Earnings Labs

Community Bank System, Inc. (CBU)

Q2 2020 Earnings Call· Mon, Jul 27, 2020

$63.20

+0.05%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-0.91%

1 Week

-3.57%

1 Month

+3.59%

vs S&P

-3.94%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Community Bank System Quarter -- Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. Please note that this presentation contains forward-looking statements within the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on current expectations, estimates and projection about the industry, markets and economic environment in which the company operates. Such statements involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in these statements. These risks are detailed in the company's Annual Report and Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Today's call presenters are Mark Tryniski, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Joseph Sutaris, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. They will all be joined by Joseph Serbun, Executive Vice President and Chief Banking Officer for the question-and-answer session. Gentlemen, you may begin.

Mark Tryniski

Management

Thank you, Cole. Good morning everyone and thank you all for joining our Q2 conference call. We hoped all of you and your families are well. Like most banks we had a busy quarter that revolved around PPP, loan deferrals and, for us, an acquisition as well. We provided nearly $500 million of PPP loans for our customers and granted $700 million of deferrals. One of the most significant impacts for the quarter was the change in our balance sheet which grew by over $1.6 billion from a combination of PPP, the Steuben acquisition and significant stimulus induced deposit growth, not surprisingly organic loan growth was negative for the quarter. Despite granting $700 million of loan deferrals over the past two quarters, total active deferrals as of Friday were down to $150 million and requests for a second deferral had been very limited, which we hope is good news for the future. We're certainly starting from a very good point given current credit metrics, but don't expect to necessarily sustain these levels as we move into the second half of the year. Operating earnings were actually pretty good for the quarter as Joe will discuss in further detail with operating PPNR up from both this last quarter and last year's Q2. Encouragingly, our benefits, wealth and insurance businesses are all up year-to-date over last year on both the revenue and in earnings basis. The Steuben acquisition closed on June 15, with the conversion and integration going nearly flawlessly. We were excited about this in-market transaction and the further strengthening of our Western New York footprint. Loan and deposit retention have both been almost 100% and we got three consolidations done there already. So, we're off to a very good start. Looking forward to the remainder of the year and into…

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. As Mark noted, the earnings results for the second quarter of 2020 were solid in spite of the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company recorded $0.66 in fully diluted GAAP earnings per share for the second quarter, excluding $0.05 per share for acquisition related expenses, net of tax effected $0.05 per share for acquisition related provision for credit losses, net of tax effect due to Steuben acquisition. Fully diluted operating earnings per share were $0.76 for the quarter. These results were $0.04 per share lower than the second quarter of 2019 operating, earnings per share of $0.80 due largely to the COVID-19 pandemic and its related impacts on the company's operations. The Company recorded $6.6 million in its provision for credit losses, exclusive of acquisition related provision in the second quarter of 2020, reflective of expected credit losses due to weak economic conditions. The company's adjusted pretax pre-provision net revenue increased $0.05 per share or 4.9% between comparable annual quarters and $0.03 or 2.9% on the linked quarter basis. I will next touch on the Steuben acquisition and the company's balance sheet before providing additional details on the company's earnings performance for the quarter. On June 12, 2020, the company acquired Steuben Trust Corporation and its banking subsidiary Steuben Trust Company for a combination of stock and cash, representing total consideration valued at approximately $98.6 million. The acquisition extended the company's footprint into two new counties in Western New York State and enhanced the company's presence at four Western New York State counties in which it currently operates. In connection with the acquisition of the company, consolidate three former Steuben branch offices into existing Community Bank branch offices, and added 11 additional full service offices to its current network. The company…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And our first question today will come from Alex Twerdahl with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

Hey, good morning guys.

Mark Tryniski

Management

Good morning, Alex.

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Good morning, Alex.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

First question, just on the additional reserve build this quarter. Was that mostly driven by just a change in the economic scenario inputs to the model? Or was there any portion of it that was actually related to any loan downgrades in the second quarter?

