Cambridge Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Denis Sheahan: No, it’s fairly consistent.

Chris O’Connell: Okay. And then as far as the wealth management AUM, for the fourth quarter, how much was the kind of gross inflows versus the market impact?

Michael Carotenuto: So during the fourth quarter, we had net client flows — net client loss of about $17 million. Market impact during the fourth quarter was $230 million.

Chris O’Connell: Okay, great. And are you guys targeting or do you have any specific targets as to net client flows or kind of organic growth, ex market activity on the Wealth Management segment for 2023?

Michael Carotenuto: We do, but we haven’t we typically put that out there, Chris.

Chris O’Connell: Okay, got it. And for the loan derivative income, obviously, kind of a low point this quarter, do you see any signs of that kind of improving in the near-term? Or is it really kind of a remain a little bit of a debt environment for the foreseeable future?

Michael Carotenuto: So we’re very interested in continuing to do derivatives with our clients, something that we’re pushing on to the extent that we’re successful. You’ll see an increase in derivative income. But clients are intelligent in I mean, they may be looking for fixed rate right now that may change as we go throughout the course of the year. It’s always been something that that’s moved up and down dependent upon client preference.

Chris O’Connell: Okay, got it.

Denis Sheahan: We’re assuming, Chris, that ’23 will not be a robust year of loan growth per sort of my earlier comments in terms of what’s happening in the marketplace. Should that change, I think the derivative revenue would also change.

Chris O’Connell: Great. I appreciate the time. Thanks for taking my questions.

Denis Sheahan: Sure. Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Bernard Horn with Polaris. Please go ahead.

Bernard Horn: Good morning. Two quick questions. The first is on loan. Your loan expectations on growth is like 0% to 5%. And I’m just curious if you have any — you had pretty good organic loan growth last year, I think it was about 13%, excluding the Northmark merger. I’m just wondering if you can, are there any scheduled repayments on the loan portfolio that would kind of need — therefore you need to have higher growth. It’s offset that or is it just your expectation that the economy is going to be able to softer.

Denis Sheahan: I think it’s the latter. Mike, would you agree?

Michael Carotenuto: Yes.

Denis Sheahan: It’s the latter, Bernie, that just softness, the borrowers are generally on the sidelines building cash. And I think waiting to see what the new environment where we end up. We’re hearing of projects sort of being mothballed. Just people — the uncertainty is we understand why this is happening. But the uncertainty is not welcomed by a lot of commercial borrowers.

Bernard Horn: Sure. Makes sense. And then on your payoff, did you have anything material in 2021? That would have been higher, had to not had the pay offs? And then on the that’s fine. On the deposit side, it looks like you’ve got a tick up in, like wholesale deposits? Is that something you have look to increase in the prior year and the upcoming year? Or is it just things that came your way? Because people are looking for yield?