Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Clint Stein: Yes. Thanks, Ron. Jared, I think we’ve settled into a nice place with the pivot from more of a brokerage model into more of a bank model, plenty of coverage out there. I’ll tie it to Tory’s comments around relationships. We’re seeing our customers come in, requesting purchases. It’s granular across the footprint, focusing more on held for sale and less on portfolio, but it’s still products and it’s still out there. We still have some construction lending that’s in the pipeline. That’s going to wind down over the next couple of quarters as well. But I think the team there should be applauded for making the shift, making the transition, and I really like the offering that we have in the current environment.

Jared Shaw: Great. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Brody Preston with UBS. Your line is open.

Brody Preston: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I was hoping maybe just a follow-up on the MSR sale. I know you get the capital relief from the reduction in the MSRs. But I just wanted to ask, did you happen to disclose what the gain from the sale of the MSR that you expect to book is just given those are pretty valuable right now?

Ron Farnsworth: This is Ron. I’d say we carry that at fair value. So it’s not going to be a gain or loss on sale. We basically priced that $4.5 billion at the locked in sale price, roughly 132 basis points in the overall – the balance of the portfolio – with the overall portfolio at 137 at the quarter end. So there is some liquidity discount that we’ve noticed here when it comes to the market itself with overall where the levels of that asset is, but no additional gain or loss on that component of the MSR when it’s sold.

Brody Preston: Okay. Thank you for that clarification. And then I just want to follow-up also on the loans that you sold this quarter. Could you just walk me through maybe the accounting of how that works? I mean, what happened to the marks that were on those loans that you sold if there was a mark? And then was there – was the negative $7 million change in the fair value of certain HFI loans. Was that tied to that loan sale at all?

Ron Farnsworth: Yes, Brody, this is Ron again. No, the $7 million was related to a separate portfolio that’s carried at fair value and the fact that rates increase led to the fair value loss, it will flip and become a fair value gain when rates decrease. In terms of the loans that were sold that were marked, we had a roughly $800,000 loss on sale recognized in Q2, there will be about a $900,000 gain on sale recognized in Q3, just given we didn’t get all $0.5 billion of that settled, we had $135 million of it sitting in held for sale, we weren’t able to recognize it. So it will be close to a push, but that just means that the sale price was right on top of our market price in terms of the rate and credit discounts. So, no significant gain or loss on that.

Brody Preston: Got it, thank you for that. And then I did just want to follow-up on the NIM guidance, and I hear you on the different scenarios on the mix shift dynamics. But Ron, I think we tried to talk about in the past sort of what you’re assuming for an interest-bearing or a total deposit beta moving forward? It’s obviously not the 50-plus that I’m glad last cycle. So just within that kind of 3.10% to 3.30% NIM guide for the third quarter. I guess, what are you assuming for deposit costs or interest-bearing deposit costs?

Ron Farnsworth: We’re assuming the beta to move as it has over the last two quarters. So a small single-digit increase in the overall cumulative beta recognized Q3, Q4, but still stay far shy of 53% by time we get to the end of the year.

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