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Alex, it is a good question. Most of the reserve build was really due to changing economic conditions and continued challenges with the economic forecast as we kind of look ahead. But we also tried to estimate what would happen to delinquency given the level of deferrals, which is really sort of a non-economic qualitative factor. We have seen some modest migration in risk ratings, but not significant yet. We expect that in the third and the fourth quarter or that we'll continue to see some -- probably some migration downward relative to the risk rating and probably higher levels of delinquency. But our -- we'll continue to monitor that and monitor our customers to determine there's the additional provision requirements in the third and the fourth quarters.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

Okay. Thanks. And then -- appreciate all the additional color that you guys provided in this accompanying slide presentation on some of the more at risk portfolios. But I was wondering if you can just kind of help us all on the line, understand just sort of where your economies are and Upstate New York in terms of reopening. And then kind of, as you look at some of the higher categories on that list of that risk, the retail and the lodging, if you have any sense for sort of -- what sort of the utilization of some of these properties are right now. So, we can kind of get a better sense for whether or not -- kind of where the risks or the kind of things we should really be focusing on in terms of credit will be?

Mark Tryniski

Management

Alex, it's Mark. I would just broadly and ask Joe Serbun maybe to comment a little more detail, but say that our markets -- we were fortunate we've had lower infection rates, almost across all our markets, even in every state, essentially in a lot of that driven by the fact that they're less non-metropolitan or less metropolitan. So, I think that was a -- that's been a help for us that there hasn't been this severity of infections and lockdowns and the related impacts. Most of our markets are open for business, except for certain high risk businesses still like, gyms and bowling alleys and some other things. But most of it's open, which has been good. Clearly, it was interesting the trend in, which is really directly tied to economic activity, which is debit swipes. So, I mean, we can pretty clearly see when we had kind of the lockdown across most of our markets, in -- when was that April, I guess. I mean, the debit activity took an enormous hit, also overdraft as well. But then kind of recovered pretty nicely when things started to open back up. So, it's hard to predict right now. I mean, everything looks pretty good. The credit metrics are good. The fact that we -- I mean, I was surprised that our deferrals went from 700 to 150, and then that we've had very few requests for -- second deferrals, which we're going to address on kind of a case-by-case basis in terms of either yes or no. When you look at even some of like the at risk portfolios, like retail's a good example, a lot of its essential businesses that have reopened. So, I think, I'm cautiously optimistic about some of the credit. I think -- you look at the lodging portfolio, it's probably one that's a little more at risk for us. What is it, Joe, a couple of hundred million?

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Yeah.

Mark Tryniski

Management

That's probably a little more at risk. However, if you look at what our lending structure is like in terms of equity and you look at the occupancy kind of rates in the hotel industry have been coming back, which is good, hopefully that continues. That's probably one of our more at risk properties. I think also again, Joe, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's one of the sub sectors, which has seen more -- a higher percentage of requests for deferrals.

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Yeah.

Mark Tryniski

Management

So, I think, we seem to be doing okay. I mean, my -- you just -- there's so much uncertainty around, not just kind of the economic damage that's already been done. And what does that look like, because we don't know that yet, because there's been so much stimulus. It's just -- it's very difficult to predict what's going to happen when the stimulus wears off. So, I think the damage, the economic damage is already done, it's difficult to predict. And I think the future is equally, or maybe even more difficult, because the variability in terms of which way things go. I think if you look at what they're doing with the vaccine, total fast track on that. And I would be surprised given the different vaccine platforms and the amount of money and that whole process run that if there isn't some kind of good news and politically speaking, I would not be surprised if it happened before the election. So, I mean, it's hard to predict, but I think from where we sit right now, we we're in pretty good shape. I think we had not taken the provisions that some of our peers have. I think some of that -- we kind of follow our model. And some of -- I think some of the charges that have been taken, look, almost -- I think Joe, this is your word speculative, to send a message to, Hey, we have the reserves if we need them. I -- and we took kind of a different approach, which was, we'll take the provision. We need to take based on what the model says and what we're seeking in our markets without kind of trying to speculate on where things might go. But I think business -- to circle back to your initial question, Alex, I think business is okay. We continue to have kind of a lower infection level than a lot of other places, which has been good for us and good for our customers as well. So, I think, if we get some kind of break here in terms of either the infection or a vaccine, things will be great. If we have to kind of relockdown, if there's a surge in our markets, there's a relockdown that will -- we'll take a step back. So, I think there's a lot of unpredictability there. But Joe, I don't know if you want to comment just on more of a kind of customer level, here's what we're seeing and feeling, and maybe even comment on the lodging portfolio, because that seems to be where most of the deferral requests have come from.

