ファースト・バンク（FRBA）2026年第3四半期決算説明会：マージン拡大、2027年の融資目標を引き上げ

ファースト・バンク（NASDAQ: FRBA）は、純利ざやの拡大、貸出金および預金の増加、ならびに業務効率の改善により、2026年第3四半期の収益性が向上したと発表しました。また、経営陣は四半期配当を引き上げ、新たな自社株買いプログラムを承認したほか、2027年に向けた貸出金成長目標の引き上げを示しました。

要点

• 当期純利益は1,220万ドル（希薄化後1株当たり0.49ドル）となり、希薄化後EPSは前四半期から0.06ドル（12.5%）増加しました。総資産利益率（ROA）は1.18%に達しました。
• 税引後相当の純利ざや（NIM）は、前四半期比で6ベーシスポイント拡大して3.74%となり、貸出金利回りの上昇、自制的な預金金利の設定、およびバランスシートの最適化が寄与しました。
• 貸出金は5,020万ドル（年率換算で約6%）増加し、預金は4,300万ドル（年率換算で約5%）増加しました。
• 効率性比率（エフィシエンシー・シオ）は第2四半期の54.5%から52.4%へ改善しました。非金利費用は2,030万ドルで、平均資産の1.97%相当となりました。
• 取締役会は四半期配当を33%引き上げて1株当たり0.12ドルとし、2027年9月までに最大120万株（総額最大2,400万ドル）の自社株買いを承認しました。
• 経営陣は2027年の貸出金成長目標を、近年採用してきた年間約2億ドル目標から引き上げ、3億ドル近くを目指しています。

主要財務データ

事業および業績の状況

商業貸出が貸借対照表の拡大を牽引しました。商工業（C&I）貸出、自社利用型商業用不動産融資、および建設融資が当四半期の貸出増加を主導しました。C&I貸出は総貸出の22.5%を占め、前年同期の21.9%から上昇しました。

ファースト・バンクは当四半期中に1億2,400万ドルの新規融資を実行した一方、貸出金の返済額は5,300万ドルに減少しました。自社利用型不動産を含むC&I貸出は、9月30日までの新規実行額の65%を占めました。投資用不動産は約30%を占め、残りは消費者ローンでした。

9月30日時点の貸出パイプラインにおける実行見込み額は3億6,300万ドルに達し、3月および6月の四半期末水準の平均から約12%増加しました。経営陣によると、案件の機会は地域融資、SBA（中小企業庁保証融資）、プライベート・エクイティ、アセットベースト・レンディング、および投資用不動産に分散しているとのことです。

資金調達面での取り組みとしては、9,000万ドルのホールセール借入金の返済、ブローカー預金の4,400万ドルの削減、ならびに現金よりも高い利回りを提供する約5,700万ドルの低リスク有価証券の購入などが挙げられます。

当四半期中、無利息預金の平均残高は3,200万ドル増加したものの、期末残高は6月30日時点から4,870万ドル減少しました。経営陣はこの期中減少の一部を通常の変動によるものとする一方、金利競争（価格設定圧力）の強まりも挙げました。

与信コストは引き続きビジネス・エクスプレスに集中しました。およそ95%（年初来の貸倒償却額約850万ドルのうち）が同ポートフォリオによるもので、ビジネス・エクスプレス以外の貸倒償却はゼロに近い水準でした。経営陣は10月における新規問題件数の減少と延滞状況の改善を報告しました。四半期末後、ファースト・バンクは1件の問題債権について550万ドルの内入返済を受け、また950万ドルのシニア向け住宅融資の参加持分については、第4四半期後半に全額返済される見込みであると経営陣はみています。

経営陣の見通し

経営陣は、貸出金および預金の増加が純利息収入を支えると予想しており、純受息利回り（NIM）は上昇の可能性を秘めつつ安定的に推移するとみています。ファースト・バンクはやや資産感応度が高く、米連邦準備制度（FRB）の政策金利変更時には資産の25%以上の金利が即座に改定されます。ただし、預金コストの上昇によりその効果の一部が相殺される可能性があると経営陣は注意を促しています。

