Carlos Iafigliola: Yes, we had to manage via promotion as opposed of change in the rate, so we–you know, we keep it up on the branches and on the website as a promotional rate that we can discontinue whenever, but it’s not affecting our typical re-pricing of CDs on an ongoing basis.
Stephen Scouten: Okay, that’s great, and then have you been able to hold spreads, I guess? I mean, obviously the international deposits help a lot in terms of your overall average cost, but have you been able to hold spreads in terms of new production versus what you’re having to pay for new funding? Maybe give a feel for where those new loan yields are coming on at.
Carlos Iafigliola: Yes, new loan yield, so definitely the changes in SOFR and LIBOR have helped a lot increasing the base rate. We haven’t forget even in this interest rate cycle to keep being very disciplined with adding floors to lending structures–
Jerry Plush: That’s leads directly to Stephen’s question. We’ve maintained the spread. We have not made any adjustments on spread.
Carlos Iafigliola: But on the–
Jerry Plush: Meaning on the plus, the SOFR.
Carlos Iafigliola: Yes, but on the lending side, it actually had been favorable because of the more C&I component .
Jerry Plush: Yes, it’s definitely composition that drives it.
Stephen Scouten: That’s great, okay. Super. I guess maybe just thinking about that holistically as we look at ’23 for NII trends through the year, I know Carlos, you said you feel like you can hold the NIM flat through the year. I would think, just given how asset sensitive you are, if we do actually get what the forward curve is projecting, it would be really hard to keep the NIM flat in the back half of the year, especially if you can continue to grow and have to pay for CDs at a near-market rate. How do you sustain that NIM throughout the year, and how do you think about the ability to grow NII, maybe particularly in the back half of the year if rates get pressured back lower?
Carlos Iafigliola: Well, the question, I guess, comes out of Jerry’s comment on increasing DDAs and non-interest bearing accounts. That’s one of the items that we’ll be working the most. As you noticed, the commercial side was one of the key drivers on the last quarter, and we expect that to continue, and on-boarding full relationships with DDA should help us with the DDA side and blending up the cost of funds. That should be one of the offsetting factors of incremental CDs or additional–or costly money markets.
Jerry Plush: Yes. I think too, Stephen, it’s the incentive plan for our bus-dev officers. There’s a combination here, right – there are more bus-dev officers, there’s a much greater focus, we are focused on full relationships. It’s a combination of things, to Carlos’ point, that will help drive and keep us growing on the non-interest bearing side, because it’s critically important that we’re considered having those kind of core relationships with customers. I think our folks would attest that–and we’re also looking to sell the totality of the bank. We add a C&I customer, we’re looking to do banking work, we’re looking to do private banking. There is all sorts of things that we are emphasizing that historically have not been the priority, and I think that you’ll see this is a big, big change for us.
