Earnings Labs

M&T Bank Corporation (MTB)

Q3 2020 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 22, 2020

$217.16

-0.35%

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

+1.38%

1 Week

-4.91%

1 Month

+13.53%

vs S&P

+9.80%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the M&T Bank Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode and later, we will open the floor for your questions. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Don MacLeod, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Don MacLeod

Analyst

Thank you, Maria, and good morning. I'd like to thank everyone for participating in M&T's third quarter 2020 earnings conference call, both by telephone and through the webcast. If you have not read the earnings release, we issued this morning may access it along with the financial tables and schedules from our website, www.mtb.com by clicking on the Investor Relations link and then on the Events and Presentations link. Before we start, I'd like to mention that comments made during this call might contain forward-looking statements relating to the banking industry and to M&T Bank Corporation. Actual results could differ from what is described in those forward-looking statements. M&T encourages participants to refer to our SEC filings on Forms 8-K, 10-K and 10-Q including the Form 8-K filed today in connection with our earnings release for a complete discussion of forward-looking statements and risk factors. Now I'd like to introduce our Chief Financial Officer, Darren King.

Darren King

Analyst

Thanks, Don, and good morning, everyone. As noted in this morning's press release, we were pleased with the improving level of economic activity, our markets experienced in the third quarter, particularly in terms of consumer and business spending. Specifically, we saw strong debit and credit card usage both by consumers and business which also manifested in an increase in merchant volumes. The mortgage market was robust in the third quarter where we witnessed an uptick in both residential origination volumes and margins. Our Trust business experienced the increase in money fund we fee waivers, we had been anticipating, but those were offset by strong equity and debt markets during the quarter. Expense trends were in line with our expectations as we continue to exercise diligence in a particularly difficult revenue environment. Also encouraging asset trends for commercial customers granted some form of COVID-19 forbearance, and for which have reached its endpoint, approximately 10% have asked for additional relief. The common equity Tier 1 ratio improved by 31 basis points to 9.81% at the same time, the allowance for loan losses grew to 1.79% of loans. Positioning M&T to meet the needs of our customers and communities. Now let's review our results for the quarter. Diluted GAAP earnings per common share were $2.75 for the third quarter of 2020 compared with $1.74 in the second quarter of 2020 and $3.47 in the third quarter of 2019. Net income for the quarter was $372 million compared with $241 million in the linked quarter and $480 million in the year ago quarter. On a GAAP basis M&T's third quarter results produced an annualized rate of return on average assets of 1.06% and an annualized return on average common equity of 9.53%. This compares with rates of 0.71% and 6.13% respectively in the previous…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The floor is now open for your questions. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of John Pancari of Evercore ISI.

John Pancari

Analyst

Good morning.

Darren King

Analyst

Good morning, John.

John Pancari

Analyst

On the credit side, wanted to if you could give us a little bit more color behind the rationale for the reserve build in the quarter. I know you mentioned some of the ongoing uncertainty in the backdrop and around stimulus. So just curious was there an overlay that you applied or are you seeing something specific there to justify the addition. Thanks.

Darren King

Analyst

Yes, sure. John, I guess if you break down some of the components. The big driver obviously is the macroeconomic variables that you run through the model, and while they were modestly better the [ph] quarters really haven't changed much from what we were looking at in the third quarter. And so those really drive the magnitude of the allowance at its core, and so there is really no change there. And then when you look underneath, you see some growth in certain segments of the portfolio. So growth in the consumer book and some growth in CRE much of the addition was for that and then the other just reflects the uncertainty, I guess is the way to put it are some conservatism in the forbearance portfolio and what that ultimately might look like.

John Pancari

Analyst

Okay, all right, that's helpful, thanks. And then separately on the credit front, can you give us an update on the performance trends that you're seeing in your commercial real estate portfolio from a credit perspective, how are you seeing your borrowers impacted in the backdrop and are you seeing some stress there in terms of credit performance. Thanks.

