BOK Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:BOKF) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Stacy Kymes : And Jon we’re focusing on net interest revenue versus net interest margin, because the trading size of the trading portfolio will greatly influence that margin. And so it’s easier for us to think about it in terms of net interest revenue, because if the activity is strong and the trade portfolio expands, obviously, the net interest margin impact that is very dilutive. And so it could be influenced by that, but that’s going to benefit us on the fee side should that trading portfolio continue to perform as it has been.

Jon Arfstrom: Yes. Okay. That makes sense. I do want to ask a question on that. But just one comment you made was you grew $2 billion in deposits later in the quarter. What was the driver of that? And was it higher rate deposits, or was it more client-driven or help us understand what that was?

Marty Grunst : Yes. So that’s mostly commercial and well-driven to a lesser extent consumer. But largely our — what we talked about last quarter just making sure that we’ve got price competitive offerings throughout the footprint that compete with the alternatives that our customer base have in those segments. And so we’re just making sure that our price points are at market, at all price points and that’s what drove it. On the fee side, and the consumer book as well on top of that.

Jon Arfstrom: Okay. Then Scott, last one for you. You talked about volumes and volatility helping your brokerage and trading. You talked about extending the reach of the sales force. Can you talk about that a little bit more, and about the better environment what makes for a more favorable environment so we can kind of understand, how the balance sheet might flex when there’s a better environment or a worse environment?

Scott Grauer: Right, absolutely. So in the first quarter, when we saw a lot of kind of external shocks to the fixed income market, we had a very — the Fed was in the midst of very active rate hikes. We saw bid-ask spreads, really widened out in the first quarter and we saw dwindling to very historically low mortgage origination. So, as we’ve moved into the second quarter, as we mentioned we’ve seen a pickup, as the reality of 5% 6% plus mortgage rate settles into the market, for homebuyers albeit, still a shortage of inventory we’re seeing great kind of expectations settle in which has increased mortgage origination. We’ve seen the moves, whether the announcement today is one more or two more rate hikes we’re clearly, further into the Fed rate hike cycle, which creates a better appetite of our institutional buyers of mortgage-backed securities and all fixed income products to position their portfolios.

So, we’ve seen kind of the culmination of better outlook and certainty in the fixed income markets, coupled with a little bit better flow on the mortgage-backed security side. So, those factors have given us better confidence in kind of resuming, our previous levels of securities inventory levels.

Stacy Kymes: And if you think about it from an investment portfolio manager position, if you know you’re toward the end of the hiking cycle, whether it’s today or today plus one more, you begin to get more confident in repositioning our portfolio because you don’t think well, I’m just — this is going to keep happening. And so, I’m just going to keep trading into that. That could optimistically help us out in the second half of the year, if market participants believe the Fed is done or near done.

Jon Arfstrom: Okay. Clearly, first quarter was abnormal. But is this maybe an impossible question. Does this feel more normal?

Scott Grauer: It does. And I think that the — as Marty indicated, our levels of trading securities, our balances there appear to be more business as usual. So we look for these levels to be sustainable, given the current rate environment, and the appetite for repositioning on the curve.