Mark Fitzgibbon: Okay. And then lastly, what are your thoughts around share buybacks given the depressed level of the stock price? Are capital levels an impediment to doing buybacks here?
Avi Reddy: Not really, Mark. I think from a corporate finance perspective, it’s screaming out to do buybacks. I think that said, in the current operating environment, I think clients value banks with capital and strong liquidity, and you don’t know how long the Fed’s going to stay at these levels, don’t know what’s going to happen if they raise rates more. So, I think at this point, we’re keeping the capital to support our clients. There’ll come a time and place far buybacks. And you know, as we’ve been very active on that front since the merger, and when the time’s right, we’ll do it, but like a lot of our peers, I think right now we’re waiting and watching to see what happens over the course of the next three months or so.
Mark Fitzgibbon: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you, Mark. Our next question comes from Chris O’Connell from KBW. Chris, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Chris O’Connell: Hey, good morning. Yes, start off on the credit for this quarter, I noticed the reserve came down a little bit and net charge-offs sort of a bit higher, but MPAs came down. Just any commentary around the movement this quarter and whether there was something charge-off that was maybe fully reserved for.
Avi Reddy: Yes, that’s exactly right, Chris. So, we had loans that’s fully reserved. We took a charge on that, but I mean, again, at 18 basis points, it’s pretty minimal overall. Our pool reserve, it stayed pretty constant. So, within our 70 odd million of reserves, there’s around $53 million for the general pool, and that really didn’t change much. So, the overall pool stayed consistent.
Chris O’Connell: Got it. And any color you could provide on the type of credit and any details around the one that was charge-off?
Stuart Lubow: Yes, it was a line of credit to an individual who was heavily involved in the hotel industry and never really recovered from the COVID pandemic, and have been working with him for a while. We did get a significant paydown, but we thought at this point, we do have a judgment and we expect recovery, but at this point, we thought it is prudent to take the charge and any funds we get in return, we take as recovery.
Chris O’Connell: Great. And just regarding your commentary about the expenses going forward and the potential to drive some efficiencies and things that you’re looking at on a go-forward basis, just any color around where you guys are looking at to drive those efficiencies and what the potential magnitude of those efficiencies could be as we get into 2024?
Stuart Lubow: Yes. I mean, look, we’ve been pretty active in looking at efficiencies throughout the year. We had a reduction in force in June. It’s a constant state of affairs in terms of trying to look at opportunities across the board. Obviously, I mentioned we just outsourced our data center. That’s going to save personnel costs and equipment costs and whatnot, and that’s going to register in the fourth quarter. And we’re looking – we’re in our budget process now. So, we’re looking across the board in terms of opportunities to become more efficient. On the other hand, we want to take advantage of opportunities, and we’ve done that so far in terms of hiring the Signature teams and our recent hiring in terms of a healthcare vertical.
