Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Feaster: Okay, that’s great. And maybe stepping back a bit, it seems like we’re going to be in a higher for longer environment for some time. I’m just curious maybe, and look I know it’s still early, but I’m just curious how you think about maybe the margin trajectory. And the business performance more broadly in a higher for longer environment and how you’re looking to manage the balance sheet in the business for that kind of environment?

Ron Farnsworth: Hey Dave, this is Ron, and again I’ll come back to the comments we talked about earlier, or do we see continued customer deposit growth? And I’ll feel really good about where we’re at in a higher prolonged environment. I think maybe in terms of 2024 specifically, we’ll definitely give you an update on that in January [Technical Difficulty] as we look into the year, but it’s going to be the basic blocking and tackling. You heard Chris and Tori talk about a continued customer deposit growth. We’ll look there on that front.

David Feaster: Okay. And then last one from me, you guys have been accreting capital at a rapid pace. You’re getting close to your 12% total risk-based target. I’m just curious as you approach those targets, how do you think about capital management? Is there any interest in potentially returning capital maybe early next year or at this point in the cycle, would you primarily be focused on capital preservation?

Clint Stein: Well, I think our focus is — we always want to be good stewards of capital. And we have our long-term targets and we’ve spoken about those and been very consistent with those. Even on a standalone pre-merger basis, our thoughts around capital levels were pretty consistent. And so essentially at 150 basis points to whatever the criteria is to be considered well capitalized and that’s our long-term target. You know, total risk-based capital has been the constraint. You mentioned the 12%. Absolutely, we’re going to look at all capital deployment opportunities. I don’t think that as soon as we hit like 12.01% or something that we’re going to look at a major shift. But if we’re creating 25 bps, 30 bps of capital a quarter, it happens pretty quickly, where then suddenly you’re 5,000 basis points, 7,500 basis points over that target, and still growing capital.

We’ve mentioned that with our forecasts and expectations and the earnings power of this company that there is not a level of what we think would be a prudent organic growth that would absorb all of that capital. So by default, yes, we will be looking at capital return and how we do that as we manage those ratios. Now, I don’t think you should expect it next quarter necessarily, but I do expect that it will be a nice problem that we’ll have as 2024 progresses.

David Feaster: Absolutely. Thanks for the color, everybody. Thanks.

Ron Farnsworth: Thank you.

Clint Stein: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Timur Braziler of Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Timur Braziler: Hi, good afternoon. For the broker deposits that were added during the quarter, can you just talk through kind of the timing during the quarter they were added, their costs, and then the expected duration?

Ron Farnsworth: Yes, this is Ron. Good afternoon. That was later in the quarter, roughly two to four months in tenure. That’s how we managed all of this from a wholesale standpoint, including the Home Loan Bank Advances. And you’re talking probably mid-5s in terms of cost.

Timur Braziler: Okay. And then I guess as you look at your borrowing position where is that today relative to where you want it to be? And as that continues to mature, maybe just give us a schedule of how that matures and if the expectation is to replace that with additional brokered.