Breen Capital.

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

Please go ahead. Hey, good morning guys. Morning Brian. Hi Brian. Hey, just maybe just a couple things here and if you guys cover them. You talked a little bit there on the call about it but just the particularly the success you've had in the newer markets. Mark you mentioned that just kind of trying to get a handle on when you look at loan growth and going forward here, just even the deposit growth, the benefits you've gotten from these new markets. Just can you frame up just kind of your outlook on loan growth here? Is there more to come from those, those new markets? I mean it sounds like maybe you've kind of got these, the low hanging fruit but there's still more upside. But just frame up kind of your outlook on loan growth in the pipeline here.

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

Sure as I'm sure you know Brian, Angola was a mortgage production office originally and Covid hit and we left at a mortgage production office and some wealth management business and then recently here we knew that there was some, certainly some opportunities in Angola to develop it into full service office and it's been really good. We've got a great staff and there's certainly a lot of opportunity. We used to spend some time up in that market but when Covid hit we kind of pulled back. But Angola is doing well, and we are right on the verge of having black numbers coming out of that with positive P and L. And then Napoleon was specifically result of the disruption in the market that we all know about, which is a result of consolidation and mergers. And that's got great potential. As I mentioned before in webcast, there's probably a billion dollars in that market that has now become deposits of larger regional banks, whereas before they were deposits of smaller community banks. And so we feel there's a great opportunity in continuing to lever that. We've got a great staff and that's going to not only provide lending growth, but also nice deposit opportunities in a market that is longing for a community bank that lost a couple of them prior, as well as some merger consolidation and disruption. So we're pretty bullish on those. And then lastly, we've been in Gahanna for a period of time and it's been generally a mortgage loan production office. And most likely by the end of the year we'll be having more conversations about opening that as a full service office there in Columbus because we know there's certainly some opportunities down there with just the one office we have in Dublin. So that's a little update on those offices in terms of opportunities for de novo expansion. Okay.

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

And as far as just kind of the pipeline and kind of what you're expecting here and kind of the coming quarters.

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

Yeah, Steve can speak to the pipeline thing. You know, we've had a few payoffs here recently. Not because, you know, they wanted to leave us because they sold one of their projects, but I think it's generally pretty decent. We know, and we've discussed many times about an outweighed segment of our growth has come from Columbus and continues to do so. But we also indicated this year we were hoping that our other markets like Fort Wayne and Indianapolis and Toledo and Finley all kick in and provide their portion of our 75 to $100 million growth. But Steve, any comments on what that pipeline looks like? Yeah, no, Mark.

Steve Walls (Chief Lending Officer)

I think consistent with that high single digits we talked about previously, as we discussed in previous calls, you know, to remember, Brian, we are focusing on expanding the breadth. Certainly Columbus delivers a lot of growth for us and will continue to do so. But we are committed to expanding that growth story to those other urban markets. And that even does include, as Mark referenced earlier, entering the Angola Napoleon offices. Those are those, you know, that story remains further to be told. There's more growth there and we think our model serves those markets well.

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

A lot of disruption, Brian, in those markets which is really played well into our hand. We could have gone there even before the disruption, but it wouldn't be quite as robust as we're finding it today.

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

Okay, so now with the geopolitical risks out there, we've heard more people just send it, the sentiment's a little bit near term, isn't quite as positive on the loan growth side. But it sounds like at least your pipeline is still good and you're still optimistic about achieving kind of your targeted goals for the year.

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

Yes, I think that's true, Brian, and certainly we have not seen yet anyway a whole lot of blowback from what's going on in the Middle East. Our ag portfolio, which is not insignificant as you know, our farmers by and large have pre purchased all those supplies that are impacted by that. So we wouldn't expect any hit to our ag portfolio certainly this year. And hopefully obviously things over there don't persist beyond this year. And Brian, I have to go on record and reiterate our credit culture, which is we're never going to get enough of yield to compensate for an undue amount of risk. We walk away from some deals we could grow. I think we could grow, Steve, in the low double digit easily if we wanted to. But we stay pretty disciplined. We like our credit quality and we know the effect that potential is going to have on profitability short should we lose what we've worked hard to get.

Steve Walls (Chief Lending Officer)

Yeah, certainly the markets we're in would afford that kind of opportunity along with our presence there. But we walk away from deals that don't make sense for our credit culture.

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

Okay, well we'll stay tuned for the other. Some progress in the other markets. Maybe just Tony on the margin. Just the liquidity that you have today. I know you talked about competition. At least that liquidity app today seems to give you a little cover on the potential deposit competition. But just can you talk about how you feel about the margin here in kind of the next couple quarters just in the backdrop of maybe a stable rate environment?

