Mercantile Bank Corporation (MBWM) Q1 2025 Earnings Conference Call April 22, 2025 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Conference Operator - Moderator
Nicole Clatter - Chief Marketing Officer
Ray Reisman - President and Chief Executive Officer
Chuck Christmas - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Operator - Call Coordinator
Fitts - Unknown – likely an additional management representative

Conference Call Participants

Brendan Nosau - Analyst, Hopdy Group
Unknown Participant - Unidentified Analyst/Attendee
Daniel Tamayo - Analyst, Raymond James
Damon Del Monte - Analyst, KBW
Nathan Race - Analyst, Piper Sandler

Conference Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Mercantile Bank Corporation 2025 First Quarter Earnings Results 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 zero.

After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Nicole Clatter, Chief Marketing Officer of Mercantile Bank.

Please go ahead.

Nicole Clatter

Hello and thanks for joining us. Today we will cover the company's financial results for the first quarter of 2025. The team members joining me this morning include Ray Reisman, President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as Chuck Christmas, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Our agenda will begin with prepared remarks by both Ray and Chuck and will include references to our presentation covering this quarter's results. You can access a copy of the presentation as well as the press release sent earlier today by visiting mercbank. com.

After our prepared remarks, we will then open the call to your questions. Before we begin, it is my responsibility to inform you that this call may involve certain forward-looking statements such as projections of revenue, earnings and capital structure, as well as statements on the plans and objectives of the company's business. The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements made today due to factors described in the company's latest Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call.

Let's begin. Ray.

Ray Reisman

Thank you, Nicole. My comments will focus on the changes that have been made to the funding side of our balance sheet and the resulting impact on the income statement, as well as our loan growth, excellent asset quality and growing core non-interest income. Taken together, these performance traits have allowed us to compile attractive compounded annual growth rates for the shareholders.

From year-end 2021 to year-end 2023, commercial and mortgage loan growth was strong, and while deposit growth was solid, it did not keep pace with loan growth. The outflow of deposits from the banking system post-COVID contributed to this trend. As a result, the bank's -to-deposit ratio increased to 110% at year-end 2023.

In 2024, we focused on reducing this ratio with the goal to strengthen our on-balance sheet liquidity and overall financial profile and succeeded in reducing the -to-deposit ratio to 98% by year-end. As described in previous calls, we undertook a three-pronged approach to building our deposit base with the objective of reducing the -to-deposit ratio into the -90% range over time. To reiterate, first, we broadened our focus on business deposits.

Second, we dedicated resources to the governmental and public unit realm. Third, we restructured the retail customer focus away from activity and toward balances. These efforts led to increases in business deposits of 24% and personal deposits of 9% for the 12-month period ended March 31, 2025.

Despite a long-standing seasonal pattern of reduced first-quarter deposits, our secular growth trend overcame the typical seasonal pattern and allowed us to report a -to-deposit ratio of 99% at the end of the first quarter of 2025 compared to 108% at the end of the first quarter 2024. Commercial loan growth during the first three months of 2025 was $44 million or an annualized rate of nearly 5%. Customer reductions and loan balances from excess cash flow or sales of assets of $55 million during the first quarter of 2025 impacted our commercial loan totals.

The commercial loan pipeline stands at $234 million and commitments to fund commercial construction loans total $210 million, which has decreased from prior quarter to the end. While commitments to fund have decreased, discussions and progress are at an all-time high. Given the uncertainty in the environment, the pace at which these may turn into accepted commitments to fund is unknown.

Taking these factors into account, we expect commercial loan growth in the immediate future to reduce slightly from the pace of the recent past. Mortgage loans on the balance sheet have grown substantially in the increasing rate of environment experience over the past few years as borrowers have opted for arms, which reside on our balance sheet rather than fixed-rate loans, which are sold in the secondary market. We have successfully executed changes within our portfolio mortgage programs, resulting in a greater portion of our mortgage production being sold rather than placed on our balance sheet.

