We paid a $0.205 dividend, and we built reserves. And so as we think about taking this long-term perspective, when you look at our normalized earnings power of our company, and that is the reversal of the NII headwind into a tailwind and also having a reasonable expectation around investment banking fees, the earnings power of the company is strong. We can build capital there. Clark mentioned the AOCI burn down, 44% by 12/31 2024, 55% by 12/31 2025. And then, as I just mentioned, this game plan that we have around risk-weighted assets will be important. And then the last thing that I think is really important — and it’s going to be important, I think, as the cycle continues to play out is we have a well-positioned credit book. And there’s nothing that destroys capital faster and bigger hunks than having a bunch of credit losses.
And so I put all those things together, we take a long-term perspective on the dividend. We feel good about it.
Ebrahim Poonawala: Very helpful color. Thank you so much.
Chris Gorman: Sure. Thank you. Ebrahim.
Operator: We’ll go next to the line of Ken Usdin with Jefferies.
Ken Usdin: Hey, guys. Just a couple of follow-ups on the loan side. Obviously, you said that your retaining a little bit — you’re back to kind of that upper teens point of your investment banking originations. And I’m just wondering, does that have any throughput in terms of the ability to generate business in the investment bank? And I guess connected just then, your confidence in the second half improvement in the investment bank, is that because you start – you’re starting to see things get back out the door as opposed to keep on the balance sheet like you have been doing for the last couple of years?
Chris Gorman: Well, first of all, thank you for your question, Ken. It’s complicated by the fact that, as usual, mix has a lot to do with it. So we actually distributed a lot of debt in the second quarter. The reality is a lot of it was investment grade. So in terms of investment banking fees, not so great. In terms of keeping the velocity of our balance sheet, very, very important. But the premise of your question, as we look to shrink our balance sheet, the ability to distribute paper to a lot of different places will be — will, in fact, be important. And so that will be an important part of the mix. In terms of what I’m seeing, here’s kind of what I’m saying. One, our M&A backlog year-over-year is up. Our total backlog is down, but down kind of mid-single digits which is really not a big deal.
What I’m most encouraged by is not that I’m seeing things coming out of the pipeline. Obviously, in the equity market, we’re starting to see that. You’re seeing that for sure. But what I’m really pleased with is I talk to our clients all the time — in fact, as recently as yesterday, I talked to one of our large clients who is proceeding with a transaction that’s been sort of percolating for some time as people kind of go through the price discovery. So it’s really more a gut feel on my part having been around this business just for so long.
Ken Usdin: Got it. And just one more. Laurel Road, some cost factors there, too, obviously, with the debt moratorium and what happens there. But just as far as also being — scrutinizing every incremental loan that you’re making, just can you talk about the Laurel Road specifically, but how you’re also thinking through that in terms of the other consumer portfolios.
