We have certainly been active in buying back our stock over time in previous periods, although I would say, it’s never been incredibly active. We are not trying to be out there to purchase back a significant number of shares. I think we want to be out there, be opportunistic, and also support our current shareholders by trying to support the price as best we can. And at the end of the day, we look at that, as a finance transaction and it does that better company on an overall basis. So, I think right now we are reticent to engage in any buybacks. But obviously, that’s up for re-evaluation at any time going forward and we certainly have the plan available to us, if we want to endeavor back into buying some shares back.Eric Zwick Thanks, so much for taking my questions today.Operator [Operator Instructions].
Our next question will come from Damon DelMonte with KBW. You may now go ahead.Damon DelMonte Good morning guys. Thanks for taking my questions and thanks for all the disclosures in the slides today. I guess just with respect to the outlook for loan growth, I think you guys are saying 6% to 8% over the remaining quarters of this year. And Ray, you may have said this, in your prepared remarks, but could you just kind of go over the kind of the split between the commercial side and the retail side for that expected growth? Ray Reitsma Yeah. We have the retail side growing about 180 million, I think for the year. And a similar amount for the commercial side. So, they’re fairly balanced in the growth. Right now, as I mentioned, arms are more popular, and then fixed rates.
So those are finding their way under our balance sheet as opposed to being sold. If the inverted yield curve is correct, we’ll have an opportunity to refinance many of those into 15- and 30-year obligations and maybe reduce the weight of those on our balance sheet at some point in the future. I mean, obviously, that’s dependent on rates, so, time will tell. But for the near term, I’d say a fairly equal representation between the two.Damon DelMonte And then with respect to the outlook for expenses any internal discussions about ways to maybe kind of shave some, some expenses out of that overall expense structure? Chuck Christmas I think — Damon, this is Chuck. I think that, is something we endeavor to do every day. I wouldn’t think that there’s anything, any type of fluff or anything within our overhead structure.
We’re very dutifully trying to become as an efficient bank as we possibly can rationalize our branch system, making sure we’re employing technology whatever we can, whether that’s how customers interact with our company, whether it’s automated — the new automated teller machines or online banking or anything like that. We’re always endeavoring to become more efficient in how we deliver our products and services to our customers makes it more efficient and more cost effective for us. I think, not sure what else to say except we’re doing as best we can and I think if you look at our overhead costs on an overall basis, especially from say, occupancy equipment in some of those areas, I think we’re doing a really good job and we’re going to continue to do that.
The swap, — swap program, obviously, just because of where rates were and cash collateral and interest rates going up there were some additional costs there. The FDIC didn’t do us any favors by raising our assessment 58%, just for being, just for opening our doors. So, of course, inflation had a big impact on our salary and benefits as well. So, I don’t think there’s anything that we can say, Hey, let’s cut this out. Let’s cut that out. I think on an overall basis, we continue to look for ways to run more efficiently and utilize our resources as best we can. Bob Kaminski This is Bob, I’ll add to that, by saying we certainly look at efficiencies all the time, and that’s where you’ve seen, for instance, the branch right now because we’re able to shed a particular branch.
And we’ve done that numerous times over the last couple of years. I will also say, however, that we’re committed to attracting and retaining the best employees we can because they’re really who allow us to do the things that we can do from a customer standpoint and also continue that forward investment in technology, as Chuck mentioned, the digital frame the use of data the ability to automate processes or something that we continue to take a look at. And for that, we need to make the investment in technology, which we always have been committed to. That’s an important part of who we are. So, we never defer investments in technology or expenses, because we do not want to get behind and we have not and we never will. Damon DelMonte Got it. That’s helpful.
Thank you. And then I guess just lastly, credit continues to be extremely strong for you guys. And Chuck, could you kind of help frame out expectations for the provision, kind of balancing off loan growth and potentially a softer economic backdrop as we go through the remainder of 2023? Chuck Christmas That’s a roller loaded question. Bob Kaminski Hey, no, Dave, there’s a reason why I didn’t put, there’s a reason why I didn’t put provision expense on page 27. Yeah, I think, — clearly, the — our loan portfolio is going to react to that of our market, right? I mean, I think we do a really good job of selecting our borrowers, customers we want to do business with, structuring them properly, that’s mutually beneficial. So, I think, our, my humble opinion, I think the guys here would agree is that our asset quality has generally been stronger than that of the industry.
And we would think that would continue to be the case regardless of what the economic environment is out there. I think, certainly the economic environment’s going to be the big determinant there. Two ways it’s going to impact the provision. One is, specifically on our portfolio, if there’s a bunch of downgrades that we have to do, clearly that’s going to require a higher reserve through provision expense. And then of course with our, our friend CECL, we’ve got that economic forecast out there that’s independent and we get that forecast and we compare it to other forecasts to make sure that it’s, I call it, kind of the check system and just to make sure it makes sense that our forecast is similar to that of others. But clearly, that forecast can have a big weighting on our provision.
I think one of the things that we’ve seen, and in talking with other bank CFOs who use different models and different forecasters than what we do, but the similarity is, is what’s driving these forecasts is the unemployment rate. We’ve seen a degradation in GDP forecast over the last few years, and we really haven’t seen, an overlay significant impact to the reserve calculation as a result of that. What we have seen is a relatively steady, or just slightly over time increasing unemployment rate. And as I mentioned, the impact in the first quarter from the updated economic forecast was literally less than a hundred thousand dollars, at a loan portfolio, that’s, close to $4 billion. So pretty nominal there. So, I would say it’s the economic forecast, especially in regard to those unemployment expectations.
