First Financial Bancorp (NASDAQ:FFBC) Q4 2023 Results Conference Call January 26, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Scott Crawley - Corporate Controller

Archie Brown - President and Chief Executive Officer

Jamie Anderson - Chief Financial Officer

Bill Harrod - Chief Credit Officer

Conference Call Participants

Daniel Tamayo - Raymond James

Terry McEvoy - Stephens

Chris McGratty - KBW

Operator

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the First Financial Bancorp Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast.

I would now like to welcome Scott Crawley, Corporate Controller to begin the call. Scott, over to you.

Scott Crawley

Thank you, Mondy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss First Financial Bancorp's fourth quarter and full-year 2023 financial results. Participating on today's call will be Archie Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer; Jamie Anderson, Chief Financial Officer; and Bill Harrod, Chief Credit Officer. Both the press release we issued yesterday and the accompanying slide presentation that are available on our website at www.bankatfirst.com under the Investor Relations section.

We'll make reference to the slides contained in the accompanying presentation during today's call. Additionally, please refer to the forward-looking statement disclosure contained in the fourth quarter 2023 earnings release, as well as our SEC filings for a full discussion of the company's risk factors. The information we'll provide today is accurate as of December 31, 2023, and we will not be updating any forward-looking statements to reflect facts or circumstances after this call. I'll now turn the call over to Archie Brown.

Archie Brown

Thank you, Scott. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call. Yesterday afternoon, we announced our financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2023. Before I turn the call over to Jamie, I'd like to provide some highlights from the most recent quarter and recap this year's record performance.

I'm very pleased with our fourth quarter performance, adjusted earnings per share was $0.62, which resulted in a return on assets of 1.37% and a return on tangible common equity ratio of 22.2%. As expected, rising funding costs outpaced the increase in asset yields. However, our net interest margin remained very strong at 4.26%.

Additionally, balance sheet trends were positive during the quarter with loans increasing $286 million or 11% on an annualized basis, and average deposits increasing $416 million or 13% on an annualized basis. Non-interest income and expenses were both lower than we expected during the quarter. The decline in non-interest income included a $4.6 million loss on a trade at Bannockburn. However, excluding this loss, foreign exchange income was within our range of expectations. Leasing income also declined during the period due to lower end of term fees and lease origination shifting to a greater mix of finance leases.