Bart Caraway: And I think I would add just that with the flight quality and our chance to get some of these really high-quality deals, the margin is a little less whenever you’re talking about a customer that could basically pick anything they wanted together with. Unfortunately, we’ve been able to get those type of customers. It is a little better margin, but it’s also a fair quality deal. So obviously, there’s always trade-offs that we’ll try to manage.
Bernard Gizycki: Got it. And then just on the auto-finance exit. I think last quarter, you noted that you’d expect something like direct expense savings would be $500,000 plus, and you were reallocating $50 million of loans in some more strategic areas of focus. Is that still kind of like the same thought process there? Any updates?
John McWhorter: Yes. I mean the team has been disbanded at this point. That portfolio was paying down. I don’t have the numbers, but it’s way less than $50 million, yes. And earning that effective September 30. So we really haven’t seen any of the savings there, particularly on the salary side. On the loan side, we have certainly stopped doing that last quarter. I think that portfolio has about a 4-year weighted average life. So it pays down several million dollars a month, and we’re reallocating those proceeds to other loans, but the direct effects are — we didn’t see any of it in the third quarter. We’ll see more in the for not super material, but every little bit adds up, we’re certainly looking at everything.
Operator: Next question comes from the line of Matt Olney with Stephens Inc.
Matt Olney: Hey, thanks. Good morning. I want to go back to the discussion around the margin. And John, you mentioned the spreads on some of the more recent loan growth. I appreciate the commentary there. Any other color about how those spreads have changed during the course of the year. Have those maintained similar levels? Or any kind of widening that you’ve seen this year SOFR?
John McWhorter: I mean — Audrey, I mean, certainly jump in. I don’t think they have changed that much. For the bigger commercial corporate type loans, I think we’re in that SOFR plus 300 range. We do see deals that are at plus 200, but we’re typically just not doing those. I think we’ve commented before that we could be growing faster if we were willing to do those, but we’re mindful of our capital positions and our liquidity position and are not often doing things that are certainly in the loan 2s, I mean there might be the occasional deal plus 2.50% or 2.75%, but those are kind of more of the exception than the rule. Yes. I mean Audrey and I have talked that we’ve been very disciplined about trying to make sure we have kind of the 600 spreads.
They’re being — they’re deals that had a story behind them that makes a lot of sense for us to do. And certainly, ones that other choose to do it all over again with it because they’re good quality customers, and there’s a reason that we’re doing it. So I think from the loan selection, I think we’ve been very selective and disciplined. I think that’s what I continue to say. Yes, the exceptions are typically at least partially…
Audrey Duncan: And there is a higher credit, may be a high past. Otherwise, we — make sure we don’t go below .
John McWhorter: Yes. And even with that, I think we are seeing a lot of loan opportunities. And maybe we do one in out every 10 or something. I mean it is a market out there. Obviously, there’s a lot more loan demand than there are looks to confront. So we’re being able to see cherry-pick really good customers. And I think we’ll continue to be just that disciplined as we go forward with it.
