Thomas Cornish: Yes. I would say when we track the pipeline through various stages, I would say, our pull-through rates once we get to proposal rate are pretty high from my kind of historic viewpoint. I mean, normally, when we look at the pipeline, once we make a proposal, generally, our pull-through rate is probably in the 80% range. So obviously, before proposal, when something is in dialogue, then it’s less. But once we get the proposal stage, our realization rate is pretty high.
Raj Singh: By the way, somebody just texted me on our team, our 12-month CD price [indiscernible] is 4.5%, and we have a 9-month promo at 5%. That’s been the rate for the last few weeks.
Alex Lau: And then just one last question. What are your expectations for the efficiency ratio to trend in 2024? And when do you think that this ratio can get back to the historical, call it, low 50% range?
Leslie Lunak: We’re probably not that focused on the efficiency ratio, to be honest. We’re more focused on expenses to assets and those types of things. I think our guidance is a mid-single digit increase in expenses and we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the efficiency ratio to be honest with you. Yes, not the efficiency ratio. There is certain components to that. The rate environment is going to affect that. The balance sheet transformation is going to affect that, and we’d rather just focus on the components.
Operator: Our next question comes from Zach Westerlind with UBS.
Zach Westerlind: It’s Zack on for Brody. Most of my questions have been answered, so I just had a couple of quick ones related to the margin. The securities yield. You guys have had some nice increases in that over the next — over the past three quarters. I was just curious what’s driving that? And what’s the trajectory looking like over the next couple of quarters?
Leslie Lunak: I think what’s been driving it is coupon rate increases for the most part. That’s probably about done. So the trajectory is probably more likely down than us, particularly if we get rate cuts.
Zach Westerlind: Got it. And then on the deposit cost, the 420 spot rate, how do you expect that to trend over the first half of the year?
Leslie Lunak: I think next quarter is going to be up because we’re still — we’ve got the CD repricing, and we still haven’t had any rate cuts. If the forward curve comes to fruition, it will start trending down over at least the back half of the year or maybe as soon as the second quarter depending on what the Fed does.
Operator: I’m not showing any further questions at this time. I’d like to turn the call back over to Raj for any closing remarks.
Raj Singh: I’ll close by saying, after a fairly typical 2023, we’re starting the year 2024 at a very positive note. The business is — it’s got momentum in all the right places that we worked so hard on and the economy and the things that we don’t control are also favoring us, especially in the markets that we’re in. So all that gives me a lot of hope for what 2024 will be. There is still a lot of work for us to do and — but the team is energized to hit the road and keep building through 2024. Thank you all for joining us. If you have any questions, of course, you can reach me or Leslie directly. We’ll talk to you otherwise get in three months. Thank you. Bye.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s presentation. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day.
