WSFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:WSFS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Feddie Strickland: Got it. And then switch to deposit costs. You guys had a lot of success this quarter holding down deposit costs. Can you talk a little bit more about your deposit strategy for the year and how your different business lines like Wealth play into that?

Dominic Canuso: Sure. Yes. I would say, first, setting the landscape for the Greater Philadelphia market is predominantly driven by the larger banks that aren’t rushing to change their rates. We do see some competition from smaller banks who have higher loan-to-deposit ratios. But across the board, we have a very consistent and loyal customer base, and we provide a full suite of products and services from variable rate deposits all the way to higher-priced CDs. And so we continue to work with our customers to leverage our — the right product for the interest rate expected and for their needs. And we expect to be competitive to retain our existing customers and to be able to grow new customers in this market throughout the year.

We continue to benefit from a well-diversified deposit base with more than 50% of our deposits coming outside of our consumer and branch network with $2 billion coming from Trust and Wealth. And we do expect both from the Wealth side being able to grow deposits, particularly in this environment where there’s a heightened focus on Wealth Management. And over the long term, while there may be some quarter-to-quarter variation in the trust deposits, we do see opportunity to continue to take market share and grow those over the long run. But those are all included in our deposit outlook for the year.

Feddie Strickland: Got it. Dominic, that’s helpful. And just 1 more follow-up. Just following up on an earlier question, given the cash flow of the investment portfolio we’ve already discussed and the excess liquidity runoff, it sounds like we might continue to see a limited amount of earning asset decline in the next couple of quarters. Is that a fair assessment? .

Dominic Canuso: It really will be a function of the trend of the liquidity environment, but we would expect our total assets and interest earning assets to be relatively stable throughout the year.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Perito with KBW.

Michael Perito: Just a couple. First, just a point of clarification, Dominic, on the 2023 guide, Steve kind of addressed the loan growth. But where else does the mild recession assumption show. I mean, obviously, in the 40 to 50 basis points provisioning I’d imagine. But does it impact anything else like in terms of NIM or efficiency that we should just be aware of if the macro kind of shifts more favorable?

Dominic Canuso: Yes. I think some of that will show up in our fee income, particularly mortgage banking and the wealth side of our Wealth & Trust business on the AUM side. So they could have upside relative to our outlook if the economic forecast becomes more rosy.

Michael Perito: Okay. That makes sense. And then, Rodger, a big picture question. I mean I think — if I think back over the last handful of years, while the economic environment is uncertain, this feels like one of the cleaner guides we’ve had. There’s no runoff. There’s no accretable yield in the margin or at least much smaller. And so I’m kind of looking at these return targeted metrics, the 150 ROA, the 230 PPNR ROA, are these the right metrics for you guys for the time being for us to be thinking of? And is the focus kind of for you guys to try and grow the franchise on a net basis, while maintaining these metrics? Is that kind of the right way to think about kind of strategically where you guys are at, at this point? Or would you frame it differently?