Washington Trust Bancorp Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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July 21, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Washington Trust reported strong second-quarter results, with net income of $16 million, or $0.83 per share, up meaningfully from the prior quarter. Management also highlighted improved profitability, with PPNR up 9% sequentially and 23% year over year.
  • Positive Sentiment: Net interest income and margin expanded in the quarter, aided by the full amortization of a terminated hedge and continued balance-sheet improvement. Management guided to further margin expansion, projecting NIM of about 275 bps in Q3 and 280 bps in Q4.
  • Positive Sentiment: The bank delivered solid loan and deposit growth, with total loans up 2% quarter over quarter and deposits up 4%. Growth was led by the institutional banking team and C&I lending, while the loan-to-deposit ratio improved to 95.1%.
  • Positive Sentiment: Wealth management and mortgage banking both contributed to non-interest income growth. Wealth assets under management reached a record level, and mortgage banking revenue rose 14% sequentially, with the pipeline ending the quarter at $121 million.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Credit quality remained generally stable, though past-due loans rose due to a single commercial real estate office loan already on non-accrual status. The company recorded a $1.6 million provision for credit losses and ended the quarter with an allowance of 83 basis points of total loans.
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Earnings Conference Call
Washington Trust Bancorp Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp Inc.'s conference call. My name is Hillary, I'll be your operator today. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Now I'll turn the call over to Sharon Walsh, Senior Vice President, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications. Sharon, please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Hillary. Good morning, welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp Inc.'s conference call for the second quarter of 2026. Joining us this morning are members of Washington Trust's executive team, Ned Handy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Mary Nunes, President and Chief Operating Officer; Ron Ohsberg, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer; and Bill Ray, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer. Please note that today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements, our actual results could differ materially from what is discussed on today's call. Our complete safe harbor statement is contained in our earnings release, which was issued yesterday, as well as other documents that are filed with the SEC. All these materials and other public filings are available at our investor relations website at ir.washtrust.com. Washington Trust trades on NASDAQ under the symbol WASH.

Speaker 1

I'm now pleased to introduce today's host, Washington Trust Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ned Handy. Ned?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Sharon. Good morning, thank you for joining our second quarter conference call. We appreciate your time and your continued interest in Washington Trust. I'll begin with a brief overview of our second quarter results, Ron will provide more detail on our financial performance for the quarter. Following our remarks, Mary and Bill will join us for the question and answer session. We delivered strong results from the second quarter as disciplined execution across the company drove higher profitability and solid loan and deposit growth. Our institutional banking initiative helped drive an increase in our C&I loan book and overall deposits. Our capital levels remain strong and supportive of additional expected loan growth. We are planning to open our 30th branch later this year in Bristol, Rhode Island, providing greater access for consumers and businesses in the East Bay and Southeastern Massachusetts.

Speaker 2

We're also finalizing the build of our new Pawtucket branch and are excited to have both locations open soon. We are on target to roll out an enhanced digital banking solution for our small business customers this fall and continue to look for ways to leverage technology to provide greater security, convenience, and choice for our customers. In April, we welcomed Jeff Wilhelm to our board. Jeff has more than 25 years of experience in digital innovation, and we're excited to draw on his expertise in AI and cybersecurity as these areas continue to grow in importance across the financial services industry. Overall, we are pleased with our second quarter performance and the direction of our business. Strong earnings growth, margin expansion, and balance sheet growth position us well as we continue to invest in our franchise, expand our presence in key markets, and enhance the customer experience.

Speaker 2

With that, I'll turn the call over to Ron to provide additional detail on our financial results. Ron?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Ned, and good morning, everyone. In the second quarter, we reported net income of $16 million, or $0.83 per share, up by $3.4 million or $0.17 from the preceding quarter. Pre-provision pretax net revenue, or PPNR, was up 9% from Q1 and up 23% year-over-year. Net interest income was $41.8 million, up by 3% from Q1 and up by 12% year-over-year. The margin was 273, up by 10 basis points from Q1 and up by 37 basis points year-over-year. On May 1st, the remaining deferred loss from a terminated hedge was fully amortized, eliminating this expense from the bank's ongoing run rate. The second quarter captured only a two-month benefit from ending this amortization expense, as one month of amortization remained in April. The second quarter benefit to net interest income, NIM, was $1.4 million and nine basis points.

