Bank of Marin Bancorp (NASDAQ:BMRC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Tim Myers: Sure, so we are seeing a mix with a higher weighting towards C&I right now. Certainly that comes with new hiring and focus. But we’re also starting to see opportunities within CRE, meaning as prices have come down and rationalized and panic has abated, buyers, customers, prospects, looking to make purchases at those lower values, with those number all pencil out, we’re seeing a mix of all of that. And it’s also a good mix between new and existing customers. And you always want to see that kind of mix across all those things, type, borrower type, et cetera. So, it’s been very encouraging. Some of it is stuff that was stuck in the pipeline for some time as, these things worked their way through the system. We are being very cautious. There’s other factors out there that slowed our process down. A lot of it is just brand new customer referrals from some of the hiring we’ve done. So, I’m encouraged by the diversity of that.

David Feaster: That’s terrific. And the last one from me, you guys have done a great job managing expenses in a challenging revenue environment, still investing for growth. I’m just curious, how do you think about the expense trajectory going forward, some of the push and takes there, and how new hires, are you seeing more opportunity to invest and add new hires at this point? Where are they coming from? And just again, maybe some higher level commentary on the expense trajectory more broadly?

Tim Myers: I’ll start on the hiring and then let Tani talk about the expense front. We are seeing opportunities. We’re in the process of trying to fill some open positions on the production lending side. We’ve benefited across the bank and the different divisions from some of the disruption in the market and been able to hire some really good people. But we continue to be reluctant to throw a lot of money at people that we can’t really map out a road to return on that, meaning big team hires, et cetera. But we are trying to be very selective and the people we have hired are making a difference. So, we’ll continue to look at that, but it will be in a pragmatic incremental approach.

Tani Girton: And on the general expense side, I’d say that this quarter continues to be indicative. Fourth quarter is typically when all the true ups happen. But, the team has been really persistent about trying to make sure that we’re doing our true ups as we go throughout the year. So you saw a few happen in the third quarter. The one thing that, could bounce around a little bit, the reciprocal deposit costs, did go up as the balances went up. Those balances went up at quarter end, they came down a little bit after quarter end. So, those deposit fees could fluctuate somewhat, but those have become a larger component of our other expense category.

David Feaster: Okay that’s helpful. Thanks everybody.

Tim Myers: Thank you, David.

Operator: The next question comes from the line of Woody Lay from KVW. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Woody Lay: Hi, good morning, guys.

Tim Myers: Good morning, Woody. How are you?

Woody Lay: I’m good. I wanted to start on the deposit side. I mean, it was another good quarter of deposit growth. Excluding the normal seasonality, do you think that these trends can continue sort of in the near to medium term, or would you say most of the heavy lifting has been done at this point?