Good day, and welcome to the Civista Bancshares Year-End 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by 0. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements with respect to the future performance and financial condition of Civista Bancshares, Inc. that involve risks and uncertainties. Various factors could cause actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors are discussed in the company's SEC filings, which are available on the company's website.
The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call. Additionally, management may refer to Non-GAAP measures, which are intended to supplement, but not substitute, for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The press release, also available on the company's website, contains the financial and other quantitative information to be discussed today, as well as a reconciliation of the GAAP to Non-GAAP measures. This call will be recorded and made available on Civista Bancshares' website at www.civb.com. At the conclusion of Mr. Shaffer's remarks today, he and the Civista management team will take any questions you may have. Now I will turn the call over to Mr. Shaffer. Please go ahead, sir.
Good afternoon. This is Dennis Shaffer, President and CEO of Civista Bancshares. I would like to thank you for joining us for our Q4 2022 earnings call. I am joined today by Rich Dutton, SVP of the company and Chief Operating Officer of the bank, Chuck Parcher, SVP of the company and Chief Lending Officer of the bank, other members of our executive team. Let me start by noting several significant accomplishments or transactions that occurred during the fourth quarter. This morning, we reported earnings for the fourth quarter 2022 of $12.1 million or $0.77 per diluted share, which represents a 5% increase over the prior year's Q4 .
Our full year results were net income of $39.4 million or $2.60 per- diluted share for the year ended December 31st, 2022, which is consistent with our prior year net income of $40.5 million. During the year, we completed two acquisitions, expanded in central Ohio, had record organic loan growth, and achieved near record profits. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our employees for their commitment to the organization and for their good work in helping us achieve these accomplishments. Our return on average assets was 1.41% for the quarter and 1.21% for the year, while our return on average equity was 16.09% for the quarter and 12.47% for the year.
If we adjust for the $2.9 million in non-recurring expenses associated with the acquisition of Comunibanc Corp., which closed on July 1, and the $814,000 in non-recurring expenses associated with the acquisition of Vision Financial Group Bank, which closed on October 1, our earnings per share would have been $0.88 for the fourth quarter and $2.80 for the year. During the quarter, loans and leases grew by $218.3 million or at an annualized growth rate of 37.5%. Excluding loans and leases from our VFG acquisition, which occurred during the quarter, net loans grew by $150.9 million or at an annualized rate of 25.7%.
While we are pleased with VFG's contribution, it was our strong loan growth that drove our quarterly earnings. Excluding the addition of loans and leases that came to us through Comunibanc and Vision Financial and adding back the repayment of $46 million in PPP loans, we experienced $356.8 million in organic loan growth for the year, which is an annual growth rate of 18.3%. Our net interest margin expanded by 11 basis points compared to the linked quarter and by 72 basis points when compared to the prior year quarter. For the year, our net interest margin expanded 28 basis points when compared to the previous year to 3.75%. This is a reflection of our strong core deposit franchise and the disciplined approach we take in managing our deposit rates.
In early October, we announced and closed on the acquisition of Vision Financial Group, a small equipment leasing and finance company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that originates leases and loans nationally. Small equipment leasing represents a new line of business for us. We were looking for other revenue sources to help diversify our income, leasing, which is a natural extension of our lending products, will help us do that. Also in October, we successfully completed the system conversions of Comunibanc and now have them operating on our legacy systems, which will allow us to offer our standard suite of products to customers in Northwest Ohio and the Toledo MSA. Let's turn our attention to our performance for the quarter and for the year.
Net interest income increased $2.1 million or 7% over the linked quarter, and $9.2 million or 39.6% over the same quarter in the prior year. Our net interest income for the year increased $14.8 million or 15.5% compared to 2021. The increase was primarily the result of strong organic loan growth across our footprint, the rising interest rate environment, our disciplined approach to managing deposit rates, and the addition of Comunibanc Corp and Vision Financial in the latter half of the year. Our net interest margin was 4.14% for the quarter and 3.75% for the year. Both measures reflect expansion over the comparable 2021 periods.