Speaker 3

In the third quarter, we will realize the third month of benefit, totaling approximately $700,000 or four basis points compared to Q2. Non-interest income was up by $1.4 million or 8% compared to Q1 and up by 9% year-over-year. Wealth management revenues were up $554,000 or 5% compared to Q1 and increased by $1.1 million or 11% year-over-year. Q2 included an increase of $265,000 in transaction-based revenues, largely reflecting seasonal tax servicing fee income. Asset-based revenues were up by $289,000 from Q1. Mortgage banking revenues total $3.5 million, up 14% from the first quarter and also up 14% year-over-year. Our mortgage pipeline at June 30th was $121 million, up by $7 million or 6% from the end of March. Non-interest income totaled $38.6 million in Q2, up by 2%.

Speaker 3

Salaries and benefits expense was up $972,000 or 4%, reflecting staffing additions in our commercial and retail banking business lines, as well as volume and performance related compensation changes. All other categories of non-interest expenses decreased by a net $140,000 in the second quarter. Our effective tax rate was 21.2%, and we expect our full year 2026 rate to be approximately 21.5%. Turning to the balance sheet, total loans were up 2% from March 31st. Total commercial loans increased by $63 million, driven by growth in the commercial and industrial loan portfolio, mainly from our institutional banking team. Commercial real estate had solid production in Q2, but this was more than offset by payoffs. The commercial pipeline is approximately $143 million. Residential loans increased by $13 million, and consumer loans were up by $12 million. Deposits were up 4% from the end of Q1 and up by 6% year-over-year.

Speaker 3

Wholesale funding was down $120 million or 21% from the end of March, and our loan-to-deposit ratio improved from 96.9%-95.1% at June 30th. Total equity amounted to $554 million, up by $7 million from the end of Q1. The dividend remained at $0.56 per share. Turning to asset quality, overall, our Q2 asset and credit quality metrics were stable. At June 30th, non-accruing loans were 78 basis points against total loans, decreasing from 81 basis points at the end of Q1. Past due loans were 81 basis points, up from 33 basis points at the end of Q1. The increase was attributable to a single commercial real estate office loan that had already been placed on non-accruing status in the preceding quarter. It did not reflect further deterioration in portfolio credit quality during the quarter.

Speaker 3

In the second quarter, we recognized a $1.6 million provision for credit losses. The allowance totaled $42.6 million or 83 basis points against total loans. At this time, I will turn the call back to Ned.

Speaker 2

Ron, thanks very much. At this point, we'll open it up to questions. Hillary?

Operator

Wonderful. Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Justin Crowley from Piper Sandler. We're just staging you. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hey, good morning, everyone.

Speaker 2

Morning, Justin.

Speaker 4

Just wanted to start out on loan growth. Certainly a really nice result here that you called out. You talked about the contribution out of C&I and the institutional team. Just curious if you could talk a bit more about that group, what the runway there looks like, and just how sustainable you think the result we saw this quarter could end up being.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Justin. The group had a great quarter. Commercial loans, in general, were up 2.4%, so we expect that kind of rate to continue in the coming quarters. The institutional banking group is growing its pipeline. I think from quarter to quarter, there will be a balance between the institutional banking group and CRE. Third quarter generally is a little slow in the not-for-profit space, so we may see a little bit more of that growth come out of the CRE group than out of institutional banking. I think there's a good balance there, and we're sticking with the mid-single-digit overall loan growth for the year, and I think as we said in the prior quarter, that'll be led by institutional banking group and C&I in general.

Speaker 4

Is it really, when you look at that institutional banking group and specifically, I guess, this quarter, is the contribution coming from the not-for-profit space? How diversified is that beyond that arena?

Speaker 2

It really is, in the quarter, it was largely educational in nature. We expect that to be the kind of the leader in that group. Again, good loan growth, good deposit growth. Average assets, some of that loan growth happened towards the end of the quarter, so that obviously had an effect on net interest income. Nice to have those loans on the book. We expect for the third quarter that not-for-profit activity to be the driver for the institutional group. As I said, third quarter generally tends to be a little bit slower in that space. We'll see the overall growth led in the quarter probably by commercial real estate.

Speaker 4

Okay. I guess on that, on commercial real estate, you called it out as well, payoffs again, sort of a headwind this quarter. Is there kind of a line of sight that should slow? What kind of gives you confidence that'll be able to kind of take the torch from maybe a softer quarter on the C&I side?