Joseph Serbun

Analyst

So, let me just -- I'll touch on both portfolios, excuse me. So, on the retail portfolio, particularly the non-owner occupied CRE, just to put some context around it. So, the top 10% -- the top 10 clients that made up that portfolio, approximately $60 million or 41% of the total 900 non-owner occupied, much of that have national or regional type tenants. And they're not malls. These are large properties with multiple stores, with their own entrances. The LTV in that portfolio for the largest top 10, 71% -- ranges from 79% at the high to do an average of 40% so nice diversification from a loan devalue perspective. In my consent what we don't know is what impact is the online shopping going to have? Is it going to continue? And therefore, you're not going to handle the people going to the physical locations or physical stores to shop, still uncertain there. And on the hospitality, as Mark said, it is our largest. Just to put numbers around that, 53% of the total impacted dollars, lodging; and 25% of the impacted dollars, retail. So, 75% of the impacted dollars being those two portfolios for us. The numbers of loans that were impacted, 23% and 21%. So, we're keenly focused on those two portfolios. And I'll tell you that the deferrals, the first ones in, on the first go around and the first one was coming in and the second go around are the hospitality properties. And we're taking one at a time. I'll let you know that of the most current deferrals that we're doing. So, the second round deferrals. I think, this is important to understand the second round deferrals, 50% of them received a principal interest deferral, 10% of them -- almost 10% of them are going to be making a modified principal payment and interest payment. And the remaining balance of 40% or 42% will have a -- we'll be making an interest payment. So a good percentage is 50% of our portfolio is going to be making some level of payment, whether it's interest or modified principal and interest payment and the other 50% -- excuse me -- the other 50% are in the P&I deferral. And with respect to credit quality, we approached the first round -- the first of through period. If, you were a -- if you weren't a past credit, we downgraded you. We didn't move much credits on the first go around. We're looking harder and harder at the risk ratings and the second go around and we're moving. The credits is we deem appropriate.

Mark Tryniski

Management

I think, Joe, just to add one thing to that. If you look at the lodging portfolio, the current loan to value on that portfolio …

Joseph Serbun

Analyst

55%.

Mark Tryniski

Management

… is 55%. So, there's some fairly good equity coverage there in that portfolio. And these are for the most part, good developers with good flags. Yeah. So, I don't lose any sleep over where we were going to be. We're -- where we're going to end up in our lodging portfolio.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

Great. That was a very helpful answer. And then just a final question for me. Just -- can you remind us what your dividend policy is? Obviously, you've got plenty of coverage today. But remind us where the policy is and your willingness to continue increasing it on an annual basis, especially if the revenue environment continues to be challenged.

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Sure. Well, we think the dividend is important. We think it’s important to be balanced in that dividend. We don't want our -- the balance between return to shareholders of capital and capital retention to use in the business. So, I think, it's important that earnings grow over time, so that you can grow that dividend, because you can't just raise the dividend without growing your earnings. And as you know, and we're proud of we've raised the dividend every year for 27 or 28 years, something like that. So, that certainly we're biased towards growing the dividend, but also mindful of that balance between capital retention and return to shareholders.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

But I guess said another way you guys would be willing to raise the dividend at least for a year or two, even in an environment where revenues and earnings could be going down, just given how comfortable you are -- bigger cut your capital position is today. Is that a fair way to think about it?

