NTB Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited
$58.17
Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited Q3 F2026 Earnings Call Transcript
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Conference Operator
Good morning, my name is Drew and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the third quarter 2026 earnings call for the Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero on your telephone keypad. After today's presentation, There will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Noah Fields, Butterfield's Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Noah Fields
Head of Investor Relations
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, we will be reviewing Butterfield's third quarter 2026 financial results. On the call, I am joined by Michael Collins, Butterfield's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Scrum, President and Chief Financial Officer, and Brie Hidalgo, Chief Risk Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the call up for a question and answer session. Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release announcing our third quarter of 2026 results. The press release and financial statements along with a slide presentation that we will refer to during our remarks on this call are available on the investor relations section of our website at butterfieldgroup.com. Before I turn the call over to Michael Collins, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussions will refer to certain non-GAAP measures which we believe are important in evaluating the company's performance. For reconciliation of these measures to U.S. GAAP, please refer to the earnings press release and slide presentation. Today's call and associated materials may also contain certain forward-looking statements which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors and may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Additional information regarding these risks can be found in our SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to Michael Collins.
Michael Collins
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Noah, and thanks to everyone joining the call today. Our third quarter performance reflects the strength and resilience of Butterfield, the depth of our client relationships, and the disciplined execution of our strategy, all of which position us well for continued long-term growth. Butterfield is a leading offshore bank and wealth manager, with strong market positions in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, complemented by a growing retail banking presence in the Channel Islands. We also provide wealth management services to high net worth individuals, families, and institutions through offices in the Bahamas, Switzerland, Singapore, and the UK. In the UK, we originate residential mortgages for high net worth clients for properties in prime central London. I will now turn to highlights from the quarter on page six. Third quarter results reflected continued strength across the franchise, with net income of $61 million, or $1.50 per share, and core net income of $64.2 million, or $1.58 per share. Profitability remained strong, with a return on average common equity of 21.3%, and core return on average tangible common equity of 25%. Net interest margin improved by two basis points to 2.76%, despite a two basis point increase in deposit costs to 1.27%. We also continue to return capital to shareholders through our quarterly cash dividend of 50 cents per share. Finally, we continue to make progress in the acquisition of CIBC Caribbean, with closing expected in the first half of 2027. We will provide some additional details about the progress later in the call. I will now turn the call over to Michael Scrum for more details on third quarter.
Michael Scrum
President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Michael, and good morning. On slide seven, we provide a summary of net interest income and net interest margin. In the third quarter, we reported net interest income before provision for credit losses of $97.2 million, an increase of $1.6 million from the prior quarter, or an increase of $4.4 million from the third quarter in 2025. The net interest margin of 2.76 was two basis points higher than the prior quarter and three basis points higher than the third quarter of 2025. Net interest income and margin benefited from continued reinvestment into higher yielding securities and stronger treasury portfolio returns, although these gains were partly offset by lower loan yields and slightly higher funding costs. Balance sheet volumes remain stable during the quarter with average investment balances largely unchanged and average loan balances increasing modestly compared to the second quarter. Slide 8 provides a summary of non-interest income, which continue to trend favorably, increasing $1.4 million to $64.8 million in the third quarter of 2026. Compared with the third quarter of 2025, non-interest income increased $3.6 million. The quarter's improvement was due primarily to higher banking revenues and stronger foreign exchange activity. Banking revenues benefited from increased card transaction volumes as well as a modest non-recurring contract-free renewal, while foreign exchange revenue reflected higher client volumes. B-based revenue