Byline Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:BY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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It’s just been — there’s been things in the commercial book, there’s been things in the SBA book, there’s been things that have popped up in different asset classes, but no trends. I’m not sure if that answered your question, Brian, or not.

Brian Martin: Yes, broadly, just the trend is what I’m trying to get my arms around. So they have ins and outs, helps. And just in terms of areas you’re maybe watching more closely this year, at least in the near term, can you give any commentary on that?

Mark Fucinato: I’m watching, obviously, like everybody else in this country, office, carefully. Even though that’s not a big part of our portfolio, we spent a lot of time looking at it, upcoming maturities, appraisal values and what our sponsors are saying about those assets. And then, the SBA book is still dealing with the higher rates that impacts their customers. And that is not going to ease up too quickly. So, we have to keep an eye on that portfolio also to see if these companies can continue to sustain their payments at those rates that they’ve had to deal with for the last 18 months.

Brian Martin: Okay. Got you. That’s helpful. And maybe just last big picture question for Alberto. Just Alberto, if you look at talking about last year being a breakout year for Byline, if you look at where you feel like the greatest opportunity for Byline is this year kind of given the market conditions today. Can you just speak broadly to that? Where you feel like you guys in your business model can really excel today? Is there any certain areas that you can be more opportunistic this year?

Alberto Paracchini: I think the short answer, Brian, is yes. And I would say we remain very optimistic about the current market position that we have here in Chicago. To give you an example, so — and I think we might have touched on this at some point towards the latter — maybe the second quarter call or the third quarter call, were there seemed to be a lot of — you were hearing the word risk-weighted asset diets, primarily coming from larger super regionals or larger regional banks in anticipation of potentially kind of the Basel III endgame where we saw a lot of people in the market simply close their doors to new opportunities. And we are a relationship-oriented bank. We want to be able to be there for clients and lend through the cycle.

And we certainly saw opportunities to do that over the course, particularly, the latter part of 2023. I think some of that will continue into 2024. I also think, as you well know, we benefit from any type of disruption in the market when it comes to customers and also importantly for us when it comes to our ability to pick up high-quality banking talent. We anticipate that we will see opportunities to do that, and we expect to do that in 2024. So, we’re optimistic about our ability to grow going forward and our ability to continue to add talent and customers in the market.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Thank you for your questions today. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Alberto Paracchini for any closing remarks.

Alberto Paracchini: Great. Thank you, Carla, and thank you all for joining the call today and for your interest in Byline. We look forward to speaking to you again next quarter. And before we leave, I just want to — Brooks want to give you a heads up on our conference schedule for the first half of the year.

Brooks Rennie: Thanks, Alberto. Yes, for investors this quarter, we plan on attending the KBW conference along with the Piper Sandler West Coast Conference. And with that, that concludes our call this morning. Hope everyone has a nice weekend. Goodbye.

Operator: This concludes today’s call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

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