Similarly, our margin expanded by 11 basis points over the linked quarter from 4.03% to 4.14%. Our yield on earning assets increased by 118 basis points compared to the prior year quarter and by 51 basis points over the linked quarter as our team originated new loans and existing loans on our books continued to reprice at higher rates. Our yield on earning assets for 2022 grew by 43 basis points compared to the same period in 2021, even though our 2021 loan yields were augmented by the accretion of $11,500,000 in PPP interest and fees. Funding costs for the linked quarter increased by 41 basis points, while our year-over-year funding costs increased by 15 basis points.
We have always and continue to negotiate rates with our large depositors. We are starting to feel some deposit rate pressure, and in mid-December, to remain competitive, we increased our offering rates on higher tiered money market accounts and select time deposits in conjunction with the Fed's most recent move. Our non-interest income remained solid, increasing $4.3 million over the linked quarter. While the quarter included $3.9 million in revenue from our leasing company, we also experienced increases in virtually every non-interest income category over our linked quarter as we continue to focus on diversifying and strengthening our non-interest income streams.
If we back out the impact of the $1.8 million gain on the sale of our Visa B stock that occurred in the Q2 of 2021, our non-interest income for the year of $29.1 million was comparable to that of the previous year as the increases in service charges and leasing revenue offset declines in our gain on sale of mortgage loans. Service charges continue to be a strong contributor, increasing $185,000 compared to the linked quarter and $1.2 million over 2021. Non-interest expenses increased $4.2 million or 18.4% in comparison to the linked quarter.
The increase was primarily the result of $637,000 in non-recurring expenses associated with the acquisition of Vision Financial Group and $1.5 million in non-recurring expenses associated with the conversion of Comunibanc systems and severance payments to former Comunibanc employees during the quarter. Excluding these one-time expenses, non-interest expenses would have increased by 8.8%, primarily on additional compensation expense related to our new employees. Non-interest expense increased $12.8 million or 16.5% year-over-year as the $3.7 million prior year balance sheet restructuring costs were replaced by increases in compensation expense, occupancy expense, software maintenance expense, professional fees, and other non-recurring expenses related to our Comunibanc and Vision Financial Group transactions.
Excluding non-recurring expenses, non-interest expenses for the year would have increased by 11.7%, primarily on additional compensation and occupancy expenses related to our new employees and additional facilities. Total expenses related to Comunibanc and Vision Financial transactions were in line with expectations and totaled $3.8 million for the year. Our efficiency ratio was 63.2% and 64% year to date. If we had adjusted for one-time deal cost, our efficiency ratio for each of those periods would have been 58.2% and 61.4% respectively. Turning to the balance sheet.
Year to date, our total loans increased by $548.8 million, which includes the addition of $167.5 million of loans from Comunibanc, $67.5 million in loans and leases from Vision Financial Group, and a $42.6 million repayment in PPP loans. Excluding the Comunibanc, Vision Financial Group, and PPP loans, our loan portfolio grew by $356.8 million or on an annualized basis of 18.3%. Making the same adjustments for our fourth quarter, organic loan growth was $158.6 million or 29.2% on an annualized basis. This growth was attributable to strong commercial loan demand in virtually every one of our markets.
Along with our strong year-to-date loan production, we continue to have commercial construction projects at various stages of completion. Our undrawn construction lines remain near record highs, and we were $162 million at December 31, 2022. While we believe the higher interest rate environment will inevitably slow the economy and loan growth, we believe our loan portfolio will grow at a mid-single-digit rate for at least the first half of 2023. On the funding side, we reported $203.3 million increase in total deposits from year-end 2021 to 2022, with increases in every deposit category except interest-bearing demand accounts as customers migrated into higher-yielding deposit accounts.
If we were to exclude the deposits accounts acquired from Comunibanc, total deposits would have been unchanged from year-end 2021 to 2022, although we would have seen a similar migration from interest-bearing demand and savings accounts into higher-yielding time deposits. We continue to focus on attracting non-interest-bearing demand accounts, which made up 34.2% of our total deposits at year-end. These accounts are primarily made up of operating accounts of our business and municipal customers. We continue to believe our deposit franchise is one of Civista's most valuable characteristics and contributes significantly to our peer-leading net interest margin and profitability. Despite the uncertainties associated with the economy, we have not seen any deterioration in our customers' financial positions across our footprint. Year-end classified- loan levels have improved and are below pre-COVID levels.