represented 40% of total revenues during the quarter, compared favorably to historical peer averages and highlighting the quality and stability of our overall earnings. On slide nine, we present core non-interest expenses. Core non-interest expenses increased 3.5% from the prior quarter, reflecting the full quarter of operating expenses from R&H Guernsey acquisition, compared with the partial quarter in the second quarter. Excluding acquisition-related cost, expenses were also impacted by higher salaries and benefits, primarily due to staff departure costs as well as increased other operating expenses. Our core efficiency ratio is 57.8%, remaining below our through-cycle target of 60%, and highlighting our continued focus on expense management, We continue to expect quarterly core non-interest expenses to be in the range of $93 to $95 million until we close the CIBC Caribbean transaction. Slide 10 shows that Butterfield's balance sheet remains strong and highly liquid, with total assets increasing to $14.3 billion from $14.1 billion at year-end 2025. Growth was driven primarily by higher deposit balances, while loan and investment balances remained relatively stable. Deposits increased to $12.9 billion, and average deposits rose to $13.1 billion from $12.6 billion at the prior year end, reflecting continued client confidence. Deposits remained elevated at the quarter end, but we have received notice prior to quarter end that approximately $500 million Thank you all for joining us. and investments at $5.6 billion, both largely unchanged from the prior quarter, highlighting the stability of our balance sheet. We also maintain a conservative risk profile with risk-weighted assets representing just 27.3% of total assets, reflecting low risk density on our balance sheet. On slide 11, we showed that Butterfield's asset quality remained acceptable in the third quarter of 2026, reflecting the continuous strength of our conservative loan portfolio and high quality investment holdings. Our $4.4 billion loan portfolio remains heavily weighted towards full recourse residential mortgages with 78% of those mortgages carrying loan to value ratios below 70%. This reflects the conservative underwriting standards and lowest profile of our loan book. Our $5.6 billion The $100 USD Treasury & Agency Investment Portfolio also maintained its exceptional credit quality, with 100% of holdings rated AA or better, demonstrating the strength and liquidity of the investment portfolio. Credit performance remained solid despite the increase in non-accrual loans to $119.6 million, or 2.7% of gross loans, up from 2.2% in the prior quarter driven primarily by residential real estate exposures in the Channel Islands and UK segment. Importantly, these facilities remain well secured and we do not expect any credit losses. The allowance for credit losses improved modestly to $27 million, representing 0.6% of total loans, while the net charge-off ratio was low at 0.02%. On slide 12, we present the average cash and securities balances with a summary of interest rate sensitivity. Our investment portfolio remained conservatively positioned during the quarter, with duration increasing to 4.9 years, reflecting slower expected prepayments on fixed rate investments and a steeper U.S. Treasury yield curve. Our balance sheet continues to be asset sensitive, although interest rate sensitivity has moderated from the prior quarter due to lower Treasury interbank placements used to manage short-term deposit flows. Our asset sensitivity continues to be above that of the U.S. peer group. As expected, the increase in longer-term interest rates resulted in higher unrealized losses within the Available for Sale portfolio, which increased to $187.3 million at the quarter end from $106.7 million in the second quarter. Based on current implied forward rates, we expect the unrealized losses within accumulated other comprehensive income related to the AFS portfolio to improve by approximately 21% over the next 12 months and 42% over the next 24 months. Slide 13 summarizes regulatory and leverage capital levels. The Board of Directors has once again approved a quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share. TCE to TA continues to be conservatively above our targeted range of 6% to 6.5%. I will now turn the call over to Brie Hidalgo to provide an update on the CIBC Caribbean transaction. Brie?
Brie Hidalgo
Chief Risk Officer
Thank you, Michael. Turning to the acquisition of CIBC Caribbean, the transaction remains on track with regulatory approvals, financing activities, and integration planning progressing as expected. During the quarter, we received shareholder approval for the acquisition and submitted the required regulatory applications. We have continued our engagement with employees, clients, governments, and our regulators across our markets, including employee town halls and advancing stakeholder outreach efforts. In parallel, dedicated integration teams have been established and are actively planning for a successful transition and realization of the strategic benefits of the transaction. We are also preparing for a debt issuance to support the acquisition. Overall, we remain on schedule for regulatory approvals and anticipate closing in the first half of 2027. I will now turn the call back to Michael Collins.
