ETR for the fourth quarter was low. Had a positive impact on earnings for the quarter. That was really due to some changes in certain state income tax positions that we took that gave us a favorable benefit for the fourth quarter and had a positive impact on our earnings. And ETR going forward for 2015 for the full year probably will be between 32% and 33%. And what else can I tell you? FDIC asset amortization, everybody asked about that, it will probably be pretty flat for ‘15 with what it was for ‘14 and then we’ll see it decline after that, just echo John’s comments one more time. While ETF for the first half of ‘15 will probably be lower than it was for the first half of ’14. The second half will be significantly better than what we saw in the second half of 2014. And more importantly, the trajectory will be very positive as we go into the second half of 2015. I’ll turn it back to john for concluding comments and then we’ll open it up for questions.
John Kanas, Chairman, President and CEO
All in all, we’re very pleased. The year has come out just about exactly where had hoped and predicted that it would have. Before we kick off the questions, no, we don’t lend into the oil business. I’m ready for questions.
John Kanas – Chairman, President and CEO
With that answer we’ll take questions.
Question and Answer Session
Operator
Your first question will come from the line of Jared Shaw from Wells Fargo Securities. Please proceed.
Jared Shaw, Wells Fargo Securities
Hi good morning. Thanks for taking in my question. Looking at the net interest income, Leslie you said flat for the first quarter then upwards. So really starting the second quarter you think that we can start seeing that inflection in the growth in NII?
Leslie Lunak, Chief Financial Officer
Yes. That’s accurate.
Jared Shaw, Wells Fargo Securities
Okay. And then looking at the provision this quarter, if we assume that loan growth stays consistent with where it was this quarter, should we continue to see provisioning at the same level? Was this all due to net new growth on the portfolio, or was there some type of a catch-up that you were trying to get the allowance bucket up to?
John Kanas, Chairman, President and CEO
Let me just — before she answers that, let me talk about the quarterly growth of loans because we got crossways with some of you last year. We think that the loan growth at this company in ’15 will be about where it was in ’14 — somewhere between $4 billion and $5 billion. But it’s impossible for us to predict accurately the quarters. Don’t expect, although it may happen, but don’t expect $1.5 billion in the first quarter, although we are starting out very strong. So remember that on a quarter-to-quarter basis. We try not to measure us on a quarter-to-quarter basis with regard to that asset growth. You may want to finish the answer to that.
Raj Singh, Chief Operating Officer
We actually don’t hold our people accountable on a quarter-by-quarter basis. So it’s very hard to smooth it out on a quarterly basis. So please, like we said last year, we’ll say it again this year, we manage through annual budgets, annual targets and we don’t try and artificially smooth things out quarter-by-quarter. There is seasonality in the business. There can be just hiccups at the end of the quarter. Things get pushed off into a following quarter like it happened for us between third and fourth quarter. So from a quarter-to-quarter basis, loan growth could be up or down, but we feel fairly good about the annual projection that we are giving you for 2015.