Joseph Sutaris

Management

It may be. I mean, I think, it's difficult to predict, Alex, because I think a lot depends on where the credit results end up, what happens at least in our estimate out into the foreseeable future with margin and the interest rate environment, what happens to tax rates, it's not inconceivable that we have a different tax structure, than we currently have. So, I mean, we take all of those things into consideration before the Board makes judgments on the dividend, the dividend policy. So, all of those -- it's a little bit too complicated. I just -- I -- we don't want to get into a position where we are -- our -- we're willing to kind of, let say, tolerate a near term payout ratio that's either a little lower or a little higher than kind of historically, ideally we'd like it to kind of be in the 50% range. We have high earnings and low organic growth, so we don't need to retain as much capital to capitalize organic growth. So, that's a very good position to be in. But I would say -- you asked the question about policy, I think, 40% to 60% I would say is kind of a reasonable range for us. And we'd like to be in the middle of that. Over time the things do happen for different reasons, whether it's tax rate changes or the impact of M&A or other operating things that could impact kind of your earnings. And so, there's a lot of factors in play. I think our bias is towards continuing to raise the dividend. But I think if we saw severe storm clouds on the horizon for some reason, the pandemic gets worse, the economic out comes get worse as a result the tax rates go up. And we find ourselves where our current dividend policy is, substantially outside, what our kind of preference would be in -- I think we would probably do that on the short term -- on the short term basis. But -- so I would say payout ratio of 40% to 60% give or take, is where we want to be with a bias towards raising it if we can, and we believe that it's sensible.

Alex Twerdahl

Analyst

Thank you for taking my questions.

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Thank you, Alex.

Mark Tryniski

Management

Thanks, Alex.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Erik Zwick with Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead.

Erik Zwick

Analyst · Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys.

Mark Tryniski

Management

Good morning, Erik.

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Good morning, Erik.

Erik Zwick

Analyst · Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead.

First, I wanted to start with a couple follow-ups on the lodging portfolio, and I appreciate the detail you gave there, and it seems like you're not too concerned about this point. And you mentioned the strong LTV ratios. Curious at this point, can you give us a sense of distribution of the primary uses either kind of business or recreation for that portfolio, and also just any insight you might have into the current occupancy rates across the portfolio?

Joseph Serbun

Analyst · Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead.

Yeah. So, Erik, the occupancy rates are taking off, but still not where they need to be. So, I would tell you they're in the 35% to 40% occupancy by and large. And whether it's business or vacation traveling, I don't have a feel for what might be driving the -- driving the occupancy, but I'll be -- anecdotally, in speaking to some of our clients, particularly in destination type marketplace is, they're seeing a pickup over the last couple of weeks with people getting a little bit more comfortable with the pandemic and the wearing of the masks. And so there's in the extent that the hoteliers are going to keep their properties clean, sanitized. So, there's -- certainly those locations that are destination like they're seeing a much larger pickup in occupancy than you would in a more business environment. And remember most businesses have locked down, have locked down employees. They're not a lot to travel or hasn't been allowed to travel. Hopefully that'll change here shortly and we'll see some business pick up as well.

Erik Zwick

Analyst · Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the color there. And then on that smaller piece, the rooming and boarding houses, I guess, what are your sense for that? The universities and colleges that might support those -- for those reopening in the fall and what that -- how that portfolio might trend?

Joseph Serbun

Analyst · Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead.

Well, as we sit here today, there's an awful lot of talk about them opening up, and bringing students back on campus. Hopefully that happens, because there was a population of student housing that sits in -- that it sits in that portfolio. Again, I would tell you that, we pick solid sponsors with alternative cash flows and liquidity, and in this portfolio, no different. We could get some help by having them -- bring the students back. That would be terrific.

Erik Zwick

Analyst · Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead.

Then switching gears to the net interest margin. In the third quarter, it seems like there's a couple of variables that could impact it. One, you'll get a full quarter impact of the student coming in, which had a higher net interest margin. And then I guess there's the question in terms of excess liquidity, how much you continue to hold. And then also the impact of the PP loans -- PPP loans, as well as the related deposits. Just curious, your thoughts for -- what we might see the net interest margin? How it might kind of move relative to 2Q at this point?

