Steve Crockett: I think part of that would kind of come with increased loan demand. I think as long as loan demand continues to slow down a little bit, it’s kind of hard to justify that right now.
Curtis Griffith: It just is nice to have the one-time gains out there from the sale of Windmark and I noticed that another bank significantly larger than us who sold off an insurance business, that’s apparently what they chose to do with the big fees and fares. So it may be a pretty good use of some one-time earnings, but right now we’re looking at it. And I think as Corey indicated, for us, probably more than just trying to reposition the bond portfolio, it’d be more about if we do ramp up some loan demand more than we’re expecting, that would be a good source of funding.
Brady Gailey: All right. That’s helpful. And then, on the loan growth guidance of low single digits, I think you said moderate loan growth next year in 2024. How are you thinking about the deposit side and do you think you can grow deposits at a similar pace? Or should we expect a change in the loan to deposit ratio going forward?
Cory Newsom: I’ll start and Steve can finish. But I think you’re, I don’t see how you can grow the loan, the deposits at the same pace as loans. But I think Curtis alluded to this a while ago and one of the things that we’ve worked on is we’re probably, we’re going to be very focused on how we incent our team in trying to build deposits as it relates to loans. We want to stay much more balanced in that process. I think there’s some opportunities there. The thing that I’m really proud of is that we’ve kept the relationship side of this so at the front and center and it’s always been who we are, what we believe in. We’re focused on deposits. There’s no question that we’re focused on deposits, but to sit here and tell you that we can keep it at the same level, I don’t think anybody can tell you that. Not right now.
Curtis Griffith: Well, I’ll argue the other side a little bit. Yeah, we can. It’s just we’re not going to like what it does to them and you won’t either. So, we can pay up anytime we need to for deposits and pull more in, but so far, our strategy has worked. We are competitive, but we don’t have to be at the top of the market to do this and as long as we can handle deposits that way, I think it benefits our shareholders to do it that way.
Brady Gailey: All right. And then finally, for me, it’s interesting to hear about, kind of a higher level of inbound calls related to bank M&A. I know it’s probably not near term, but as bank M&A details [ph] and you all more seriously look at opportunities, can you just remind us what the ideal target is, like from an asset size? Do you want it to be in market? Do you want low loan or deposit ratio? Like what are the things that you’re looking for in an ideal acquisition target?
Steve Crockett: They don’t make an ideal one.
Curtis Griffith: Yeah, exactly. We haven’t found that one yet. We’d already be announcing. It’s likely to be a Texas franchise. I don’t see our appetite for really going out of state, but as far as what it is, where it is, there’s a lot of options out there and we’ve heard about some. We’ve been directly called by some that are quite different in the ones that we’ve had some discussion with. So I’m not going to try to narrow it down to one that would be just perfect, but historically, I would still say this, that if we find a West Texas based franchise with a relatively low loan deposit ratio and a really strong core deposits that are still in the bank at fairly inexpensive rates, that’s pretty attractive, but finding those right now in a situation where the seller would be willing to recognize how much the AOCI hit is likely to be, that’s a unicorn to go find right now, I’ll just tell you.
Cory Newsom: For us, what we’re trying to find something that doesn’t exasperate liquidity problems that you’re not taking on some problems that you weren’t prepared to deal with. You really got to understand the mentality of the seller as much as you do have the desire of the buyer to be sitting here looking at what you want to do and trying to find something that doesn’t, that would add value to our franchise as opposed to taking it away and bluntly taking our focus away. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t do anything that does that, but let’s not forget, the number one thing that I would probably go and add to what Curtis was talking about is trying to find a culture fit that works and if you sit here and you look at West Texas and you look at the transactions that we’ve had recently in our market, culture has been the downfall of a lot of the success of those transactions and so we’re going to be very, very focused on all of the things that we’ve talked about, whether it be liquidity, capital, loan demand, all that stuff, but culture is going to be a tremendously large part of that.
Things we’re probably, I think our franchise value that I’m most proud of is the culture that we have and the way our team pulls together.
Brady Gailey: Okay, that’s helpful. Thanks, guys.
Operator: [Operator instructions] Our next question comes from Joe Yanchunis with Raymond James. Please state your question.
Joe Yanchunis: Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. Just to kind of piggyback on the M&A question just now, the fact that you already have that West Texas presence, do you think that would kind of mitigate any sort of cultural integration issues with some of the banks out there?
Curtis Griffith: I don’t know necessarily. It might, but no, I don’t. I don’t. Culture is such a challenge out there and I’m not going to say that there are great banks in other parts of the state that wouldn’t be a better cultural fit in some ways than some banks that are here in our neighborhood. That’s just something you have to look at. It’s on a case by case basis. I wouldn’t make a generic statement that West Texas would be necessarily a better fit.
Cory Newsom: Joe, so here’s the thing I would tell you, though. I think you’ve got to put as much effort in trying to determine how those cultures are going to come together as you do every other aspect of the balance sheet and it can’t just be all the numbers and so I think that’s just a big part of it and I think being very focused on it on the front end will make the outcome of that work, but we have to — you can’t take it for granted.
Joe Yanchunis: Understood. And if I could circle back to capital, is there a capital ratio that you target to manage the bank to whether that’s CET1 or TCE?
