Good day and welcome to the Banner Corporation's First Quarter 2021 Conference Call and Webcast. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mark Grescovich, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. I would also like to welcome you to the first quarter and 2021 earnings call for Banner Corporation. As is customary, joining me on the call today is Peter Conner, our Chief Financial Officer; Jill Rice, our Chief Credit Officer; and Rich Arnold, our Head of Investor Relations. Rich, would you please read our forward-looking safe harbor statements.

Sure, Mark. Good morning. Our presentation today discusses Banner's business outlook and will include forward-looking statements. Those statements include descriptions of management's plans, objectives or goals for future operations, products or services, forecast of financial or other performance measures and statements about Banner's general outlook for economic and other conditions. We also may make other forward-looking statements in the question-and-answer period following management's discussion. Additionally, we provided an investor presentation that could be found in the Investor Relations section of our website, bannerbank.com. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those discussed today. Information on the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ are available from the earnings press release that was released yesterday and a recently filed Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020. Forward-looking statements are effective only as of the date that they are made and Banner assumes no obligation to update information concerning its expectations. Mark?

Thank you, Rich. First of all, I hope you and your families are well as we all continue to battle the COVID virus and its effects on our communities and the economy. Today, we will cover four primary items with you. First, I will provide you high-level comments on Banner's first quarter performance. Second, the actions Banner continues to take to support all of our stakeholders, including our Banner team, our clients, our communities and our shareholders. Third, Jill Rice will provide comments on the current status of our loan portfolio. And finally, Peter Conner will provide more detail on our operating performance for the quarter. I want to begin by thanking all of my 2,100 colleagues in our company that are working extremely hard to assist our clients and communities during these difficult times. Banner has lived our core values summed up as doing the right thing for 130 years. It is critically important that we continue to do the right thing for our clients, our communities, our colleagues, our company and our shareholders to provide a consistent and reliable source of commerce and capital through all economic cycles and change events. I am pleased to report that is exactly what we continue to do. I am very proud of the entire Banner team that are living our core values. Now let me turn to an overview of our first quarter performance. As announced, Banner Corporation reported a net profit available to common shareholders of $46.9 million or $1.33 per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. This compared to a net profit to common shareholders of $1.10 per share for the fourth quarter of 2020 and $0.47 per share for the first quarter of 2020. This quarter's earnings were impacted by the allowance for credit losses…

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. As you read in our press release, Banner's credit metrics continue to remain stable as we move through the current pandemic-induced credit cycle, and as such, I will keep my comments relatively brief this morning. Banner's delinquent loans as of March 31 represent 0.43% of total loans, an increase of 6 basis points since year-end and compared to 0.66% as of March 31, 2020. Nonperforming assets represent 0.23% of total assets, a decrease of 1 basis point when compared to the linked quarter. Nonperforming assets are comprised of nonperforming loans totaling $36.9 million, up $1.3 million in the quarter and REO and other assets of $377,000. Adversely classified loans represent 3.11% of total loans as of March 31, down from 3.45% as of year-end and compared to 1.36% as of March 31, 2020. As was the case last quarter, the majority of the improvement in -- is due to risk rating upgrades as borrowers continue to show a return to more normalized operations. These upgrades were not centered in any one asset class, rather were spread across commercial businesses as well as both owner and investor commercial real estate and small business relationships. As of March 31, our ACL reserve totals $156.1 million or 1.57% of total loans, down from 1.69% reported as of December 31 and compared to 1.41% as of March 31, 2020. Excluding loans held for sale and the Paycheck Protection loans, our current ACL reserve continues to provide significant coverage at 1.81% of total loans or 143% coverage of nonaccrual loans and 367% coverage of delinquent loan. Loan Losses during the quarter totaled $4.7 million and were offset by recoveries of $1.5 million. With the continued decline in portfolio loan balances, down $195 million quarter-over-quarter net of PPP loans,…

Thank you, Jill, and good morning, everyone. As discussed previously and as announced in our earnings release, we reported net income of $46.9 million or $1.33 per diluted share for the first quarter compared to $39 million or $1.10 per diluted share in the prior quarter. The $0.23 increase in per share earnings was driven as a result of an $8 million loan loss provision recapture, an increase in core noninterest income and lower noninterest expense. Core revenue, excluding gains and losses on securities and changes in fair value of financial incidents carried at fair value, decreased $1.7 million from the prior quarter, primarily as a result of a decline in the yield on earning assets due to the low rate environment. Core expenses, including unfunded loan commitment provision expense decreased $1.7 million due primarily to a decline in legal, marketing and branch consolidation expense from the prior quarter. Turning to the balance sheet. Total loans decreased $32 million from the prior quarter end as a result of a decline in multifamily loans held for sale, the reduction in held for investment portfolio loan outstandings, partially offset by an increase in SBA PPP loans. Excluding PPP loans and held for sale loans, portfolio loans declined $195 million due primarily to elevated prepayments in the one-to-four mortgage portfolio, seasonal declines in agricultural loan outstandings and lower line utilization in the commercial business portfolios. Held for sale loans decreased by $109 million due to a bulk sale of multifamily loans during the quarter. Ending core deposits increased $990 million from the prior quarter end due to new deposits from the latest round of SBA PPP loan fundings, fiscal stimulus payments and continued increases in average client deposit balance liquidity. Core deposits have grown an unprecedented $3.4 billion or 36% over the last…

