Good morning, and welcome to the Lakeland Bancorp, Inc. first quarter earnings conference call. My name is Elliot, and I'll be coordinating your call today. You will have the opportunity to ask a question at the end of the presentation. If you would like to register a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Please note that this event is being recorded. I will now like to turn the conference over to Mary Russell, Assistant Controller and Director of Financial Reporting. Please go ahead, ma'am. Thank you, Elliot. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us on our first quarter earnings call. Today's presenters are President and CEO, Thomas J. Shara, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Thomas F. Splaine. Before beginning the review of our financial results, we ask that you please take note of our standard caution as to any forward-looking statements which may be made during the course of today's call. Our full disclaimer is contained in this morning's earnings release, which has been posted to the investor relations page on our website, lakelandbank.com. Now it is my pleasure to introduce Thomas J. Shara, who will offer his perspective on our fourth quarter. Tom? Thank you, Mary. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter earnings call. I'm joined this morning by Tom Splaine, our CFO, who will walk you through our earnings, including the purchase accounting impacts from 1st Constitution. As it relates to 1st Constitution, we closed the merger on January sixth and completed the conversion on February fourteenth. The conversion went extremely well, and we are thrilled with the receptivity of the customer base and are very impressed with the enthusiasm and energy of our new associates. Some highlights for the quarter are organic loan growth for the quarter ex-PPP was approximately $100 million or 1.2%. We experienced growth in every category except PPP and warehouse, both of which declined $30 million for the quarter. For mortgage warehouse, the first quarter is seasonally a slow quarter and was further impacted by the downturn in mortgage lending, which also impacted our gain on sale results for the quarter. Tom will talk more about that in a minute. Based on current trends, we do expect that the warehouse group will gain back all of the $30 million in the second quarter. We do expect PPP to completely run off either late second or early third quarter of this year. I'm happy to report that commercial closings for the first quarter were up 34% from last year's first quarter, and the pipeline at the end of the quarter was at record levels. Very little of that increase is coming from the 1st Constitution teams as they were focused primarily on our conversion and customer retention in the last few months. Our healthcare lending team had tremendous momentum going into the quarter, and we expect them to have a strong year as well. Recently, we're also starting to see opportunities for new relationships as a result of larger bank M&A on markets, which will be beneficial in subsequent quarters. Overall, we expect stronger loan growth in the second quarter and for the balance of the year. As we reported in past quarters, prepayments for this quarter remained elevated. We do anticipate prepayment speeds to slow with the rapid rise in interest rates this quarter. On the residential mortgage side, with rates moving from the low 3s to the low 5s in the quarter, originations declined 55% versus the first quarter of last year, with refinance activity down 68%. We were able, however, to put some well-priced jumbos and arms on the balance sheet this quarter, and we'll continue to look at that opportunity going forward. Based on the current mortgage pipeline, we expect an uptick in two key originations entering the spring sales season. On the deposit side, deposits increased organically 2% for the quarter in spite of a large increase in time deposits. Non-interest-bearing deposits were up 3.3% last quarter and now total 26% of total deposits. Core deposits now make up 90% of our total deposits. On the credit side, credit remained very solid. For the quarter, charge-offs totaled $7.6 million, all of which were for 1st Constitution and were fully disclosed during due diligence. For the legacy, Lakeland Bank charge-offs for the quarter were negligible. Non-performing assets to assets at the end of the quarter were 19 basis points. The allowance finished the first quarter at $67 million or 94 basis points of loans versus $58 million and 97 basis points at year-end. Regarding our dividend based on our continued growth and positive outlook, the board authorized a 7.4% dividend increase payable in May. Our dividend payout ratio will remain in the low to mid 30 range, consistent with our past payout ratio. I'd like to point out that our compounded annual growth rate of our dividend over the last 10 years has been approximately 9%. As it relates to the Central and North New Jersey economy, it remained healthy. New Jersey's unemployment rate continues to drive lower and stands at 4.2%. Through March, the state has recovered 93% of the jobs lost during the pandemic. Our commercial customers are reporting strong results with a positive outlook, although there are some concerns around inflation, supply chain challenges, and in some cases, a lack of staffing, which is slowing new sales a bit. Overall, the local economy remains very strong. That concludes my remarks. I'd now like to turn over the balance of the presentation to Tom. Once he's concluded with his comments, we're happy to answer your questions. Tom, take it away. Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. Lakeland's financial results for Q1 include the acquisition of 1st Constitution Bancorp, which was completed in January this year. The acquisition was accounted for under the acquisition method of accounting, and accordingly, the assets acquired and the liabilities assumed in the acquisition were recorded at their estimated fair values as of the acquisition date. 1st Constitution results of operations have been included in the company's consolidated statements of income from that date forward. For Q1, our net income was $15.9 million or $0.25 per diluted share, compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 of $22.2 million or $0.43 per diluted share. The first quarter of 2021 of $23.2 million or $0.45 per diluted share. Q1 financial results, as Tom mentioned, were significantly impacted by the acquisition accounting, including merger-related expenses of $4.6 million and the CECL Day 1 provision for credit losses on 1st Constitution loans considered non-purchased credit impaired of $4.6 million. The non-PCD provision was significantly less than our estimated $16 million provision due to the final classification of acquired loans as of the merger completion date and the improved macroeconomic conditions. The rapidly changing interest rate environment created an opportunity for us to deploy excess cash into investment securities during the quarter. While these tailwinds from the rising interest rates positively impacted net interest income, those same higher rates have prompted headwinds for our newly acquired business lines of warehouse lending and residential mortgage banking business. We expect these headwinds to persist in the short term. These items were partially offset by continued earning asset growth and a remixing of the balance sheet into higher-yielding assets. On the balance sheet, as Tom mentioned, our loan portfolio, excluding 1st Constitution's acquired loans and PPP loans, grew organically approximately $100 million as we experienced growth in various loan segments. Loan prepayments remain fairly elevated but lower than the prior two quarters, while PPP loan forgiveness has reduced that portfolio to an insignificant level. The investment portfolio continued to grow in Q1 as we deployed 1st Constitution's excess liquidity to increase net interest income and improve earnings. Investments, excluding the impact of 1st Constitution, increased $200 million during the quarter, and the portfolio now totals $2.1 billion or 21% of total assets. Total deposits, excluding 1st Constitution, organically increased $132 million in Q1 or 2% compared to the trailing quarter. Including non-interest-bearing deposits, our cost of deposits remained at 19 basis points for the quarter and continued to remain among the best in our bank peer group. We continue to remix the deposit portfolio by growing non-interest-bearing deposits and interest-bearing transaction accounts while continuing to run off higher rate time deposits. Our average cash balance for Q1 remains slightly elevated due to the acquisition and comprise 4.6% of average total assets for Q1 compared to a more normalized level of 2.3%, which is where we finished 2021. Our capital position remains strong, and we continue to accrete capital through earnings retention. During Q1, including the impact of the 1st Constitution acquisition, all regulatory capital ratios increased, except total risk-based capital ratio, which decreased slightly. Our tangible common equity-to-tangible asset ratio decreased 24 basis points or 2.9% to 8.07% at March 31, 2022, compared to 8.31% at December 31, 2021. The mark-to-market impact of increasing interest rates on our available-for-sale investment portfolio was muted by management's transfer of $500 million of longer duration securities to held-to-maturity back in the summer of 2021. We did not repurchase any common stock in Q1 under our existing authorized share repurchase program, which has 2.4 million shares remaining to be repurchased under the program. We will be commencing share repurchases during Q2 to provide support for the stock and further increase shareholder value. As Tom mentioned, the board of directors authorized an increase in the quarterly cash dividend per common share by 7% to $0.145 per quarter. On the income statement, our net interest margin expanded four basis points versus the trailing quarter as the excess liquidity deployed in the later part of Q4 into loan growth and investment portfolio favorably impacted earnings. Net interest income accretion on 1st Constitution's acquired loans, investments, and deposits resulted in a $320,000 reduction in net interest income in Q1 and will not be a significant factor in 2022. Our provision for credit losses was an expense of $6.3 million for the current quarter compared to $400 thousand in the trailing quarter, as well as a benefit of $2.7 million in the prior year quarter. The current quarter provision was comprised of a $4.6 million credit for losses on loans, a $1.2 million credit for losses on investments, and a $400 thousand credit for losses on an unfunded loan commitments. The Q1 $4.6 million provision for credit losses on loans was entirely related to the CECL day one provision on non-PCD acquired loans. The provision for credit losses on investments was a result of the decrease in the market value of securities based on interest rates and not based on any credit downgrades of the securities. Non-performing assets decreased 2 basis points for the quarter