Amerant Bancorp NYSE: AMTB executives used the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call to emphasize progress on a three-part strategic plan centered on stabilizing the business, optimizing the credit portfolio, and returning to sustainable growth. Management also highlighted sharply lower expenses, continued portfolio de-risking actions, and a pickup in international deposits tied to what leaders described as an improving operating environment in Venezuela.
Strategic plan focus: credit optimization and disciplined growth
Interim CEO Carlos Iafigliola said the company continued work begun in the prior quarter to reassess portfolio risk and refine loan classifications. He said Amerant “demonstrated proactive credit management” in the first quarter, making “necessary downgrades as well as meritable upgrades,” while also transferring another group of loans to held for sale that management no longer considers core to the business.
Iafigliola outlined several underwriting and risk governance changes intended to support future growth within tighter credit parameters. Among them, Amerant has enhanced “risk-based limits to adjust concentration risk and prevent single borrower overexposure,” moved away from “out-of-market collateral projects” except selectively for existing clients in core markets, and shifted underwriting toward borrowers with “proven, stable operating history over projection-based lending.” He also said the company tightened its exception framework by lowering allowable exception thresholds to better align with its stated risk appetite.
Quarterly results: higher earnings amid lower revenue and sharply lower expenses
CFO Sharymar Calderón said Amerant will no longer break out results between core and non-core metrics, aiming to provide a “clearer and more straightforward view” of performance using GAAP-reported figures.
Calderón reported diluted earnings per share of $0.44 for the first quarter, up from $0.07 in the fourth quarter. Net interest income fell to $80.3 million from $90.2 million, which she attributed primarily to lower average balances and yields on earning assets reflecting the full-quarter impact of 50 basis points of market rate cuts, as well as an asset mix reallocation. Net interest margin contracted to 3.55% from 3.78%.
Non-interest income decreased to $17.4 million from $22.0 million, driven by the absence of a prior-quarter gain from a sale-leaseback of two banking centers and lower securities gains. Calderón said the quarter’s non-interest income included securities gains of $516,000.
Non-interest expense dropped to $66.9 million from $106.8 million, which Calderón said was primarily due to cost savings efforts, including $3.3 million of savings from vendor contract renegotiations. She noted expenses were partially offset by a $1.7 million impairment on an investment carried at cost and $1.8 million in net losses on loans held for sale. Pre-tax, pre-provision net revenue rose to $30.7 million from $5.4 million in the fourth quarter.
The company posted a return on assets of 0.73% and return on equity of 7.63%, compared with 0.10% and 1.12%, respectively, in the fourth quarter. The efficiency ratio improved to 68.52% from 95.19%.
Balance sheet trends: deposit growth, modest loan growth, and securities purchases
Total assets ended the quarter at $9.9 billion, up from $9.8 billion, primarily due to higher deposits. Cash and cash equivalents declined to $188.7 million from $470.2 million, which Calderón said reflected purchases of investment securities “at attractive yields” and funding of loan growth.
Investment securities increased to $2.4 billion from $2.1 billion. Loans totaled $6.8 billion, up $56.5 million, with Calderón noting that balances were only slightly higher due to a high level of prepayments and loan exits tied to Amerant’s credit quality focus.
Deposits increased to $7.9 billion from $7.8 billion. Calderón said the rise was primarily driven by international deposits, while brokered deposits rose to $548.1 million from $435.7 million as the bank used “mostly short-term funding to compensate for some large fund providers that left” in the prior quarter.
Assets under management rose $148.6 million to $3.4 billion, driven by market valuations. Calderón reiterated the company sees wealth management as an opportunity to expand fee income, “increasingly in light of the opportunity in Venezuela.”
International deposits: Venezuela cited as a meaningful funding opportunity
Iafigliola highlighted international deposit inflows as a key development in the quarter, attributing strength to what he described as the reactivation of Venezuela’s economy and Amerant’s longstanding relationships in the market. He said total deposits grew $188 million in the first quarter, including $95 million from Venezuela, with $66 million of that Venezuelan growth occurring in March.
He described the deposits as “quite attractive” because of their stability and cost of funds and said they can support profitability while also aligning with Amerant’s relationship strategy through potential wealth management cross-sell opportunities.
