Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So, figure that blip really is an in-quarter event only in our mind, it’s not really a continuing erosion as far as we see from our yield projections. All of the other asset classes that we had in our portfolio were up on average yield. So, you can get a sense for the kind of the balancing — or the balancing out effect of how the asset yields work with one another in the quarter. And Chris, I think where we’re at right now, we should be able to see continued yield expansion in a controlled manner, but yield expansion going forward, and I’m not expecting there to be more erosion.

Chris O’Connell: Okay, got it. And then lastly, just any look into how you guys are feeling about credit moving forward? It looks like the consumer solar charge-offs were down a bit from the past couple of quarter’s pace. Any outlook as to if that — somewhat of a downturn continue going forward? And then just any update as to — I know you guys mentioned a few items, including a return payer on the office. But just any outlook or what you’re seeing inside your office portfolio in terms of the relative risk moving forward as these things mature over the next year, year and a half?

Jason Darby: Absolutely. So, on — and Chris, I did get a note from my group just back to your multifamily yields, I was coming a little low in our estimates, it’s between 6.25% and 6.5% that they’re coming on right now. So, a little bit wider margin. I just wanted to correct myself and take a moment there. On the charge-offs for consumer solar, I think — and Janet asked a couple of times in previous quarters about this. I think what we’re able to see is some of the governors and the credit structuring that we put together for these is starting to take hold and limit the amount of charge-offs that the bank needs to incur. We’re reaching buyback provisions with our providers. We’re reaching loss recoveries with our original providers.

So, I feel like we’re in a decent spot there relative to stability in that charge-off line. As you know, we’re not adding any new flow from those original providers that have the bulk of the assets on the books and any of the new providers that we’ve been working with have very, very, very tight credit standards, and they’re performing quite well, albeit it’s pretty early in their cycle. So, not ready to declare a declining trend at this point, but I feel good about saying stable looks pretty good going forward right now. With regard to the commercial real estate portfolio, our office exposure, I think we pointed out in our release is down from last quarter, it’s down to about $66 million from $71 million in the previous quarter. We had a nearly $4 million payoff of one of our special mention classified assets, which I think we talked about last quarter as well, we still felt really good about collectability in our special mention group for our commercial real estate portfolio.

So, of the six remaining, there is still one that’s classified as special mention that’s set to mature first quarter of next year. We’re in regular contact with the borrower, and we feel pretty good about our ability to work with them and maintain that in an accruing and paying status at this time. And then, again, nothing’s really changed characteristically, it’s still really low LTV on those assets in that office-only portfolio, about 37% or so of LTV. So, all of them are performing, all are paying, and good collateral value right now. So, on a relative risk basis, I think we’re good. And then we are carrying roughly 75 basis points of coverage through our allowance anyway on those. So, we feel like from an all-in risk point of view, we’re in a good spot relative to commercial real estate office in particular.