to 19 basis points of total assets and credit remains stellar. The Q1 charge-offs of $7.8 million are entirely related to the acquired 1st Constitution purchased credit deteriorated loans. At March 31, 2022, the allowance for credit losses on loans represented 94 basis points of total loans compared with 97 basis points in the trailing quarter. Non-interest income increased $900,000 to $6.8 million versus the trailing quarter due to higher gain on sales on residential mortgages and SBA loans due to the addition of the 1st Constitution business lines. However, this was well short of the budgeted results due to the rapid increase in market interest rates. Q1 operating expenses were negatively impacted by non-recurring merger related expenses of $4.6 million. Excluding merger related expenses, operating expenses increased $9.8 million from the prior quarter, mainly due to the addition of 1st Constitution, additional new Lakeland hires, and the related medical and benefits expense. The expected cost savings from the merger will begin to be realized in Q2 as we converted 1st Constitution records to our systems during Q1. Our efficiency ratio of 58% for Q1 includes previously discussed merger related expenses as well as 1st Constitution expenses for personnel and systems which will not be recurring after Q1. Our Q1 effective tax rate was 23.9% as compared to 23.4% in the trailing quarter. Regarding our outlook for the remainder of 2022, the forecast is complicated by the rapidly changing interest rate environment and the Federal Reserve's anticipated moves to curb inflation. We believe that we are well-positioned for rising interest rates. Our projected interest rate risk position shows that we are currently asset sensitive and this increases over time. With the current excess liquidity in the financial system, as noted by the current low loan to deposit ratios, it is likely that deposit betas will be much lower than model deposit betas, which will increase net interest income in the near term. With the continued deployment of liquidity into loans and securities at the higher market rates, we anticipate net interest margin will increase 45 basis points in Q2. As Tom discussed earlier, we expect the loan portfolio to grow organically in the mid-single digits in 2022 and asset quality to remain high. Non-interest income for 2022 is expected to be approximately $7 million-$8 million per quarter, down from prior forecasts due to the increased interest rates negatively impacting our expanded residential mortgage secondary marketing and the SBA loan origination capacity acquired in the 1st Constitution merger. We have experienced renewed borrower interest in loan swaps, which may partially offset the reduction in gain on sale activity. Non-interest expenses for 2022 including merger related costs, are on track to total in the high $170 million range, inclusive of the higher run rate in Q1. Salary and benefit expenses are likely to be higher than previous years due to the current hiring conditions companies are facing in hiring quality employees and our continued development of our digital initiatives. Income tax expense for 2022 is forecasted to be reduced to approximately 24%-24.5% for the year. That concludes our prepared remarks, and we'll be happy to address any questions. With that, Elliot, can you open the question period for us, please? Of course. For our Q&A, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. Our first question comes from Frank Schiraldi from Piper Sandler. Your line is open. Good morning. Good morning, Frank. Just want to make sure I heard your comments right in the beginning on growth. You talked about mid-single-digit loan growth in 2022. Does that include mortgage warehouse from FCCY? It does. We expect that to be muted, Frank, just based on current conditions. We expect them to recover the runoff they experienced in the first quarter. The growth trajectory there will be slower than we originally thought, just based on mortgage conditions. Sure. I just want to make sure I understand the CECL mark. Just the charge-offs that came on the 1st Constitution side. You know, you mentioned seeing that those were credits that were, you know, familiar to you as potentially needing charge-off. Is that why the CECL mark came in lower than you guys had anticipated as sort of the charge-off, the difference or part of the difference? Yeah, you're on the right track there, Frank. The allocation of loans identified as purchased credit impaired increased, reducing the non-PCD mark that goes through income. The PCD loans, grossing them up under the accounting rules, the $12 million being allocated to their allowance for loan loss for them and subsequent $7.6 million charge off of those loans down to the current level. It's just a reallocation of how the loans were identified coming onto our books. That's okay. Tom, you also mentioned the continued capital accretion. You guys talked about buybacks. I wondered if there was any more color you could give on buyback levels and how that might translate to capital levels going forward throughout the year. Yeah. Right now, Frank, as you know, we've had the share repurchase plan in place for a number of years and have been very cautious about utilizing it based upon where we were trading. Due to the current softness of bank valuations right now, it's an opportune time for us to step in and be prudent with purchases of shares. We're not gonna be gung ho about it. We'll do it wisely as we move forward. We're with our TCE ratio currently right now, just above 8%. We're