Darren King

Analyst

Yes, so I guess looking at the commercial real estate portfolio, the ones that we are most focused on right now, the segments we're most focused on - or the hotel segment and the retail segment. And those are ones where there has been significant amount of forbearance in those portfolios. And for the most part for those portfolios received 180-day forbearance, and so they will start to show themselves over the next 90 days. And the hotel business continues to be challenged, particularly in some of the larger cities where you have a hotel that maybe relies on conferences or food and beverage as part of their business. Those ones are probably the most challenged. When you get into other segments of the hotel portfolio where you're able to get there by car and able to drive up, we've seen some return of revenue not all the way back obviously toward things were, but able to cash flow. And so, we're watching those portfolios as we go through this quarter, but we are pleased by the reaction we've seen from the customer so far and their ability to manage their expenses down to try and keep their cash flow at least as close to breakeven as possible. We continue to feel very positive about the loan to values in the portfolio. And then in particular and New York City, which I know it gets a lot of attention I think the average loan to value is less than 50% and when I look at New York City we have about $42 million of loans outstanding, which are two loans that are between 60% and 70% LTV, and five loans and $152 million between 50% and 60%. And then the vast majority is less than 50% LTVs and so when…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Steven Alexopoulos of JP Morgan.

Steven Alexopoulos

Analyst

Hey, good morning, Darren.

Darren King

Analyst

Good morning, Steven.

Steven Alexopoulos

Analyst

So on the loans that you purchased out of the Ginnie Mae pools, can you - what's the yield on those and are you likely to purchase again at a similar level in 4Q?

Darren King

Analyst

Yes. So that, in round numbers. The yield on those Ginnie's is about 4%. Each one will be slightly different, but it's right around there plus or minus 5 basis points, and it's something that we will continue to do, just because it makes economic sense to take some of these loans that are being serviced and buy them out sort of we only have to have the carry cost and we don't have to advance the principal and interest to the investors. But I think what you saw in this quarter was a larger than what would be normal uptick in those balances because there were some residual hangover from the second quarter where there hadn't been active buyouts happening. And so the run rate is probably more and like that $250 million to $300 million a month range give or take. And there was just a larger uptick this quarter because that hadn't happened very much in the second quarter.

Steven Alexopoulos

Analyst

Okay, that's helpful. And I think you also said the purchases were late in the quarter. So we'll see the benefits flow through into 4Q from this quarter.

Darren King

Analyst

Yes it continues through the quarter. There'll be a little bit of an uptick in the fourth quarter, but not as big as what we saw this quarter.

Steven Alexopoulos

Analyst

Okay, all right, thanks for taking my question.

Darren King

Analyst

Sure.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Erika Najarian of Bank of America.

Erika Najarian

Analyst

Hi, good morning, Darren.

Darren King

Analyst

Good morning, Erika.

Erika Najarian

Analyst

My one question is on the contribution from the swap portfolio, heard you loud and clear in terms of the notional stepping up to $17 billion. And I'm wondering if you could give us a sense on what is the provision was to net interest income from your derivative book in the fourth quarter - sorry in the third quarter and how that - that progress either on an annual or quarterly basis, however you want to give it in 2021?

Darren King

Analyst

Sure. So, I think we talked last quarter about the hedging adding about 26 basis points to the net interest margin for the quarter was up slightly in the third quarter to about 30. And what you'll see going forward is as we mentioned earlier, as the notional goes up, but the coupon the received fixed comes down the impacts about the same we think in the fourth quarter and the first quarter of next year and then over time as the start the swaps that become active have a lower coupon the benefit will start to trickle down as we go through 2021. And probably a good assumption to be like after you get through the second quarter 3 basis points a quarter decrease in the benefit of the hedge based on our forecast of what the balance sheet looks like.

Erika Najarian

Analyst

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Matt O'Connor of Deutsche Bank.

Matt O'Connor

Analyst

Good morning. I want to follow up on expenses, the cost of interest-bearing very good this year. And the guidance for 4Q is in line with what you said three months ago, but how sustainable is the expense management is it kind of just a one-time kind of pulling in on something that is on all that sustainable? Is that kind of some structural changes or a combination of two of them?

