Jim Fitzgerald: Yes. I mean, it’s a little different. We appreciate all of your questions and interest on that. And we are thinking through how we want to ultimately disclose all that. So your questions are very helpful that way in your insights. So we’re thinking through that and we’ll come back on that as well. That would be part of the total answer.
Laurie Hunsicker: Okay. And then just to clarify, when you talked in your comments about modest margin decline for the first half of 2024, that was obviously exclusive of accretion income. Is that correct?
Jim Fitzgerald: That was at Eastern. So definitely so yes, Laurie. That was the comments I was making there were stable net interest income and stabilizing margin at Eastern pre-closing.
Laurie Hunsicker: Yes. Okay. That’s helpful. And then can you just help us think about or maybe what’s the spot margin for the month of December?
Jim Fitzgerald: Same as the quarter, 2.69.
Laurie Hunsicker: Okay. And then what was the timing in the quarter in terms of the reduction on borrowings and FHLB? The borrow for the FHLB. Was that — when in the quarter for the [inaudible]?
Jim Fitzgerald: Yes. The one lumpy item, lumpy is not a technical term obviously, but the EIG proceeds were call it November 1st and that was approximately $500 million. So that was a component of it. The other reductions were really due to deposit inflows that took place throughout the quarter.
Laurie Hunsicker: Okay. Great. And then just going back to your, the Class B office, nonperformers, can you just, the four credits, can you just take us through the one that was sold, what was the balance and then what ultimately ended up being the right down there? The one under contract, same thing, the one being marketed, what’s the balance, what’s the new one? If you could just break out those four so we have it. And then the new one that came in, is that also Class B?
Jim Fitzgerald: Yes, so let me, there is a lot down, let me try and go through slowly. So I’m going to focus first on the three nonperformers from last quarter that were office and they were all in the financial district in Boston, so your memory is very good there. The one that’s sold is the one I can provide the information. It was a $9 million loan. The charge-off was $4 million and that closed in the fourth quarter. The one that’s under contract for sale is a little bit of a smaller loan and we’ll provide the details on that when it actually closes. The third office portfolio nonperformer from the third quarter is being marketed. That’s a slightly larger loan. I don’t remember that number, the loan balance off the top of my head but it’s the larger, it’s the largest of the three.
The new nonperforming loan in Q4 was not an office property. It was just a commercial real estate loan. It was approximately a $15 million loan. And we do expect to resolve it this quarter.
Laurie Hunsicker: Got you. Okay. And then the three, I guess you gave us last quarter, $26 million. Was that $26 million net of the $4 million in charge-offs?
Jim Fitzgerald: At that time, it was gross. So the charge-offs came later. The $26 million was the principal balance, yes.
Operator: Your next question comes from Damon DelMonte from KBW.
Damon DelMonte: Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question this morning. Just a question on expenses. I got the commentary on the first two quarters of the year. We’ll have an additional $3 million each for those two projects you have going on. But when we look at the underlying base, I think you said it was like $1.02, $1.03. What kind of growth are you expecting off of that base?
Jim Fitzgerald: Again, putting the two items, the two $3 million items aside, Damon, so the first two quarters would be start at that level, $102 million, $103 million pretty modest growth from there. In fact, those would really be pretty close to run rates for the full quarter. Obviously, Cambridge is coming in and that’s going to confuse that a little bit. But if you annualize the $102 million, $103 million, you’d be very close to the yearend to the annualized number that we expect — would expect without Cambridge.
Damon DelMonte: Got it. Okay. That’s helpful. And then the commentary around the outlook for credit and more of a normalization. How would you characterize a normalized net charge-off year for you guys?
Jim Fitzgerald: I’m laughing.
Damon DelMonte: You’ve got to go back a few years for that probably, right?
