Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jon Arfstrom: Good morning, everyone. Just kind of a follow-up there, Jim. Are you seeing any cresting in deposit pricing pressures? Is it decelerating at all?

Jim Herzog: I wouldn’t say it’s decelerating. I wouldn’t say it’s accelerating either. It kind of feels like it hit a certain pace in November-December, and the more price-sensitive customers have already asked to be repriced. So, from that standpoint, you could see the pressure start to step back a little bit. And some of these things €“ some of these are discussions that go on for several weeks. So, it’s really hard to pinpoint exactly when it’s , but it’s certainly not accelerating, but I do see that momentum continuing probably through the first quarter in terms of exception pricing. In terms of what we need to do with standard pricing, it does feel like that maybe is abating a little bit, but there are always those exception customers that are out there, and I don’t expect those to take a big step back over the next quarter.

And we’ll likely get more competitive intentionally so in terms of just going after customers that perhaps have moved their balances off balance sheet over the course of the last nine months.

Jon Arfstrom: Okay. I know you just said you don’t like to talk about the NIM, but I’ll ask you about it in anyway. You’re up 170 basis points year-over-year, and you’re talking about stability, what kind of threats do you see to that NIM level? I know you’ve done a lot of hedging, but do you feel like that’s a sustainable NIM level in, kind of varying up and down rate environments?

Jim Herzog: I think the key to that is going to be DDA. That is really the wildcard, and it really has the ability to move net interest income a lot. You think about just $1 billion of DDA movement could create a $55 million drag in this forward curve environment. So, that is going to be the wildcard. So, we think we can hover kind of in the upper 3s, call it the low to upper 3s €“ or I’m sorry, mid to upper 3s, but more weighted towards the upper 3s, but I do think that DDA is going to be the key to that assumption and that outcome.

Jon Arfstrom: Okay. Good. And then just one quick one to Melinda. Expected reserve build, how would you like us to think about that? It seems like credit is very clean. And obviously, you’re talking about the lower-end of charge-offs. So, how do you want us to think about the reserve build?

Melinda Chausse: Yes, Jon, good morning. I would say that consistent with what we said last time, that if the economic forecast stays relatively stable, you’re going to see continued loan €“ or reserve build that’s really consistent with our loan growth. So, the reserve right now, we feel is conservatively positioned. We feel really good about it, and assuming no material deterioration in the economic forecast, I think that reserve build will approximate what we have going on from a balance sheet growth perspective. And the current assumptions on the reserve build is for €“ our baseline is a mild recession. So, I think we’ve adequately factored in what this current economic forecast looks like.

Jon Arfstrom: Okay. That’s helpful. Thank you very much.

Operator: And at this time, there are no further questions. I would now like to turn the conference back to Curtis Farmer, President, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer.

Curtis Farmer: Well, we again say that I’m very, very proud of our record quarter. Thank you to all my colleagues for all they do every day. They take care of our customers and help our company grow. And thank you always for your interest in Comerica. I hope you have a good day. Thank you.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.

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