Thank you, Peter, and Jill, for your comments. That concludes our prepared remarks today. And Tom, we will now open the call and welcome your questions.

[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from Jeff Rulis with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

I wanted to follow-up on the branch closures. I'd be interested in just from your perspective, the customer retention and the impact that you've had? And based on maybe favorable results, additional closures, is that something that's being discussed?

Yes, Jeff. This is Peter. I can address that. Yes, we -- as you know, we consolidated 21 branch locations in the third and fourth quarter of last year. And we do monitor client attrition associated with those branch locations. And so far, through the first quarter, the collective deposit attrition for those 21 locations is running less than 5%. And that includes some locations that were fairly distant from their next closest branch. And we -- so it's performing better than the way we modeled those decisions. And I think it's reflective of the fact that clients have remained sticky to Banner or -- and have adapted to other channels that don't require the branch platform. And I think to the second question, we continue to look for opportunities to harvest consolidations in the branch network that exists today. But I would characterize the pace of branch consolidations will be at a lower pace than we did last year.

Okay. And maybe a follow-on is just as you digest what you've done, Peter, I got your comment that you'd expect a lower expense run rate. I would imagine we back out merger cost this quarter. So we're talking about something inside of that. Are we -- you said we're angling towards the targeted cost efficiencies. Will that all kind of be in the Q2 run rate? And then from there, is it growth dependent? Or is it -- it did take a couple of quarters to kind of continue to drift away given those closures?

Yes. What we anticipate is we'll see improvement in the second quarter in terms of the core expense run rate as a function of not just the branch closure and lower cost of supporting a smaller branch network, but also the benefits of the Islanders merger, which was closed in mid-quarter. So the expense synergies for Islanders will begin to manifest in the second quarter, along with some of the expense initiatives that have been implemented that we've been talking about. So we'll see the effects of those on cumulative basis begin to show up in the second quarter. There's still some additional -- there's other efficiencies in-flight that will benefit later in the year as we currently see them. So I would characterize that -- it's kind of a soft landing. And then the assets and some of the wildcards are the pace of business activity, mortgage, in particular, the commission expense and in the pace of growth that drive variable costs in the company, along with some seasonality that we always have that shows up in the fourth quarter and some of the expense line items.

Okay. And my last one is on the margin, Peter, you kind of walk through the push and pull of a few of those items. And I guess if we continue to look at securities investment to kind of grow spread income dollars, but it sounds like maybe that could leave the margin, maybe some compression in the short term. Is that the message that I got right?

Well, there's a higher number of moving parts in the margin today than there have been historically, as you know. And there are really four key drivers of where -- what's going to drive the margin in the next three to four quarters. One is the pace of PPP loan forgiveness. And as we've said, we are anticipating a somewhat of a surge in loan forgiveness activity in the second quarter, which will accelerate the unamortized loan pricing fee into interest income as those loans are forgiven. And so for the PPP portfolio, we're anticipating an increase in the average yield on that book as those loans pay off. The second element, there's really four elements of the kind of driving the margin. The second element is the level of just average client deposit liquidity. So we had almost $1 billion of increase in the first quarter. The question is, will that liquidity hold? Will it begin to move off-balance sheet as the economy recovers? That's another ingredient. And then the third is loan demand. You heard Jill's comments is that the pipelines are building. We had a strong quarter of loan production and we think the pace of prepayments on the existing book are beginning to slow down. So the pace of loan demand resumption and line utilization is another ingredient. And the last one is, with all of that taken into account, the pace of our laddering of the excess deposit liquidity into the securities book is the last ingredient into the margin. So I guess, taking that all in, I would anticipate that we're going to be treading water in the margin in the second quarter, in part due to the PPP balance. And then for the rest of the year, there'll be some forgiveness. And then what we're seeing is that the loan coupon on a static balance sheet for the entire loan book is repricing at a fairly modest pace. It's repricing at about 2 basis points to 3 basis points down, all things equal on a static balance sheet basis. If the yield curve were to remain flat to today, we're getting some of that back. We're getting at about 2 basis points of cost of funds reduction every quarter or two. So we're seeing a pretty modest headwind to margin on a static basis, it's the liquidity and balance sheet mix that are really going to drive the margin in the next three quarters. So I don't know how helpful that was, but I want to give you our thought process and the ingredients that will go into the margin in the next few quarters.