Speaker 2

Yeah. Yes, the credit formation in the quarter between construction and new loans was about $100 million. Payoffs were a little bit above that and led by CRE at $112 million. We think with a little bit of upward pressure in rates, cap rates probably move. Outright sales probably slow a little bit. We expect that payoff rate to slow a little bit, but the pipeline is good. We expect that we'll have net growth in the third quarter, certainly in the real estate space, where overall formation was about $214 million in the quarter. We're really happy with the level of activity.

Speaker 2

Payoffs and paydowns were at about $150. It's a little bit of slowdown in the payoff and continued pace on the new originations. Our construction book is down a little bit, but we still see some construction advances in the quarter.

Speaker 3

I'm confident that we'll hit that same kind of 2.5%-ish commercial growth overall in the quarter. Obviously the lead time on the not-for-profit space can be a little longer. While there may not be fundings at the same level in Q3, the pipeline is certainly being built.

Speaker 4

Okay. Got you. That's helpful. Ron, maybe just one on the margin. You'll get the full benefit of the swap termination for the third quarter. Just wondering if you could comment just on expectations for the NIM trajectory through the balance of the year, just beyond that benefit.

Speaker 3

Yeah. We're looking at, say, 275 for Q3 and 280 for Q4.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. That is super helpful. Then maybe just one last one. Just on wealth, you saw the nice lift in AUM levels. So I guess, with the move of the market that we saw last quarter, can you provide a little detail on what net flows look like and just how you're thinking about the trajectory looking ahead there?

Speaker 3

Yeah. We actually set a record in the quarter on wealth assets under management. You can see that we do disclose our overall assets. We're not really breaking out the flows, but I would say that we're pretty pleased with the overall performance of the business.

Speaker 4

Okay, great.

Operator

Thank you for your question.

Speaker 4

We'll leave it there.

Operator

Thank you for your question. Your next question comes from the line of Damon DelMonte from KBW. Your line is now open.

Speaker 5

Hey, good morning, guys. Hope everybody's doing well.

Speaker 3

Good morning.

Speaker 5

Morning. Ron, just a quick follow-up on the margin. I appreciate the guidance for the next couple of quarters. I know part of the benefit here in the third quarter is from the interest rate swap component of it. Could you just give a little perspective on how you're feeling about deposit pricing trends this quarter and going forward? Are you seeing competition picking up? You had a little bit of a decline this quarter. Is that sustainable? Just a little bit more color around some of the dynamics that give you the confidence for the margin expansion.

Speaker 3

Yeah. On the liability side, I would say most of our CDs and FHLB have repriced down. There's probably a little bit left to go. I think on the deposit side, we're really focused on trying to improve our mix. I think that the institutional banking team is expecting to self-fund about 35% of their production. That should help our mix going forward and give us some help on that side. That's how we're thinking about it, Damon. Does that answer the question?

Speaker 5

Got it. Yep, that's helpful. On the asset side, was the increase this quarter attributable to some of back book repricing? What were some of the dynamics in the increase there? Was that all tied to the interest rate swap?

Speaker 3

Most of it was the swap. There is an undercurrent of back book. We have the big mortgage book that we're still trying to amortize down. That is giving us some benefit going forward. I think if the yield curve continues to steepen up a little bit, that should help as our new production comes in. The mortgage amortization is a little bit of a slow grind. It's there, and it's helping us as it goes off. Coming into the year, we were somewhat hopeful that maybe rates would come down and we'd see a pickup in refi activity and maybe some prepayments on that. That hasn't happened yet. The amortization is real, and that should give us a little bit of a tailwind.

Speaker 5

Got it. Okay, great. Then on the expense side, can you give a little perspective here on the back half of the year? I think you had called out that comp and benefits were up a little bit higher from some hiring and ongoing operational costs. I guess, can you keep it under the $39 million level in the back half of the year per quarter, or what's the outlook there?

Speaker 3

Yeah. I would say we're expecting our third quarter expenses to be up about another $1 million. Some of that is mortgage volume related. We've got the branches coming online that we talked about later this year. That'll add about $200,000 in the third quarter and then another $200,000 in the fourth quarter as those start to roll in. Some open positions we still have that we intend to fill and maybe some timing on the advertising expense. Right now, I would say we're looking at a $1 million increase in Q3, which would put us just under $39 million.

