James Mabry: So I mean if I look at — if we look at new and renewed in December, we were running $8.21 million. And there was a question earlier about our outlook for rates. What we’re using right now are no cuts in the way we’re looking at 2024, fully mindful that there could be cuts. So that would weigh on, I guess, the way I would answer that question, Catherine, but I would think upper 7%, 8% would be a reasonable yield to look at for 2024.
Catherine Mealor: Okay. And you mentioned that you thought cuts would weigh on your margin outlook for this year. As you think about that, how are you — what kind of deposit beta are you thinking about on the way down as you say kind of cuts the way on your margin? Assuming with that you’re being fairly conservative with your ability to lower deposit costs?
James Mabry: We are. I mean, I think currently we’ve got our interest-bearing beta peaking somewhere in the upper 50s in 2024. So I think as we think about — to the extent that we have a number of cuts in 2024, at least near term, I would think that’s going to be a little bit of a headwind on margin. Where we end up for the year, I don’t know, but because there’s so many variables that go into that, Catherine. But I do think right now we’re poised, if we’ve got a stable rate outlook in the near term, I think we’re poised for some modest margin expansion here in the near term and then the rest of the year we’ll see how the — if we get cuts, when they happen, what the velocity and frequency of those are, but it’s a little hard to predict.
Catherine Mealor: That makes sense. And then maybe one on credit. Your credit has just been really strong and very stable, a charge-off kind of stable NPAs, stable classifieds. But you’ve got a really big reserve. So as we think about this next year, is there a potential, if we really kind of move through the year and we hit the soft landing that we could start to see reserve release for you, which would kind of be a tailwind to EPS estimates? Or you kind of kind of fight as hard as you can just to kind of keep that more stable just in case. Just kind of curious your thoughts on kind of provisioning year-over-year and outlooks and credit. Thanks.
David Meredith: Yes, good morning, Catherine. This is…
Catherine Mealor: Good morning.
David Meredith: I don’t think you’ll see us release, we’ve kind of forecasted in the past that asset quality staying consistent that our preference would be to use our provision for loan growth opportunities and I think at this point, we will continue to forecast that way. So, I would hesitate to think that there’s going to be a release at some point in the near future. And we also know that 2024, there’s probably going to be some volatility in asset quality, just as we continue to work through loan repricing and cycle and so forth. So I think, near-term, we’ll probably see us stay fairly consistent with our methodology and just determine the impact of our provisioning based on the — our loan portfolio holds up on how our loan growth is.
James Mabry: And Catherine. I’ll just add to that, I do think given what David just said, if you look at that percentage on ACL and, of course, that model is a dynamic model, the seasonal models, so there’s a lot that goes into it, but I think it’s reasonable as we sit here at the start of 2024 to assume that percentage would moderate downward. As David said, don’t anticipate any releases, but I think that percentage just given loan growth and whatever charge-offs we’re going to have in 2024, it wouldn’t surprise us to see that moderate down a little bit as we go through the year. I mean we came down 2 basis points, of course, in Q4, but I think that’s a reasonable outlook, we sit here a year from now that that ACL percentage will be a little bit lower than it is now.
Catherine Mealor: Great. That makes sense. All right, thank you.
Mitchell Waycaster: Thank you, Catherine.
Operator: Thank you very much. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mitch Waycaster for any closing remarks.
Mitchell Waycaster: Well, thank you Eric and thank each of you for joining the call today. We next plan to participate in the KBW Conference beginning on February 15.
Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you, everybody, very much for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.