Darren King

Analyst

Yes Matt. It's good question. When I guess some of the things that I think are sustainable, that you really see illuminated in the fourth or the third quarter results - and if you look at the salaries and benefits and you compare them to where they were in the third quarter of last year, you can see they're basically flat, they're up, I think about $2 million. But if you look at the other cost of operations, which is where the professional services shows up, you can see the drop there and some of the drop obviously is because there was an impairment that we took in the third quarter of last year that didn't repeat itself this year, but outside of that you see. We've seen a decrease in the professional services line, and we've been talking for a number of quarters about the past, we've been on to build technology skills and in source those which would impact the salary benefit line and it took a while for the professional services to come out and so you've seen that remixing. We've got a little bit more to do and so I think there is some evidence that that is working and we can continue to do that which I would say is more structural. A couple of the other big items obviously travel and entertainment and advertising and promotion. I think what we're seeing in the advertising and promotion line item is that obviously you need to be competitive in the markets that you're advertising in, but also we're learning that there different ways that you can reach customers and prospects that might be more cost effective than traditional means and so we'll be continuing to look at that as we go forward and being smarter about…

Matt O'Connor

Analyst

That's helpful. And I'm going to guess you don't want to give explicit '21 guidance on cost but you just said no step down but also kind of described implication that or would it be a step up as well. So if I had to guess, I would think it seems like you're trying to keep costs relatively flat by [indiscernible] from your comments together there.

Darren King

Analyst

I think that's a safe assumption, [ph] legacy we'll be back with more detail in January, but that's certainly a safe assumption.

Matt O'Connor

Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Ken Usdin of Jefferies.

Ken Usdin

Analyst

Hey, thanks, good morning.

Darren King

Analyst

Good morning Ken.

Ken Usdin

Analyst

Hey Darren. Can I ask you - how are you? Can I ask you further on the trust income, you said that the fee waivers would be run rated, I think going forward, can you just help us understand what was in the third and what the step-up, if any, is going to be into the fourth?

Darren King

Analyst

Yes. So, I think we talked before about maybe $10 million a quarter impact from those fee waivers. And I think this quarter we saw about 7 and it was offset by an uptick in some of the loan agency fees that we get because you've been watching the debt markets, I think they had a record for issuance at the end of September. And I still have three months ago and so that activity our participation in that market you saw reflected in some of the agency fees in that trust income line. And so it masked the impact of those fee waivers on the money fund accounts. Also, we had and if continue to have strong equity markets and that's impacting AUM positively, maybe a little bit better than we might have thought going into the quarter. And so that also was a positive that was an offset. And so it will be the money fund waivers that we had talked about are basically in there, there might be a little bit more to go. And then the question will be what happens with some of those other parts of the trust business and how robust those markets are as we go through the fourth quarter.

Ken Usdin

Analyst

Understood. Thank you. And then just a follow-up on mortgage. Can you give a little bit more discussion of just the differences between resi and commercial origination activity and then also, are you still seeing opportunities to buy additional servicing assets as you guys have been pretty frequent opportunistic buyers there? Thanks.

Darren King

Analyst

Yes. So, I guess most of the action for the last couple of quarters has really been in the consumer space and it's just with rates where they are, - there's a lot of refi activity going on. And so that's really what's been driving the volume there. What I think has been seen for the last two quarters, both for us and for the industry is that there was so much volume it overwhelmed people's capacity to handle it. And so one of the ways the industry managers' capacity is through pricing. And so that's why the margins were so strong this quarter and last. And so, but what we expect to see in the fourth quarter is we expect to see similar levels of volume maybe seasonally slower just because of the fourth quarter, but we'll start to see the margins come down. We started to see that at the end of the last quarter that the gain on sale margin in September was down from what it was in July and August. And so we expect that trend to continue into the fourth quarter and that's why we think we'll see it a drop in - in the mortgage fee line item. In commercial things have been slow really since COVID hit. There's just not a lot of activity in the commercial real estate space it's third quarter I think for the last couple of years has been a blowout quarter for us in the commercial real estate sector. This year was the notable exception and we don't see that changing into the fourth quarter is just a slowdown in activity there.