While we did make a $752,000 provision during the quarter, it was solely attributable to growth in our loan and lease portfolio rather than economic stress. In addition, we realized $118,000 in net recoveries during the year. The ratio of our allowance for loan losses to loans at year-end declined slightly from December 2021 from 1.33% to 1.12%, as did our allowance for loan losses to non-performing loans, which was 261.45% at December 31, 2022, compared to 496.10% at the end of 2021.
I would note that if we include the credit mark of $5.4 million associated with Comunibanc's loans and Vision Financial Group's leases, our ratio of allowance for loan losses to loans would have been 1.33% at the end of the year. As we look forward to the adoption of CECL in the first quarter of 2023, we anticipate increasing our allowance for credit losses by $3.3 million and recording a liability for unfunded commitments of $3.4 million. These initial entries will not impact earnings as they will be recorded through equity. While longer-term interest rates have moderated, the higher interest rate environment continues to put pressure on bond portfolios.
Although unrealized losses in our securities portfolio began to moderate in the Q4 , we did experience a $67.4 million decline in other comprehensive income from December 31, 2021 to December 31, 2022, related to unrealized losses in our investment portfolio. As a result, we ended the quarter with tangible common equity ratio of 5.91% compared to 9.25% at December 31, 2021. Despite this decline, our Tier 1 leverage ratio at December 31 was 8.92% and remains well above what is deemed well-capitalized for regulatory purposes. Civista continues to create capital through earnings, our overall goal remains to have adequate capital to support organic growth and potential acquisitions.
Two important parts of our capital management strategy continue to be the payment of dividends and share repurchases. We continue to believe our stock is a value. While we did slow the pace of repurchases during the fourth quarter, we did repurchase 7,205 shares of common stock for $152,400 at an average price of $21.15 per share. For the year, we repurchased 742,015 shares at an average price of $22.58 per share. This represents 5% of our shares that were outstanding at December 31st, 2021. We have an authorization of approximately $6.1 million remaining in our current repurchase program.
As you know, we added Vision Financial Group, a small equipment leasing and finance company to Civista in October. We have retained their management team and are well on our way to integrating them into our organization. Vision originated $40.6 million in leases and loans during the Q4 at a weighted average yield of 9.2%. We have budgeted them to originate $164.5 million in leases and loans during 2023. In summary, we are pleased with another quarter and year of excellent earnings, exceptional loan growth and solid credit quality. I would like to say again that none of this would be possible without the efforts of our team. Civista is fortunate to have people who care about our shareholders, our customers, our communities and each other.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding interest rates in the greater economy as well as the inflationary pressures we are all facing, we remain optimistic. Businesses and consumers across our footprint continue to have strong balance sheets. Our loan pipelines remain solid, and we have successfully integrated Community Bank and Vision Financial Group into the Civista family. Thank you for your attention this afternoon, and now we'll be happy to address any questions that you may have.
Thank you, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, we ask that you please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you'd like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Today's first question comes from Terry McEvoy with Stephens. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, everyone.
Hi, Terry.
Hi, Terry.
Maybe, you talked about mid-single-digit loan growth. Could you maybe discuss your deposit strategy or just overall funding strategy if the industry continues to experience an outflow of deposits?
Yeah, sure. I think, you know, we're a little bit unique in that we have our tax program in that first half of the year, so we try to manage to that as well. We will see an influx of deposits which we'll be able to use. You know, although they go in and out, those balances are so big, they roll in so big, we'll be able to use some of that to kind of pay down, you know, borrowings that we have. We kind of manage our deposits to that. We continue to believe we do have a pretty strong core deposit franchise. You know, those non-interest accounts, we do think that there'll be, you know, funds moving out of those accounts and migrating into higher yielding, you know, money markets or CDs that we have.
We do think we have a loyal deposit base, that necessarily, you know, we don't need to necessarily pay the highest rate. We do think, you know, our deposit beta for the year was virtually nothing. We were about 11 basis points in that Q4 . We do think the deposit beta is gonna move quicker than, you know, in 2023. We will have to get a little bit more aggressive in our deposit pricing, but we still don't think we have to be the highest paying bank there to retain deposits. We wanna be competitive and offer fair rates to our clients.