The positive outcomes include a 13% increase in mortgage banking income during the first quarter of 2025 compared to first quarter of 2024 and a nominal decrease in mortgage loans on our balance sheet during the 12-month period ending March 31, 2025. Our mortgage team continues to build market share despite a challenging rate environment, allowing results that diverge from the average in the market. While mortgage banking production is certainly rate-dependent, the level of earnings from this activity that can be considered core or somewhat independent of the rate environment is increasing.

Asset quality remains very strong as non-performing assets totaled $5.4% million at March 31, 2025, or nine basis points of total assets, consisting primarily of residential real estate and non-real estate commercial loans. There is only $41,000 in commercial real estate representation among the non-performing assets. Past due loans and dollars represent three basis points of total loans and there is no outstanding ORE.

We increased the allowance to loans ratio four basis points during the first three months of 2025, while the level of non-performing loans to total loans remain constant to reflect the uncertainty inherent in the economic environment. Our lenders are the first line of observation and to recognize areas of emerging risk. Our risk rating model is robust with a continued emphasis on current borrower cash flow, providing prompt sensitivity to any emerging challenges within a borrower's finances.

That said, our customers continue to report strong results to date and we expect to see that continue as they report first quarter results. Since early in the second quarter of 2025, a great deal of uncertainty has been present in the environment and we expect to see varying impacts on our customers and their financial positions, from very modest impact to improvement or decline based on the specifics of their situation. This has been and will continue to be a topic of discussion with borrowers and a focus of our lending teams.

Total non-interest income grew 12% in the core areas of payroll, treasury, management, and mortgage banking during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter 2024. Mortgage banking income grew 13% based upon the strategies outlined earlier and the resulting ability to sell a greater portion of originations on the secondary market. Service charges on accounts grew 20%, reflecting higher activity levels and customer growth and less earnings credit offset to charges based on reduced balances and transaction accounts.

Payroll services grew 16% as our offerings continue to build traction in the marketplace. Finally, debit and credit card income grew 4%. Income from interest rate swaps declined to nominal levels as demand by borrowers for interest rate protection shifted with borrowers' future rate expectations and the timing of closings.

Finally, a note about interest rate sensitivity. During the first quarter of 2025, immediately after the 100 basis point decrease in rates implemented by the Fed during the last four months of 2024, our net interest margin increased by six basis points compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, indicating our ability to manage the cost of funds and utilize our investment portfolio in a way that supports a durable net interest margin. We are pleased to report that our five-year compounded annual growth rate of .4% for tangible book value and .4% for earnings per share growth places us in the top two of our proxy peer group.

That concludes my remarks. I will now turn the call over to Chuck.

Chuck Christmas

Thanks, Ray. This morning we announced net income of $19.5% million or $1.21% per diluted share for the first quarter of 2025 compared with net income of $21.6% million or $1.34% per diluted share for the respective prior year period. Although net interest income increased, net income was negatively impacted by lower noninterest income, increased noninterest costs, and a higher provision expense.

Interest income on loans increased during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2025, which was a lower than expected in the respective prior year period, reflecting strong loan growth that more than offset a lower yield on loans. Average loans totalled $4.63% billion during the first quarter of 2025 compared to $4.3% billion during the first quarter of 2024. Our yield on loans during the first quarter of 2025 was 34 basis points lower than the first quarter of 2024, largely reflecting the aggregate 100 basis point decline in the federal funds rate during the last four months of 2024. Interest income on securities increased during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the respective prior year period, reflecting growth in the securities portfolio and the reinvestment of lower yielding investments in a higher interest environment. Interest income on interest earning deposits, a vast majority of which is comprised of funds on deposit with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, also increased during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the respective prior year period, reflecting a higher average balance that more than offset a lower yield.