2027年に向けて、経営陣は総貸出増加額を3億ドル近くとすることを目標にしており、近年の約2億ドルの年間目標と比較して拡大しています。拡大したパイプラインと投資用不動産融資の追加余力が、この目標の裏付けとなっています。

同社は、平均資産に対する非金利費用の比率を、1.97%から1.90%へ削減することを目指しています。これは継続的な費用抑制と資産拡大を前提としており、2027年半ば頃の達成を見込んでいます。長期的には、経営陣は1.80%〜1.90%の範囲が、投資機会次第で達成可能であると述べています。

ファースト・バンクは、実効税率が25%以下で推移すると予想しています。また、経営陣はSBA（中小企業庁）ローンの売却活動が利益押し上げに寄与すると見込んでいるものの、短期的に非金利収入全体が大きく変化することは想定していません。

リスクと注視すべき領域

• 最近の金利上昇に伴い、預金獲得競争が激化しています。経営陣は、有利子預金コストが上昇する一方で、無利子預金残高は引き続き圧迫されると予想しています。
• 買収会計によるアクレション（増額分）は時間の経過とともに減少すると見込まれており、純利ざやの逆風となっています。
• 「ビジネス・エクスプレス」が引き続き信用損失の主な要因となっています。経営陣は損失が減少に向かうと予想していますが、改善の時期やペースを予測するのは依然として困難であると述べています。
• さらなる金利上昇は、新規の商業用不動産プロジェクトを遅延させたり、借り手にプロジェクト採算性の再評価を促したりする可能性がありますが、電話会議の時点では、経営陣は著しい減速を観察していません。
• 2027年の費用比率および貸出成長の目標は、規律あるコスト管理と商業ローンパイプラインの順調な成約の両方に依存しています。

アナリスト質疑応答のハイライト

預金について経営陣は、商工業（C&I）取引が追加の預金を生み出している一方、定期預金（CD）やより流動性の高い商品における個人向けプロモーションは選択的に実施されていると述べました。価格設定は引き続き困難ですが、同社は魅力的な貸出スプレッドが資金調達コストの上昇を相殺するのに役立つと期待しています。

利ざや感応度について経営陣は、負債よりも資産の方が直ちに金利改定される割合が高いため、ファースト・バンクは初期段階で金利上昇の恩恵を受けると述べました。また、当四半期末に実施した高コストな借入金やブローカー預金の削減などの貸借対照表上の施策も、利ざやの安定および上振れの可能性という経営陣の見通しを裏付けています。

経営陣は、最近の新規融資の金利設定が概ね6%台後半から7%の範囲にあることを示しました。新規実行分として挙げられた四半期加重平均は約6.90%であり、大半の融資は5年物国債または連邦住宅ローン銀行の基準金利に対して200ベーシスポイントを超えるスプレッドで価格設定されています。

「ビジネス・エクスプレス」に関して経営陣は、問題が発生して以来、引受および更新基準の厳格化を行っていると述べました。年換算の信用コストが約2%〜3%程度に正常化すれば、同セグメントは黒字に復帰できると考えています。

決算説明会（電話会議）全文文字起こし

決算説明会の完全なトランスクリプト

経営陣による説明

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the First Bank Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Patrick Ryan, President and CEO. Patrick, please go ahead.

Patrick Ryan

Thank you. I'd like to welcome everyone today to First Bank's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. I am joined by Andrew Hibshman, our Chief Financial Officer; and Peter Cahill, our Chief Lending Officer. Before we begin, Andrew will read the safe harbor statement.

Andrew Hibshman

The following discussion may contain forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and business of First Bank. We caution that such statements are subject to a number of uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially. And therefore, you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements we make. We may not update any forward-looking statements we make today for future events or developments. Information about risks and uncertainties are described under Item 1A Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the FDIC. Pat, back to you.