Again, we think that we have this strong core deposit base, and I think that's really gonna be the telling sign for banks as we move forward. You're gonna really see which banks have strong core deposits and which banks do not. You know, that's kind of how we're headed, but we will probably have to be a little bit more aggressive here in 2023 than we were in 2022.
Thanks for that. Then as a follow-up, the leasing or lease revenue and residual income of $2.3 million, I had in my notes from last quarter that there was some residual income booked at the end of the deal. I'm maybe asking, what do you see more normal? Is that a normal run rate going forward, or was there some incremental gains in the Q4 given that the deal closed?
Terry, this is Rich. Certainly that lease revenue and the residual piece of it makes it kind of lumpy, but I don't know that we're leasing experts enough yet to tell you that the fourth quarter was different than what we expect going forward. I think I would use that as typical until we tell you otherwise. I think it looked pretty reasonable from what we have heard from our newest members of the team and what we've seen.
Yeah. I would say, Terry, I mean, you know, under normal leasing production, you know, Q4 is usually a little higher quarter than first or second quarter. It usually kind of gets back end loaded a little bit. You know, I guess as Rich said, we'll give you a little more guidance as we kind of go along here.
That's great. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Yep.
Thanks, Terry.
Thank you. Our next question today comes from Manuel Navas with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon.
Manuel, how are you?
Good. Good. As we look at that mid-single digit loan growth target, a good portion of that is the lease originations. Are you still planning to keep a good portion of those on balance sheet? Just kind of can you walk through the mid-single digit loan growth mix in 2020 in the early half? I guess it's only first half of the year. What are kind of the expectations there?
You know, I guess as we kind of did the forecasting for the year, I would tell you the mid-single digit growth rate was really for what I would call the bank loan portfolio. You know, we're gonna layer on top of that. You know, I think our projection was, I think roughly $165 million of production on the leasing side. We've kind of modeled it out right now, Manuel, to say we're gonna hold about half and sell about half, you know, into the marketplace. You know, obviously, as we look at our funding, you know, throughout the year, we'll, you know, probably move that one way or the other a little bit. Bottom line is that's kind of how we got it modeled out.
Okay, that's helpful. With kind of the pricing changes at the end of December in the deposit portfolio, what are kind of our expectations of that? Has the beta changed at all? Like, what are you kind of targeting going forward? Any kind of firm guidance on that end?
The beta will definitely change. I think, as I alluded to in my comments, I think it's going to allow us to, you know, get a little bit more aggressive there. Rich, you got any guidance there for them. Well, I mean, I think our deposit beta for the Q4 was, what, 11 basis points. I think what we've modeled going forward is probably more like, I think, I wanna say 12 basis points. Again, I think we've kind of lagged, and we'll continue to lag, but I think the velocity of increases in our deposit rates is gonna pick up. Again, I think first half of the year, you're gonna see our margin continue to expand. And it kind of depends on what the Fed does on the back half of the year.
I don't see it compressing. It will expand to a point and probably hang out there until the Fed either makes a big move up or down. We keep watching the, I think, the, you know, kind of the slope of this interest rate curve. You know, it's gotten a little bit more inverted. So I think, you'll see us, and I think probably other banks trying to, on the lending side, push their loan yields up, push their spreads up, more. I think, you know, they weren't keeping pace with the velocity of the interest rate increases, and I think you'll see that more normalized a little bit in 23.
At least for us, we're going to try to push our loan spreads, land lease spreads up, as we go into 2023 as well.
That's helpful. As you kind of get some of your normal seasonal inflows and deposits in the first half of the year, how much of the borrowings can you pay back? Are you targeting to kind of get back to Q3, Q4 levels? Like, how and how quickly?
Well, I mean, I guess you never know. Over the last two or three years, I would tell you that our average deposits from the tax program in the Q1 have been right around. Got the number right here in front of me. I just gotta find it. $240 million-$250 million. That's been pretty steady each of the last two or three years. We could pay back starting sometime the week of February 20th is when we'll see that money start to flow in. There'll be a bunch more in the beginning. Again, over the whole quarter, if you averaged it's about $240 million is what we anticipate.
Would that go all to borrowings? Like...
Yeah. I mean, it's, yeah, fungible. Yeah, I mean, you know, we're borrowing overnight at the end of the year, what, $390 million, I think, is what we were. yeah, that's what it's for.