In total, interest income was $3.6% million higher during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024. We recorded increased interest expense on deposits during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the respective prior year period, primarily reflecting growth in money market and time deposit products. Average deposits totalled $4.59% billion during the first quarter of 2025 compared to $3.97% billion during the first quarter of 2024. The cost of deposits was down two basis points during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024. Interest expense on Federal Homeown Bank of Indianapolis advances declined during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the respective prior year period, reflecting a lower average balance that more than offset a higher average cost.

Interest expense on other borrowed funds declined during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the prior year period, largely reflecting lower rates on our trust-referred securities due to the lower interest rate environment. In total, interest expense was $2.4% million higher during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024. Net interest income increased $1.2% million during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the respective prior year period.

Impacting our net interest margin was our strategic initiative to lower the loan deposit ratio, which generally entails deposit growth exceeding loan growth and using the additional monies to purchase securities. A large portion of deposit growth was in the higher costing money market and time deposit products, while the purchase securities provide for a lower yield than loan products. Our net interest margin declined 27 basis points during the first quarter of 2025 compared to the respective prior period.

Our yield on earning assets declined 32 basis points during that time period, largely reflecting the aggregate 100 basis point decline in the federal funds rate during the last four months of 2024, while our cost of funds declined five basis points, primarily reflecting lower rates paid on money market and time deposits, which more than offset an increased mix of higher costing money market and time deposits. Well, average loans increased $330 million or 7% from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025. Average deposits grew $622 million or over 15% during the same time period, providing for a net surplus of funds totaling about $290 million.

We used that net surplus of funds to grow our average securities portfolio by $151 million and reduce our average federal home loan bank of Indianapolis advanced portfolio by $84 million. A majority of the remainder of the net surplus of funds is on deposit with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. As Ray noted in his opening remarks, our first quarter 2025 net interest margin was 6 basis points higher than it was during the fourth quarter of 2024, coming on the heels of the aggregate 100 basis point reduction in the federal funds rate in the last four months of 2024.

We remain committed to managing our balance sheet in a manner that minimizes the impact of changing interest rate environments on our net interest margin. We recorded a provision expense of $2.1% million during the first quarter of 2025, which primarily reflects an increased allocation necessitated by changes to the economic forecast. Specifically, we used a blend of the base and adverse economic scenarios compared to only using the base economic forecast as is our standard practice.

The change in methodology reflects the enhanced current level of economic uncertainty. The recording of net loan recoveries and sustained strength and loan quality metrics largely mitigated additional reserves associated with loan growth. Nine interest expenses were $1.2% million higher than the first quarter of 2025 compared to the respective prior year time period.

The increase largely reflects higher salary and benefit costs, including annual merit increases and market adjustments. Higher data processing costs also comprise a notable portion of the increased non-interest expense level, primarily reflecting higher transaction volumes and software support costs, along with the introduction of new cash management products and services. Contributions to the Mercantile Bank Foundation totaled $0.7% million during the first quarter of 2025 compared to a nominal level during the first quarter of 2025.

We remain in a strong and well-capitalized regulatory capital position. Our bank's total risk-based capital ratio was .0% at the end of the first quarter of 2025, about $217 million above the minimum threshold to be categorized as well-capitalized. We did not repurchase shares during the first quarter of 2025.

We have $6.8% million available in our current repurchase plan. On slide 22 of the presentation, we share our latest assumptions on the interest rate environment and key performance metrics for the remainder of 2025, with the caveat that market conditions remain volatile, making forecasting difficult. This forecast is predicated on no changes in the federal funds rate during the remainder of 2025.

We project loan growth in a range of 3% to 5%, and we are forecasting our net interest margin to be in a range of .45% to 3.55%. Expected quarterly results for non-interest income and non-interest expense, as well as our federal income tax rate, are also provided for your reference. In closing, we are very pleased with our operating results and financial conditions during the first quarter of 2025, and believe we remain well positioned to continue to successfully navigate through the myriad of challenges faced by all financial institutions and our customers.

That concludes my prepared remarks. I'll now turn the call back over to Ray.

Ray Reisman

Thank you, Chuck. That concludes our prepared remarks from management, and we will now move to the question and answer portion of the call.

