Byline Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BY) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Alberto Paracchini: So if you want to think, and this is all hypothetical now, obviously, because this quarter in September, when we have this call in the month of October, we’ll be reporting on a consolidated basis. But on a hypothetical basis, we just had a rate increase on Wednesday. So just – I know that’s going to add a little bit of noise because we’re going to re-price the portfolio, and that will certainly help. But putting that aside, if you thought about the margin in terms of where we are, I think it’s fair to say that we would see some pressure on the margin with stabilization of it coming probably by the fourth quarter. So think of it in the context of 4.32% today, think of it in the context of 4.10% to 4.15% and then kind of pro forma for the acquisition, you would see that margin, including accretion coming right back up to around 4.30% kind of 4.35%-ish.

So hopefully, that’s enough guidance. Obviously, this coming quarter, we’ll be able to give you a lot more clarity to that and break down the components between the gross margin and the accretion component as well.

Nathan Race: And if I could just ask a couple more around credit. Charge-offs were up a little bit this quarter. It seems like it was more driven outside the SBA portfolio. So I would just be curious to get some color on what drove the charge-offs in the second quarter? And obviously, with Inland coming on, you’ll have the CECL impacts in the third quarter from a provisioning perspective. So just curious how you guys are thinking about maybe the reserve trajectory into the fourth quarter into next year in light of the current environment?

Alberto Paracchini: So just to comment on charge-offs. So we had an opportunity to accelerate the resolution of a few loans this past quarter. And we took advantage of it, meaning we felt that resolving these assets as some of our competitors have said, just cleaning up the runway, so to speak, quickly as opposed to having planes taxing on the runway for a period of time as you work through the asset, that was advantageous and that essentially drove the uptick in charge-offs. Mind you, charge-offs were – we usually historically have been in the kind of the 30 to 40 range. I know more recently, we’ve been a lot lower than that. But let’s say, if you took that 30 basis point kind of target or 25 to 30 basis point kind of target, and we’re up 1 basis point above that.

So we kind of just didn’t really think too much. We had an opportunity to lower NPLs nicely, which you saw the 15 basis point reduction in NPL levels. We also saw a reduction in NPAs. And we just decided that that was in the best interest of the company to do that as opposed to kind of just have those reductions come through over time. So that’s really the story there, Nate. I’m sorry. And then you asked the question on the reserve trajectory. So putting aside Inland, I think, obviously, we feel that our reserves are strong and adequate as of the end of the quarter. The changes in the reserve quarter-over-quarter really stem from largely growth in the portfolio as well as some additional reserves that we assigned to individual loans that are evaluated individually for impairment.

So aside from that, I think it’s fair to say if we continue to see loan growth, as Tom said, given the guidance, I think you could expect the reserve to continue to inch along supported by that.

Nathan Race: And then just one last one, maybe for Mark. Just on the office commercial real estate portfolio as detailed on Slide 16. Have you guys seen any negative credit migration within that portfolio recently?

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