United Community Banks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UCBI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Lynn Harton: I might go back a couple of deals and just talk about Tennessee. I think we had more run-off there than we would have liked, but we have a new leader there, Kelley Kee. He’s been there for a while now. We’ve had great hires. We’re seeing better trends there. Florida, you mentioned already.

Rich Bradshaw: Yeah. I would add, in Tennessee, yeah, that we did have some challenges there. I think we absolutely got the right person in place and I think we’ll see deposits in Q1 completely stabilize. And for the first time, we’ll see loan growth in Q1. That’s the projection right now.

Christopher Marinac: All right. Great. Thank you both. That’s really helpful. And then, there’s a quick one for Rob. What are your thoughts about the criticized assets this year? We saw some improvement this quarter. Will that kind of bounce around the given range or do you have further backdrop on that?

Rob Edwards: Yeah. Christopher, that’s a good question. If you look back to 2020, we were at 4.1%. The criticized was 2.6%. And today, we’re at 1.1%. So, I would expect it to kind of to go up, to be honest with you, just given where it is relative to where we’ve been historically, and what would be a more normalized level.

Christopher Marinac: So, Rob, that will obviously drive reserve behavior to some extent in provision that we’ve certainly seen you be conservative for these last few quarters. So, it just feels like more of the same, I guess is my question.

Rob Edwards: Yeah, it does. I mean, we’re — if you’re asking about the future environment, right now it sort of feels like things are stable and everybody is sort of expecting, as are we, a soft landing. And if all that works out, kind of we would expect those numbers to be relatively stable. But they are so low that, I like your phrase, bounce around a little bit.

Christopher Marinac: Great. Thanks again.

Rob Edwards: Thanks, Chris.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Gary Tenner from D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead with your question.

Gary Tenner: Thanks, guys. Good morning.

Lynn Harton: Good morning, Gary.

Gary Tenner: Hey. I just wanted to ask you a couple of quick clarification points, Jefferson, on your kind of guidance around the NIM. If I understood correctly, your guidance assume no rate cuts, but if the forward curve played out, you’d see benefit of 5 to 7 basis points, is that correct?

Jefferson Harralson: That’s exactly right.

Gary Tenner: Okay. And then a follow-up to Catherine’s question in terms of the fixed rate repricing. If you kind of roll forward into 2025, what does the book look like? There is a larger slug of fixed rate maturities in ’25.

Jefferson Harralson: That’s a great question. I wanted to get back to you on that one. I’d be guessing a little bit, so let me get back to you with the answer to that. That’s a good question. I don’t have it at my fingertips currently.

Gary Tenner: Okay. That’s all I had. Thank you.

Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, at this time, I’m showing no additional questions. I’ll close today’s question-and-answer session and turn the floor back over to Lynn Harton for any closing remarks.

Lynn Harton: Great. And again, thank you all for your time and interest, and we’d be glad to take any follow-up questions. Please reach out to Jefferson or me directly, and we’ll look forward to talking to you soon. Have a great day.

Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, with that, we’ll conclude today’s conference call. We thank you for attending the presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.

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