mindful of that as we go forward. We also look at the overall risk of our bank and our operation. We're a low risk institution, so we have plenty of capital. Just a matter of picking our spots as we go forward. We haven't set any firm limits or timing of size of repurchase as we head forward. Okay. Just thinking about other uses of capital. I realize you guys just closed on the deal, but just big picture, just your thoughts on M&A here. Has the macro picture gotten uncertain enough where this is sort of you think on the back burner here? Yeah, Frank, I think you're right in that observation. You know, the priority has been on 1st Constitution merger integration. That's gone exceptionally well, and we're gonna stay focused on that for the time being, Frank. I don't think it's likely that you'll see us pursuing M&A. To your point, I think the macroeconomic conditions are a little uncertain right now, and it'd be difficult to rationalize something. Right now, the focus is entirely on organic growth and leveraging the 1st Constitution customer base. Gotcha. Okay. If I could just sneak in one last one. Tom, you mentioned the model betas versus what we're, you know, likely to actually see just given liquidity in the market. Can you remind us or I'm not sure, maybe you don't disclose what those model betas are? If you could just, I think you gave some NII guide that I might have missed. Thanks. Yeah. On deposit betas, we haven't really pushed them out there, but they're very conservative. You know, for money market accounts, we're looking at deposit betas of 70% as well as 20% on savings accounts. In the current environment, you know, it's with all the excess liquidity right now, we think that actual deposit betas in the short run will be much less than what's being mapped into the interest, the ALCO models right now. I hope that answered your question, Frank. Yeah. You did an NII guide or maybe I misheard. I thought, I heard that for the second quarter. We said that net interest margin should increase about 4-5 basis points next quarter. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Frank. Our next question comes from Manuel Navas from D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead. Good morning. Hey, good morning, Manuel. Good morning. Hey. Does the mid-single digit loan growth guidance include a set amount of residential real estate portfolio? Can you kind of discuss how that will go forward, that particular line item? Yeah, that's Manuel, that's not included in the projection for growth. We're gonna, you know, evaluate rates, you know, in the quarter and subsequent quarters. You know, we're seeing deals priced at, in the high fours and low fives, and we may cherry-pick some residential mortgage portfolio production to go in portfolio, which would further, you know, increase the opportunity for growth, for the balance of the year. We'll be selective about that. As you know, Manuel, our residential portfolio is one of the smallest portfolios that we have on our books, standing around $400 million. Is that an avenue that is impacting some of the fee growth from FCCY that you're gonna be portfolio loans? Or is it just how the market and the rates are rising? The biggest impact to mortgage secondary marketing right now is just the rapid increase in rates and people pulling back right now. Saleable product has dried up very quickly, the refis and the pull back on rates on the standard 30-year fixed rate mortgages. Some people have been moving to other products that are not as saleable in the secondary market. We've been putting those on our balance sheet right now. They're going on at good yields, and we're very comfortable with the credit. Okay. What are you seeing in current pricing for new loans? What was it for the last quarter? What is it kind of you're seeing in April? Like, has pricing improved yet? Yeah. I'm gonna ask a similar question about deposit rates. Go ahead. Yeah. We are definitely seeing an improvement in pricing across the board. Kind of current rates are in the mid-4.5% on the commercial real estate side. You know, a quarter ago, that would've been probably in the high 3s%, Manuel. We are seeing an ability to price better, and we think that should continue to benefit us going forward. Are you seeing any kind of bad actors in loan competition at the moment? I think, you know, we keep talking about the prepayment speeds, and we are still seeing, believe it or not, you know, ten-year interest only, you know, in the threes. That's mostly insurance companies, GSEs, not necessarily pure banks, Manuel. But there are still a hunger for assets out there. That is slowing, quite frankly, with the rapid increase in rates. We hope that that stems the tide a bit and allows us to keep more in portfolio. I understand that it makes a lot of sense to think of deposit betas being low during the first several hikes. Have you seen any competitors move deposit rates yet? That's my last question for now. Right. At this point, things have been very calm in the local peer markets here. We haven't seen a lot of pressure there. There's some people, some of the online banks I think have started to inch a little bit. You know, it's not part of our core relationship-driven deposit base here. Thank you. Thanks, Manuel. Our next question comes from Chris O'Connell from KBW. Please go ahead. Morning. Good morning, Chris. I was hoping to get a little bit more color on the margin guide. With the liquidity, excess liquidity levels, you said your longer term kinda get down to, you know, 2.3% or so, I believe. Are