Patrick Ryan

Thanks, Andrew. In the third quarter, we saw continued improvement. Our balance sheet growth continued at a healthy pace, including loans, which were up $50 million during the quarter, and deposits, which increased $43 million during the quarter, leaving us ahead of plan for deposit growth so far this year. Our margin improved nicely to 3.74%, driving our return on average assets back up to 1.18%. Noninterest expense came in at $20.3 million, and our noninterest expense to average assets ratio came down to 1.97%, working towards our goal of 1.90%. Our pre-provision return on average assets came in at 1.79%, an increase of 8 basis points compared to the prior quarter. I wanted to highlight some additional strategic considerations before I turn it over to Andrew and Peter to provide some additional details.

First, I want to point out that our strong capital position gives us significant flexibility, and we intend to pull several levers to optimize our results moving forward. We started by announcing an increase to our quarterly dividend, moving it up to $0.12 per share, a 33% increase. We also announced our new buyback plan, which we intend to use to take advantage of market opportunities as we move forward through the end of this year and into next year. And we also see opportunities to leverage our capital for increased organic growth as our middle market commercial lending businesses gain momentum, and we have additional investor real estate capacity, which Peter will discuss later.

Some earnings tailwinds should help drive continued improved profitability. Specifically, we are modestly asset sensitive, which could help if rates move higher. We have a relatively small investment portfolio, which minimizes our risk for AOCI degradation if rates do move higher. Our expense containment initiatives should help drive efficiency even lower as we move forward. Improved growth rates will help drive efficiency and profitability, and our healthy level of ACL, coupled with improving credit metrics, should create opportunities as well. In summary, we think we're in a good position to finish the year strong and the prospects for even better profitability in 2027 look good. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Andrew to discuss some additional details of our financial results. Andrew?

Andrew Hibshman

Thanks, Pat. For the 3 months ended September 30, 2026, we recorded net income of $12.2 million or $0.49 per diluted share, which translates to 1.18% return on average assets. Strong net interest income growth and continued operating discipline drove improvement to our bottom line with diluted earnings per share increasing $0.06 or about 12.5% on a linked quarter basis. Net interest income increased $2 million or 5.6% compared to the linked quarter and increased $1.2 million or 3.4% compared to the third quarter of last year. Compared to the linked quarter, net interest income increased primarily due to growth in average earning assets, higher loan yields, disciplined deposit pricing and continued balance sheet optimization.

Loan yields increased 15 basis points linked quarter to 6.48%, while our total cost of deposits increased only 5 basis points to 2.47% -- as a result, our tax equivalent net interest margin expanded 6 basis points to 3.74%. We continue to expect acquisition accounting accretion to decline over time and the competitive environment for deposits remains challenging. These are margin headwinds. However, we have also -- we also continue to see opportunities to grow higher-yielding commercial relationships and optimize our funding and balance sheet mix. We successfully put that strategy into action this quarter by using excess liquidity to pay down $90 million in wholesale borrowings. We've reduced brokered deposits by $44 million and purchased approximately $57 million of low-risk investment securities, offering higher yields than cash.

With these changes, we still have a well-balanced asset and liability position, and we believe continued loan and deposit growth should support net interest income growth regardless of what happens with rates. We're pleased with our loan and deposit growth during the quarter. Loans grew $50.2 million or approximately 6% annualized, led by C&I, owner-occupied commercial real estate and construction lending. Our high-yielding C&I portfolio grew to comprise 22.5% of total loans at the end of Q3 compared to 21.9% a year ago. Credit costs and metrics were generally stable during the quarter. Provision expense was $2.2 million, essentially unchanged from the linked quarter. We did see slightly higher net charge-offs of $1.9 million compared to $1.6 million in the second quarter, and those charge-offs again primarily reflect activity in our Business Express portfolio. This portfolio continues to run down, and we expect any future losses will moderate from recent quarters. We are not seeing any meaningful signs of stress in our other loan segments.