Ken Usdin

Analyst

Okay, thanks a lot.

Darren King

Analyst

Sure Ken.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Saul Martinez of UBS.

Saul Martinez

Analyst

Hi, guys. I wanted to push through some of the moving parts on net interest income. So I think in response to Erika's question. You mentioned Darren that the protection from the hedges were about 35 bps [ph] which if I might calculations amount to roughly $95 million. Just to clarify then, your guidance for NII in the fourth quarter. That assumes that, that level of protection, more or less stays flat, i.e., there is no incremental benefit and you're also assuming no PPP forgiveness in that outlook. Is that correct?

Darren King

Analyst

That's right.

Saul Martinez

Analyst

Okay and then just following up there, you kind of painted a picture on the outlook in the '21 for the benefits sort of trickling down gradually in, especially in the latter part of the year, but your disclosures show that you're - I think that the average weighted average maturity is about 1.3 years on the swap book or it was that in the second quarter, which would seem to imply that there would be some more material step down in protection at some point between now and year-end '22. I mean, I guess, how should we read that and think about that is there going to be more of a cliff effect on the hedge protection that you get late next year into '22. Just, maybe a little bit more color in terms of how that - how that evolves, not just during the course of '21 but looking out over the lack of those hedges.

Darren King

Analyst

Yes, I guess. So when you think about the hedging that we did. And the way we constructed the portfolio. We were always adding a consistent level with the exception obviously this next 12 months of forward-starting swaps. And so the idea was to keep the outstanding notional amount fairly consistent through time and really what starts to happen is each month one swap falls off and a new one starts and it would be reflective of the rate environment at the time at which we entered into that agreement. And so we're in the spot now where we are entering these agreements and the curve was positively sloping and rates for higher. And over time you saw those received fixed coupon has come down. And so there is not really a cliff per se, but more a continual gradual decline as each month some swaps go inactive and forward starting one's become active. And that brings the average received fixed coupon that's in place in any month declining through 2021 and into 2022. And then as the duration of the swap portfolio will shorten because those rates really fell down at the end of 2019 and then at the start of 2020. There wasn't a benefit that we saw in continuing to add forward starting swaps to lock in rates 50 or 25 basis points that we continue to believe that zero is for all intents and purposes, the practical floor right now and the negative rates are not a huge consideration of the Fed. And so we've slowed down in the hedging and that you'll see that it gradually goes away through the next 24 months.

Don MacLeod

Analyst

Just a point of clarification, the weighted average maturity is not from the reporting date. But from the start date of the forward starting swap to the end of the -

Saul Martinez

Analyst

Okay. So it's not 1.3 years necessarily from now. Yes, from now. Okay. From when they all these now the forward starting swaps come up come on board. Okay. If I guess the second. Let me just pivot quickly to second question. The CRE book 180 days forbearance, I think you mentioned 5.1 billion in two-thirds of that, I guess, exiting the initial deferral period. So couple of questions there. Do you have any expectations as to what percentage of that will ask for a second modification and how do you expect to account for additional modification? Do you anticipate taking advantage of the Cures Act 413 to not classified as a TDR or will you say these loans are - have been a modification for an extended period intense we think they should be treated as TDR even with some of the, I guess the negative implications for risk-weighted assets and other things. I'm just curious how - what you're expecting there and how you plan to account for it?