you expecting to do that relatively near term in the second quarter or over the course of a few quarters here? We can probably get down there during the second quarter. It's a function of deposit growth, which has continued to be strong in Q1. You know, it's actively managing the balance sheet and redeploying the liquidity into earning assets. I think it's achievable in Q2. Got it. I guess, like, you know, based on your comments around, you know, the deposit betas and, you know, where the loan pricing is coming on, you know, combined with some of the excess liquidity deployment, I mean, should we be expecting, you know, a move in the NIM in, you know, following the second quarter and kind of, you know, 3Q that's, you know, a bit larger than that 4-5 basis points? Yeah. We don't wanna get too far out over ourselves seeing that rate, how much rates have moved over the last 90 days. The, you know, the trend would be to continue NIM as things reprice on a go-forward basis, on the asset side, as well as, you know, the potential of keeping deposit betas low, or near zero would help everyone's NIM in the financial services on any of the spread lenders on a going-forward basis. I know that's a long-winded answer, but it's, you know, things are just very uncertain at this point about where the government's heading with rates and balance sheet reductions and the longer end of the yield curve, where does that go. Chris, we do think that over the subsequent quarters, the NIM would naturally move up. You know, if we get 50 basis points in May, 50 basis points in July, like you're talking about, our NIM would naturally move up from there. Got it. Can you just remind us with, you know, the pro forma balance sheet, how much of the loan portfolio is variable or floating? Right now we're just under 40% is variable. If you remember, 1st Constitution. Oh. 1st Constitution did help that they had 44% of their loans, repriced, with prime or LIBOR. Yeah, absolutely. As far as the, you know, deposit outlook, you know, given the, you know, strong growth the past couple of years here, how are you thinking about just overall deposit flows and balances, you know, with your rising rates kind of on the horizon? You know, Chris, we've never been, you know, a CD shop or paid up for deposits. Our deposits flow through relationships and mostly on the commercial side. We expect those to continue to come in, you know, 8%-10% a year. If you look back at our deposit growth, the CAGR is about 8%-10% as far back as you want to look. It is something we continue to preach. It's something that we demand as part of our lending relationship, with the focus being on non-interest-bearing DDA, which continues to grow double digits year after year. Great. Just lastly, on the credit, you know, given, you know, the moves with the closing merger and you know, where the reserve kind of settled out this quarter, how are you thinking about the reserve ratio going forward? We don't like giving guidance on provisions and where we're going because it's very volatile. If you looked at our balance sheet and where our credit metrics are right now, Chris, it's very clean. We're coming to resolution on a couple of the remaining non-accrual loans that we have on the books in Q2 is likely. Things are looking better on the short term and macroeconomic conditions for the CECL model continue to look strong on a go-forward basis. You know, you put all that stuff together and you kind of say that things are getting better on the credit side on a go-forward basis when you get down to CECL modeling. I hope that kind of points you in the right direction. Got it. Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for taking my questions. Our next question comes from Erik Zwick from Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead. Good morning. Hey, Eric. Hey, Eric. Wanted to follow up, one or two questions on the margin first. I know you indicated that the purchase accounting accretion from FCCY in the first quarter, I think was at a -$320,000. Was there any impact related to Highlands or any other prior acquisitions, in the quarter as well? No, those prior accretions are just writing down and they're not material. Thanks. Do you have a schedule for kind of scheduled accretion related to 1st Constitution for the remainder of 2022? We do. The whole amortization schedule goes out over the next 3.5 years. The impact on 2022 is not a significant item. Okay, thanks. I think you also mentioned that at this point, PPP is becoming a fairly immaterial impact as well and expect that to be, you know, run off by the end of 2Q or 3Q. Do you happen to have the remaining balances in unamortized fees at the end of the first quarter? Unamortized fees, yeah, at the end of March were approximately $600,000. 