And I would throw in that these new team members are not just bringing new client relationships, but they bring a level of enthusiasm about what Banner is able to serve that kind of lifts the whole boat. So we anticipate more client disruption and more new bankers.
Andrew Liesch: Got it. And I think in the past, you’ve mentioned these are coming from larger banks? Is that still the case?
Jill Rice: It is. By in large.
Andrew Liesch: Great. And then just — got it. Just a cleanup question on the fee income side. So it sounds like maybe the deposit fees and other service charge line, is that going to snap back to the prior run rate? And then on bank-owned life insurance, is this the new run rate to be looking at going forward?
Robert Butterfield: Yes. So first, on the deposit and fee side. So I would say the run rate is probably somewhere in between Q4 and Q3 is what I would say at the run rate. And then on the bank owned life insurance, there was a death claim in that area. So the current quarter was a bit higher than the run rate.
Andrew Liesch: Got you. All right. That’s helpful. Thanks for taking the question. I’ll step back.
Mark Grescovich: Thank you, Andrew.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Terrell of Stephen. Your line is now open, please go ahead.
Andrew Terrell: Hi. Good morning.
Mark Grescovich: Good morning, Andrew.
Andrew Terrell: I wanted to first kind of follow-up on some of the commentary on the hiring and just maybe first acknowledge you guys have done a really good job in managing the expense base with some of the Banner Forward initiatives. But just as we look into 2024, it sounds like the pipeline for hiring still is solid today. Just want to maybe marry that with how you’re thinking about just expense growth and the rate of expense growth in 2024.
Robert Butterfield: Yes, Andrew, it’s Rob. So yes, we have been making those strategic investments. I mean, we want to keep our eye on the long term. And so, if there opportunity just to take advantage of the current market disruption by getting the right talent into the bank. We’re willing to make those investments. Just thinking about expenses overall for 2024, we’re expecting kind of a normal inflationary increase. So if you think about all of 2023 — annual 2023 compared to annual 2024, something in that 3% range is probably what we’re currently thinking at this point in time. Just from a quarterly look, I mean, first quarter is always a bit high because all the payroll taxes reset. So we expect that Q1 will probably be the highest of the year. So we would expect it to be a bit higher than the true run rate in the first quarter of the year.
Andrew Terrell: Okay. That’s helpful. I appreciate it. If I could ask on the margin. Rob, do you have the spot cost of either interest-bearing or total deposits in the month of December?
Robert Butterfield: I don’t have that in front of me here. But what I’d say, Andrew, is the cost of deposits for Q4 was essentially in line with probably just November cost of deposits. And so, if you take the starting point, endpoint and the trajectory, I would think that December, you can probably kind of interpolate where December would have been out. But November and the cost of deposits average for the quarter were about the same and December is higher than that.
Andrew Terrell: Got it. Okay. That makes sense. And I guess, just overall on the margin kind of going into the first quarter, just given the noninterest-bearing decline and maybe a higher starting point on the deposit cost side, I mean, is it fair to think that the margin could see more compression than the 10 basis points you saw in 4Q as we go into the first quarter?
Robert Butterfield: Yes. I mean we hasn’t put a number on it just because of there’s a lot of cloudiness out there at this point in time. But I think we’re looking at the trends. So Q3 was 7 basis points, Q4 is 10%, it certainly could be in that 10% or 10 basis points decline there, compression in the first quarter. But what I would say, too, is that historically, Q1 has been a better deposit quarter for us compared to Q4. And then Q3, usually, the two best deposit quarters for us are actually Q3 and Q1. And Q3 behaved a lot better than Q4. So I think, while we could be a bit higher than 10 basis points, we certainly could be a bit lower than that as well.
Andrew Terrell: Okay. And maybe last one for me, just on the savings deposits, they were up really nicely this quarter. Just wanted to get a sense of, I think it was up $230 million or so quarter-on-quarter for that deposit growth that you saw in the savings bucket, specifically, do you have kind of what the incremental rate paid was for the new growth? And what I’m trying to get a sense of is just whether there’s kind of money coming on from like a new high-yield savings offering? Or just is it more kind of in line with the average deposit costs? Any color there would be helpful.