Darren King

Analyst

Yes, so I guess a couple of things. Obviously, it's hard to predict exactly what will happen with each of these portfolios as we go, but I look at what we've seen so far. And so what I mentioned that the C&I portfolio was going to be down to about $800 million of long still in forbearance, the bulk of that is really folks who haven't reached the end of their current term. When I look at the dealers and the floor plan dealers that were in forbearance, I mean, basically 98% of them have gone back to paying when I look at the rest of the C&I portfolio, it's about 90% have gone back to paying and there has been some decrease in the commercial real estate portfolio levels of forbearance, and when I look at folks who have come up for to the end of their time period so far about 80% of them have gone back on to their normal repayment schedule. And so from what we've seen so far about 20% have gone back or has asked for some extension of their forbearance. When we get into the, to the next group that will come up. I think it's a tougher segment. And so I'm not sure and bold enough just to hit will be 20%, but the trends that we've seen are positive and we know that there are a number of clients that we've talked to that actually plan to resume payments because they have outside liquidity in the wherewithal to go back and maintaining their loans. As it relates to how they'll be handled. I mean, each loan and each client will be treated individually and considered individually and we'll look at - first of all, are they looking for some kind of change to their terms and if they are we getting anything back we might be able to get an interest reserve, might be able to get a little bit of equity, you might get a different rate. And so the combination of those things will help us go through our determination of whether we think it's it qualifies as a TDR or needs to go on non-accrual. But I think it's safe to say that there will be an uptick in those categories as we go into the fourth quarter and first quarter of next year.

Saul Martinez

Analyst

Okay. So be treated on an individual basis. And okay, that's helpful.--

Darren King

Analyst

Yes that's, we go through our normal portfolio assessment and grading process.

Saul Martinez

Analyst

Okay, great. And presumably you've Reserve Board [ph] already under CECL allowance --.

Darren King

Analyst

The summer that…

Saul Martinez

Analyst

Yes. Okay, great, thanks so much.

Darren King

Analyst

No problem.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Bill Carcache of Wolfe Research.

Bill Carcache

Analyst

Thanks, good morning Darren.

Darren King

Analyst

Good morning, Bill.

Bill Carcache

Analyst

While we've seen some improvement in metrics like unemployment in GDP, and the outlook there is helpful. Some of the CRE metrics have been going the other way. Can you give us a little bit more color on what your outlook is contemplating for some of those key drivers of performance? Some of the industry forecasts have like vacancy rates continuing to rise and commercial real estate prices continuing to decline, as we look at 2021. I understand that shouldn't have an impact on your CECL allowance as long as it contemplates that degradation. But it would be helpful to understand a bit better what your expectations are possible.

Darren King

Analyst

Yes. I guess one of the most important parts of this is understanding not just what's going on, but how the loan was underwritten to start. And so when you look at a lot of our real estate portfolio, I'll speak to multifamily. We take into account the current rents and we don't assume that there are rent increases when we underwrite, we take into account the current vacancy. But we underwrite to a higher level of vacancy than what exists and another really important element is just interest rate and that is the interest rates drop that creates a lot of capacity to support these properties. And so a lot of those factors will also help maintain collateral values and so we've seen vacancy ticked up one of the places obviously we watch a lot is in New York City and we've seen no rent collections in the 90% to 95% range. And so we feel pretty good about that with there hasn't really been much that's traded in terms of values to think about commercial real estate Price Index, which the crappy would be an important element in the CECL modeling. And so we haven't seen much there. So those factors rent changes we would look at and look at the vacancy rate in the realizable rent as we forecast cash flows for each of these individual borrowers and think through whether or not they're running at a deficit or not or they're able to adjust our expense base. And then what outside resources they have to maybe come in and maintain the properties and would be a similar viewpoint on the hotel portfolio obviously slightly different where you're looking at RevPAR and you're looking at the occupancy rates. And again, we've seen, it depends on the geography some - some uptick. New York has been a little bit more of a challenge, but we see that in office. Also so far rent collections are holding up and strong and people are going back into the, into the city at least you're hearing announcements, particularly from the tech sector of space being under contract. And so I guess a little bit of a long-winded answer to say that when we look at the trends in these portfolios, we're not seeing a severe degradation. It's gradual and what we've watch so far we've seen the clients doing a very good job of adjusting their business to be able to manage the cash flow and where they don't do that, they often have the outside liquidity to be able to maintain the property and I guess the question really is how much liquidity, do they have and how long can they sustain it in this environment.