Tony Cosentino (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, I mean, you know, we're down, call it five points, five basis points from the linked quarter, you know, which is really a function of being very liquid. You know, we did a lot of deposit growth, 65 million in the quarter. We didn't really go out and were terribly aggressive on the rate side. You know, even in the new markets, you know, that were maybe 25 basis points above, above market. Nothing, nothing crazy. I do think there's been a little bit of, call it, parking of money a little bit in the markets. And we were the benefit been a factor of that and a number of the new clients that we've gotten via disruption have been, you know, some deposit dollars that we've gotten. I do think, you know, liquidity will, will wane a little bit here in the coming quarters and you know, we've already started to get a little bit stickier on, on deposit pricing, you know, not really matching on, on some, some aggressive rates. So I do think we're in a pretty good spot. I do think, you know, 347, you know, it's probably going to move up a few basis points here in the second quarter just because I think we'll get back to having, you know, call it 15 to 20 million of loan growth in the quarter versus you know, the kind of the 1 million we had in the quarter that we just finished.

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

Okay. And, and in terms of the cost of deposits, I guess you still think that we're trending higher from here than lower in terms of thinking about that as you go into next year with the competition?

Tony Cosentino (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, I mean I've been pretty confident that deposit costs would trend higher and they continue to trend a bit lower. So I've missed that so far. But I still believe the market disruption we've had, I don't think that's going to continue. I do think those, those competitors are going to, you know, become aggressive and they're certainly in, I've read their earnings release. They're certainly focused on growing loans. They're going to have to fund it.

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

And I think Tony, you would agree that deviating from CRE a bit to more AG based CNI brings that deposit base that we're very, very happy about that we didn't have prior to six months ago. So not only are we acquiring, acquiring some of those balances, the full relationship comes with deposits, which has been a real needle mover.

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

Okay. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. And in terms of, you know, the mortgage outlook, you know, or just kind of big picture, I think you talked about it being 20 or 25%. I think that was a production, maybe next quarter, but just bigger picture kind of where rates are today and kind of what you're seeing in terms of the outlook for mortgage, you know, maybe full year, just kind of zooming out a bit, just bigger picture kind of how you're thinking about it.

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

Well, Brad, do you want my number? Do you want Tony's number or number? You know, I'm still landing on the 350 million number just because I thought we were going to get a little bit of a play in the 10 year, which is as we all know has been temporarily disrupted. So that's going to be a bit of flying the ointment here going forward. But we just hired a couple new high producing MLOs in some of our urban markets, gaining some traction and a little more representation in some of our legacy markets. So we know that the average production has gone down which is why we brought on more MLOs. So when we get closer to 30 and they do 12 to 13, 14 million on average because we have some high producers, it's the 8020 rule. You know, 80% comes from 20% of the producers. But I'm still pretty optimistic that we can deliver something closer to that 350 to 400 number. But I'm sure Tony's got different number.

Tony Cosentino (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, I think you know, March we did 45% of our total, you know, first quarter volume. So I was very pleased with, you know, how the quarter ended. You know, we did just shy of 30 million in the month of March. You know, our pipeline is kind of at that $35 million number. I think we're going to do 90ish type million in the second quarter and I would suspect we're going to repeat that probably in the third quarter if, if things are where they are, as Mark said. You know, I'm encouraged that we're able to hire some high performing folks in various markets. That tells you that our model is still working and that the volume's out there. So that would kind of put you on pace to get to 310 to 325, you know, on kind of the high end. So for the full year. And you know, I think rates are going to be relatively stable where they are. I mean the, the mortgage rates have fought back against, I would call it the increase in the long end of the curve. And as long as we're at six or five and seven eighths, I think we can hang in there. You're starting to see a lot of

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

the secondary people really get aggressive to try to get volume on. The FHLB is getting aggressive on doing very low rate type opportunities to sell. And so we're going to be participating in all of those, which I think inures to our benefit. So Tony said differently. You don't think the Fed is going to bend to every whim of President Trump and drop rates to get us, get us something below 4 in a 10 year?

Tony Cosentino (Chief Financial Officer)

I wouldn't. I do think it'll get there by the end of the year, but I don't know that it'll be that.

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

I'm hopeful, Brian, we'll get a play on plan the 10 year. I'm still optimistic with that. But again, with the larger balance sheet, it's the gift that keeps on giving every month. You just don't have to, you know, you'd have to do 100 million in mortgages every month. We got the balance sheet size and we got the operating revenue now.

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

Yeah. And the mortgage folks you hired, you're still planning to hire more, but those were in metro markets or. What markets did you add people in?

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

Yes, we've added one in Cincinnati and Indianapolis and we've got a couple other individuals that are considering. Which has been kind of a gap for us in some of our legacy markets. Finley's been a gap for us, but, you know, we've had enough of people, Brian, to cover all those markets. So it's not like we haven't had anybody there. We just haven't had anybody that lives, works, plays, and does their thing in the market, which is more accretive to all the business lines. If you have people that work, play, and live right there, like Angola. We're currently hunting down somebody in Angola market. So we're committed to the business line. We love the gain on sale, but getting another household with more products and services is a big deal.

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

Yeah. Okay. And then how about just last two for me, just on expenses. Big picture, you know, how you're thinking about, you know, the full year just ebbs and flows here. Any initiatives or things to take it off, you know, kind of the current run rate or is the current run rate kind of a decent, decent level to think about here in the coming quarters?