Conference Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys.

To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our.

Conference Call Operator

roster. Our first question is from Brendan Nosau.

Conference Operator

with Hopdy Group. Please go ahead.

Brendan Nosau

Good morning, Ray and Chuck. I hope you guys are doing well. Morning.

We're just starting off here on the outlook for long growth. It looks like you guys tempered the long growth outlook, at least a little bit. I guess looking at other banks so far this quarter, some have done so, some haven't, just given the mired uncertainty in the outlook. I'm just curious with what you folks have done to the outlook.

Are you just being conservative given the potential drag and tear at this point, or are you seeing an actual slowdown in commercial loan demand so far. Thanks.

Ray Reisman

Our approach to that was driven by the fact that our commercial pipeline has two components. One is committed and accepted, committed to by the bank and accepted by the borrower moving to closing. The other is discussions that are underway moving toward that end.

The proportion of the pipeline has moved with the uncertainty in the environment more towards discussion and gone lighter on the committed and accepted piece. Now, the overall pipeline is as big as it's ever been, but the uncertainty has just put more of it in the discussion category as opposed to moving to close category. So, with the estimation that the environment will remain somewhat uncertain in the near future, we decided to temper.

Fitts

our expectations for long growth in the numbers that we provide.

Brendan Nosau

Yeah, that makes complete sense. Okay, thank you. Maybe one more for me turning to capital.

Your capital ratios continue to build nicely. Just curious for your updated thoughts on deployment, particularly if loan growth is a bit more muted this year given the environment and how you think about share and purchase, just given where shares are getting right now. Thanks.

Chuck Christmas

Yeah, Brad, it's Chuck. As I always say, the buyback is always on the stove top and maybe in the back of the stove, but not the front. But it's something that we work with regularly with the board.

Clearly, the stock prices of everybody went down quite a bit here over the last few weeks, which makes the question of do we do buybacks a little more interesting than when our stock is performing well. We look at ourselves as a growth company, and if there is some reduction in loan growth over the next few quarters or whatever that time may be, as Ray mentioned, we still have a very strong pipeline and we want to make sure that we've got sufficient capital to manage that growth, that loan growth specifically. Then also at the same time, we're reducing our loan deposit ratio, which makes asset growth even further.

At the end of the day, we want to make darn sure that we have sufficient capital to manage the growth plans of the company. Notwithstanding all the discussions and different forecasts that are out there, some more dire than others, if there is an overall slowdown in the economic environment, we want to make sure that we've got the capital support to get us through those time periods as well. We have the plan. We have dollars in the plan.

It's something that we regularly look at. To date, we haven't obviously pulled the trigger, but it is something that we look at. But on an overall basis, specifically to your question, and Ray kind of already addressed it, we think the slowdown in loan growth is relatively short-term.

Don't know how to define that term. But again, making sure that we have the capital to support great loan growth opportunities that we have and want to take advantage of is job one.

Unknown Participant

Thank you, Fitts, I appreciate it.

Conference Call Operator

The next question is from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Daniel Tamayo

Thank you. Good morning, guys. I'm going to start with this.

Maybe starting on the margin. You took the margin guidance up from last quarter, it looks like, just to mostly reflect the better than expected first quarter margin. First, just want to make sure, just clarify what you're assuming in terms of rate cuts in that margin guidance, Chuck.

Then I guess we can dig in a little bit after that.

Chuck Christmas

Yeah, sure. I thought it best to put some guidance out there, assuming that there's not going to be any rate cuts. Clearly, the bond market, for one, thinks there are going to be some rate cuts, and we're not necessarily disagreeing with that.

But what we have to work with is a lot of folks such as Raymond James and everybody else has their own forecast. What I thought I would do, what we would do is kind of start with a base case and say, if there are no rate cuts, this is what we look at our margin, the range of our margin being in for the remainder of this year. We also, and it's in our deck on slide 10, we also provide the results of our net interest income simulation, which investors and analysts can look at and use in determining what they think, how our company would operate under those different interest rate scenarios.

