New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:NYCB) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 16 of 22

Thomas Cangemi: Yeah. Again, just to put my accounting hat on, offsetting that in 2024, assuming most of the CDs are short-term, and that discount — that band premium will be gone and you have the possibility of higher accretion in the funnel.

John Pinto: Yeah, the CD mark is — yeah, it’s definitely a little bit shorter than the security in the loan mark, yes.

Chris McGratty: $10 million a month will flow through the margin and that’s included in the guidance, correct?

John Pinto: That’s right.

Chris McGratty: Okay. And then I just want to come back to Steve’s question, just to make sure I’m totally buttoned up. The held-for-sale loans were about $1 billion. I guess question one, is that about plus or minus where we should think about held-for-sale? And the guide for mid-single digit, I’m looking at your average balance sheet, that’s a — is that off a $56 billion base? Is that what you’re using?

John Pinto: The mid-single — for the loan growth?

Chris McGratty: Yeah.

Thomas Cangemi: That’s correct.

John Pinto: No — yeah, it’s based off of the spot loan balance at 12/31. So 69 — so we’re doing a 12/31, the 5% 12/31 2023 to get back to the previous question as compared to the, call it, 12/31 2022 spot-to-spot.

Thomas Cangemi: As far as the loans held-for-sale, so maybe Lee Smith can have some color on the business, on the business, since we got Lee on the call. Lee?

Lee Smith: Yeah. No, I think that $1 billion that you mentioned, you can expect us to be in that zip code $1 billion, $1.5 billion throughout 2023. Obviously, we’re in one of the toughest mortgage markets for the last 25 years and so when we look at where activities now. I think that $1 billion to $1.5 billion is a good estimate for the remainder of 2023 for available for sale.

Chris McGratty: Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Peter Winter with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your questions.

Thomas Cangemi: Good morning, Peter.

Peter Winter: Thanks. Good morning, Tom. Can you just give an update on the capital priorities going forward and maybe some thoughts on share buybacks?

Thomas Cangemi: I’ll start out with the first priority. Our dividend will continue at the current rate. That’s been a priority historically, and we’re very confident there. Obviously, we had a substantial — an accounting event at year-end. Markets have changed, and we had to deal with that in respect to capital. So we traded some of the book value benefit to the earnings accretion going forward under the capital side, so that did have an impact. That being said, I’ll defer to John specifically on how we’re going to get that back. And obviously, where our capital stack currently sits. But going back to my priority is we’re going to continue to paying the current dividend rate for the combined shareholder base.

John Pinto: And historically, the company has had a multifaceted capital plan when it’s — from payback to shareholders with dividends and years ago, stock repurchases, of course. So first, the use of capital, as Tom said, is the dividend and the second is for growth. So any excess capital that we have after those two things, we would absolutely look at down the road a potential buyback as market conditions dictate.

Peter Winter: Okay. Thanks. And then just real quick, just on the $3.4 billion OpEx exposure, just can you give a little bit more color on an update from a credit perspective on office?

Page 16 of 22