Bill Carcache

Analyst

That's really helpful. Thanks, Darren. If I can squeeze in one last one.

Darren King

Analyst

Yes.

Bill Carcache

Analyst

Beyond the hedging benefits that you've discussed. Can you give a bit more color on the loan and securities portfolio pay downs on your back book perhaps by product possible? What's the yield differential between paying down well that you're deploying into today.

Darren King

Analyst

I guess if you look at the - I'll take the loan book, separate from the securities book. On the securities book, we basically run it for, not a lot of duration risk and certainly not a lot of credit risk and - we would describe it as a barbell where there has been of significant amount invested in one-year treasuries or less. And then another significant amount in mortgage-backed securities and with the mortgage-backed securities as they pay down, we haven't been buying additional securities at this point just given where rates are and those dollars are basically going into cash. And so that's part of the cash build. Interesting when you look at the loan portfolios, what we've seen in the last 90 days and probably started a little bit earlier, is that the margins on new business has been increasing. And so when we look at the returns that are being generated on new loans over the last 120 days, they're higher than what's in the book. And so between floor is going into loans where the floors are actually active the day the loan starts and some firming in the pricing, we're actually starting to see roll on margins higher then roll off margins in the loan book. And so, when you get it will take a little while for that to start to shift the whole portfolio. But as you get out into 2022 and beyond you start to see a greater proportion of that benefit in the loan yields and the loan margin. And so it's encouraging to see where things are heading, at least based on the last 90 days.

Bill Carcache

Analyst

Very helpful. Thanks again, Darren.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Klock of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Brian Klock

Analyst

Good morning, Darren and Don.

Don MacLeod

Analyst

Hey, how are you doing, Brian.

Brian Klock

Analyst

I'm good. I'm good, really quick on the fee income, you talked about the deposits service charges snapping back nicely in the quarter. I mean, when I look at the other revenues from operations. I mean can you give us a little color on what's going on and Eric that feels like the overall level is sort of back to pre-COVID if you get rid of the Bayview from the first quarter, was there anything in there, when you look at Bayview or the discount, merchant discount any of the insurance revenues or is there anything in there that you can give us color to that is that 107 somewhat run ratable and so forth.

Darren King

Analyst

Yes, sure, Brian, by and large when you look through the components in that category, we have seen strong snapback in merchant discount and credit cards. They're pretty much back to pre-COVID levels fully was pretty consistent as with some of the underwriting. Loan fees were up quarter over quarter but not back to pre-COVID level and obviously that's a function of what's going on with the activity in the market and then sometimes in that line item, there are some - there is some lumpiness of things that happen and we were, I guess on that line item, close to where we average, I've seen some quarters where it's $1 million higher than what we had before. And last quarter was particularly low. So, it might be a little bit high from where we might run rate in the fourth quarter, but there is still some, spots where softness some softness in insurance and some softness still on some of the fees were, not all, not quite, all the way back to pre-COVID levels on loan fees and merchant card.

Brian Klock

Analyst

Got it. And then just quick follow-up, same question on the other side, the other miscellaneous costs, it looks like they were down a little bit lower than the run rate over the last few quarters and use in the fourth quarter has like the professional services or the accounting accruals and stuff like that, that might be in there. So should we expect that want to be kind of back up to sort of average level the 165 [ph], within the third quarter.

Darren King

Analyst

I think that the spot, we're at now is probably pretty reasonable for where we are in the fourth quarter and barring the only other thing that goes through there that create some lumpiness is if there has been litigation costs are MSR impairment or when we took the write-down on the asset manager that we, we sold that goes through that line item. So kind of holding that stuff aside, I think we're, give or take a few million bucks in the right zone of where that will be for the fourth quarter.

Brian Klock

Analyst

Got it. Great, thanks for your time. Appreciate it.

Darren King

Analyst

Sure, Brain.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we have time for one more question. Our final question will come from the line of Gerard Cassidy of RBC.

Gerard Cassidy

Analyst

Hi, Darren.

Darren King

Analyst

Morning, Gerard

Don MacLeod

Analyst

How you doing.