In response to an analyst question, management said the company is looking to add staff to support growth in international deposits and described improved ability to engage in the region. Iafigliola said Amerant is seeing “a progression in the way that the jurisdiction is being looked” at from a sanctions perspective and characterized the environment as showing “a path towards reducing the number of sanctions towards Venezuela.” He said this dynamic is contributing to incremental flows of funds through the economy.
Iafigliola said the cost of funds for the overall international portfolio was around 130 basis points and “even a little bit lower, 115 maybe,” while incremental deposit costs were “sub 1%.”
Credit quality actions, allowance, and outlook
Chief Credit Officer Lee Ann Cragg detailed changes to credit processes and monitoring, including staffing a dedicated portfolio management team, expanding training to improve regulatory risk ratings, and embedding new monitoring checkpoints. She said Amerant redesigned its annual review format and lowered the review threshold from $5 million in total credit exposures to $3 million, with an expectation over time to review “all exposures over $1 million” through a standardized review. She also said Amerant introduced quarterly “Top 20 reviews” across CRE, C&I, and private banking segments, and increased the cadence of meetings focused on adversely classified loans.
Cragg reported non-performing loans increased $4.7 million to $176.1 million, or 1.78% of total assets. She said downgrades to non-performing status were primarily driven by three relationships spanning CRE, owner-occupied, and commercial loans, partially offset by payoffs and note sales.
She said classified loan downgrades were driven by the same three relationships, plus a large non-depository financial institution loan with CRE collateral and one large single-family residential loan “adequately secured with real estate.” Cragg added that during the quarter, loan payoffs totaled $59.5 million and loans sold totaled $65.7 million as part of efforts to reduce classified balances.
Special mention downgrades were driven primarily by three CRE loans, partially offset by upgrades to pass totaling $67.3 million based on new year-end financials. Cragg said that as of April 22, special mention loans declined to $117.3 million due to a $30.9 million CRE loan sale and were “projected to reach a further reduced level to $88.3 million” from an additional $29 million CRE exit expected in the coming weeks.
Calderón said provision for credit losses was $7.8 million, up from $3.5 million in the fourth quarter. She attributed the provision to $6.3 million in additional reserves for charge-offs, a $1.7 million net increase in specific reserves allocations, and $2.6 million tied to credit quality and macroeconomic changes, partially offset by a $2.9 million release related to held-for-investment loan volume changes.
Gross charge-offs totaled $9.1 million, including $4.4 million related to a commercial loan participation agreement that was being wound down; Calderón said no further charge-offs are expected from that agreement. The allowance for credit losses ratio edged up to 1.21% from 1.20%.
Looking ahead, Calderón guided to loan balances of approximately $7 billion in the second quarter of 2026, driven by organic originations and selective residential loan purchases, and said Amerant expects annualized loan growth of about 7% for full-year 2026, while continuing to exit certain credits. She guided to deposits reaching $8 billion by the second quarter and cumulative deposit growth of 8% to 10% for 2026, supported by domestic efforts and “emerging opportunities in Venezuela.”
For net interest margin, Calderón projected a range of 3.4% to 3.5% in the second quarter, stabilizing around 3.4% toward year-end. She projected expenses of roughly $68 million to $69 million in the second quarter, with quarterly expenses stabilizing around $68 million later in the year as the company works toward a target efficiency ratio of approximately 60%.
During the quarter, Amerant repurchased 859,493 shares at a weighted average price of $21.77, which Calderón compared to tangible book value of $22.38 as of March 31. The company also paid a quarterly cash dividend of $0.09 per share on Feb. 27, and its board approved another $0.09 per share dividend payable May 29. On the call, management said the remaining buyback authorization was $21 million and that it planned to complete the buyback in the second quarter.
About Amerant Bancorp NYSE: AMTB
Amerant Bancorp is the bank holding company and parent of Amerant Bank, a community-oriented financial institution headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida. Amerant Bank delivers a comprehensive range of deposit and lending products to both retail and commercial clients, including checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, consumer mortgages, and business lines of credit. In addition, the company offers specialized services such as treasury management, international trade finance, foreign exchange, and asset-based lending to support the complex needs of corporate and high-net-worth customers.
Tracing its roots to the early 1980s, Amerant has grown through a combination of strategic acquisitions and organic expansion.
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