Speaker 5

Got it. Okay. Great. That's all I had. Thank you very much.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Damon.

Operator

Thank you for your questions. Your next question comes from the line of Laurie Hunsicker from Seaport Research. Your line is now open.

Speaker 6

Hi, thanks. Good morning, Ned and Mary Nunes.

Speaker 3

Good morning, Laurie.

Speaker 7

Morning, Laurie.

Speaker 6

My question. I just wanted to go back to loans here. The C&I growth, I just want to make sure I understand this. I appreciate the breakdown here you have on page 13. It looks like education loans going from $54 million to $135 million. Can you just take us through exactly what those loans are to? Are they small private colleges? How should we be thinking about that?

Speaker 2

They are schools. They are not colleges. They're more high school oriented. They're obviously not-for-profit. Very well-heeled with a strong deposit relationship included, and very strong operations from the schools.

Speaker 6

Okay. Of that $135 million, how much is college? Is it any amount of that, or is that a focus?

Speaker 2

I'm sorry, did you say is college?

Speaker 6

Right. Of the $135 million.

Speaker 2

Oh.

Speaker 6

The growth was high school.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 6

I'm just wondering, the $135 million, is there any colleges in that bucket? Is that a focus?

Speaker 2

No. It is a focus, but none of the existing volume is to colleges.

Speaker 6

Okay. Got it.

Speaker 2

It is a focus, though. We have a few in the pipeline that we're exploring. The group has looked at just order of magnitude, something in the neighborhood of $700 million of opportunities. We either don't compete on rate or for other reasons, credit-related or otherwise, we pass. They're seeing a lot of opportunities as we expected, and we're being fairly careful. We have looked at a couple of colleges, Laurie, and have not won a couple of them. Have passed on a couple of them. It's in the mix. These guys have been at it for a long time. They have access to the opportunities, but they also have a really good sense of where the market is and where our best opportunities lie.

Speaker 6

Okay. Got it. Just sort of extrapolating, most of the jump that you had in the non-interest bearing demand deposit category was tied to that growth? Is that the right way to think about this?

Speaker 2

Yeah, I think that's fair, Laurie.

Speaker 6

Okay. Then just as we look further out, C&I is 13% of your loan book up from 11% last quarter. Where does that percentage go if we look out a year or two years? How do you think about that?

Speaker 7

Yeah. Laurie, we expect over the next call it 18 months, that C&I is going to grow at a faster pace than everything else in our loan book. I think CRE is going to return to a kind of normal growth rates that we saw several years back. C&I think is the main growth engine. They're both going to grow. I would say the C&I will grow at a somewhat faster pace than the CRE.

Speaker 6

Okay. Just to quantify that, obviously just linked quarters, you were up 17%, almost 70% annualized. Obviously you had an exceptional quarter here, how should we think about that growth? Can you help us think a little bit about what that looks like this year, or next year? However you want to quantify that.

Speaker 7

I think the position we're trying to put ourselves in is to have sustainable growth comparable to what we just posted in Q2. We believe that we are on that path to do that, Laurie.

Speaker 2

Remember on the C&I side, the existing C&I book is relatively small and the Institutional Banking group has no risk of payoff. That's pure net growth. The percentage growth is a little misleading. It's going to be the leader. It's going to help on the deposit growth side. We expect both CRE and C&I overall, including Institutional Banking group, to kind of lead the charge.

Speaker 6

Quick question on office. Obviously, things are looking good there. I know you've got that Class B $3.8 million special mention coming due this next quarter. Do you have any kind of update on that, or has that been pushed out, that maturity? How should we think about that?

Speaker 7

We're in discussion with the sponsor, well known to us, longstanding relationship with the bank. It's got some long-term state leases in it. We feel comfortable about where this is and where it's going to go. We're obviously in active discussions right now.

Speaker 6

Okay. Great. Thanks. I'll leave it there.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Laurie.

Operator

Thank you for your questions. A reminder that if you would like to ask any additional questions, please press *1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press *1 again. There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Ned Handy, Chairman and CEO, for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Hillary, and thank you all for your questions and for joining us this morning. As we look ahead, we remain focused on disciplined growth, prudent risk management, delivering exceptional service to our customers and communities, and creating long-term value for our shareholders. We appreciate your continued interest in Washington Trust and your support of our company. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Have a great day, everyone.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

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