SouthState Corporation (NASDAQ:SSB) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Catherine Mealor: That’s really great. Perfect. Thank you so much Steve. Maybe just thinking about the margins in 2024 because I think for the rest of the year, it makes perfect sense. But as we think to 2024, I’m assuming loan yields is really the biggest factor there we assume the sad staying at 550 and then even cuts in the next year. The big question is what can loan yield do into next year. And this quarter, I noticed loan yield change fell back a little bit from the pace that we’ve seen in the past couple of quarters. And any commentary on what drove that and every quarter can be kind of different. But just maybe — can you give us some thoughts on loan repricing and maybe within that guidance where you’re thinking loan yields in the end of the year and upside as we move into that.

Stephen Young: Yes, I think last quarter, we answered this sort of question on the call. And I think what we were talking about that based on the forecast we thought loan yield for our total portfolio would end between 5.5% and 5.75% at the end of fourth quarter. So there’s really no change to that. And that’s probably why our NIM guidance really hasn’t changed a whole lot. We would expect that the loan yields will continue to increase, one, based on the Fed rate; two, based on new production; and three, the last is just the maturing or repricing adjustable fixed rate loans. That represents about $1 billion a quarter that is sort of repricing somewhere in that 4 25 to 4 40 range and of course over 7%. So those are kind of thing that would give us some confidence in the loan yield continue to increase overtime.

Catherine Mealor: Got it. Great. Thanks for the help. Appreciate it, great quarter.

Operator: Your next question is from the line of Stephen Scouten with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Stephen Scouten: Hey good morning guys, appreciate it. I guess I appreciate the commentary around $142 million and provisions only $4 million in net charge-offs. We can see the reserve build. But are there any other dynamics at play there that’s leading to a little bit more elevated provisions than what maybe I don’t know, I would expect from my side of things?

William Matthews: Yes, Stephen, it’s Will. The short answer is the biggest driver to the provision this quarter was the change in the commercial real estate price index forecast. But let me maybe back up just a second sort of talk about our model. Our model is built on historical loss data for 60 different bank charters that make up to SouthState from the period of 2004 to 2019. So obviously looking at different economic environments, different loss rates that occurred in those different environments and running regression analysis. We have to also on top of that though, incorporate a quality of other way to account for the different nature of some loan portfolios, particularly construction loan portfolio, which as you might imagine, heading into the great financial crisis and the in the 2000, 2010 time frame was much more heavily speculative land acquisition and development.

It was in some cases, definitely well over half of the construction portfolio where today, it’s a miniscule fresh and almost on an exception only basis, whereas we’re doing more industrial and multifamily type only in that construction category. So we have a [indiscernible] to adjust for that factor. But you have to keep in mind that CECL is a forward-looking measure. And so the increase that we show is not based on what we see in our portfolio, but rather based upon drivers the changes in the loss drivers, particularly CRE price index in this quarter.

Stephen Scouten: Okay. And the big move from the unfunded reserve to the funded, is that about loan fundings? Or is that still kind of more model-driven into what you just spoke to Will?