Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 14 of 16

Dale Gibbons: Well, I would argue with exceptionally. I think it is, I think, I mean we want to lean conservative, obviously, a little bit. The other thing I would say that, I think, maybe you need to consider recognize is that, a lot of these deposit costs we have are going to be moving up with when the FOMC moves next week as well. So to the degree that we have got kind of brokered funding and some of these other sources, relatively short-term earnings, Moody’s credit rates for some of these large balances related to mortgage warehouse clients. Those are going to move almost to lockstep may that doesn’t show up necessarily in interest expense, but it shows up in terms of the cost of our PPNR number. So there is going to be a push up in terms of funding charges related to that as well. But as I mentioned, we are asset sensitive and so the net effect of what happens next week should be a plus.

Brody Preston: Got it. And then just last couple on credit for me. I just wanted to ask — was there — that you mentioned you did the office CRE deep dive, was that what kind of drove the reappraisals on those office — those CBD office loans, Ken, or was there something else specifically that drove that?

Ken Vecchione: No. That was it. That was it.

Brody Preston: Okay. And then just — I know that when you are working through the special mention…

Ken Vecchione: All right. I am sorry.

Brody Preston: Yeah.

Ken Vecchione: Sorry, I was answering the other question, which was — we basically only have one credit in CBD and that we moved to substandard and then we appraised it and repriced higher than the loan amount. So that’s the answer for that. I am sorry, I cut you off on the other question.

Brody Preston: No. That’s okay. I was just going to say, I know that when you are working through the special mention loans, at least this is what you did with the hotels during COVID as you kind of — as you mentioned, you asked them to re-margin the loan. I guess it’s early days, but with any of those conversations with your sponsors, has anybody backed that the idea of bringing more equity to the table to help re-margin these loans?

Ken Vecchione: No. So the reason why they are in special mention, there is some weakness, as Tim Bruckner said, but also there is a spirit of cooperation that they want to get to a positive outcome that will either require re-margining or restructuring in some way, shape or form. What’s interesting, maybe I will give you this fun fact, Brody. Our average LTV is about 55%. We are a low advance rate lender. So on our $2.3 billion of CRE, all in for the company. There’s about $2 billion of equity in front of us and so I am talking about the whole book. And that gives a lot of motivation for sponsors to sit and work with us in the — any assets that have been moved into special mention.

Brody Preston: Got it. Okay. Yeah. Just given how proactive it is and it sounds like the borrowers are willing to kind of meet you there, to meet again at, it sounds like maybe special mention loans we had lower and classified loans heading lower end into the year end, but I guess we will watch that going forward. Thanks for taking the questions, guys.

Page 14 of 16