First Hawaiian, Inc. (NASDAQ:FHB) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So in a kind of a down rate scenario, there will be an immediate reprice of loans that are — that is a little bit higher than what our deposits are, but a substantial amount of those deposits will also tick down as well. So in totality, we kind of just think that, that’s where we’re at in terms of the mix, and we’ll be able to manage those rates down over time pretty well.

Robert Harrison: And just to add to Jamie’s comments, as I think we talked about it’s been several quarters. We were talking to our customers or those segments, the high net worth, mass affluent, corporate, when we were increasing rates on the way out. And we’ve continued those conversations, the expectation is when rates go the other way, that there won’t be a lag, that we will be working with them on the way down as well. So that’s been very well communicated by our bankers to the customers. So we think that’s a doable thing. We are not seeing much deposit pressures in the market, to be honest.

Christian DeGrasse: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Andrew Liesch with Piper Sandler. You may proceed.

Andrew Liesch: Hey. Thanks for taking the follow-up here. Sorry to keep bringing up expenses. But what’s the quarterly trajectory, how do you expect these costs to play out this year?

James Moses: So it’s always slightly elevated Q1, just extra taxes and things like that, just true-up things happen in Q1, but in totality is probably going to be generally flat across the year. And so that’s kind of the way that we have it, looked into my model of it. So generally pretty flat, maybe slightly elevated.

Andrew Liesch: Got it. So more seasonally adjusted stuff during the first quarter, then more of the investment starting to ramp up and then offset some of those seasonal adjustments as they fall off as the year goes on?

James Moses: Yeah, I think that’s a truly good way of looking at it.

Andrew Liesch: Got it. Okay. Thanks so much. I appreciate it.

James Moses: Yeah.

Operator: Thank you. I would now like to turn the call back over to Kevin Haseyama for any closing remarks.

Kevin Haseyama: Thank you. We appreciate your interest in First Hawaiian, and please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions. Thanks again for joining us, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Operator: Thank you. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.