Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Robert F. Rivers: So I think — let me answer a couple of — there are a couple of questions in there. Let me unpack it a little bit. So we have seen outflows from most of our customer segments; municipal and commercial in particular. On the consumer side, deposits are a little bit steadier there, but we’ve seen a shift from lower cost deposits to higher cost deposits. Again, to retain customers, we’ve got higher promotional rates than we’ve had in the past, and that’s helped keep deposits a little more stable than they would otherwise be, but obviously has a cost impact. I think, going forward, we’re just monitoring. We’re carefully watching it, making pricing decisions as we go. As I said, it’s a balancing act between the short-term net interest margin considerations, which are very important, but also the long-term customer relationships.

Janet Lee: Okay. I might give this a shot, but in terms of 2023, is there any range of guidance you can provide on the NII growth, I know you guys have pulled that off from the slide, is there any rough range that you can give us as well as sort of the goal in terms of your deposit growth or deposits decline for 2023?

Robert F. Rivers: I think what we put in the materials that you have is our outlook, Janet, which is that we do expect further contraction in the margin. As we said a number of times, it was six basis points in the third quarter, and we’ve given you, I think, pretty good information on the deposit costs in Q4 and throughout the year as well. So that’s all part of our outlook and that’s what we’ve provided.

Janet Lee: Okay, alright, thanks for taking my questions.

Robert F. Rivers: Thank you Janet.

Operator: Thank you. Next question comes from Mark Fitzgibbon at Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Mark Fitzgibbon: Hey guys, good morning.

Robert F. Rivers: Mark, how are you?

Mark Fitzgibbon: Good. Jim, just a follow-up to try to get at that margin question a little bit differently. Where does your modeling show the margin bottoming out, assuming the Fed kind of falls the forward curve?

James B. Fitzgerald: Yes. So Mark, it’s — as we’ve tried to say a couple of times, we’re in — it’s a very competitive market, it’s challenging. We think things get a little bit more — we think things continue to be difficult. Beyond that, it’s very hard to give you any more information. We’ve provided you the information through the end of the year. That’s what we see. And as I said, we’re not expecting that to get any easier over the next couple of quarters.

Mark Fitzgibbon: Okay. And then secondly, when we see rallies in the bond market, are you guys selling or trying to reduce the size of the AFS book and is there any plans contemplated to take losses and shrink that book down?

James B. Fitzgerald: No. Mark, thanks. It’s a good question. I think it’s a very fluid environment. We’re assessing things all the time and reacting as we see changes. The only way I can answer is that when we have decisions, we’ll talk — we’ll communicate. But at this point, we’re just watching very carefully assessing things. And in this environment, it’s difficult. So many things are — we’re certainly open to things — all things being under consideration, but no plans at this time.

Mark Fitzgibbon: Okay. And then just a couple of questions around M&A, it’s been pretty quiet on the insurance M&A front. Any particular reason for that? And also, given sort of the dearth in bank M&A targets in Eastern Mass, are you guys getting a little more open-minded to extending your geographies a bit, if a deal made financial sense?