ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And we think — again, we think having all this excess liquidity is a significant competitive advantage with our — in the industry. Well, I probably didn’t answer your question, Kevin.

Kevin Fitzsimmons: No, that was helpful, Tom. I just — I guess — I know there’s a lot of moving parts to it. But do you guys feel like that, it sounds like you’re overshot — not overshot, but I mean, it’s never — you can never have too much of it. But is it — and it’s just one quarter, but do you feel –assuming the Fed is mostly done here do you feel we’re getting closer to that ratio. stabilizing and then maybe speed up to expand in 2024 is that what you would suspect?

Thomas Broughton: Yes, we mentioned that our municipal clients have had big liquidity and these are existing customers. We’re not — they are core relationships. We’re not out bidding out money with municipalities. In fact, we’re not bidding on money with municipalities, we’re not going to do that. These are core relationships at some reasonable price, it doesn’t leave you a lot of profit when you put and get the money to the [indiscernible], but nevertheless, we’re not going to tell a good client, we won’t take their money, so that’s — that’s the bottom line, they’re not — there’s not — again, we don’t have any — we don’t have any brokered deposits and we don’t have any home loan bank advances. So, we are in really kind of a spot, I don’t think most of the industry would trade places with they could.

Kevin Fitzsimmons: And Tom, just on loan growth, typically you guys have seen more back half of the year heavy in loan growth if I recall correctly and it’s sort of gains momentum over the course of the year. And so, on the one hand you mentioned that a lot of customers are looking to pay down debt, there is the impact of rates, there is the impact of you guys being tightening standards and — but on the other hand you cited, if I heard it correct, a big increase in the loan pipeline. And last quarter you were — it seems like much more optimistic on the economy. So, do you feel like loan growth is just going to grind higher at this point, not necessarily in leaps and bounds?

Thomas Broughton: Yeah. We do now. Again, like I said, our loans grew $87 million in the month of September, we’ve seen a lot of activity just in the last 30 days. It seems like we’ve seen things really pick-up, borrowers are getting a little bit more confidence in the economy and starting with projects in both C&I and CRE. So — and again we’re being a little bit more creative when trying to find sources of loan demand right now, Kevin, and I think that’s what we had to do after 2008, 2009, and 2010 after the — people weren’t buying boats and airplanes during that year at a time, and we had to draw to finance operating equipment for trucking companies and things that we’re still growing and doing well. So that’s what we’re trying to do this time. We just had to be more creative in finding the loan demand out there, than you do when times are really good.

Kevin Fitzsimmons: Right. Okay, all right. Well, thank you very much and I’ll hop out and let others hop in. Thanks.

Thomas Broughton: Thanks, Kevin.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Steve Moss with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Stephen Moss: Good afternoon.

Thomas Broughton : Hi, Steve.

Stephen Moss: Tom, you spoke about the loan pipeline improving here just kind of curious, what is the rate you’re seeing these days and kind of hearing you say $87 million of growth in September, it kind of feels like, hey we will see a decent step-up in growth for the fourth quarter on loans?

Thomas Broughton : Go ahead, Bud.