Okay. I think I missed it, and I'm sorry about that. What are the VFG loans and leases yielding currently?
9.2%. It was the Is [inaudible] what we originated. Fourth quarter. was 9.2% annual.
Awesome. Okay. All right. Thank you for that. I'll step back into the queue.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star then one. Today's next question comes from Tim Switzer at KBW. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon. I'm on for Michael Perito. Thanks for taking my question.
Hi, Tim.
I wanna talk about the loan growth guidance real quick for mid-single digits. You know, it seems like that's a little bit of a deceleration from the recent momentum you guys have had on an organic basis. You know, is there some conservatism in there, just kinda given the economic uncertainty and, you know, like, the economy holds up? Is there, you know, some upside?
Yeah. There might be, Tim. This is Chuck. Yeah, you know, we've been normally, if you look backwards, somewhere between mid to high single digits shop. You know, last year, obviously, we had a fantastic year. Our pipelines are down a touch as compared to what they were going into the fourth quarter. We know we've got a couple large payoffs coming, you know, one on a completed project and then one of our larger companies just sold and will be paying off here in the first quarter. We might be a little bit conservative. I mean, the pipelines aren't bad by any stretch of the imagination. I'd say they're you know, relatively solid.
We just don't see quite the same momentum, you know, right now going into the into the first quarter. To be honest with you, what we're seeing more than anything is more, I would tell you, larger deals, but less deals. I think the people that have a lot of capital still out in the marketplace are still doing deals, putting more money into their deals to make them work based on the cap rates of today and the interest rates of today. We don't see the same number. You know, the smaller demand has fallen back a little bit.
Okay. I got you. What about, like, you know, geography-wise? You know, can you talk about maybe the Columbus and Toledo area? I know you're probably trying to look to hire some new lenders in those spots. You know, can you give us some update on how that's going?
Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's, you know, I would tell you as we look backwards, you know, Cleveland was our largest growing market last year, but Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus were all really good markets for us. You know, I would tell you, in Columbus, we do a lot more trading of dollars because we do a little bit more development lending down there. You know, we're finishing deals, they get paid off, we do the next deal. You know, a lot of activity down there where we're keeping a lot more stuff on the books in Cleveland and Cincinnati. They've been very good. Toledo, we're just starting to really kind of ramp up a little bit.
We lost an employee over there through the community bank piece, and just yesterday actually hired two people just to start in that marketplace going forward. One of them, a 28-year person from Huntington, and the other one a 12-plus year person from State Bank. We really feel like we've upgraded our talent over there and upgraded really our potential marketplace. I'm gonna be spending a little bit more time over there in the first quarter now that we're getting kind of past the Vision Financial piece of that as well. We're looking to ramp Toledo up here in the you know, in 2023, for sure.
We think we have opportunity, really, you know, and just as we mentioned in our comments, I think we've had, you know, growth throughout our footprint. You know, Cleveland's been a little bit unique in the fact that they probably had a little bit more M&A unrest. When you look back over the last five years, you know, you had the Huntington,
FirstMerit.
... FirstMerit deal, the Huntington TCF. You know, you had Cortland that was, you know, playing in that market a little bit. Farmers bought them. They've had a little bit more unrest, which has created opportunity for us. In Columbus, you know, you've got just tremendous growth going on down there with what Intel and Amazon and others are doing in the area. Cincinnati is a consolidating market when you look at the community banks. You know, we think we can make tremendous inroads there. Then Toledo, as Chuck was talking about, that's an area that's, you know, Chuck, most of his banking career was in that Toledo market. We know the businesses. We know the bankers. We have contacts.
We think we have tremendous opportunity in all of those markets to continue to make inroads.
Okay, great. Yeah, appreciate all that color. It's really helpful. Can we move to expenses just real quick? You know, we're kind of looking at the core run rate here, and you should be getting some more community bank cost saves. You know, like, as we're exiting 2023 is, like, $24 million-$24.5 million a quarterly run rate. Is that kind of, like, a reasonable expectation? You know, I guess get the cost saves offset by some inflationary expenses and investment.
