So, we’ll move now to Slide 5. And I’ll provide an overview regarding our deposit base. As I mentioned earlier, total deposits at the end of the fourth quarter were $7.9 billion, up $326 million from the third quarter. This increase was mainly driven by an increase in relationship deposits of $365 million while institutional deposits declined by $40 million. Speaking of institutional deposits, as I briefly mentioned earlier, we anticipate the balance of this higher cost non-relationship source of funds to be runoff by mid first quarter 2024. Our ratio of loans to deposits increased — decreased this quarter to 92.4%. As we have referenced in prior calls, our goal is to manage it to a target of 95% and not to exceed 100%. We have a strong loan pipeline in the first quarter, so we expect to be back in this range soon.
We’ll turn now to Slide 6 and here we show a well diversified deposit mix composed of domestic and international customers. Our domestic deposits account for 69% of total deposits totaling $5.4 billion as at the end of the fourth quarter, that’s up $340 million or 6.7% compared to the third quarter and international deposits, which now account for 31% of total deposits, totaled $2.5 billion, down slightly 0.6% compared to the third quarter. Domestic deposit accounts have an average balance of $110,000 while international deposit accounts have an average balance of $43,000 and that reflects the granularity of our deposit base and the stability of this funding source. As I’ve shared in previous calls, we intend to take advantage of our infrastructure and capabilities, and begin to further emphasize international deposit gathering going forward as a source of funds given favorable pricing while continuing to add diversification to our funding base.
Our core deposits, defined as total deposits excluding all-time — total deposits excluding all time deposits — excuse me — were $5.6 billion as at the end of the fourth quarter, an increase of $332 million or 6.3% compared to the third quarter. Included in core deposits are $1.4 billion in noninterest-bearing demand, up $35 million or 2.5% versus third quarter, $2.6 billion in interest bearing deposits, up $144 million or 6% versus the third quarter, and that’s primarily the result of continued customer demand for higher rate products, and $1.6 million in savings and money market deposits, up $153 million or 10.5% versus the third quarter. So at this point, I’m going to turn things over to Sherry. She’ll go over key metrics, some other balance sheet items, credit quality and the results in the third quarter in more detail.
Sharymar Calderon: Thank you, Jerry, and good morning, everyone. As part of today’s presentation, I will share more color on our financial position and performance. Turning to Slide 7, I’ll begin by discussing our key metrics for the quarter. Noninterest-bearing deposits to total deposits decreased to 17.8% from 18.2%. Despite the challenges of customers seeking higher interest rate and the market competition, we continue to work hard on our deposits first focus and increasing demand deposit accounts by building relationships in our markets. While the ratio slightly decreased, total noninterest-bearing balances in fact increased, although not at the same speed as interest-bearing deposits. Net interest margin improved to 3.72% compared to 3.57% in the third quarter.
This includes 16 basis points in connection with a one-time loan recovery. We will cover details of NIM changes quarter-over-quarter shortly. Our efficiency ratio was 108.3% compared to 64.1% in the third quarter as a result of the $43 million in non-routine noninterest expense items Jerry just covered. ROA and ROE in the fourth quarter were a negative 0.71% and negative 9.22% respectively, as a result of the one-time charges and higher provision for credit losses during the period. For consistency and transparency, we showed the three core metrics of ROA, ROE, and operating efficiency excluding non-routine items, so you can better see our underlying performance for the fourth quarter. As an example, core efficiency for the fourth quarter was 69.7% compared to 62.1% in the third quarter, which excludes non-routine charges.
As I mentioned last quarter, these results also include certain costs of new applications and services being used in parallel after the conversion with previous applications in place. This parallel use of applications will occur until we complete commission applications in the first quarter of 2024, and therefore reduce these costs. Moving onto Slide 8, I’ll discuss our investment portfolio. Our fourth quarter fixed income investment balance was $1.4 billion, slightly up from both the third quarter and the same period from last year. When compared to the prior quarter, the duration of the investment portfolio decreased to five years due to market rates decreasing during the quarter. We added a new chart to show the expected repayments and maturities of our investment portfolio for 2024, which represents the liquidity available to support growth in higher interest-earning assets.