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Okay, Erik. This is Joe Sutaris. So, I could take that question. I mean, you've identified all the variables that could impact us in the third quarter. We -- if you kind of peel back the excess cash and cash equivalents we had on the balance sheet in the second quarter of 2020, and sort of just call that -- call that a push for the quarter, in other words, basically a neutral effect, the core margin was down about six or seven basis points, which is the high three fifties excluding all that excess liquidity in the quarter. So that -- so our core margin did erode a little bit from the first quarter to the second quarter. With respect to the third quarter, if we do recognize, and I mentioned $13 million of net deferred PPP income, if we recognize some of that, I think you'll see the posted margin or the printed margin go up a bit in the third quarter. If you peel that back and roll in the Steuben transaction, I would probably characterize the third quarter net interest margin expectations is about a par with the second quarter. Obviously, the continued flat and a very low yield curve will present challenges as we move ahead, into the fourth quarter and into the first quarter of next year. We'd like a little slope, obviously, as all banks would, but right now, that's going to continue to sort of put a lid on the ability to grow net interest margin, even if we see -- even if we start to see some modest loan growth in the second half of the year, or even if it's -- just a little bit of growth, I think we'll generally -- it'll be difficult to really roll the margin because of the low interest rate environment.

Erik Zwick

Analyst · Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead.

That's helpful. Thanks, Joe. And then one last one, as I think about the last year or so, you've closed the Kinderhook and Steuben. And certainly the M&A environment has changed a little bit. We saw a few transactions in 2Q, but certainly down from historical standards. You're in an agitated situation where you still have a very strong currency relative to many other banks out there today. Just curious how you're thinking about M&A today, and what the pace of discussions are relative to past quarters? And how you would evaluate those targets today, given the unknowns and the economic outlook?

Mark Tryniski

Management

Yeah. No, fair question. I think, we -- the way we look at M&A is it's -- given we operate in low growth markets, M&A is not unimportant in terms of our ability to deliver double-digit returns to shareholders over time. And the model -- the formula is fairly simple. It's, let's get 3% to 4% organic, let's get 3% to 4% M&A over time and let's pay out a decent dividend to shareholders, and that's a double-digit return. So, it's a fairly simple formula. It's maybe a little harder to execute in real life than the formula, but M&A is an important part of that. So we never -- not stopped thinking about high value opportunities to our shareholders, whether that's in the bank space or the financial services/non-bank space. And so, we would continue to look at those opportunities. As I said, last quarter we would certainly and are always in the process of having conversations and evaluating opportunities. I think it's kind of slowed down a little bit, obviously, over the last few months. But I think there's green shoots starting to appear. I just -- I think that a lot of banks that maybe aren't starting from a position of strength, let's call it, are going to have a harder time, particularly if they're -- they don't have enough capital, they -- their interest margin is probably not going to grow out in to the future. And so, I think, you're going to see -- they've gotten beaten down on price in multiple, and so I think there's going to be -- it may take into 2021 for this dynamic to play out, but I think you're going to see a fair bit more M&A opportunity at some juncture in the future, because I think you're…

Erik Zwick

Analyst · Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead.

Thanks so much for all three of you for taking my questions.

Mark Tryniski

Management

Thanks, Erik.

Operator

Operator

And the next question comes from Russell Gunther with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Russell Gunther

Analyst · D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning guys.

Mark Tryniski

Management

Good morning, Russell.

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Good morning, Russell.

Russell Gunther

Analyst · D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Just a quick follow-up on -- if we think about sort of that $150 million pro forma deferral number, could you give us a sense for how that breaks down? What type of loans or exposures that is primarily consisting of?

Joseph Serbun

Analyst · D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Yeah. I'll take that, Russell. So, the -- I'll break it down between the various lines of business, if you will. So, the business loans about $130 million -- the consumer mortgage, home equity, consumer direct, indirect makes up the difference, in other words $13 million or $15 million [ph]. And keep in mind that our approach particularly around the consumer product is that we would participate in providing leeway round one deferral. But when it comes to round two, we will see very few. I wouldn't say zero, but very few second round consumer deferrals being granted. We'll use other loss mitigation type approaches to handle that. So, as we sit here today, $130 million in business and the difference is in the consumer portfolio.

