TrustCo Bank Corp NY Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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July 23, 2024

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the TrustCo Bancorp Earnings Call and Webcast. All participants will be in listen only mode. Before proceeding, we would like to mention that this presentation may contain forward looking information about TrustCo Bancorp New York and this is intended to be covered by the Safe Harbor forward looking statements provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements due to various risks, uncertainties and other factors. More detailed information about these and other risk factors can be found in our press release that precedes this call and in the Risk Factors and Forward Looking Statements section of our Annual Reports Form 10 ks as updated by our quarterly reports on Form 10 Q.

Operator

The forward looking statements made on this call are only valid as of the day hereof, and the company disclaims any obligation to update the information to reflect events or developments after the date of this call, except as may be required by applicable law. During today's call, we will discuss certain financial measures derived from our financial statements that are not determined in accordance to the U. S. GAAP. The reconciliations of such non GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP figures are included in our earnings press release, which is available under the Investor Relations tab on our website attrustcobank.com.

Operator

Please also note that today's event is being recorded. A replay of today's call will be available for 30 days and an audio webcast will be available for 1 year as described in our earnings press release. At this time, I would like to turn over the conference call to Mr. Robert J. McCormick, Chairman, President and CEO.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good morning, everyone, and thank you

Speaker 2

for joining the call. I'm Rob McCormick, the President of the Bank. I'm joined today as usual by Mike Ozimek, our CFO. Also joining me today is Kevin Curley. Kevin is an Executive Vice President and newly promoted Chief Banking Officer.

Speaker 2

Kevin has been with the bank for over 30 years and brings a wealth of experience to his new position. He will give color on lending and Mike will give detail on the numbers. I believe we're seeing early signs of return to normalcy in the housing markets. In our experience, Florida is leading the way on this with new construction seeming to catch up with demand. Inventory is still tight in the Northeast.

Speaker 2

In New York, we are seeing some loosening in the downstate market with median days in the market declining over the last year and the number of new listings increasing, suggesting that sellers are coming off the sidelines and buyers are active again. Upstate is essentially flat year over year. Indicators suggest that heckle volume will trend down while purchase volume trends up. Overall, we believe the trend is positive. As Kevin will detail, average loans are up and this has contributed positively to net income and net interest margin, which improved 4% and 3.7%, respectively.

Speaker 2

We also have retained competitively priced time deposits. Our strategy with respect to pricing, both in terms of loans and deposits, is showing signs of success in what we have seen margin improvement with some expected contraction, good strategy, well executed yields favorable outcomes. Several other measures also very were very favorable this quarter. Earnings per share grew and book value was up almost $2 over this time last year. We also saw improvements in return metrics ROA and RRE both grew over the quarter.

Speaker 2

These strong results increased income and value differentiates from any institutions in our sector. TrustCo's thoughtful and conservative strategy has proven successful over the long haul. Although it is something we mentioned quarter after quarter, the recurring themes of excellent liquidity, strong capital and superior credit quality weren't repeating. TrustCo consistently performs well with regard to these measures. We are proud to report about them and our shareholders realize the value they generate.

Speaker 2

It also bears emphasis that all of these results were achieved without resorting to broker deposits or borrowing. We have no debt on our books at a time when some banks struggle to turn a profit. We believe that the skies are beginning to clear and as we look forward to the balance of the year, Mike Brink. Now Mike will detail give us detail on the numbers, Kevin will give us color on the loan portfolio, then we will take your questions if you have any. Mike?

Speaker 2

Thank you,

Speaker 3

Rob, and good morning, everyone. I'll now review TrustCo's financial results for the Q2 of 2024. As we noted in the press release, the company saw 2nd quarter net income of $12,600,000 an increase of 3.5% over the prior quarter, which yielded a return on average assets and average equity of 0.82% and 7.76 percent respectively. Capital remains strong, consolidated equity to assets ratio was 10.73% for the Q2 of 2024 compared to 10.23% in the Q2 of 2023. Book value per share at June 30, 24 was $34.46 up 5.5% compared to 32 point $0.66 a year earlier.

Speaker 3

Average loans for the Q2 of 2024 grew 3.8 percent or $182,200,000 to 5,000,000,000 in the Q2 of 2023 at all time high. Consequently, overall loan growth has continued to increase and leading the charge real estate portfolio as usual, which increased by $89,900,000 or 2.1% in the Q2 of 2024 over the same period in 2023. Average commercial loans increased $31,500,000 or 12.7 percent. Home equity lines of credit increased 61,100,000 dollars or 20.1 percent and installment loans decreased $339,000 or 2.2 percent over the same period of 2023. For the Q2 of 2024, the provision for credit losses was $500,000 Retaining deposits continues to be a focus in 2024.

Speaker 3

Total deposits ended the quarter at $5,300,000,000 and were up $18,500,000 compared to the prior year. As we move forward, our objective is to continue to offer competitive product offerings of the bank through aggressive marketing and product differentiation. Net income was $37,800,000 for the Q2 of 2024, an increase of $1,200,000 or 3.3% compared to the prior quarter. Net income net interest margin for the Q2 of 2024 was 2.53%, up 9 basis points from the Q1 of 2024. Yield on earning assets increased to 4.06%, up 7 basis points from 3.99% in the Q1 of 2024.