Michael Collins
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Bri. We remain enthusiastic and optimistic about the acquisition of CIBC Caribbean. We believe the combination will result in a stronger regional banking franchise with enhanced capabilities across corporate banking, personal banking, and wealth management, creating the leading independent bank in the Atlantic and English-speaking Caribbean. Together, we will be better positioned to meet the evolving needs of our clients while delivering benefits to all stakeholders. With approximately $29 billion in assets, $25 billion in deposits, $1.7 billion in tangible common equity, and more than $400 million in run rate earnings on a pro forma basis, the combined bank will have the scale, financial strength, and earnings power to compete effectively and drive sustainable earnings and growth. September marked 10 years since Butterfield's New York Stock Exchange listing, and during that time, we have delivered a consistent record of performance, generating returns on equity of approximately 15% to 25% while growing profits and earnings per share. Over that period, we have demonstrated the durability of our business model across varying economic and interest rate environments. Our success has been built on a high-quality business model With fee income contributing approximately 40% of revenues and a disciplined approach to risk and expense management that has allowed us to generate strong returns without relying on elevated credit or investment risk. Combined with thoughtful capital deployment, strategic acquisitions, and significant shareholder returns through dividends and share purchases, this has enabled us to create meaningful long-term value. We see the acquisition of CIBC Caribbean as the next step in that journey, enhancing our scale, capabilities, and market position. We look forward to welcoming our new colleagues and clients to Butterfield. Thank you, and with that, we would be happy to take your questions. Operator?
Drew
Conference Operator
Thank you. 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. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. Again, it is star then one to ask a question. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Tim Switzer with KBW. Please go ahead.
Tim Switzer
Analyst, KBW
Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Great, Tim. First one I have is just a little bit more of commentary on the NIM outlook. Could you maybe talk about, you know, what impact you've seen so far from rate hikes across U.S. and your other jurisdictions that are impacted and then, you know, what your expectations would be on the impact going forward?
Michael Scrum
President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, good morning, Tim. It's Michael Scrum. Yeah, I mean, obviously, things are bouncing around a little bit with us finally landing on deposit levels that we'd sort of foreshadowed over the last sort of year or so. And then, obviously, NIM is pulling through broadly with somewhat of a lag at a 50% overall beta. So, in the short term, we expect NIM to be relatively flat. So, it'll be deposit outflows offset by by asset repricing effectively in the investment and the short term cash bucket and some modest uptake in cost of deposits. So generally speaking, you know, on a core basis, we would expect them to be flat in the short term with sort of modest tailwind into the next year coming from the previously announced, you know, Fed rate increases and then You know, possibly depending on what happens with some further upward adjustments. So good news overall, there's a bit of fluctuation in deposit levels, but I think broadly speaking loans have been flat and obviously we've sort of held on the repricing of Bermuda base rate affecting mortgage holders for the last hike. And so, you know, that would probably give us some further opportunities in 227.
Tim Switzer
Analyst, KBW
Got it. That was very helpful. You touched on this, but can you help us get an idea of the NII impact of the deposits that are moving off balance sheet? It sounds like the NIM is staying flat with the move. Do I just take, say, 400 plus million of deposits and use your normalized NIM that's $11 million or so annually?
Michael Scrum
President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I mean, we expect NII, again, to be relatively flat. Obviously, there's a little bit of seasonality on the balance sheet as well, so typically Cayman deposits, we get more inflows in the fourth quarter. So, you know, seasonal variations obviously can impact a little bit, but I think, generally speaking, we should expect NII to be flat in short term with a positive bias in the medium term. So, exactly as you said, there's the Multiple moving parts there, but it should be a net positive that rates are going up over time.
Tim Switzer
Analyst, KBW
Got it. Okay. Very helpful. Thank you.
Drew
Conference Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from Evan Kwiatkowski with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Evan Kwiatkowski
Analyst, Raymond James
Hey, good morning, guys.
Drew
Conference Operator
Good morning.
Evan Kwiatkowski
Analyst, Raymond James
I just wanted to touch on the deal first. Could you update us? on any intention to pursue balance sheet optimization opportunities with the deal, whether it be repositioning anything on the loans or security side. And then just curious if there's any businesses or portfolios on the CIBC Caribbean side you're looking to grow further or conversely run off?