600. Okay. That's helpful. Thanks. A number of banks have started to kind of, you know, reassess their NSF fees, kind of deposit overdraft fees and strategy. Have you guys given any thought to that? Or are you feeling pretty good with your current positioning in terms of how you assess those today? Yeah, we feel good about our overdraft programs. They've always been above board, but we are looking at them and considering some minor tweaks. We've never relied heavily on overdrafts, and our programs are fair to the customer. We are watching what's going on, and we'll probably make a few tweaks in the second quarter. Would you expect any of those tweaks to have a material impact on the level of fees? No. that you're realizing today? Okay. Not at all. In terms of the loans, curious if you could provide us an update on kind of commercial pipeline, the balance at the end of the first quarter relative to the end of the year. Just, you know, what that mix might look like in terms of kind of maybe product type or C&I versus CRE. Yeah, the pipeline, as I mentioned, is at record levels. Then that pipeline that I talk about really is exclusively commercial. It's skewing, you know, more heavily to CRE than C&I, although we're starting to see some C&I business as a result of the healthcare lending teams, which I mentioned previously. We're seeing a mix. I'd say 75% of the pipeline would be CRE, and 25% would be C&I. Pretty good traction in both cases. Okay. That's helpful. Do you have the dollar balance of the pipeline today or at the end of the first quarter? No. We don't generally disclose that, but it is, as I said earlier, the originations were up 34% for the quarter and they've gotten even better in April. We're pretty bullish on loan growth going forward into 2Q. Just to clarify, that really doesn't include much of any contribution from 1st Constitution. Really, they're working on customer retention and making sure everything's gone well there. They'll start to come now on board and start pushing the pipeline even further forward. Just last one for me. Curious if you could provide an update on your current kind of ESG strategy and initiatives in light of recent proposals to require kind of enhanced disclosures in some of the regulatory filings? Yeah. We've been working on that for a year now. We're working with Nasdaq in terms of best practices. We're pretty far along in some of the initiatives, and we feel like we're in good shape. We started to disclose those on our website. You'll see in our annual meeting, we'll mention more about ESG initiatives, but we're on it. Great. Thanks for taking all my questions today. Yes, no problem. We have a follow-up from Manuel Navas. Your line is open. Hey, I wanted to hop back on to clarify something on the NIM. The 4-5 basis point increase in 2Q 2021, does that just assume only the March hike and none of the, not a potential May hike? Is that just like 4-5 basis points for just the March hike? That's what we're forecasting right now. There might be some limited impact from a May hike. You know, the next Fed meeting after that would be June, and if they move another 50 there, that's very late in the quarter to have any impact at all. Yeah, pretty much right now it's the main driver of that would be the March hike. Do you have, if there was a March 50 basis point hike, do you have an idea of how much that would increase the NIM? This, you know, assuming deposit betas stay low or if they're at zero other than contractual rates, any 25 basis point movement would be accretive to net interest income by about half a million dollars a quarter. You know, if the short end moves up and you don't move your deposit betas, there's positive drift there. Got it. That's helpful. Thank you. Our next question comes from Eric Grubelich, a private investor. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. A question for Tom Splaine and maybe a bigger picture for maybe Tom Shara to also chime in on. Your securities portfolio is pretty big both in the HTM and the available for sale. Like, you have the mark that you show on the at least in March on the HTM. It moved about $80 million. I was curious, what was the mark on your available for sale portfolio? And given that it's a fairly large size, have you thought about, you know, the fact that it's got a, you know, 1.60% yield, I think 1.90% on the on the muni part side of it versus the risk of rates moving more and that value dropping? Yeah, Eric, we look at that and take that into consideration. As you know, we probably use the investment portfolio as for liquidity purposes and not so much to maximize yield due to all the cash flows that come off it. It acts as a buffer against our loan portfolio as well. We're very mindful of the movement of interest rates on the portfolio. You know, we think we've taken some really good steps over the last year to minimize the impact of moving rates. A case in point, the transfer of AFS securities into HTM last year, well before interest rates were moving. We take it all into consideration, and we look for the best place to deploy funding to get higher yields while providing liquidity at the same time. Where was the mark on the AFS that would have affected your book value like 99% of the other banks this quarter? We had a $31 million negative OCI mark, other comprehensive income mark, related to the AFS portfolio during the quarter. Okay. That's blended of course, for the inclusion of 1st Constitution. It's combined, right? That $31 million AOCI mark is just for the investment securities portfolio. The TCE ratio dropping. Right. The 24 basis points down to 807 is inclusive of both the AOCI negative mark as well as 1st Constitution, as you indicated. That is correct. Earnings for the quarter. Yeah. Okay. That's fine. fine. Okay. About $30 million out on the AFS. Okay. That- Yeah. That's the last. Yeah. No problem. Thank you. We have no further questions. I'll now hand back to Tom Shara for closing remarks. Okay. Look, I want to thank everybody for joining us this morning for the earnings call. If any of you have any follow-up questions, during the course of the day, Tom and I are available, to take those. Welcome your calls. Thank you very much, everybody, and have a wonderful day. Take care. Today's call has now concluded. We'd like to thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.