Mercantile Bank Corporation (NASDAQ:MBWM) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Raymond Reitsma: Yes. This is Ray. We have engaged in proactive discussions with our borrowers as the rates have filed their paths that they have and provided opportunities to them to blend and extend or reprice early. And if that was important to their particular situation, many of them have taken advantage of that. So, that is an activity that we’ve undertaken fairly regularly in the last couple of years.

Erik Zwick : Thanks. I appreciate the color. And it sounds like you’re fairly comfortable then that there’s not going to be any surprises or any loans that have difficulty once those rates do move higher and reset?

Ray Reitsma : We’re not aware of any at the current time, but things — as the environment is very dynamic and things change, it’s possible. So any is a strong word, but certainly not massive waves of that, by any stretch, the imagination.

Robert Kaminski: And Erik, what it really points to is that we’re continually engaged with our clients and we understand their business structure and their cash flows. And so, it won’t be the first conversation that we’ve had with them about raising rates because we’re concerned that they address their situation and make sure they plan for any upcoming cash flow drains as a result of increased loan pricing. So continual engagement, we stay ahead of those situations that may potentially be some challenges — present some challenges, and it’s how we do business.

Erik Zwick : Got it. I appreciate that, the follow up, and I agree, constant dialogue is definitely important. Moving to the securities portfolio, you made some commentary just about the unrealized loss position at this point. And curious, first maybe Chuck, if you could remind us what the duration is on the total portfolio? And then have you guys given any thoughts to restructuring a portion of the portfolio at this point? And if not, what might cause you to change your mind and reconsider?

Charles Christmas: Hey, Erik, the duration is right around five years. The investment portfolio is a relatively small part of our balance sheet. It’s currently about 13%. It’s actually a little bit above our policy guidelines of 10% to 12%. We haven’t given — I mean, we definitely have thought about doing some restructuring. But on an overall basis, we don’t think that that’s the right thing to do at the current time. Like I provided the adjusted capital ratios, we still feel good with our regulatory capital, even taken into the unrealized loss. As I mentioned, the — we have always managed the portfolio on a laddered basis, and we are just now starting to get into the time period of when we — we took some of the excess liquidity during the COVID period to invest in some investment securities.

And this is the first quarter, we’ll be really start getting into a good volume of maturities. So we’ll see some really good repricing opportunities as I mentioned, starting this quarter going forward for the next several years. And when we kind of blend that cash flow, bend those repricing opportunities into the rest of our balance sheet, we feel comfortable with where that’s at currently. But certainly, like all things, we on a regular basis look at our balance sheet and make determinations whether any type of restructuring, whether it’s the securities portfolio or any other segment of the balance sheet is needed or warranted.

Erik Zwick : Got it. And then just moving on to non-interest income, obviously had some nice growth in the interest rate swap income, credit, debit card income, and payroll servicing. And I know you called attention to some successful marketing of products and services to help drive those. And based on your projections for the fourth quarter, it seems like those should be — those weren’t just kind of a one quarter bump, those should be pretty sustainable going forward. And kind of any additional thoughts you could provide there?