And so, that point is that there is a limit to how much these deposit cost will go. We don’t think we have to go all the way up to those levels for sure. But we have told our salesforce that we will not lose a deposit because of price. And so, their marching orders are to go out there and make sure that whenever they got a chance to defend their deposit portfolio, they do it, and we’re not letting those deposits (ph). Secondly, there was an earlier question about DDAs and where those are headed. There’s also a strong emphasis on that and protecting those deposits best we can. We did see kind of an initial thrust during the quarter that a lot of that DDA movement occurred around November and the November rate increases. We didn’t see nearly that kind of reduction in December.
So, we’re hopeful that a lot of that, although we anticipate will occur, we just — we are hopeful that it won’t occur at the same kind of levels that has occurred here in the fourth quarter. So, the second — one more thing as far as margin protection that we’re doing tactically, Jennifer, as far as the loan guidance and all of that, we are actively selling to our salesforce the notion of prepayment penalties on all fixed rate credits. And I think we’ve been working on that too for the last two or three quarters and we’re getting traction there. So, we’re hopeful that if rates do come down on us at least in the near-term, we’ve got some or at least in the longer-term, we’ve got some protection there.
Jennifer Demba: Okay. And the deposit growth that you’re projecting for this year would be very strong. Is this a permanent shift for Pinnacle in terms of just focus — putting a more intense focus on deposit growth overall?
Terry Turner: Jennifer, I think the answer to that question is yes. And all I mean by I think that yes is, I think we have, since the founding of the company, had an intense focus on deposit acquisition. As you know, if you have a mature company, you got a mature retail deposit book and you can sort of milk and ride that. In our case, we got to fund it as we go, and so there’s a different energy and emphasis around that always and has been there since the beginning. But clearly, during the pandemic and all the inflows and liquidity, we didn’t concentrate so much on the defense by our deposits. We didn’t have to do that, and those kinds of things. So, it is a different day as the money supply (ph) and deposit book (ph), it does require a different level of energy.
Happily during that pandemic period, we built three or four specialty deposit businesses that all have some level of traction in them. I’m going to guess, Jennifer, that in 2022, those four specialties probably produced, I don’t know, $800 million to $900 million in deposits for us. We expect that growth to be still bigger as we go forward. We’re in the early stages with still positive momentum in all four of those specialty. And so, that’s the reasons I say, okay, yes, I think there is a structural difference in our ability to do it, which in addition to all the energy and emphasis of the relationship managers, we do have some product specialties that are pretty meaningful in terms of how they’re bolstered on our deposit growth.
Jennifer Demba: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. And the next question is coming from Brian Martin from Janney Montgomery. Brian, your line is live.
Brian Martin: Hey, guys. Good morning. I’ll be brief. Just, Harold, Terry, just the hiring outlook for this year. I mean, I think, you talked last quarter about where you thought it might be, but given fourth quarter is wrapped up and some of the commentary earlier, how are you thinking about hiring in ’23 relative to ’22?
