We’re looking at a couple of outsourcing opportunities and our vendor initiatives, we still have an unconscionably high number of vendors. And so, the continuation of building out a procurement function vendor consolidation that leads to better negotiating power, we think will also add a little bit of wind. But I guess I’d caution you against thinking that our $58 million to $59 million could be lower because of those initiatives. So I just — I think that’s probably our best estimate of what to use will be relatively flat.
Christopher Maher: And we think flat expenses in this environment.
Justin Crowley: Okay. Got it.
Christopher Maher: [Multiple Speakers] From this performance.
Justin Crowley: Okay. Appreciate that. And then, just quickly circling back just to the margin discussion. In the past, even holding to the side, what the loan securities still can make cash flow, you’ve talked about just the excess liquidity that you’re running with just more broadly. Curious, if you could just detail how you see that trending if we think about — we’ve talked about some stabilization heading into the end of the year and just curious how that filters through just to your broader thoughts on the margin dropping at the end of this year?
Christopher Maher: I would think about — kind of two things that are structurally in our position at September 30. The first is, we have a little bit more cash than we would have been keeping around before events in the spring. So you may have a couple of $100 million there that you could choose to put to use. But at the same time, overnight funding is pretty efficient. So you’re getting a yield on that. It’s not hurting you to keep that much cash. The margin impact is more from shrinking the balance sheet a little bit. The other thing is our 96% loan-to-deposit ratio. If you followed us over a long period of time, we have an ability to lend that backup, when we think times are right. We’re kind of watching how the markets evolve.
We’re watching pricing in the market. We do see, particularly 2024 as an opportunity to be a lender where terms and pricing may be on the side of the bank for a change. So we’re watching that market. So those are the two levers. They’re not big levers, either one of them, but they are an opportunity.
Justin Crowley: Okay. I appreciate it. And then just sort of following up — following up on what you just mentioned, with some of the progress on the loan-to-deposit ratio and perhaps some opportunity heading into next year. Are you able to bifurcate perhaps maybe geographically and just on a loan category basis where your focal point might be in the event that, that incrementally more favorable environment plays out from a lending standpoint?
Christopher Maher: I think, our focus is going to be on margin and price and that will lead us and will grow our credit culture and our credit standards will remain the same regardless of where or what kinds of credits we put on, but we’re going to be optimizing around those opportunities to get paid well for the use of our balance sheet. The balance sheet availability is scarce in the industry, so we want to make sure we get paid for it. And at this point, there’s not a big price difference between our markets. It’s relatively kind of level between Boston, New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. There is a little bit more differentiation by asset class. So we’re just kind of watching and seeing how those things settle out. What we didn’t want to do is to deploy all that cash in the short term before we have a good sense as to how well we could structure it on a longer-term basis.
Justin Crowley: Okay. I appreciate that. I’ll leave it there, guys. I appreciate you taking my questions.
Christopher Maher: Thanks, Justin.
Operator: Our next question comes from Michael Perito of KBW. Please go ahead.
Michael Perito: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions.
Christopher Maher: Good morning, Mike.
Michael Perito: Good morning. I wanted to drill down a little bit more on the margin. A lot of focus, obviously on the liability side. But Pat, I wonder, number one, can you just repeat, I think you — I heard you correctly. I just want to make sure. I think you mentioned the amount of loans that you have maturing in 2024. If you could repeat that, that’d be great. But just second point on that, like, when we think about — with funding cost stabilizing, right? I mean, does the focus for you guys to shift to the asset side? I mean, your blended loan yields, say are like 530 (ph), which is basically right on top of Fed funds. I imagine incremental production is coming on higher than that. If you can give some context around where that is, that would be great too.
But I guess what’s the outlook for kind of loan yields putting some proper distance to fund the incremental funding costs as we think about the NIM’s ability to kind of approach 3% again and maybe exceed that longer term, which obviously is pretty critical for ROEs, et cetera.?
Patrick Barrett: Sure. I’ll repeat what I said, which was a little bit high level on loan maturities. It’s a little over $1 billion next year, spread relatively evenly over the year. There are some ups and downs, but I don’t think make a huge difference. And then, our originations — the pricing of our originations this quarter were in the 7.5% to 8% range. But I’d probably defer to Joe a little bit to talk about kind of opportunities and how we’re thinking about loan pricing.
