Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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And so those are ways that by taking that extra amount – and we will tell you as we go kind of – you might read about, let’s say, we established a branch location in Utah. We will put out a press release, you’ll read about it. And then we will talk about, okay, here’s how we offset the cost. So I think that’s how you can expect temerity to go, but it will be outside of the scope of that $135 million that we’ve been talking about.

Chris McGratty: Okay. That’s helpful. And then if I could just get to a couple of modeling quick ones. On the tax rate, a little help there would be great. And then the special assessment, most of your banks haven’t talked about dropping in the third quarter, at least that I’ve talked to. Is that – I guess that would be in – is that just kind of a one-time or a step-up in the assessment, right?

Ron Farnsworth: Chris, this is Ron here. Tax rate target 25%, everyone might be just a little bit above or a little low what we target 25% internally. And on the special assessment of the consensus, that would be expensed once the rule is finalized, we expect that here in the third quarter. And you see all the expense for that in Q3 to be paid out over the course of 2 years.

Chris McGratty: Okay. Great, thanks.

Ron Farnsworth: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Steven Alexopoulos with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Janet Lee: Hello, this is Janet Lee on for Steven Alexopoulos. My first question is on NIM. So 3.20% to 3.40% for 2023, that’s a fairly wide range. Can you talk through what level of non-interest-bearing deposit mix is assumed for that low and high end of that guidance? And what’s your bias based on where you stand today in terms of the NIM?

Ron Farnsworth: Yes. This is Ron again. And following up just on the comments from earlier. So if we see consistent flows on the deposit side like we saw in Q2 in the third quarter, we’d be on the lower end of that range. If it’s stabilized, we’d be in the middle and if we get better than the upper, same for Q4 from that standpoint. So that’s simply the driver there.

Janet Lee: Right. Is there – so relative to 39% of non-interest-bearing deposit mix today, do you think that pace of non-interest-bearing deposit outflows could less it from here? Or will that stay fairly consistent of what you side the second quarter, if you look through the second half of 2023?

Ron Farnsworth: Again, I just center back on what we talked about. If we see we see consistent deposit flows, including the mix shift reduction in non-interest-bearing increase in money market in your time, you’d be on the lower end of that range. Third and fourth quarter if it stabilizes, which it has through early – middle of July, but again, it’s only the middle of July, they are still 2 net months ago in the quarter, and that would change. So I hope that’s pretty straightforward, right?

Janet Lee: Okay. And for the – if you look at the second half of the year, is there a level of cash you want to maintain on your balance sheet over the near-term versus $3 billion, $4 billion. Are you – would you contemplate any borrowing paydowns versus what you have as of the second quarter over the near-term?

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