John Pinto: The only other item and we mentioned it earlier on the government as a service deposits, right? We had that program really kick off at the end of 2022. And then we see — now we start to see really the utilization of those funds that we’re seeing that start to roll down as we would have expected in the first quarter, and that is non-interest-bearing accounts. So, that’s just another item for — that we’ll see that’s beneficial in the first quarter that we lose a lot of that benefit when we go forward.
Thomas Cangemi: Yes, I would add, internally, when we look at the business even on the multifamily side, going back to 2012, 2013, we had a high fee income opportunity and the actual yield on that asset class is much higher because of the propensity of prepayment. We ended the year this year at the lowest level of prepayment activity compared to the financial crisis. Literally, if you go back, it was significantly lower than we had anticipated. And we had a very strong year. We had another record year in earnings, but you get — the multiple is what it is. We were liability sensitive. But if you think about where we ended up about $45 million in total prepayment activity, if you go back to 2013, that number was $140 million.
So, we’re off by over $100 million and the portfolio is probably substantially larger than it is today than it was back in 2013. So, there’s tremendous opportunity to really get that coupon from a 3% coupon to the market and be very cognizant of the fee embedded in that structure to drive margin. But we have a very conservative estimate in our forecast internally, even though we don’t go out the full year, of how this asset crafts will react. Because the asset class is very stable right now. There is no activity on prepay. There’s no large purchase transaction activity. We think that will change once rates start to become more expected based on the borrowing base. Right now, customers are not doing a whole lot. So, we’re kind of having a larger balance sheet with lower yields.
And as they reprice, we’re getting a nice benefit on that particular core asset class.
Steven Alexopoulos: Got it. Tom, if I could also ask, so if I look at the guidance, the average loan growth of around 5% for full year 2023, which doesn’t make sense because you have Flagstar for the full year 2023. What’s the base that you’re comparing that to?
Thomas Cangemi: Look, we’re very conservative right now. It’s early in the year. Last year, we had 10% net loan growth on multifamily. A lot of that was driven because market conditions have changed. Like I indicated, we’re not going to have the activity until customers are comfortable on pulling down equity and buying and selling asset classes. That’s not happening in the marketplace today. So you’re going to have a larger asset class for loan growth. But I think we have a conservative model that we’re going to be very focused on making sure we get the best economics given the market condition. And Steven, as you know, it’s expensive right now to finance short-term. So when you look at, let’s say, a three-year average life financing against a multifamily credit to average life, we need to get paid economically.