Nonperforming assets rose slightly to $35.7 million during the quarter. However, since quarter end, NPAs have been reduced, and we have seen improvement in some early credit indicators, such as slightly lower delinquencies in our Business Express portfolio so far in October. Our allowance for credit losses remains essentially stable at 1.37% of total loans and represented approximately 132% of nonperforming loans. We believe our reserve coverage ratio remains strong. Our loan growth was supported by another strong quarter of deposit generation with total deposits increasing $43 million or approximately 5% annualized. Continuing to grow deposits while controlling our overall cost of deposits and improving our overall funding profile is a primary focus for us.

During the quarter, we continued to onboard new relationships while expanding existing client relationships. Total deposits increased $43 million or $87 million if you exclude the $44 million decline in brokered deposits, and our cost of deposits rose by just 5 basis points. We saw a point-to-point decline in noninterest-bearing deposits of $48.7 million from June 30 through September 30. However, average noninterest-bearing deposits increased $32 million during the quarter. Some of the point-to-point decline was due to normal fluctuations. However, we are seeing increased pricing pressure with the recent run-up in rates, and we expect this will have an impact on our cost of interest-bearing deposits and put pressure on our noninterest-bearing balances. We remain focused on striking the appropriate balance between growth and pricing discipline. Our teams are incented to generate core profitably based relationship-based deposits, and we expect our efforts will continue to generate meaningful opportunities across our footprint.

Looking ahead, our commercial deposit pipelines remain healthy, and we are using select promos to drive new personal customers to the bank. While we expect heightened industry competition will pressure deposit pricing, we believe our diversified funding base positions us well to support future loan growth while prudently managing funding costs. Noninterest income was $2 million for the third quarter of 2026 compared to $2.1 million in the linked second quarter. We are seeing a nice pipeline of SBA loan sale activity, which should lead to increased gains on loan sales. However, noninterest income continues to be a small portion of our revenue, and we do not expect to see any material changes in the short term. Noninterest expense was $20.3 million for the third quarter, modestly higher than the second quarter and primarily attributable to salaries and employee benefits. The increase in salaries and benefits was primarily driven by 1 additional day during the quarter, increased staff due to our summer intern program and a slight increase in incentive comp due to the stronger performance in Q3.

Despite the increase, we continue to demonstrate favorable operating leverage. Our efficiency ratio improved to 52.4% from 54.5% in the second quarter and marked our 29th consecutive quarter operating below 60%. We believe our efficiency continues to be a significant differentiator for our franchise. We remain highly focused on expense management and have demonstrated a track record of disciplined cost control. Tax expense totaled $4.0 million during the quarter with an effective tax rate of approximately 25%. Consistent with our prior guidance, we continue to anticipate being able to keep our effective tax rate at or below 25%. Our capital ratios remained strong, and capital generation was another highlight of the quarter. Tangible book value per share increased to $16.59 from $16.27 at June 30, representing an annual growth of nearly 8%.

Consistent with our confidence in earnings performance and capital generation, our Board approved a 33% increase in the quarterly dividend. We also received final regulatory approval for a new share repurchase program, authorizing the repurchase of up to 1.2 million shares with an aggregate value of up to $24 million, which will run through September 2027. Our disciplined capital management strategies, including maintaining a relatively modest dividend compared to peers, executing measured stock buybacks and emphasizing more profitable growth has positioned us with significant capital optionality. Going forward, we expect to continue driving shareholder value through a combination of strong asset and core earnings growth, a healthy cash dividend and opportunistic share repurchases. At this time, I'll turn it over to Peter Cahill, our Chief Lending Officer, for his remarks. Peter?

Peter Cahill

Thanks, Andrew. As Pat and Andrew mentioned, we had a good quarter in lending, where loans were up $50 million, which is right on our growth plan for the year. We continue to see good new business. New loans closed and funded during the quarter totaled $124 million, and we had the benefit in the third quarter of a more normalized level of loan payoffs. We had $53 million of loan payoffs this quarter, which is below the average we had in the first half of the year. Final period-end numbers are also impacted by regular principal amortization and fluctuations in line of credit usage.

