Christopher Marinac: Okay, great. And then last question for me just goes back to kind of the PPNR guide for this year. If we think about the guide for ’24, would the future years in ’25 and ’26 kind of be higher from this year or is there — do you see a scenario where the PPNR would shrink further the next year?
Mike Achary: Chris, this is Mike, that’s a great question. And involves at this point, I think, a lot of crystal ball kind of viewing. But at this point, I don’t know that we’re ready to really talk about guidance for ’25. But I would suggest that if we think about ’25 and we think about that being a year where potentially we’re able to grow the balance sheet more than just below single digits. And that certainly, I think bodes well for our ability to expand PPNR into next year.
Christopher Marinac: Got you. That’s helpful. Thanks for speaking out loud on that, Mike. I appreciate it.
Mike Achary: You’re welcome.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Gary Tenner from D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.
Gary Tenner: Thanks. Good afternoon. I wanted to ask a follow-up just on the loan growth guide. Sounds like the low single-digit holds in your mind with or without rates, even though I think a lot of folks think of a second half inflection for the group overall as being a little more reliant on rate cuts. Are your lenders kind of hearing pretty clearly from borrowers that, look, we’re being patient on rates, but we feel good enough about our business opportunities that we’re going to pull the trigger in the back half of the year even if we don’t get some moderation in rates.
John Hairston: I think the first part of your — this is John, the first part of your answer, yes. We’re hearing pretty clearly we think the environment may be a little better for us back half of the year. And some of that is because I think organizations are looking at their debt service and from their perspective, they have more room to spend if they’re spending less on debt service. And so it just invigorates them to maybe tackle a little bit more in terms of re-upping equipment, expanding buildings, and doing things that businesses do to grow their top-line revenue. So I think that that’s really more the driver. I don’t think it’s more — I mean, 75 basis points doesn’t light up the world, right? So it doesn’t make all of a sudden math get a lot better.
It more signals that we have successfully navigated a safe landing economically and we can kind of think a little bit more positively about the next couple three years, and that spurs people to begin taking a little bit more risk in terms of spreading their wings and investing. So — but as you know, I mean, at some point in time, you can’t just not spend money. So my thought is that by the time we get into the latter parts of this year, if the environment looks, we go from higher for longer to higher for much longer. It’s still going to cause people to go ahead and moving forward with some decisions simply because they need to. And they’ve got to manage their operating expenses accordingly to afford that higher level of debt service.
Gary Tenner: Thanks. I appreciate the thoughts on that. And then kind of a quasi related follow up in terms of the PPNR guide with and without rates. Is that figure with no rate cuts purely the math on kind of the yield and rate impact of cuts, and no change in mix of the balance sheet in that scenario?
Mike Achary: Gary, this is Mike. It’s a little bit of both. It’s not just the pure math of what happens and what doesn’t happen in terms of our rates and repricing. I mean, we’re modifying the mix a bit to account for what we think is going to happen or not happen. But I would suggest, though, it’s not a big, big impact or a big change, certainly in the size of the balance sheet for the second half of the year cuts versus no cuts. And that’s why we didn’t change our guidance both on the loan or deposit side at least not as of yet.
Gary Tenner: Got it. Okay. I appreciate it.
Mike Achary: Okay.
Operator: That concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the conference over to John Hairston for closing remarks.
John Hairston: Thank you, Krista, for managing the call. Thanks to everyone for your interest. Looks like a good year shaping up, and we’re glad to share more with you when we see you on the road. We’ll see you all very soon.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. And you may now disconnect.