Russell Gunther

Analyst · D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Okay. Great. And then of the $130 million that's in the business and if we think about it in terms of the COVID sensitive sectors that you guys identified on the slide. How would -- how would that breakdown?

Joseph Serbun

Analyst · D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Sure. So, you have lodging and retail, in percentage basis 53% lodging and 25% retail. Manufacturing, it drops drastic, manufacturing is just shy of 7.5%, then it just continue to go down, insignificant dollars, the first two. Sure.

Russell Gunther

Analyst · D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Got it. Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you so much. And then just in terms of how you guys are thinking about this exposure. I mean, are these credits that you believe are at risk simply because they are in a forbearance program and therefore that is captured in your current reserve? Or is this more of a risk migration that you referenced over the next couple of quarters and depending on that outcome, would impact future provisioning?

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Russell, this is Joe Sutaris. Regarding the future provision, I think, we'd like to have a little more visibility relative to when we come through this first round of deferrals what the second round will look like. I think, also, as we get towards the end of the third quarter, we'll have a better sense of true delinquency. We'll sort of unmask that, if you will, by not granting deferrals in the second round. And if we kind of run that through our model and it results in additional provisioning, we'll record that. I think Mark stated we wanted to be very -- want to rely on our model and create the expected losses, not the speculative losses. And quite frankly, the visibility has not been great, simply because there has been a lot of stimulus injected into the economy for that matter into the bank accounts of our depositors. So, we do think there is some pent-up repayment capacity there. How long that last? Time will tell. And for that matter, if we have a second round of stimulus, will there be additional ability to cover those payments? So, I think if we start to see higher levels of delinquency, some additional risk migration in the third quarter, we'll provision appropriately. But we're trying to capture everything that's expected at this point, but the lack of visibility just makes that a little bit difficult to determine what the future provisions might be. But certainly the credit metrics at the end of the second quarter look pretty good from an NPA perspective and from a net charge-off perspective, so that was encouraging.

Russell Gunther

Analyst · D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you for that, Joe. Last question for me would be around the kind of run rate expenses. You mentioned you'd expect them to move a bit higher for a number of reasons next quarter. But could you give us a sense in terms of where you would expect that to shake out considering just some normalized migration there, contemplating any cost saves from Steuben, just how that 3Q non-interest expense number might look.

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Yeah. That's a very fair question. So, our operating -- OpEx run rate prior to COVID, we were kind of calling in the $93 million to $94 million range in a quarter, exclusive of Steuben. Obviously, the world changed on us very quickly. So, we were able to recognize significant savings on the operating expense line item, particularly in the second quarter. Some of that was payroll based. It was medical plan utilization. Virtually all the travel, if you will, and a lot of our -- I should say employee travel and those costs came down significantly as did our business development and marketing expenses. So, sort of going back, so we're sitting at $87.5 million this quarter, which was lower -- very low relative to what we expected our full tilt run rate to be, which was $93 million and $94 million before Steuben. But what I would expect is that in the third quarter, we're going to see a significant increase in the payroll and medical costs. We're going to have higher utilization. We have an extra payroll day. Couple other items are going to drive up the payroll costs. We're resuming our business development activities. Relative to the second quarter, we were down about $1.5 million I believe over the same quarter last year. So, we're basically kind of picking back up on the business development. Other expenses will start to come back. I think the travel related expenses will come back a little bit slower as the economies open up. So, our expectation for the full tilt run rate, including Steuben, was $95 million to $96 million. I don't think we'll be at full tilt necessarily in the third quarter. But once we get back to full tilt, assuming there is a vaccine, I think that's a fair run rate. So, I would expect us to ramp up from $87.5 million at some point in the next couple of quarters back to that $95 million, $96 million level.

Russell Gunther

Analyst · D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Joe. Very helpful. That's it from me guys. Thanks again.

