Clark Khayat: So the nice thing on the way down from the commercial deposit book, which I know you know, Gerard, but it’s sort of 55-ish billion was 33 billion pre-pandemic, so it’s pretty meaningful for us. A lot of that’s indexed, so it will move when rates move. Now, they’re not all indexed at 100%. So you’d have to take that into account. But that stuff tends to move as the market moves. And I think that’s a positive. What’s always tougher to predict is the consumer book, which obviously was a little sticky going up and it generally is a little sticky coming down. And I think that’ll be as much a function of micro market and micro competitive environment. So how are people thinking about those and other sources of funding?
If rates do come down quickly, it does tend to make people, people being sort of the industry broadly, think about wholesale funding differently. So you might see more relief on deposits that would cause the consumer to follow faster, but the pace at which consumer rate has come down is always the question there.
Gerard Cassidy: Great. Thank you so much.
Clark Khayat: Sure.
Operator: The next question is from the line of John Pancari from Evercore. Please go ahead.
John Pancari: Good morning.
Chris Gorman: Good morning.
Clark Khayat: Hi, John.
John Pancari: On the only expense outlook, just wanted to [indiscernible] a little bit more color. I know third quarter came in a little bit above expectations, and some of that is on fee revenue. But as you look at fourth quarter and your flat expectation for 2024, can you maybe talk about the puts and takes there, like, what are some of the areas where you could see pressure? And where do you really see an opportunity to pull back and keep the number stable? Thank you.
Clark Khayat: Sure. So let me just hit the third quarter for a second, John, as I just want to clarify. So we came in a little bit high. As you mentioned, I would just point to kind of about 20 million of one-time costs in the quarter related to illegal reserve build, a Visa settlement that came in late in the quarter and then some elevated medical claims. I think net of those we were sort of consistent with the relatively stable guidance. The core in fourth quarter we think we’ll be consistent there as well, again, relatively stable. Just to reiterate kind of pointing out a couple of very or a few very identifiable one-timers, namely FDIC assessment should it come through, some additional expense management related charges, and a pension charge.
So relative or net of those, we feel like it’ll be stable. The big move also in the quarter was around personnel. And that was primarily driven by the change in stock price. So that is a variable. But the work that we did earlier in the year, as Chris referenced, kind of the beginning of the year getting ’23 flat and some of the work we’re doing in anticipation of making ’24 flat, aside from the charges we take, will provide a little bit of tailwind on expenses in the quarter. And we continue to push hard on real estate and things like third party contracts, which we historically have talked to, but we’re moving more and more away from third parties and more focused on using our own folks to do the work we’re doing. So we think we have that circle and there’s obviously always surprises that can come through, but we feel pretty good about the core stability.
John Pancari: And in that real estate rationalization and the third party contracts, are they the main areas of opportunity as you look at 2024 as well?
