Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Peter Sefzik: It’s really one of the strengths of our model is the floating rate. Most of our loans are floating rate across our portfolio. So we’re able to benefit on the actual loan book when interest rates are going up like this, to your question there, Brody?

James Herzog: That’s right. And it gives us a little more control too because we can more synthetically manage our asset liability position as opposed to being diversity of prepayment rates.

Brody Preston: Got it. And then last one for me. I just was hoping for a reminder on the swaps, the yields that you disclosed, the 238 for this year, the 250 for next year, are those — are those just the received fixed rate? Or is that a net rate? And if it is just to receive fixed, do you happen to have a sense for what the current kind of pay floating rate is on those swaps?

James Herzog: Yes. These are fixed receive rates and the pay floating is pretty much aligned with LIBOR, 30-day LIBOR previously as the quarter progressed as well as a combination of monthly SOFR and BSBY, of course, LIBOR is behind us now are pretty much aligned with monthly SOFR and monthly BSBY. So that obviously is changing as the Federal Reserve makes its changes and so on.

Brody Preston: Got it. Is there any spread there over that rate?

James Herzog: Yes. I mean you know that BSBY, SOFR, depending on where we’re at with the FOMC increase coming up here. Obviously, you’re looking at kind of a pay rate in the 5.25% range. So that would give you a spread relative to this yield that you see here received rate.

Brody Preston: Thank for very much for taking the question. I appreciate it.

Curtis Farmer: Thanks, Brody.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Manan Gosalia from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Curtis Farmer: Manan, good morning.

Manan Gosalia: I just wanted to follow up on the earlier line of questioning on deposit balances. So you noted that deposits have stabilized. And if I look at your last update at our conference in June to the end of the quarter, NIB has actually improved quite nicely, even if I strip out the card related deposits that you mentioned. So can you talk about what drove that? And what May, June just such a strong month? I know you said the conversations have moved back to business as usual, but maybe you can expand on what changed in those conversations in the last three weeks of June for deposit customers specifically?

James Herzog: Yes. I would say Manan, it’s Jim, really nothing changed. We’re very much on the trajectory that we had forecasted. And as I mentioned, beyond card, we did have some elevated customer balances on the noninterest-bearing side, really in the last few days of the month that are no longer with us. Depending on how you think about how often those types of balances come back, we’re anywhere from another $0.5 billion to $1 billion elevated at the end of the month. But again, we often get these types of deposits, too. So I don’t want to fully discount them. But it is important to understand we were a little bit elevated on June 30th.

Curtis Farmer: Yes, I might — this is Curt, Manan just add what I said earlier or expound on what I said earlier. I think just as things have settled down, the understanding that the concerns or maybe overplayed for the whole industry and customers are back just more business as usual. They are talking to us about credit and fee income products and services and how we can take advantage or support them from an advisory standpoint. But I think just getting the banking crisis out of the media and just the noise that was associated with those first couple of months dying down has really, I think, shifted the conversation quite a bit.