Q1 2024 Independent Bank Corp (Massachusetts) Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Jeffrey Tengel; President, Chief Executive Officer, Director; Independent Bank Corp (Massachusetts)

Mark Ruggiero; Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President - Consumer Lending of Rockland Trust; Independent Bank Corp (Massachusetts)

Greg Zingone; Analyst; Piper Sandler Companies

Steve Moss; Analyst; Raymond James Financial, Inc.

Laurie Hunsicker; Analyst; Seaport Research Partners

Chris O'connell; Analyst; Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.

Presentation

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the INDB Independent Bank first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Before proceeding, please note that during this call we will be making forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from these statements due to a number of factors, including those described in our earnings release and other SEC filings.
We undertake no obligation to publicly update any such statements in addition, some of our discussions today may include references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Information about these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliation to GAAP measures may be found in our earnings release and other SEC filing. These SEC filings can be accessed via the Investor Relations section of our website. Please also note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jeff Tangoe, CEO. Please go ahead.

Jeffrey Tengel

Thanks, Nick. Good morning and thanks for joining us today. I'm accompanied this morning by CFO and the Head of Consumer Lending, Mark Ruggiero. Our first quarter performance continued to demonstrate the resilience of our franchise in a difficult environment and as a testament to our long term proven operating model as a customer focused community bank. Mark will take you through the details in a few minutes after I share some thoughts. While the current higher for longer interest rate sentiment clearly creates a challenging environment, not only for Rockland Trust for the entire industry.
We continue to definitely navigate this uncertain environment. We are laser-focused on a number of key strategic priorities, all centered around protecting short-term earnings while positioning the bank for earnings growth when the overall environment improves. One of those priorities is actively managing our commercial real estate office portfolio while working to create a more diversified loan portfolio. We know we have a CRI concentration, but it's important to keep in mind that we've been here before throughout the last decade, we have made a number of acquisitions that in some cases created temporary CRI concentrations. Each time we actively manage this segment while growing other parts of our business to bring us back in balance, we fully expect to do the same.
Now this historical context is important to note, we have the muscle memory and experienced staff to execute the same game plan at the same time we continue to emphasize deposit gathering and deposit pricing discipline, our uptick in deposits at quarter end. As a result of this renewed emphasis, we believe our customer service is best in class and resonates with our commercial and retail customer base. It is this personal touch, coupled with investments in technology that creates a winning customer experience. It is why Rockland Trust recently ranked number two in New England in J.D. Power's 2024 US Retail Banking Satisfaction Study.
One of the several factors measured in the survey, our highest scores were in the categories of trust and people a direct reflection of the meaningful relationships our colleagues have built with those we serve. Our employees continue to be the driving force behind our success. We said last quarter that we didn't expect this year to be easy and it hasn't been, but we will continue to focus on those actions. We have control over and look to capitalize on our historical strengths. There's no magic to our value proposition. We do Community Banking really well and believe our current market position presents a high level of opportunity. We remain focused on long-term value creation.
Another way we will create long-term value is through disciplined organic growth. We will do that by deepening relationships across all of our business lines. We have a differentiated business model where all of our lines of business work seamlessly across the enterprise. It may sound simple, but it's been years in the making for our retail branch colleagues work hand-in-hand with our commercial and mortgage bankers. Our wealth management business, IMG receives a majority of its new business leads from our commercial and retail colleagues.
We are developing and enhancing measures and metrics to further drive this collaboration, gaining buy-in and successfully executing this model has earned us a competitive advantage. It is this operating model we are bringing to our new markets, Worcester and the North Shore where we are starting to gain traction. We are also continuing to build out our commercial banking platform with an emphasis on C&I. We've made a number of strategic hires and expect more to come. We are very active in acquiring talent and new talent acquisition and retention is a top priority.
Our business model culture and stability resonates with prospective employees, no different than it does with prospective customers. Our commercial loan pipelines at quarter end were higher than a year ago and higher than that in the last quarter, I mentioned earlier that we are laser focused on our commercial real estate office exposure. We are confident that our decades of demonstrated credit and portfolio management skills will help mitigate any inherent risks because each office loan has unique characteristics like lease roll maturity, geography, ownership, tenant makeup, it's difficult to paint the entire portfolio with one brush. That's why we have action plans tailored to each individual loan and relationship and review and discuss every large loan monthly. It is because of these unique characteristics that we believe the credit story will take time to fully play out.
Although with each quarter that passes, we believe you'll see the signs of our credit acumen and under underwriting discipline mitigating this risk as we focus on these priorities, we continue to actively assess M&A opportunities. While M&A activity remains somewhat muted, we will be disciplined and poised to take advantage of opportunities that fit our historical acquisition strategy and pricing parameters when conditions improve. It's been a proven value driver in the past, and we expect it to be one in the future. Additionally, given our level of excess capital we routinely discuss and evaluate the economics of another stock buyback.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to our fantastic colleagues for their dedication and commitment to our customers, colleagues and communities continued to amaze me. You can't win in banking without the best people and our J.D. Power recognition. Our Greenwich awards are the myriad of other awards and recognition to illustrate that our people are simply the best to summarize.
We have everything in place to deliver the results. The market has been accustomed to over the years, including a talented and deep management team, ample capital, highly attractive markets, good expense management, disciplined credit underwriting, strong brand recognition, operating scale, a deep consumer and commercial customer base and an energized and engaged workforce. In short, I believe we are well positioned to not only navigate through the current challenging environment, but to take market share and continue to be an acquirer of choice in the Northeast.
And on that note, I'll turn it over to Mark.