As the earnings release shows, investor real estate loans, a major part of our business, declined a bit in Q3. We've described in previous meetings that we've been focusing on C&I growth, believing that's where the deposits are and that those types of loans experience less turnover. We saw some good growth in C&I again this quarter, led by our regional banking teams as well as our specialized lending groups. Through September 30, C&I loans, including owner-occupied real estate loans, made up 65% of our new business.

Investor real estate made up around 30%, and the balance was in consumer lending. Regarding business in the pipeline, our new loans pipeline looks good. We look at probable funding on a loan-by-loan basis. And at September 30, probable funding stood at $363 million. For comparison, levels in March and June were $326 million and $323 million, respectively. So we're up about 12% from the average of those 2 quarter ends. This, we hope, will lead to a solid fourth quarter and good beginning to 2027.

Looking at asset quality, I don't have a lot to add to what's been mentioned. Issues coming out of Business Express have slowed, but we're building some optimism there. We've referenced previously a couple of larger problem real estate loans. Some good news on those, although it came post quarter end, Andrew referenced it. Just after the end of the quarter, we received a $5.5 million paydown on one of them. If you recalculated our criticized classified ratio, it would have brought that down to about 2.24%. That's below the average for the past 8 quarters, which is around 240 basis points. Then the other problem real estate loan that we've mentioned briefly in the past, a $9.5 million participation in a loan for a senior living facility, we've learned that an agreement has been accepted by the court and all indications are that, that loan will be paid in full later in the fourth quarter. So we're very happy to hear that as well.

Looking forward, we're doing our best to convert our loan pipeline into new business. We're still focused on meeting the loan growth goal for this year. Beyond the fourth quarter, the business opportunities we're seeing are spread throughout all of our banking units. The regional lending team should continue to do very well. We made a significant addition to our leadership team in the Pennsylvania region, which we hope will drive growth going forward. After a slow start to the year, our SBA team has built a nice pipeline.

Private equity and asset-based lending are both looking at a lot of new business. And in the investor real estate area, more opportunities are being reviewed than they've looked at in past quarters.

With the actions we've taken in targeting C&I relationships, our investor real estate to capital ratio is down well below where it's been in previous years. And we think that creates an opportunity to accelerate loan growth heading into next year. So as a result of what we're seeing throughout the business units, as we think about 2027, we're setting our sights on total loan growth that's up from the $200 million annual number that we've targeted the past couple of years to a targeted growth rate closer to $300 million. So based on all this, I'm pretty optimistic about finishing the year strong and about 2027 as well. That covers it for a lending review, and I'll turn things now back to Pat for final comments. Pat?

Patrick Ryan

Thanks, Peter, and thanks, Andrew, for that additional info. And at this point, I'll turn it back to the operator to open up for Q&A.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Bader Hijleh with Piper Sandler.

質疑応答

Bader Hijleh

This is Bader on for Justin. I just wanted to start out on the deposit side of things. That's been a positive story so far this year. So maybe if you guys could talk about how you're thinking about maybe deposits continuing to keep pace to fund loan growth. And then maybe your thoughts on the level of competition on the deposit side as well.

Patrick Ryan

Yes. I'll hit a couple of highlights and turn it over to Andrew. I think the short answer, obviously, is we continue to grow in our C&I book. We're doing, I think, a good job of making sure we're getting a lot of additional relationship deposits. There's also significant fluctuation in that book. So it becomes a little bit tricky to predict quarter-to-quarter, but the underlying trends there certainly seem positive. So that's been good news. And obviously, we still play in the retail space on the deposit side. And from time to time as needed, we'll get competitive with a market rate on a CD or money market. So we continue to look for opportunities to grow in that segment as well. And Andrew, why don't you jump in and talk a little bit about what you've been working on with the retail teams.

