John Asbury: There’s kind of some things that came through. There’s one that [indiscernible]. We also frankly had a bit of a sprint underway in the company as we get ready, we’re working on integration clearly, as we approach conversion, there’s only so much other things you can get done. So there’s been a premium on getting other things done under the wire, if that makes sense.
Douglas Woolley: Yeah, so I’d say it’s — a lot of that’s in the strategic investments that we talked about from the professional fees line and some other things.
Russell Gunther: Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you, guys. And then, I guess with — you guys still expecting deal close this quarter, any change to timing of the conversion or that should be on track, assuming deal stays on track.
John Asbury: We are on track for conversion based on what we know right now. And we are working through it every day.
Russell Gunther: Got it. Perfect. And then just one last one, John, for you, you mentioned in prepared remarks the willingness to take strategic actions to navigate the current environment, certainly took a number of them in 2023 as you think about this year ahead. Any big picture thoughts?
John Asbury: Well, I think, obviously we have to deliver the organic performance and potential of the franchise as always, I think the big thing is, obviously, ensuring that we have a successful integration of American National Bank. And that’s kind of the big sort of overarching thing. So those are the — those are the two big things that are on our mind, which doesn’t mean we don’t think three steps ahead, we in fact do, but we’ll talk about that later. Three big priorities, organic performance of the bank, transformation activities and technology and then strategic initiatives, which by definition this year means American National Bank being successfully integrated, so we can reach its full potential.
Russell Gunther: Understood. Okay, great. Thank you guys for taking my questions.
John Asbury: Thanks, Russ.
Russell Gunther: Thank you very much.
Bill Cimino: And Victor, we have time for one last caller, please.
Operator: Thank you. One moment for our last question. And our last question comes from the line of David Bishop from Hovde Group. Your line is open.
John Asbury: Hi, David.
Robert Gorman: Hey, David.
David Bishop: Hey. Quick question for you. Rob, I don’t know if you have this handy, but did you have the end-of-period average interest-bearing deposit costs versus the average for the period? Just curious if there’s much difference there.
Robert Gorman: Yeah, the interest bearing deposits, if you look at the month of December, it was 2.97% versus the fourth quarter, average which was 2.92%. So as I said, we continue to see some uptick in deposit costs, driven by the items that we mentioned in the call, in the script.
David Bishop: Did you see much movement in market rate by competition intra-quarter. Just curious what you saw from some of your bigger peers out there within the market if there was much movement up or down.
Robert Gorman: Yeah, it really hasn’t been a lot of movement. I’d say from mid-year to now, we are seeing a bit, you know, folks going more towards a shorter, when you look at CD specials more of a shorter duration, six to seven, we’ve got seven month. So there’s been a reduction of kind of longer duration CDs and coming back with specials on the shorter end. We have seen a bit of movement in money market rates as well some of the larger players like Truist have increased, their promotional money markets a bit during the quarter. But not materially anything to really concern ourselves with in terms of having to match that although we keep a close eye on it.
John Asbury: Yeah, and the big guys are all making pretty clear commentary that as rates come down, they intend to bring down deposit rates.
Robert Gorman: Yeah.
John Asbury: So we’ll see if that plays out.
Robert Gorman: Right.
David Bishop: Got it. Then one follow-up. I think, Rob, you mentioned or John some seasonality on the deposit side this quarter, anyway to ring-fence that from a dollar perspective? Thanks.
Robert Gorman: Yeah, I want to say, I would say, you know, call it $200 million to $300 million is probably when you look at point-to-point, especially if you look at it from an average point of view, the average probably a better —
John Asbury: It’s actually a pretty good way to think about it, I would agree with that. And you typically see it in the second half of December. And it comes out of government contractors for example, professional practices, anyone on cash basis accounting, they tend to pay bonuses to get ahead of year end. It’s a very predictable pattern. And then just like we saw last year you start to get a pretty quick reversal of that trend as you get into the New Year. That’s what we’re seeing right now.
David Bishop: Great. Appreciate all the color.
John Asbury: Thank you, David.
Bill Cimino: Thanks, David. And thanks everyone for your time today. We look forward to talking with you all in April. Have a good day.
Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. That does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.