The next question comes from Andrew Liesch with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

So last quarter, the commentary around loan growth was that balances would end this year basically flat from the end of 2020. And it sounds like pipelines are going in core types and they'll be offset by PPP paydowns as the year goes on. Is that still a reasonable target to have basically loans end up flat relative to the end of 2020?

Yes, Andrew, this is Jill. That's still what we are targeting, that we'll be able to be flat. That's going to be a good year for us given the rapid repayments that we're having in the residential refinancing and the offset there. But for 2021, we're still indicating that we anticipate flat and would expect that we'll return to our normal mid-single-digit growth rate in 2022.

Got it. Great. And then in -- on the gain on sale revenue line, the $11.4 million, can you just provide a breakout on what dollar amount was multifamily versus the dollar amount of residential?

Yes. This is Peter, Andrew. Yes, the multifamily component was right at $1 million of that total. As we alluded to, we had a successful quarter of gain on sale and sales activity. And what we're seeing in general in that business unit is a renewed demand for our product, both from a credit and pricing perspective, the demand has really resumed to full pre-pandemic levels. And so we continue to see very strong buyer demand for that product going forward. So the real -- the drivers of that line item quarter-to-quarter really the pace of new originations and the consummation of the sales, which can be lumpy depending on the timing and the execution dates of those sales. But overall, that line of business is resumed to its full pre-pandemic levels.

The next question comes from David Feaster with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

I wanted to start on originations. It's really encouraging to see the acceleration in originations, exclusive of PPP. Just curious, maybe some detail as to what drove that. How much of it was new client growth from maybe PPP activity or just more activity from your existing client base? And then I guess, with the stronger pipeline, you kind of gave some guidance on where we end up in the year. But do you think 1Q represents the trough or maybe expect and start growing in the second quarter? Or do you think maybe there could be some additional runoff just given payoffs and paydowns?

David, this is Jill. The drivers of the growth that we saw in the first quarter are across different product lines. You don't see it in any one market or one industry. C&I growth was solid, and we've had some owner-occupied transactions as well, multifamily construction. So really, we're seeing strong growth in the pipeline and what you saw in the production is across the footprint and in various product types. My crystal ball isn't clear enough to suggest that we are -- that we've hit the trough. I think you have to take into account the stage of reopening that we have across our markets, and it still fits and starts. And so that's going to impact the business confidence and when they start really expanding into building their inventories and things like that. So I would push it more to the second half. We really, on this West Coast, are starting to reopen. But again, it's not-- we're not fully open.

Yes, David, this is Mark. Let me just add that a lot of our assumption here is that the efficacy of the vaccines are going to take effect. And the West Coast is lagging other parts of the country in terms of reopening. So I think Jill's commentary and caution about growth occurring in the second half of the year is warranted based on just the uncertainty that we're seeing right now in terms of reopening.

Yes. That's fair. And then maybe just -- could you -- we've talked in the past about the market for new hires? And just curious what you're seeing and how the hiring pipeline is looking? Just with bonuses paid out, have you seen more opportunities? And maybe are there any more -- any regions that you're specifically looking to add talent and deepen the team?

Yes, David, this is Mark. Look, the good news is that Banner has got a tremendous reputation in our markets. Our regional executives have talent pipelines. So they keep in contact with many bankers in our footprint that they believe would be truly additive to our organization and fit with our culture. So we've seen opportunities here to add additional talent even through the pandemic, and we've been very successful at it. So those are all the positive things. I would suggest to you that if -- the opportunity to have discussions with other bankers has accelerated, primarily because of some frustrations in their own institutions. And Banner is a good alternative to a commercial banker coming to our organization and being able to deliver services to their client base. So we have seen a pickup.

Okay. That's encouraging. And then just in the prepared remarks, you talked about not chasing looser structures or aggressive pricing. I guess maybe could you elaborate what segments that you maybe you see more of that and whether it's coming from the larger regionals or the smaller community banks stretching for growth? And then just on new loan yields, has there been any reprieve just given the steepening of the yield curve, has that helped pricing at all?

So in terms of -- and David, this is Jill. The looser structure and low pricing, it isn't in any one product type. We had that in the agricultural portfolio. We had that in C&I. Where are we seeing the loosening structure, primarily the regional banks are the large banks. But again, people are hungry for loans. And so we're starting to see structure loosen and pricing go down from all of our competition. And I feel like I missed a part of the question now. There was one more piece of that question that could you repeat?

