Customers Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:CUBI) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sam Sidhu: Yes, sure, of course. Good question. So it was broad-based across the organization, first and foremost, and the pipeline is also reasonably broad-based, but there is obviously a couple of verticals in the second quarter, but then importantly, I can kind of guide a little bit for the third quarter and beyond. So in the second quarter, we had a couple of $100 million of Fund Finance & Tech & Venture over the last quarter or so. We also had a couple of $100 million in end-of-period CBIT balances that were contributing. But as you know, with our discipline, I think we were at 13% last quarter about 15% plus or minus now with our discipline to any deposit vertical cap from a concentration perspective, you will not see any more growth from that vertical, whether it’s deposits or noninterest-bearing.

And then like I mentioned, it was broad-based across. But if you look forward at the pipeline, as you mentioned we have several $100 million of low-cost deposit growth in the pipeline of, as you can imagine, 150, 200 accounts being opened right now from our Tech & Venture Group of the loan portfolio. None of those deposits came in by June 30th. Those – the loans were – the credits came on by June 15th and it took a couple of weeks to kind of discuss with the customers, move over some of the servicing and the ACH and to begin those account openings. And we’re seeing that really in earnest right now. Fund Finance is another big vertical where I think we have over 100 accounts at various stages of opening right now. And what’s interesting about Fund Finance is as you know, these are typically noninterest-bearing in nature, and they’re also a small ticket in the low end, $0.5 million to $1 million to $2 million.

And if you look forward at our deposit pipeline of that $2 billion plus that I mentioned, it’s granular. We’re talking about average account sizes in the $5 million to $10 million on the high-end; it’s going to be $20 million to $30 million, these are true granular, sticky, low-cost operating accounts.

Michael Perito: That’s really good color. Thanks Sam. Just a couple of more quick follow-ups for me. Just on the loan-to-deposit ratio, Carla, I think if I heard you correctly, you said operating in like the 80% to 85% range going forward. Is that a that right or?

Carla Leibold: Yes, around 80%.

Michael Perito: Okay, around 80%. And I think in the release or the slides, Sam, you guys mentioned that the Venture piece is going to be two deposits for every dollar of loans like normalized, it might take some time to get there. But so I guess, that – that just all to say, I mean, there’s still a good amount of remixing going on micro on the balance sheet here in terms of like what these businesses are going to contribute going forward. But I think just as guardrails, if we assume those – that low mix, the improving deposit mix and the 80-ish percent loan deposit ratio, it sounds like we should be in a flattish balance sheet near term. It sounds like we should be in the right ballpark of what you guys are expecting to happen?

Sam Sidhu: That’s right.

Michael Perito: Okay. And then just lastly on the NIM guide towards the high end of the range. That’s a full year guide, right, if I recall. So that would suggest you expect the NIM to maybe be in like the 320, 330 range in the back half of the year. Is that generally fair?

Carla Leibold: Yes. The NIM guide was the full year, and the range was the 285 to the 305. So we think that using the Q2 margin around 315 is a good way to think about it in the back half of this year as well.

Michael Perito: Okay. Very good guys busy quarter. Thanks for giving us all the additional detail and for taking my questions. Appreciate it.

Sam Sidhu: Thanks Michael.

Carla Leibold: Thanks.