I would say that, and I would think any of Inc. does the same thing, and when we're running our simulations, we're relatively conservative with our assumptions. As you know, there's a tremendous amount of assumptions that go into simulations. But I think on an overall basis, it shows a realistic position of what may happen in those different interest rate environments.

But again, because there was such a big unknown, we just provided the guidance without that. I think what you see with our margin actually improving in the first quarter, as both Ray and I touched on in our scripts, is the fact that we have built a balance sheet, which is definitely short-term, but we do that on purpose. What we have seen over the last 5, 10, 15 years is an incredibly volatile interest rate environment.

What we want to do is run our company with the care that rates do, that our net interest margin will behave appropriately under all those different rate environments. That's what I think everybody should be striving to do, and we've been working hard to get that to happen. Clearly, a lot of moving parts, and we can't be perfect on that.

But we want to make sure that we're managing and concentrating on the core of what we do, and that's build our balance sheet and maintain asset quality, growth fee income, and make sure we're an efficiently run organization. That's our overall goal. What we've seen, at least for the first 100 basis points, is that while we did have assets repriced lower, obviously driven by the loan portfolio, and what we have on the deposit with the Fed, is we have a lot of deposits that we were able to reduce basis point for basis point as well.

Clearly, on the money market side, we were able to do on the CD side. Obviously, there's some lag on CD repricing. Got to wait the CD's to mature, but a vast majority of our CD's mature in less than a year.

And then we have also both on fixed rate loans and fixed rate investments, we have those maturing on a pretty regular basis, and we're able to redeploy those funds at much higher rates than what they're coming off at. So put that all in there, and we're able to actually improve our loan and deposit margins somewhat coming off that 100 basis point, relatively rapid decline from the Fed. And that's also at the same time that, of course, we've been moving our loan and deposit ratio down, which, as I mentioned, and as we all know, has a negative impact on margins as well, just by the nature of what we're doing there.

So that's kind of what we're thinking about, and certainly happy to entertain any other specific questions you might have,.

Daniel Tamayo

Danny. That's helpful, Chuck. Yeah, I guess maybe on the CD side first, if you have any kind of detail on the repricing, you mentioned that's still happening here, but just curious kind of where those are repricing from and to, and kind of the cadence that you're going to see over the next 12 months on the CD side.

Yeah, I'd say if you.

Chuck Christmas

look at our total CD's, I would say probably a good 90% of them are maturing in the next 12 months or so. Relatively equally each month, there's no, we don't do any CD specials or anything like that, so there's really, quote unquote, no lumpiness in our maturity schedule. And I would say on average, they're probably, based on today's rates, and we haven't adjusted our rates for all the uncertainty out there, they're coming down probably an average of about 75 basis points.

Daniel Tamayo

Okay, and that's relatively even over the next year in terms, in terms of stuff that's renewing or maturing kind of back half of the year and into next years, it's still, you're still going to see that same 75 basis points. Yeah, I would say it's pretty.

Chuck Christmas

even, I would say it's pretty even, maybe a little bit more dollars in the first six months than the back half of six months, but I think if we call it even throughout the next 12 months, that's a fairly fair statement.

Daniel Tamayo

Okay, and then on the loan side, so you had average loans, 631 it looks like in the first quarter, where were the new loan yields that you were putting on. I think we're probably.

Chuck Christmas

somewhere, probably around 7% or so. Almost all the loans we put on are at floating rate, you know, as I would say, prime minus 50 to prime, somewhere in there if you want to use it on a prime basis. And we have about 150 to 200 million dollars a year in loans that are earning some, commercial loans that are earning somewhere in the four and a half percent range.

Those are the ones that I reference that are maturing and getting obviously refinanced in today's rate environment.

Unknown Participant

Got it.

Chuck Christmas

And then the investment portfolio on top of that, probably this year I think we got 40 million left, earning about 75 basis points. And then, excuse me, that's, yeah, and then going forward we have probably around 80 million dollars a year maturing. And I would say in the next couple years that's probably like one and a quarter to one and a half percent that's maturing.