Mark Tryniski

Management

Thanks, Russell.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Matthew Breese with Stephens, Inc. Please go ahead.

Matthew Breese

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please go ahead.

Good morning.

Mark Tryniski

Management

Good morning Matt.

Matthew Breese

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please go ahead.

Just curious, on the deferrals down $150 million, the cure rate on that is obviously very solid. Is the decrease all attributable to resumption of payment, or is there any transfer to non-accrual or TDR type categories?

Joseph Serbun

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please go ahead.

It's -- all is resumption of payments. The deferral period has come and left. It's come and gone.

Matthew Breese

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please go ahead.

Understood. Okay. And then, Joe, you mentioned on -- in regards to the 3Q NIM that you -- you might be able to just hold par all things considered. Were you referring to the reported NIM this quarter of 3.37% the whole par or the liquidity adjusted NIM the high 3.50%s?

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Yeah. No, that's very fair question. So, liquidity stays where it is in the third quarter relative to where we were in the second quarter. The NIM at 3.37% is expected to stay about there, about 3.37%. So, as the core number was closer, it was a high 3.50%s about 3.57%. So, the core NIM I think would also hold up very similarly in the third quarter. So, both I think would hold in the third quarter all things considered.

Matthew Breese

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please go ahead.

Okay. Does that also imply net interest income expectations in this $92 million can hold for a while? And then secondly, longer term, what is your view on ultimately deploying that liquidity? How long do you think that will take?

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Well, I think the liquidity question is very uncertain at this point. I mean, I would expect that some of our -- some of that cash, that's sort of pent-up on the -- in the depositors accounts will start to runoff potentially just because the activity is going to pick up, commerce will pick up. They're going to begin to make some loan payments. Conversely, if there is a second round of stimulus, they'll reload effectively on some of that liquidity. So, that's a tough call to make relative to which direction it's going. And as far as the opportunity to deploy that, at the present time those opportunities are fairly limited. The yield curve is very flat at this point in time, and there really hasn't been a great trade, if you will, on the longer end of the curve. If the fed continues to manage the yield curve out to 10 years and keep rates very low, there will be challenges relative to deploying some of that excess liquidity. But barring another round of stimulus, I would expect some of that to trickle out over the coming quarters as consumers start to spend that and pay down debt. I think at 4:30 today, there is an announcement relative to some proposals on the next round of stimulus and my understanding is the parties are kind of far apart. So -- but that will help determine what the liquidity profile will look like in the coming quarters.

Matthew Breese

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please go ahead.

Okay. All right. Last one, the employee benefit services line has held up really well fee-wise, much more stable than it would have expected. And I always thought this business was assets under administration driven. Is that the case or the fees more contractual versus AUA? And then, is the $24 million to $25 million quarterly run rate, is that something we can use going forward?

Mark Tryniski

Management

I would say yes. It's much -- that business is much less dependent on market equity -- market performance than the wealth management business. So, we expect, I mean, that business to continue to grow modestly over time as it has. There is a certain element of that business. I'm not sure exactly what the percentage is. Joe, I don't know if you know it, but of it that's directly tied to the market, but it's not that much. So -- and the business is doing okay. We continue to win opportunities. And we continue to organically grow some of those core businesses that are in -- that are in good markets. So, I would expect to -- certainly the second half of the year and I think we had some, I'll call them deferred wins that we expected to book or close in the first half of the year that didn't happen because of COVID, that are now expected to close in the second half of the year. So, there might be a little bit of pent-up revenue opportunity in the second half of the year as well. But we would expect those businesses to continue to do okay regardless of equity market conditions.

Matthew Breese

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please go ahead.

Got it. That's all I had. Thanks for taking my questions.

Mark Tryniski

Management

Sure. Thanks, Matt.

Joseph Sutaris

Management

Thanks, Matt.

Operator

Operator

And this will conclude our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Tryniski for any closing remarks.

Mark Tryniski

Management

No -- nothing further. Thank you, Cole. Thank you everyone for joining, and we will talk to you again in October. Enjoy the rest of your summer. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

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