Michael Scrum
President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, maybe I'll just kick off just on the optimization. Obviously, you know, the CIBC Caribbean We've started to take a look at obviously their investment portfolios and had some good conversations around liquidity contingency and starting to sort of talk about what types of investments they have. I mean, most of that is going to be U.S. Treasuries, relatively short-durated. Not as big of a rate impact on the fair market valuation of that. They do have some sovereign securities in both Bahamas and Barbados that we're taking a look at in terms of either marketability or commitments that we've made to those governments. And so there will probably be some further work we'll do before closing. to just familiarize ourselves. And I think at closing, we'll obviously take a look and see if we need to restructure a little bit. As you know, moving to our model is mainly, you know, we don't have any credit risk in the investment portfolio. So we want to kind of make sure we're not doubling down on sovereign risk as well, but obviously subject to sensitivities in those individual jurisdictions. So I think good conversation so far, nothing, Weedys on toward in there and some liquidity and some securities, but good to see that it's mainly U.S. Treasury based.
Michael Collins
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, and I think we're very happy with the footprint. So, you know, each of these jurisdictions have very sticky deposits. You know, they have a lot of similarities, but they are very different, which gives us great diversification across the deposit base. We've got all of our regulatory applications in. We've gotten a very warm welcome from all the governments and central banks. Spent a lot of time down there and spent a lot of time with our new CFTC Caribbean colleagues. It's a great cultural fit, really good rapport, and it's a really, really good bank. I mean, it's really well run and, you know, great systems, great people. So we're very excited about it. But, you know, currently we're very happy with the entire footprint.
Brie Hidalgo
Chief Risk Officer
Yes, and recall we previously mentioned the extensive due diligence that we performed on both the investment portfolio and credit book, and it's a well-performing book. It largely aligns with our underwriting standards and risk expectations.
Michael Scrum
President and Chief Financial Officer
I think, yeah, I mean, if you look over this sort of longer term, you know, we are sort of more of a retail bank than more of a corporate bank, and so We're sort of seeing what are the opportunities in the retail space, whether it's residential mortgage-backed lending, collateral-backed lending, and then obviously trying to see if there's any other additional things that maybe we could pick up, such as merchant acquiring and non-competitive services as well. So pretty positive overall, but this would sort of be a transition over the medium to longer term.
Evan Kwiatkowski
Analyst, Raymond James
That's really helpful. And then maybe just switching to the loan side, seemed like mortgage was pretty stable quarter over quarter. I'm just curious how you think about growth in the single family resi portfolio in general against a higher rate backdrop and whether you expect any significant changes in demand if we get further rate hikes.
Michael Scrum
President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I mean, obviously that sort of is the intent of the rate hikes. We don't really see any credit pressures, maybe with the exception a little bit in our London book, but those non-performers are really coming through liquidity pressures in that book and uncertainty about the macroeconomic environment. You probably saw the UK budget was announced this morning. No surprises there from a housing perspective, but there's some longer-term uncertainty in that market surrounding the The regulatory changes that they've made to, particularly to resident non-DOM regime, and some of the tax changes they've made, some additional friction costs in the form of stamp duty, et cetera. So stability is better, obviously, for that book. I think people are sort of nervous when there's new prime ministers coming in with a greater degree of frequency. But we're seeing some good traction in terms of, obviously, other areas are kind of facing uncertainty primarily in the Middle East. So we're seeing people coming back and maybe renting into central London. So that's sort of supporting some of the liquidity aspects. But we've done a pretty detailed look at the London Burke and I think we're pretty happy with that being temporary. But the question is how long is temporary? It's been going on for a little bit.
Evan Kwiatkowski
Analyst, Raymond James
Got it. And then if I could sneak one more in, if I could round it off on the expense side. Just curious if this high 90 million per quarter range is a reasonable core run rate. I know you've mentioned before some opportunities for expense savings relocating people to Halifax. Just curious if you still see that as an opportunity or if there's anything else you're looking at in terms of optimizing the expense base. Thanks.
Michael Scrum
President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, good question. Obviously expenses were a little high this quarter. A number of sort of Non-recurring things impacting that. So we still believe, are confident that we can get to a 93 to 95. That should be the run rate going forward. I think we've kind of gotten to the less meaningful impact of the Halifax move. We almost have 300 people up there and we want to retain client faces in our jurisdictions. So we're kind of looking at the twos and threes as opposed to the tens and twenties. But I think there's still more opportunity in that space. And then we're kind of being also focusing on quantifying the synergies from the deal as they come through. So I think we're sort of thinking there are some more opportunities, but we're kind of pausing a little bit on that on the BAU side, but still kind of confident that we'll get into that range in the short term.