We would love to hit that number. I think if you back out the one-time stuff for Q4 , non-interest expense is about $25.1 million. I think what we're saying for the Q1 of next year is $26.4 is kind of what we're forecasting, because we'll have more payroll kind of expenses attached to that in the Q1 . Q2 next year, we'll have our merit increases, and we're looking at probably a $27.1 million second quarter non-interest expense. That, I think, barring any significant changes in terms of additions or whatnot, would be a number that I'd use to run out the rest of the year.
Gotcha. Okay, that's pretty clear. Well, thanks for taking all my questions.
Sure.
Okay, thank you.
Our next question today comes from Daniel Cardenas with Janney Montgomery Scott. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon, guys.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
Just a couple of housecleaning questions for me. On the margin that you posted this quarter, how much yield accretion was baked into that number? How should we look at it in 23?
Purchase accounting in the fourth quarter was about 6 basis points of that. Without that, it would have been 6 basis points lower. Actually for the year, it was the same number. Just kind of worked out that way. I would think going forward, that's as good a number as any to use for the next three or four quarters anyway. I mean, it might, a basis point one way or the other, but I think that's everything's in.
Okay, good. Good.
Yeah.
On the credit quality front, did notice a bit of an uptick on your non-performers, linked quarter. What was driving that?
This is Paul. Nothing significant. We have one hotel that has been shut down, not necessarily for COVID reasons, but because of some mechanical issues. The sponsor's been covering them and then finally, you know, stopped paying. That's a big chunk of it. You know, again, you got to remember we brought HCB in. As we've shifted, some of the culture in terms of the consumer portfolio, some of that stuff has fallen in there. By and large, I don't consider that a trend. It's just more, you know, fluctuation as far as what we're dealing with.
Okay. All right, fair enough. Tax rate, kind of a 17% assumption, still kind of a good assumption for you guys?
I got to flip to the right page here, Daniel.
Yeah, about 16.7.
About 16.7, Daniel.
All right. My other questions have been asked and answered. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Our next question today is a follow-up from Terry McEvoy, Stephens Inc. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks. Just wanted to follow through the question on capital management. Will the capital impact from CECL, will that be phased in over three years? Just what are your thoughts here on building capital over the next few quarters?
No, I know. Paul can correct me, but it won't be baked in over three years. It'll immediately happen in this first quarter. Paul's nodding, so that's seems like the right answer. I think we, you know, as we move forward, you know, we're growing our capital, our earnings. You know, we have strong earnings. We're gonna continue to be there. We're gonna be very mindful of how we handle, you know, share repurchases and things like that. You'll notice that we've really pulled back on that in the fourth quarter. I think we'll just continue to be mindful there as we move forward. Our capital levels are pretty strong.
We do wanna you know, we think the TCE, you know, it was really kind of flat that Q4 . We had the acquisition in there that impacted it some as well. We think that that will continue to you know, start going the other direction, here for us, into 2023 for us.
Maybe since I've got you and this is the platform to ask the question. I mean, you acquired a bank, integrated it. You are off. You hit the ground running with the leasing company deal. I guess my question is: what are your thoughts on non-bank or bank M&A in 2023 for your company?
I think we obviously will continue to explore that. We wanna continue to grow. If it's the right deal for us, and we can do it in a profitable manner that benefits, you know, our shareholders and employees and customers, you know, we wanna try to do that. You know, there are some greater challenges right now when you do an M&A deal with all the AOCI adjustments that we have to look at and the marks that, you know, you have to give the credit portfolios, but it doesn't scare us away. We think we've been very successful in doing M&A deals. We think we integrate these pretty well. We're gonna continue to be, actively, you know, looking and pursuing other deals.
We wanna get to a certain size, because we think we continue to get more, you know, we become more efficient as a company. We'll continue to have dialogue, and if the right deal comes along and it's the right fit for our company, we'll pursue that.
Great. Thanks for taking my questions.
You bet.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to the management team for any final remarks.
Well, thank you. In closing, I just wanna thank everyone for listening and thank those that participated in the call. Again, we are very pleased with the results of our Q4 and for the year. Very, very strong year for us. While 2023 will undoubtedly be another year full of new challenges, we look forward to meeting those challenges and to talking to all of you again here in a few months to share our first quarter results. Thank you for your time today.
Thank you, sir. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.