First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Mark Hardwick: Yes, happy to do it. I was really pleased to have €“ I would look forward to. I guess I should say, and I was pleased by this quarter’s result where we have fully digested our last acquisition. And I think you can see the earnings power in our numbers and really it’s just the fact that historically, I mean, we have guidance of mid to high single digit growth rate. And I feel like we always achieved those objectives. And you can go back a number of years and we’ve had good success. I love the team that we have in place. I love how hard they work and the impact they try to make with our customers. I think our balance sheet is well hedged. I didn’t mention if rates come down, we end up just with a nice natural hedge with our mortgage portfolio a little bit with our derivatives, the loan level hedges that we sell to our customers.

So I look at our income statement and our balance sheet. I think we have a growing balance sheet on the asset side. We have an awesome core deposit base on the consumer side. I feel like our margins are fairly easy to understand and fairly predictable. And I feel like even though we’re investing in the business, which is exciting to everyone here, we continue to add talent. We continue to invest in technology that we’re able to do in a way that still produces a 50, a low 50s efficiency ratio. And this quarter was 48%. So, there are always headwinds in the business or tailwinds, and they migrate back and forth and my view is this is a bank that has consistent performance over time. And some of those things are a little bit like the weather. You wake up and see, is it snowing?

Is it raining? Is the sun out? But I’ll tell you what everybody on our team, they get after it regardless of what the day looks like. And so I just feel like we have a team that works hard, produces results, and it’s pretty easy to see I think in our financials, especially in a quarter like Q4.

Terry McEvoy: Appreciate that. Thanks, everyone. Have a nice day.

Michele Kawiecki: Thanks, Terry.

Mark Hardwick: Thanks, Terry.

Operator: Thank you. One moment while we prepare for the next question. Our next question comes from Damon DelMonte of KBW. Your line is open.

Damon DelMonte: Hey, good morning, everyone. Hope you’re all doing well today.

Michele Kawiecki: Good morning, Damon.

Damon DelMonte: Just wanted to €“ good morning. Just wanted to circle back on the provision outlook commentary, Michele. Obviously, the reserve is quite healthy and you guys have been quite clear on your desire to kind of grow into a normalized reserve level. If you could ballpark that like ultimate level that would €“ that might be helpful. Is there a way you could kind of quantify that?

Michele Kawiecki: Well, I think that what I do is probably go back and think about like our Day 1 CECL adjustment that we would’ve had before the pandemic hit. And that would’ve been around, I think it was a coverage ratio of maybe 1.5%, if I recall.

Damon DelMonte: Okay.

Mark Hardwick: So you’re modeling that without a mild recession, you get to a more normalized level .

Michele Kawiecki: And that may have been a little high, maybe 1.3% to 1.5% would’ve been about in a more normalized range.

Damon DelMonte: Okay, got it. And then obviously if you factor in a mild recession, you want to have a little bit more cushion for that?

Michele Kawiecki: Yes.

Mark Hardwick: Yes. And since we’ve adopted CECL, it’s been pretty turbulent.

Damon DelMonte: Yes, that’s an understatement over the last couple years, Mark. And then I guess my next question, just kind of from a modeling standpoint, how should we think about fair value accretion going forward Michele?