Tony Cosentino (Chief Financial Officer)

I. I do think, you know, the, the run rate is in. In pretty good shape. I mean, we've had some opportunities here. I think, as we've seen some opportunities in the market, that we've consolidated some areas in our operational sections and we've made some efficiencies which I think will continue to help us. I think the bulk of our technology spend on new things is kind of in the rearview mirror a little bit. We do have the conversion to fiserv that's going to happen here at the end of the year that I. I think we'll be a net zero in 26, and we'll be a bit of a headwind as we go into 27 as we try to find some opportunities. So I'm very hopeful on the expense side. As we've gotten bigger, we've founded more opportunities to do things than to do more with less, which I think is what we need to get to continually, every month.

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

Gotcha. Okay. And capital, you said, Tony, the buyback's a little bit lower, but I guess it's, you know, the near term is, I think you talked about the sub debt and then maybe potentially M and A. Is that kind of how to think about capital deployment today or just, you know, what you're doing there?

Tony Cosentino (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, I think so. I think, you know, we've obviously been very aggressive on the buyback and I still think it's a great use of our internal generated capital, you know, and, but it's kind of at the price where it is today that I think we can afford to slow down a bit. We do have the sub debt here in June that we've got to think about some things and then we have a lot of opportunities to deploy and if we do another, you know, 160 million, which I don't anticipate of asset growth in 26 like we did in 25, we're going to be stressed a little bit on regulatory capital. So we've got to be cognizant of that in, in our rear view mirror

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

and on M and A. Brian, we continue to keep our ear to the ground that's downstream as well as middle stream and everything in the middle and everything above. But, but nothing transformative at this point other than we know that organic is great, but clearly M and A is divine. So we continue to look at opportunities that are in the region.

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

Gotcha. And credit all sounds good. You know, I know a little bit of, I guess, improvement, I guess, or just continued success on the credit front. Nothing, nothing really causing any problems in terms of, you know, things you're seeing out there. In terms of risk?

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

Yeah, no, again, from a high level, you know, we like to think we've, you know, when you have a downturn, as we all know, that's when you, you know, get a good idea of your underwriting administration. And as we all know, we haven't had really much of a downturn. You know, our clients balance sheets are pretty liquid, we get personal guarantees, we rely on makers, we have good projects in urban markets. You know, generally all is good, but as we all know, you have it until you don't. So we're pretty, pretty precautious on the risk we take and the deals we do. And as I mentioned, if we wanted to really light it up, we've got great opportunities because we have 17 different lenders running around out there trying to find deals. So what our job Is Steve, myself and Tony is to hold back on the reins to make sure, you know, we keep this thing measured and we keep it on the tracks. And Steve, any more perspective on credit quality?

Steve Walls (Chief Lending Officer)

Yeah, no, certainly. I echo everything you said Mark talked about previously, Brian. The, the stability of our asset quality. You know those credits we're working through, not a function of turnover and new credits coming into our non accrual loans, it's kind of the same, same ones we've talked about in the past. Unfortunately, the wheels of justice grind a little more slowly than we might like. As Tony referenced, we did get control of one of those pieces of collateral that we are very confident in our position. All those credits where we think we

Brian Martin (Analyst at Breen Capital)

are and we're going to get out where we're, where ultimately we belong. Okay, so a bit more progress there. And last one Tony, I meant to ask you, you commented earlier somebody just the deposit growth and the liquidity I guess do deposits maybe tail off a bit here given you know, kind of what you've gotten some good growth. But megas, is that a. It sounds like some money may be going out the door. But just how are you thinking about deposit growth from here?

Tony Cosentino (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, I think, I do think you know we're going to have a down quarter in the second on the deposit side. We already know of some kind of larger relationships that are, that are, you know, moving, moving out through normal business cases. So you know, I don't think we'll have enough to overcome that on the retail side. So I do think, you know, we're probably going to be at the 90% loan to deposit ratio here in the rest of the year and I think that's a comfort level for us. I don't think we need to be overly priced on the deposit side to get there. And you know, I think we're only nervous about liquidity if you know, the loan pipeline gets to be on the upper end of our, of our range. You know, I think we're comfortable at mid to high single digits and funding that based upon all the things that we've got going on and if we get above that level is when we might have some stress.

Mark Klein (Chairman, President and CEO)

My only comment Brian, is I don't think we want to downplay or trivialize the market disruption which has been absolutely wonderful for us because we've garnered relationships that we never would have probably been able to bring over to our company as a result of that. And that is just, that's really just begun. It's not like it's ending. We're nine months into our to our plan to find more of disrupted companies assets. And you know, we're at that 110 million number. So, you know, we're cruising along to our strategic goal of a few hundred million. So a lot of opportunities and a bigger job to be done. Gotcha. Okay, well, thanks for taking the questions, guys. I appreciate it.

OPERATOR

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Mark Klein for any closing remarks.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.