And we're about four, four and a quarter now, our current investment strategies.

Daniel Tamayo

Okay, great. And I guess the last just follow up is competition on the loan yields. Did you see spreads tighten at all through the quarter into the first quarter.

Are you seeing that happen or has that been relatively stable.

Fitts

One of the things that we measure is the spread that we get in each of our risk rating categories and those have been stable.

Daniel Tamayo

Okay, terrific. All right, well thanks for taking my questions,.

Conference Operator

guys. You're welcome, Dan. The next question is from Damon Del Monte with KBW.

Damon Del Monte

Please go ahead. Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions here.

Just to kind of close the loop here on the margin outlook, Chuck, should we kind of expect a similar level of securities purchases in the coming quarters like we've seen over the last three or four quarters.

Chuck Christmas

Yes. I mean, obviously that's predicated on continued local deposit growth, which we think will continue to be strong. But we're looking at, you know, if you put the dollars amount, we're expecting our loan growth in the terms of dollars and our securities growth in the dollars to be relatively similar.

Damon Del Monte

Got it. Okay, great. That's helpful.

And then on the expense guide, you know, it's good that we have a full expense number for the upcoming quarters. But as we kind of dig through some of those line items, can we expect an increase in salary and benefits. It seemed like this quarter was down from the fourth quarter.

Do you kind of have like merit increases and things like kicking in here in the second quarter.

Chuck Christmas

Well, yeah, merit increases took into account in the end of February. So there's a little bit more ramp up, you know, to get a full quarter of that. But in regards to the fourth quarter, one of the things that we had in the fourth quarter is we came through a very strong 2024.

We did have an increase in our bonus accruals, which obviously we believe is a good thing, but it's predicated on our continued strength throughout 2024, which actually got stronger. We felt better about it as we're coming through and hitting more and more on our metrics, which has a sliding scale to it. So I would say in regards to 2024 salary and benefits, there was some, I'm gonna call it one time, but there was some increased bonus accruals in there.

Damon Del Monte

Got it. Okay, great. And then just one more, you know, obviously, credit trends are very strong, low NPAs, minimal charge-offs, has some recoveries this quarter, I believe.

You know, you built the reserve for basis points, kind of as you factor in, you know, slower loan growth, but yet maybe a little bit of growing concern on the economic uncertainty. You know, how do we think about the reserve level from this quarter going forward. Do we look for a little bit more reserve build over the coming quarters, or do you feel like you addressed it enough here in this quarter.

Chuck Christmas

Yeah, I mean, I think it was really hard to answer it specifically, Damon. Obviously, there's so much uncertainty out there. I think that we as a management team have always been working hard, quite frankly, to battle the accounting rules and the infamous CISO, which we have to talk about every quarter, it's a duration-based model, and we are a short-term commercial banker.

And because of that, it's hard to get, you know, meaningful reserve coverage ratios. And then you add in, that is what it is, that's who we are, and that's the model we have to work with. Then you add on top of that is a company that has very strong asset quality, especially, you know, since coming out of the Great Recession.

So when you look at historical numbers, which obviously are applied as part of our model, you know, we're actually in a net recovery position. So we continue to fight the fight. We did see, like I said, we get different economic forecasts.

Our policy is to use a base, as long as that base passes a smell test and looks like the base forecast from other providers. But in this environment, when there is so much uncertainty, you know, it's going to take a quarter or two to figure this all out. We thought it prudent to go ahead and blend that base case with a more adverse case and just use the average of the two.

And that was just under a $2 million impact. So a large percentage, you can see our provision for the quarter was 2.1% million. So I would say at least 90% of that provision expense was because of us going forward and blending those two economic forecasts together, which we think is the absolute prudent thing to do.

So, you know, who knows what economic forecasts look like. Obviously, we get them from an independent source and they'll put their heads together and late June they'll issue their updates and we'll run that through our model. So that's always a pretty big unknown.