Andrew Hibshman

Yes. Just to hit on the pricing pressure, there it's definitely accelerated, obviously, with the run-up in rates over the last month or so, deposit pricing pressure has continued to be stiff. But we're used to that. I mean the markets we're in, we're always dealing with a lot of pricing pressure. We've got some promos we recently rolled out to generate some loan -- deposit growth in the CD market. We're also doing some targeted marketing in some certain industries with like a more liquid promo. That's not a marketed promo, but something we're out letting our teams use to sell. So we're definitely going to see some pressure. Pricing is tough. But on the flip side of that, we're, I think, seeing some good opportunities on the loan side and the spreads are pretty good there. So I do expect that deposit pricing is going to be tough and it's going to move higher, but we think we can offset that in the loan book. And I'm really expecting to see a stable margin. Hopefully, we can see some slight improvement in the margin going forward.

Bader Hijleh

That's helpful. And then just switching gears to the margin. Are you guys able to quantify your comment on the asset repricing benefit you guys have left? And then to the extent to which that -- those floating rate exposures you guys have to mitigate any pressure like you said, on the funding side?

Patrick Ryan

Yes. Well, the good news, we've got 25% plus of our assets that reprice immediately when the Fed moves. Now obviously, there's some giveback there depending on what you need to do on the deposit side, but we have a much smaller percentage of our liabilities that will reprice automatically. And so that gives us time to move slowly and really gauge the market and see where they are. Now over time, you end up having to give some of that back, but you don't need to do it right away. So the short-term benefits are real. But Andrew, if you want to jump in and talk a little more about kind of where you see the margin going? I know it's hard to predict because it's dependent on competition, but anything you want to add there?

Andrew Hibshman

Yes. I think Pat hit it well. I mean, day 1, when the Fed makes a rate change, we see positives, right? We have more assets that reprice immediately. And then on the deposit side, we've been really trying to hold the line as much as we can. But there's obviously a lot of areas where we need to move higher. We are slightly asset sensitive. So just running models. If rates go higher, we do better. So a lot of positive tailwinds we have there from a margin standpoint. But again, I mean, the deposit thing, sometimes you got to take what the market gives you. So there's going to be some added pressure there. But we've historically maintained a very balanced asset-liability position.

We're still in a very similar place than we've been since I've been here over the last 10 years. But we are slightly asset sensitive right now. So as rates move higher, it should be at least a slight benefit, but we'll see how the deposit market shapes up. And we also did some things, as I mentioned, late in the quarter, we paid off some borrow -- higher cost borrowings. We did some reallocation of some cash into investments, right, towards the end of the quarter when rates moved higher, and we let some brokered money roll off the balance sheet as well. So a lot of positive things going on. I think we can confidently say that we can -- we should be able to maintain a stable margin with some upside.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of David Bishop with Hovde Group. Our next question comes from the line of Jake Civiello with D.A. Davidson.

Parker Wittmann

This is Parker Wittmann on for Jake Civiello this morning. I just had one quick question on credit here for you regarding the Business Express portfolio. And apologies if I missed this during the prepared remarks, but any chance you could size up the kind of remaining exposure within the portfolio for runoff and kind of when you expect impacts on net charge-offs, provisioning to be a little bit less meaningful?

Patrick Ryan

Yes, sure. Obviously, it's hard to predict the future. But as Peter mentioned, we're seeing a slowdown in new issues emerging. We're seeing some improvements on the delinquency side. So I don't know that we have a definitive answer, but I think we feel comfortable saying that things are getting better, and we think they will continue to incrementally get better. Obviously, we're probably 18 months out from when we first noticed some challenges there, and we started making significant changes to how we were analyzing, how we were sourcing and onboarding. And so I would tell you that anything new that's been originated, which hasn't been much, has been done according to much tighter standards. Everything that gets renewed is getting done at much tighter standards.

And so again, it's a portfolio given the yields that we don't expect the credit cost to be 0. But if we can get it back down to a more reasonable sort of 2%, even 3% annualized, I think we'll be back to generating profitability out of that segment. And the good news is when you look at charge-offs year-to-date, I think the total might be something around $8.5 million and 95% of that was in the Business Express portfolio, which obviously we're not happy about. But the good news is the non-Business Express charge-offs year-to-date are close to 0. So we're seeing real strong performance throughout the remainder of the portfolio, which is a positive.