Speaker 3

Cost of interest bearing liabilities increased to 1.97% in the Q2 of 2024 from 1.99% in the Q1 of 2024. Our wealth management division continues to be a significant recurring source of non interest income. They had approximately $1,100,000,000 of assets under management as of June 30, 2024. Additionally, as mentioned in the press release, the company marked its Visa Class C common stock to fair value and recorded a gain of $1,400,000 based on the conversion privilege of the Visa Class C common stock. Now on to non interest expense.

Speaker 3

Total noninterest expense net of ORE expense came in at $26,400,000 up $1,400,000 from the prior quarter. The increase is primarily the result of higher employee benefit costs in the current quarter. ORE expense net came in at $16,000 for the quarter as compared to $74,000 in the prior quarter. Given the continued low level of ORE expenses, we're going to continue to hold anticipated level of expenses not exceed $250,000 per quarter. All the other categories of non interest expense were in line with our expectations for the Q2.

Speaker 3

Now Kevin will review the loan portfolio and non performing loans.

Speaker 1

Thanks Mike and good morning to everyone. Our average loans grew by $182,000,000 or 3.8 percent year over year. The growth centered on residential mortgages, which increased by $89,900,000 over last year. Our home equity loans also increased by $61,000,000 or 20.1 percent and our commercial loans grew by $31,500,000 or 12.7 percent over last year. The 2nd quarter actual loans increased by $33,000,000 residential loans increased by $31,000,000 with both first mortgages and home equity products posting increases.

Speaker 1

In addition, our commercial loans increased by $3,300,000 We remain well positioned in the market and seek to capitalize as market activity develops. Our portfolio product combined with the flexibility to utilize various promotions and the control we have on pricing allows us to be in a great position. Rates in the market have decreased in recent weeks and we currently stand at 6.375 percent for our base 30 year fixed rate loan. We have been keeping our rates very competitive with the goal of increasing volumes. More recent market activity on the purchase side has seen steady progress and we continue to focus our efforts on capturing a larger piece of the current market.

Speaker 1

Overall, we are pleased with our loan growth in the quarter year over year. Now moving to asset quality. Asset quality at the bank remains strong. Non performing loans decreased to $19,200,000 versus $19,400,000 last year. Non performing loans now stand at 0.38 percent of total loans versus 0.40 percent a year ago.

Speaker 1

Non performing assets sold $21,500,000 as of June 30 versus $20,800,000 a year ago. Our early stage delinquencies also continued to be steady and charge offs for the quarter amounted to a net recovery of 52,000. At quarter end, the allowance for credit losses was $49,800,000 with a covered ratio of 259.4 percent compared to $46,900,000 and a coverage ratio of 241.6 percent in 2023. Rob?

Speaker 2

That's our story and we're happy to answer any questions you might have.

Operator

We'll now begin the Q and A segment of the conference. First question comes from Ian Lapi of Gabelli Funds. Ian, your line is now open.

Speaker 4

Hi, good morning, Rob and team. Congrats on a good quarter. I guess, first of all, on the great to see the NIM expanding after dropping several quarters in a row. Just curious, you benefited from a lower cost of deposits. Assuming no Fed Inc.

Speaker 4

Rate decreases this quarter, do you think you can still drive that cost of deposits down this quarter based on sort of what repricing trends you're seeing?

Speaker 2

That's the goal, Ian. We're watching that very, very closely and we're maintaining the balance between what we have do to keep our liquidity at an acceptable level without going into the positive borrowing markets in funding our loans and requirements and cash as we needed. So that would be the goal to continue to drive that number down. You knew that, Ian. I don't know.

Speaker 4

Yes, I know. The fees for services to customers was down sequentially and year over year fairly significantly double digit. And anything unusual going on there?

Speaker 2

The only outlier I think would be NSF fees, Ian. You recall that we were caught in that trap the NSF fees. We have the way we calculate NSF fees and how we collect NSF fees. Some of the other fees though, our wealth management has been on a great tariff growth and a couple of other areas have been kind of making up for that. But some months, believe it or not, NSF fees are still a little bit higher or higher than prior months.

Speaker 2

But it's I would say that's really the only impact we've had on directly on fees over the period.

Speaker 4

Okay. And then great growth in the HELOC portfolio. Just curious, what percent roughly is going to existing customers? And then what is the loan to value if you include obviously the 1st lien that's ahead of you?

Speaker 2

If you have your first mortgage with TrustCo, you can get up to a 90% loan to value. And I think it's about sixty-forty split between existing TrustCo customers and new customers. I'm looking at Kevin for that. That sounds about yes. So I think that's about the split, Ian.

Speaker 2

We've been known for a very long time to be a strong home equity lender. You were an early adopter years years ago and have always maintained that strong reputation. So we draw from the we do draw from the greater market. And with some of the bigger banks not offering home equity credit lending, it kind of drives people to us. So we do get non customers apply here.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. And then last question, Rob, you mentioned the housing market is starting to show some signs of life. Are you seeing any increase in payoffs or refis of your existing residential mortgage book?

Speaker 2

No, I would say stable to down. We're still experiencing work. Not huge percentages, but it's very stable and trending a little bit down.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. Congratulations again.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

We currently have no further questions. And therefore, I will hand back to our speaker, Robert McCormick, for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thanks for joining us this morning. Special shout out to Troy Heidenberg, by the way, on the call. So have a great day.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you to everyone for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

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Earnings Conference Call
TrustCo Bank Corp NY Q2 2024
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