Gerard Cassidy

Analyst

Good. Thank you, you're taking the question. To wrap up, can you give us a comment on what you're thinking about for next year on capital action plans, obviously the Fed has extended buybacks for all the banks like your size. But what are you guys thinking should the gate get listed. And second is it's not lifted until, let's say, the sort of next quarter of next year in your capital really is starting to accumulate, it is a Dutch auction tender offer a consideration to bring it to get all the stock at once.

Darren King

Analyst

So, I guess the first part of a - I leave the Dutch auction thing for a second, I really thought much about a Dutch auction, to be honest with you. I appreciate it was not [ph] a great question. On deployment of capital, obviously have to wait and see what comes from the Fed through the re-submission process that we're all going through right now. And if the Fed actually allows the SCB framework to be effective, but generally our thought process on capital deployment really isn't changing and that the first place we want to deploy capital is in the service of our customers and the communities that we do business and we've got the liquidity. So, as you can clearly see on the balance sheet and we see so that we're in a position to be able to lend and support growth in the communities and so hopefully we'll see some of that and as I mentioned before it really like the returns that I'm seeing on some of the business right now. After that will obviously help the group, we're maintaining our incumbent. So we can maintain the dividend and then we'll look at what other alternatives we have to deploy the capital is to me the most important thing is we'll try and return it if we've got excess and we're allowed to, but really the key of how we've always run the bank is to make sure that we don't take the capital that we believe to be excess and consider free. -- If we sit on the capital is inefficient and we certainly rather not do that but investing in low return businesses are lower return loans, then you're stuck in that position and that lowers your overall returns for the organization you're stuck with that for the length of that asset. And so we do that from time to time to win new prospects and customers, but we wouldn't want to make a practice out of deploying capital into low return businesses and so we'll see what the alternatives are. And, but we will continue to manage it the way we always have, which is to be thoughtful stewards of capital and make sure we're focused on returns.

Gerard Cassidy

Analyst

And then just as a follow-up question. Clearly you and your peers have indicated that many of your customers and build up their liquidity in their deposit accounts because of these uncertain times. Can you compare this to the 0.9 time [ph] period because we had the same phenomenon of customers building up liquidity, how long did it take to you recall to hand those customers bring those deposits down to a more normal level. And what do you see for this cycle, is it going to be as long as it was at 0.8 or 0.9?

Darren King

Analyst

Well, my crystal ball is as good as yours, Gerard, but I guess I look at, at the level of liquidity that we have this time. I think people are smarter. At this time than they were last time I think the industry and not the banking industry per se but the customers we Bank have been a lot quicker to build liquidity, have been a lot quicker to adjust their business operations to the revenue environment. And that's why we've seen that build up the I think part of what you're seeing in the liquidity also is the lack of alternatives of places where they can invest their excess cash. All right and it doesn't make a lot of sense to have it in spot break right now. If you're a larger middle market client, it doesn't make sense to keep it in time and money market accounts. If you're a small business or consumer because there is no rate there and so we're seeing it all sit liquid and what I think starts to happen is, as things improve. You'll see some of the get deployed in hiring, in building inventory and you'll see some of that get deployed into higher returning asset classes from the customers perspective. To the extent that they've got excess and how long that takes, I think will be some combination of how quickly we see GDP recover and how quickly. We see interest rate movement up from here. I guess I just keep in mind that last time it took us until we probably got to 75 or 100 basis points on Fed funds before people started to really move and pay attention to moving dollars out of savings and tie our savings and interest checking and checking into higher yielding types of products. So, I think it's, we're thinking it's here for a while and the next 12 months, hopefully not much longer, but we'll see how the economy goes.

Gerard Cassidy

Analyst

Great. I appreciate all the color. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

I'd like to turn the floor back over to the management for any additional or closing remarks.

Don MacLeod

Analyst

Again, thank you all for participating today. And as always, with any clarification of any of the items on the call or news release is necessary, please contact our investor relations department at area code 716-842-5138. Thank you and goodbye.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.