QCR Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCRH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Rulis: Okay. And just to confirm, we’re talking about core and I’ll take into account your comment about the expectation for accretion to return more to normal levels.

Todd Gipple: Yes, Jeff. Exactly. We wanted to be pretty prescriptive about that given the big jump in the fourth quarter. Actually very pleased by that. The level of restructurings and payoffs in that portfolio with good outcomes. It did accelerate the accretion, but now we’d be back to more like a run rate. So yes, when you’re doing your modeling pull out the in the fourth quarter, replace it with thereafter.

Larry Helling: Jeff, I’d add just a comment. I’m thrilled to see that accelerate because that means that the €“ some of those individual credit marks that we put on what we perceive were some of the higher credits, we were able to get rid of because they either paid off or restructured in a way that we thought was appropriate. So that speaks well and shows up early in our NPA numbers and the tremendous progress we’ve made in the last couple of quarters.

Jeff Rulis: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Damon DelMonte with KBW. Please go ahead.

Damon DelMonte: Hey guys, how is it going today?

Larry Helling: Good, Damon.

Damon DelMonte: So, just wanted to, kind of circle back on the credit front. It sounds like things are really strong there, but €“ can you give us a little guidance, Todd, on how we should think about the provision going through 2023? Reserve was pretty healthy at , do you feel you need to maintain that? Is there some room to let that go down a little bit? And just trying to get a little idea on the cadence of the provision over the coming quarters.

Larry Helling: I will take the and then let Todd fill in the gaps here. We think we’re very comfortable with our reserve today when our reserve coverage is 10x our NPAs, but it also seems like the right time to not let that number flow a lot lower. So, as we look through the rest of the year, we’re certainly going to need to start providing a little bit of reserve for the growth that we’ve had. We’ve seen no degradation in credit that’s apparent in the numbers as you see with our classified numbers coming down, our NPA numbers coming down in the quarter, but we all expect at some point for things to start to return to more normal, there’s certainly nothing in the numbers that show that that’s going to happen in the first quarter or two of next year €“ or this year, excuse me, depending on what happens to the economy, certainly, there’s some of that possible later in the year, but it’s not showing up yet.

So, we would expect if we do have reserving, it’s probably going to be a little more back-end loaded during the year because of credits holding up, but we’ll have to reserve a little bit and hope to maintain at above the levels we’re at for the next few quarters.

Damon DelMonte: Got it. Okay. That’s helpful. And then with regards to expenses, Todd, could you just repeat what your guidance was as you look into the first quarter and as kind of as we progress for the remainder of the year?