Veritex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VBTX) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Terry Earley: Yes. I mean there’s always a lot of things at play. I mean, interest reversals is certainly one of them. And so other than that, I mean, it’s not anything too significant. So, I would say just some relationship pricing on some of our mortgage warehouse loans and deposits is also playing a factor there, too, especially with the seasonal — I mean, you saw the warehouse loan balances go up, deposit balances went up. And so that’s all playing into that, too.

Matt Olney : Okay. I appreciate that. And then going back to the liquidity build that we’ve been talking about the bank now for a few quarters. If I look at just the securities portfolio and the build we saw there, any color on where you think this balance could be by the end of the year. And then by the end of the year, do you think that the liquidity build would be complete by them?

Terry Earley: I mean I would expect you will see us continuing to invest $100 million or so a quarter into the security side, assuming deposits and loans behave as forecast. So, something along those lines, I would say, between $1.6 billion to $1.750 billion ending the year is probably — and so that’s one of the reasons I talk about this, I didn’t say it well, but the balance sheet we make is going to have an impact on the NIM. I talked a lot about that in the January earnings call. I think we’ve gotten a lot of — we’ve been able to offset a good bit of that with the loss trade. But still, it’s going to weigh a little bit. There was a second part of your question too…

Malcolm Holland: Just that would we be done by the end of the year. And that — listen, that’s the goal. The goal is for us to be sub 90 on the loan deposit ratio, concentrations within limits, wholesale borrowings, which are already within limits, but lower. And if we can get there I don’t think we ever say job well done, move on, go to another topic. We’re always going to be in that fight. But I do think I would say at the end of the year; our goal would be that we’ve kind of past our first big test.

Matt Olney : Okay. I appreciate the color there. And I guess just kind of following up on that same topic on the security side. Any more color on what some of the more recent purchases look like I think you disclosed on the restructure back in March, new yields were north of 6%. Is that still where we’re at as far as the yields? And just any color on kind of the products out there.

Terry Earley: But it’s very much of a barbell strategy in the fixed income space. If you want to protect for down rates, one you can’t find the product to, you don’t like the yields. So, it’s a combination of you get paid to be short, so if — this stuff had a duration of like the loss trade was like 2.3 years. So, we’re buying capital-efficient, shorter-duration securities where we can get paid and enhance yield. And probably risk-weighted assets. I don’t have the exact cap, but it’s probably somewhere in the 25% or sub 25% to 30%. It’s not high-risk stuff by any stretch of the imagination. So, and it’s just the normal MBS carries about 20. So anyway, that’s — and Matt, I would expect us to continue to do that. Our focus on how we think about the portfolio and how we think about its usage or impact on risk-weighted assets is not going to change. We do things at very capital efficient in that space.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes the conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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