Well, Peter, you might want to address the yield compression.

Yes, David, I think what we see from a pricing perspective is, while the yield curve has steepened and provides a bit of support on some of the term loan side is being offset by, as Jill alluded to, the elevated competitive pressures on generating loan growth. So we're -- and we've taken the tact of remaining disciplined on pricing. We're not chasing yield to generate loan growth. We think -- and we don't want to create excessive duration and lock in low rates here too quickly. So I guess, on balance, we're not seeing a lot of lift yet in new loan pricing given the offsetting competitive pressures to the increasing and steepening yield curve.

The next question comes from Jackie Bohlen with KBW. Please go ahead.

A little bit of a housekeeping question, but I want to make sure that I'm starting with the right base given the impact of net deferred fees. Peter, do you have the end-of-period PPP dollar value for the loan portion?

The loan portion. Yes, it's -- and we do disclose it in our investor deck on Page 21, as I referenced, but it was $1.3 billion in PPP loan outstandings at the end of the quarter. And associated with that portfolio of $34.1 million of unamortized loan processing fees. So hopefully, we know that will be brought into the income based on the pace of loans forgiveness and paydowns and reaching -- and we think we'll see an acceleration of that in the second quarter.

Okay. Yes, I did see that number. So that's already net of the unamortized fees, the $1.3 billion on there?

It is not actually. So it's a gross number.

Okay. And then also -- sorry, I can't find what slide I pulled it from. But the loan yield of 4.52%, that was ex-PPPs, if I dotted down my notes correctly, Slide 16. Can you happen to have that for last quarter?

I do. And I'm going to have to get back to because I don't have it handy, but what we think it allude to -- when to my prepared remarks was a 10 basis point reduction in loan yields from Q4 to Q1. And that was inclusive of the PPP loans. And we did have forgiveness activity in Q4 and Q1. And so I -- the PPP loan component had a very de minimis impact on the change in loan yields from Q4 to Q1. And then if we take away the interest recoveries and prepayment penalty-related interest income out of the fourth quarter that was elevated, and we just looked at the loan coupon, there was a 6 basis point decline, which is reflective of the core portfolio outside of the PPP book.

Okay. That's helpful. And sorry for the technicality of my questions. Touching on kind of a more broad topic. Just in terms of how you're thinking about capital management, and you obviously had some repurchases in the quarter putting the new authorization to use how are you thinking about capital deployment going forward? And do you have a particular ratio that you're targeting?

Yes. Our guidance on capital appointment is remaining consistent. And we announced a $1.7 million share repurchase authorization in December. And so we have plenty of headroom left on that authorization to do more repurchases this year. We -- in this environment, we're still favoring repurchase as to the form of capital deployment given Banner's relative discount and alternative uses of that capital. We think given the outlook this year and our pace of generating retained earnings and the lessened pressure on the reserve that there is capacity for continued capital deployment as we go through the rest of this year given our capital ratios. We don't guide to specific capital targets in the sense that we used to with -- tangible common equity is, obviously, depressed due to the growth in deposits and the growth in assets, but our risk-weighted capital ratios actually remained flat to Q4. So we really -- we're focusing on a combination of metrics in this environment. But I would characterize that we don't anticipate a lot of decline in the risk-based capital ratio and whatever we do because that's a better barometer of capital adequacy than tangible common equity right now. So you could kind of expect that we wouldn't drive a decline in the risk-based capital ratio after any capital decisions as a way to kind of give you some guidelines on how we think about it.

[Operator Instruction] The next question comes from Andrew Terrell with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Jill, maybe a quick one for you. I was looking at the reserve against the commercial real estate portfolio. I think it stepped up about 4 basis points this quarter. Were there any sub portfolios or specific industry verticals within CRE that led to that step up? Or maybe just any other color you can share on just the puts and takes there.

So within that sub portfolio in -- I would lean towards the conservative nature of watching what's happening in the office space as we move forward and just economic changes to retail properties and our view of things that might be coming in the future and just making sure we've got the right reserves there given what's sitting in that portfolio as well as our classified assets still hanging around in the commercial real estate space.

We actually have no further questions. Andrew, do you have something else to say? Just wanted to check, then this concludes our question-and-answer session. I will now turn it back over to Mark Grescovich for any closing remarks.

Thanks, Tom. As I stated, we're very proud of the Banner team as we continue to do the right thing as we battle this COVID virus and the changes in the economic climate, while servicing our clients, our communities each other and our shareholders. Thank you for your interest in Banner and for joining our call today. We look forward to reporting our results to you again in the future. Have a great day, everyone, and be safe.

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.