Jeffrey Jackson: Yes, I do believe we will have solid deposit growth. As far as it relates to the loan to deposit ratio, you know, I could see that creeping up to near 90% to 92%. I do believe potentially our loan growth might outrun a little bit of our deposit growth. But once again, we do have the $100 million a quarter that helps fund the loan growth. So, I could see it slightly moving up because I do believe loans will outgrow deposits, but I don’t think it will be by a wide margin. And I do believe the securities, $100 million a quarter will help fund that gap.
Casey Whitman: Got it. And how low are you comfortable with the securities book getting to, I guess, as a percentage of assets or is there a target range?
Daniel Weiss: Yeah, Casey, it’s right around 17. I would say mid-teens of, I would say, 17% of total assets is kind of probably our bottom end.
Casey Whitman: All right. Thanks.
Jeffrey Jackson: Thank you.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from Manuel Navas with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.
Manuel Navas: Hey, good morning. Most of my questions have been answered too. Just — could you touch on loan growth pace across the year? Would rates kind of help accelerate it or would that pay down normalization on CRE kind of slow it, like just kind of walk me through the dynamics you’re thinking on loan growth across the year?
Jeffrey Jackson: Yeah, sure. I actually believe that with a few cuts that we have modeled, as mentioned, we’re modeling three cuts. I’m not sure it would really increase pay down speeds. I think you’re going to need bigger cuts. When I think about paydowns, I think about, obviously, our CRE book, but going to the permanent market. And so to me, I think, you know, a couple of cuts here or there isn’t going to make it worth moving a lot of CRE to the permanent market. So for me, I think reductions in rates might help speed up our loan growth slightly. But I think if you see three 25 basis point cuts, it’s not — I don’t think it impacts it either way dramatically, if that makes sense.
Manuel Navas: No, that’s helpful. With the securities book, it seems like you’re going to need to fund some of this loan growth with deposits. Has there been any better or has it — has there been opportunities for any like restructuring the securities book and are you constantly thinking of that to pay down borrowings, perhaps?
Daniel Weiss: Yeah. So we — obviously we’ve had those discussions probably every quarter for the last six quarters. Today, there is not. We feel that, you know, we’re comfortable with where the loan deposit ratio is. We’re comfortable, you know, with the liquidity that we have. We don’t feel that we need to necessarily, you know, enter into that kind of loss trade. And we feel that with rate cuts, we think that in the nearer term, those unrealized losses are going to improve. So, I’m little hard pressed today to go in and take a loss on — you know, on the loss trade selling securities. I’d rather, you know, wait it out a couple more quarters and see where we’re at then.
Manuel Navas: Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you for the comments today.
Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Jeff Jackson for any closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.
Jeffrey Jackson: Thank you for joining us today. During the past year, we achieved sustained loan, deposit and fee income growth while maintaining strong capital levels and credit quality. We remain committed to continuing these growth trends while leveraging new products and expense management to deliver positive operating leverage. We look forward to speaking with you in the near future at one of our upcoming investor events. Please have a good day. Thank you.
Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.
