Michele Kawiecki: I think fair value accretion €“ looking at this quarter’s fair value accretion, which we do try to give you transparency to that. I think that’s probably a pretty good run rate.
Damon DelMonte: Okay. Great. And then just lastly, kind of bigger picture Mark. Now that you’ve digested Level One you kind of look at your competitive landscape across the upper Midwest there. How do you guys feel about M&A at this point? Do you feel like it’s something that you would look to engage in again? Or do you feel that the organic opportunities throughout your footprint are so strong that your content with just kind of focusing internally?
Mark Hardwick: Yes, we’re really excited about having a year where the focus is all internal. And there are €“ we will continue to call on the banks that we think might fit First Merchants well and enhance our growth rates in the future. But at least in 2023, it feels like, well, this team is really focused on just an internal year. I have some of our folks, they talk about, hey, is it €“ it’s hard to get bigger from an M&A perspective and better. And this is and we’d love to be able to do both all the time. But I think the reality is after absorbing a bank, the size of Level One, the focus needs to be on internal enhancements and getting better every day. So we’ve got a couple key initiatives. We’re working on including an upgrade in our online banking and mobile platform and a number of other things. I won’t get into them all, but we just think it makes the bank better and prepares us for the next acquisition.
Damon DelMonte: Great. Thanks for all the colors today, guys. That’s all that I had.
Michele Kawiecki: Thank you, Damon.
Mark Hardwick: Thanks, Damon.
Operator: Thank you. One moment while we prepare for our next question. Our next question will come from Brian Martin of Janney. Your line is open.
Mark Hardwick: Hey, Brian, you may be on mute, we can’t hear you.
Brian Martin: Yes, I’m sorry. Thanks, Mark. I apologize. Good morning, everyone. So just wanted to touch base on the funding side just is funding loan growth this year. Just wondering what your thought is there? It sounds like there’s still some utilization from the bond books and just kind of as it pertains to deposits in the loan-to-deposit ratio as you kind of go through the year?
Michele Kawiecki: Yes, I mean, but I think we’re going to see some deposit growth. As I said, we had revisited our deposit betas and we’ll get competitive, even more competitive to help fund that loan growth. And I think that coupled with the cash flow from our bond portfolio, I think that €“ those two funding sources we think will cover us.
Brian Martin: Okay. And as far as what you’re kind of targeting on the loan-to-deposit ratio, where do you kind of see that as you work through the year?
Mark Hardwick: I don’t recall where that budget number is. Yes, it’s moving up. We kind of have long-term targets. We’d like to see it around 93% or 94%. We don’t get there this year. I think it €“ I think maybe we were at 88%, if I recall.
Brian Martin: That’s fine. Just a general trend if I can always follow back up, but in generally, you expected to move up from where we are here, just through that combination?
Mark Hardwick: Yes.
Brian Martin: Yes. Okay. Perfect. And then just the other two for me was Michele, it sounds like the margin just from your commentary, probably peaks maybe second quarter and then given kind of what you’re talking about, maybe the margin maybe slips a little bit, there are certain third quarters that in general fair how to think about it?
Michele Kawiecki: I actually think we’ll peak in the first quarter, and then I do think that we could see some progression in the quarters thereafter.
Brian Martin: Got you. Okay. Just a debate is picking up. Okay.
