Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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BrodyPreston: Okay. And maybe could I just ask on the auto and maybe the indirect CRE. Maybe talk to me a little bit about like the funding those – funding that loan growth and like what the incremental spread looks like? It sounds like you’re getting pretty good loan yields on the auto. But just given that they don’t come, those two categories historically haven’t really come as much in the way of deposits, just wanted to kind of get a sense for how you’re funding that and what the incremental spread looks like when you do fund that loan.

Andrew Harmening: Do you want to speak to that?

Derek Meyer: Well, yes, I can speak to that. Generally speaking, our incremental rate, we don’t fund one loan at a time and one deposit at a time. So our marginal deposit growth rates have been between 4% and 5% and the auto books that we’re talking about is generally getting 2% spreads, and then you’re getting 1.5% to 2% on your variable rate C&I loans. And so that’s what our outlook is based on. And then the performance of the back book and the pay down on fixed rate securities and auto loans from a couple of years ago with much lower rates.

Andrew Harmening: I’m not sure how to speak to this because new originated CRE is not a huge number right now. But what I would say is we’re getting a very good margin on the deals that we’re doing on CRE.

BrodyPreston: Got it. And you mentioned – and then just the last one on capital. The credit metrics are totally benign here, and I understand that. I just wanted to ask like when you do comp yourself against your peer group, the CET1 is lower than I think where the peer group is. It’s probably justifiable based on the credit outlook. But is – on your credit metrics, but is there any thought given to maybe being closer to the middle of the pack and having a 10-plus percent CET1 range moving forward, just to maybe give investors or whoever more comfort around capital?

Derek Meyer: Yes. What we’ve got in there now is the same range that we had at the beginning of the year. It doesn’t prohibit us from being higher than that. But if loan growth is at the higher end of what we’ve expected to, then that’s where our – where we could come in. If loan growth is less than that, we would accrue above that CET1 range that we’ve got outlined in there. Said another way, if we have 6% loan growth, we would expect to be higher than that.

BrodyPreston: Okay. Great. Thank you very much for taking the questions, everyone. I appreciate it.

Andrew Harmening: Thank you, Brody.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Chris McGratty with KBW. Please proceed with your question.

ChrisMcGratty: Great. Thanks. Maybe asking the prior question a little bit different. You talked about growing the company. And obviously, that’s the right strategy over time. With your stock at tangible book, is there a scenario where you would consider shrinking additional noncore assets and buying back your stocks?

Andrew Harmening: That won’t be my priority in the immediate future. Chris, we have opportunity. When you have low-yielding assets on the books and you have initiatives that are working that produce higher yielding assets, that’s the number one way over time to return to the shareholder. And so that will be the plan. If we see that, that growth is not there, and we have opportunity to use our capital in a different way. We do have dollars set aside for a stock repurchase, but that would not be my intent for the rest of 2023.

ChrisMcGratty: Okay. Thank you. And then, Derek, I think you said 52%, that was a cycle-to-date beta, I want to make sure I heard that right. And also what the updated thoughts are for full cycle? I may have missed it.

Derek Meyer: Yes. You did hear that right. And we’d expect to be in the high 50s for the full cycle.

ChrisMcGratty: Okay. Great. Thanks.

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