But we definitely wanted to make sure that we weren't fooling ourselves, that we're entering into a period of high uncertainty. And we wanted to make sure that we were on the right side of that calculation. And we'll just take it how it comes, you know, from this point forward.

Got it.

Damon Del Monte

Okay. That's all very helpful. That's.

Conference Operator

all that I had. Thank you.

Chuck Christmas

You're welcome, Dan.

Conference Operator

Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. The next question is from Nathan Race from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Nathan Race

Hi, good morning, everyone. This is Adam Kroll on Thornate Race and thank you for taking my questions. I guess to start on the lower loan growth guidance over the near term, and if loan demand was to terribly soften, is there any expense levers that you could pull to kind of help mitigate that lower loan growth.

Chuck Christmas

I don't think, you know, we try to operate as efficient as we can. I would think, you know, not with, if the asset quality stays unchanged and we see a meaningful reduction in loan growth, clearly the provision expense would be impacted by that. But, you know, the way that we try to, you know, run our bank and structure our bank is for the long term. So, well, obviously, we need to make sure that we're fortified for any, you know, bumps in the road like we have now.

Who knows how big that bump is going to be. But, you know, we're not looking at just the next, what happens the next three months or six months when we're trying to structure our employee base, when we're looking at new products and services, for example, maybe new markets to go into. You know, we're looking at this with, you know, with binoculars looking way out into the future.

So, you know, maybe if it was dire enough, we could maybe, you know, slow down some new projects and stuff like that. But we think long term, these projects are what we need. So, we would have to take that on a case by case basis.

But, you know, we want to make sure that we continue to build this company, bring on the people, train the people for our success in the long term.

Nathan Race

Got it. No, I appreciate the color. And then switching to fees, does your fee income guide for the rest of the year include some normalization higher in swap fees or should we assume a similar level to 1Q.

Chuck Christmas

No, 1Q was, I would call that an anomaly. You know, the nature of that is, you know, we have to get term loan growth, generally speaking. I mean, existing loans, we do swaps with them from time to time.

But generally speaking, the driver of swap income is new term loan funding. And we've already talked about it with the uncertainty. And most of our net loan growth in the first quarter was actually line draws.

But I will say that so far here, we're three weeks into this quarter. And this quarter is looking very normal like. So, I think we know that's going to get lumpy from quarter to quarter.

And so we would expect it to be more normalized going forward. And that is included in the guidance.

Nathan Race

Got it. That's super helpful. One last question from me is I thought mortgage origination volumes held in pretty well in 1Q.

I was just curious if you guys are expecting that typical seasonal uptick in mortgage during 2Q. Or with the macro uncertainty and rate volatility that maybe the uptick in 2Q isn't as strong as in part of yours.

Fitts

Yeah, that's possible that that could happen. I mean, up until.

Ray Reisman

March 31st, we had an increase in the seasonal pattern. There's definitely a seasonal pattern here in Michigan in mortgages. You tend to shop for your home when the weather is a little bit more conducive to that.

So, right up until the end of the quarter, that pattern was increasing nicely. And then in the intervening time between the end of the quarter and today, that pattern has probably failed to continue to build as much as we'd like it to. In the last few days, it seems like it's picked up a bit.

But this is the time of year where it would start to manifest itself. And I think the uncertainty has kind of kept it at bay a little bit. I don't really expect that to continue through the entire season.

But major things like purchasing or refinancing a home, and there's a lot more purchases than refi is going on right now. Uncertainty is kind of the enemy of that process.

Fitts

So, some stability would certainly help that to continue to grow.

Unknown Participant

Got it. That's it for me. Thank you for.

Nathan Race

taking the.

Unknown Participant

questions.

Conference Operator

Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ray Reitzma for any closing remarks.

Ray Reisman

I'd like to thank you for your participation in today's call and for your interest in Mercantile Bank. And that concludes today's call.

Conference Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may not.