Evan Kwiatkowski
Analyst, Raymond James
That's great. Thanks for all the color guys.
Brie Hidalgo
Chief Risk Officer
Thanks.
Drew
Conference Operator
Thank you. Again, if you have a question, please press star then 1. The next question comes from Robert Ruchow with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Robert Ruchow
Analyst, Wells Fargo
Hi, good morning everybody. Good morning. Just a housekeeping question on the deposit outflow. I assume most of that will come out of cash or do you expect to sort of maintain the size of the balance sheet? And then I was wondering if you could give a little bit more color on the decline in loan yields overall and whether that should bounce back going forward.
Michael Scrum
President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, maybe I'll kick off. Certainly, yes, you're right. The balance sheet will be smaller by half a billion. We have a lot of, you know, 3.8 billion cash in short-term securities, so not really affecting our liquidity position. These were expected outflows and sort of treated as contractual funding, if you will, in all our regulatory submissions, and certainly our models have already factored that in as that last quarter end. It was a mixture of liquidation money, and I think we talked about this before. It's a long-standing fund that was going into voluntary liquidation. The fund was sitting on a balance sheet. We knew it was coming out. So the balance sheet will be smaller by, you know, come into a deposit range of 12 to 12.5, and I think that's kind of what we said previously. And yes, that will come out of cash in the first instance, so obviously affecting The size of the returns in the NII. But then, you know, behind that is obviously a rising interest rate environment. So that's kind of helpful in that regard. In terms of loan yields, and I think we have this in an appendix, we've seen mainly the arms that we have in our book resetting to floating at this point. And so while and we've sort of lagged repricing of the Fed rate increase, particularly in And as you know, the UK B of E rate has recently moved. So, you know, so we're expecting some repricing there. But generally speaking, I think, you know, loans are stable. It's competitive environment. So I'm not expecting sort of loans to reprice upwards at this point, although they're, you know, the fixed are floating. And I think that piece is definitely the remixing piece that's impacting the loan yield effectively.
Robert Ruchow
Analyst, Wells Fargo
Okay. Thanks. That's helpful. And then just a question on the deal. I guess some of the acquired islands that you're going into appear to have a little bit faster GDP growth. When you're thinking about synergies with the deal, anything you might do to sort of lean into better growth in those new markets?
Michael Collins
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. As I said, they're all very different jurisdictions, but all recovering from COVID quite well. So Barbados, you know, the IMF came in, you know, they got their debt to GDP way down, growing quite well, and Bahamas as well.
Michael Scrum
President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, so I think, I mean, the thing to look at there is obviously we have challenges in our growth trajectories with the islands where we have large market share. So in Bermuda and Cayman in particular, we have, you know, really, really nice market share. Some of these new islands, we have a lower market share. And when you look at the business mix between the retail and corporate work, and particularly lending and deposits, I think there's a real opportunity there to grow some of that in line with GDP, which is, as you said, growing faster than some of the other small islands, but take a little bit of market share as well. as part of that, and then maybe over time sort of moderate some of their corporate lending. But again, this would be sort of a long-term project. We're not thinking a big push in retail. We're sort of thinking take our market share initially and just focus a little bit more on that.
Michael Collins
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, and I think that Barbados, Bahamas, certainly Cayman, Barbados, Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos, Our strong market chairs, all the other islands do quite well. So it adds up quite well. I think going forward, we're going to focus a lot on Cayman, Barbados. And they're different economies. So Barbados is a tourist economy, but also a big domestic economy, a large population. And if you've been to the Bahamas recently, in terms of wealth management and properties and real estate, We're not projecting a lot of cost energies. Our focus is to support the governments and communities. There's unions as well, and so we're making commitments to support everyone across the board. It will be very lucrative over time, but we're going to take our time.
Robert Ruchow
Analyst, Wells Fargo
Great. Thanks for taking my question. Thanks.
Drew
Conference Operator
Thank you. That concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back to Noah Fields for closing remarks.
Noah Fields
Head of Investor Relations
Thank you, Drew, and thanks to everyone for dialing in today. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter and have a great day.
Drew
Conference Operator
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.