So not that we’re going to demand loans. It’s just that in every scenario, we’ve got an incredible amount of balance sheet flexibility to put on fixed rate exposure. So — and if you look at our loan yields, that’s the lowest yielding portfolio. And in our higher coupon portfolios, we actually have fixed rate protection in there. So we’re in a very good position and able to flex the balance sheet in order to put on a lot more fixed rate exposure.
Michael Perito: That’s very helpful. And then on — just on loan growth, where are the pipelines kind of act today in the various business lines? And was any of the slowdown this quarter, I don’t want to say intentional but I think there was some good catch-up on the deposit side. The balance sheet looks a little bit better positioned here to support some growth in 2023. Just curious kind of what some of the dynamics were there and your near-term expectations around loan growth?
Damian Kozlowski: Yes. Well, we did have some catch-up, you’re right. And that’s actually economically helps us. It wasn’t purposeful though. We’re not stretching though. I mean, we’re not stretching at all on credit quality. So when you get in times like this when volumes get low, people get a little bit to — there’s been some announcements about people getting into commercial and that’s not the time to do it probably. We’re just being very, very careful. We’re underwriting to the standards we’ve always underwritten to. The market is being affected by rates but we still have — we had strong growth in leasing. There is a big backlog in car delivery still for the commercial side. You’re being very careful on — while we have the government guarantees on the SBA, that’s has slowed down because the interest rates have jumped so much and people don’t know if they want to invest in new businesses.
But even if we went through 2023 with even a flat or up 5%, 10% that really will still meet our expectations at the earnings per share. So I think we’re in a really, really — there’s a lot of upside potential. If we get trend growth, obviously, there would be significant upside potential. We’ve been very careful with our guidance. We’ve scenario planned it out and looked at a lot of — we’ve left a lot of things out by historic growth. We’ve left out bonds. We’re obviously getting — I mean, I talked a few earnings calls before and we were kind of in the 4% range where we thought this would top out on our NIM. And we’ve flown right past that. And during this quarter, we’ve had increasing — significantly increasing net interest income, while our GDV has restored to trend.
So there’s a lot of green lights here. And we’re going to have a lot more information in January. And by the end of the first quarter, we’re going to know a lot. And then if we have to adjust guidance and take a hard look at, we’ll also know a little bit more about rates. So I think it’s going to be an exciting quarter and I want to know what it is and I know you do, too.
Michael Perito: And then just lastly for me. I mean, you guys have held expenses flat for almost 2-plus years now. Obviously, you guys kind of have a structurally higher profitability outlook with this NIM, north of 4%. I know you have initiatives you’re working on. I think there has been a little disruption on the customer side because there’s some regulatory actions to competitors. Just curious, is there any — as we think about the rate of investment and the OpEx growth, I mean, is there room for that to grow a bit more this year than it has in the past 2 years. Did you guys see some opportunities? Or how should we be thinking about that?