And as we mentioned, we had some good news come sort of right after the end of the third quarter, but significant paydown on a nonperformer and a criticized loan that was showing improved performance and got upgraded. And so kind of across the bank, we're seeing some reasons for optimism on credit and Business Express is slowly getting better. But I think as we showed this quarter, even with having to do some additional charge-offs, still able to earn some reasonable returns.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Bishop with Hovde Group.

David Bishop

Can you guys hear me?

Patrick Ryan

Yes, we got you now, Dave.

David Bishop

Perfect. Apologies. I don't know what happened before. Pat, you mentioned before the reduction in the operating expense to average asset ratios getting closer to your 190 target. Is that something you guys are looking to improve upon as you move into '27 and beyond? Just curious if you have any longer-term targets for that ratio?

Patrick Ryan

Well, I think the goal throughout '27 is to get to the 190. We hope it doesn't take us until Q4 to get there. But I think through incremental efforts we've made to contain costs, to reduce costs to slow the growth and that obviously hits the numerator. And while we're concurrently looking to show some decent growth, that hits the denominator. And so we think getting to that 190 at some point sort of during the middle of '27 is possible. Obviously, both things need to happen, right? We've got to slow the expense -- continue to slow the expenses and see the asset growth. But we have reason to believe we can achieve both those goals. And we did a lot of analysis looking back at that ratio over time.

I think sort of pre-COVID, we were operating before we launched some of our new kind of niche commercial businesses in the 180 range. We obviously had some expense increase through the Malvern acquisition and the addition of these new business units. And I think as those business units scale up and we continue to take out costs where we can, longer term, could we get back to the 180? It's certainly possible, Dave. We've been there before, but I think our goal is to get to the 190, and then we'll see where we are. And obviously, it depends on new investment opportunities, right? Getting down to the lower level is good news from a short-term performance perspective. But may also be an indicator that there hadn't been new opportunities that looked like quality investments. So I think living for us, if we can live between the 180 and the 190 and continue to look for little niche growth opportunities, that's probably where we want to be.

David Bishop

Got it. Appreciate that color. And then I don't know if Peter or Andy, any sense in terms of what new loan origination yields were this quarter versus roll-off? And is the third quarter average yield number, the 15 basis point increase, a good number sort of to model a go-forward yield on?

Peter Cahill

Well, Andrew may be -- it will come up with the number, but we continue to price most of our loans at a spread over the 5-year treasury or FHLB, and we're getting spreads north of 200 basis points. So we're pretty consistent there. It's really an exception to the rule when we dip below that spread. Andrew, do you have the numbers handy on what the quarterly average -- weighted average might have been on new business?

Andrew Hibshman

I'll bring it up, give me one more second. But yes, I mean, I think just to add some just high-level commentary on that as I'm pulling it up. Yes, I mean, I think the third quarter, we saw a 15 basis point increase in loan yields and the Fed increased rates on September 18, I think it was. So I think that's a reasonable kind of baseline bottom for where loan yields are going to go as we move forward. Obviously, we're not -- not everything is repricing. But as Pat mentioned, we have a pretty big chunk. A lot of that -- over 25% now is kind of liquid -- more liquid assets, but we have a chunk of loans that are going to move higher immediately when the Fed moves. So yes, we should see nice improvement in loan yields into the fourth quarter, and I'll pull up the origination rates in the second.

Patrick Ryan

Dave, I can tell you going off memory that it depends on the mix, but looking at the last couple of months and just the new originations, I think the average for one of the months was close to 7.25%. One of them might have been down in the sort of 6.75% range. But that's also dependent on what types of loans got originated in those months. So certainly, there's the full quarter benefit of everything that repriced during the quarter that will flow through into Q4. And as Peter said, the market now for most new business is in the high 6s or 7s. And so we think there's still good opportunities to make a good spread there.

Andrew Hibshman

Yes. So just to put some exact numbers on that, the weighted average spread for the quarter was about 6.90%.

David Bishop

6.90%. And then just curious, with the backup in rates, notwithstanding what happened, I guess, yesterday, have you seen the gear sort of lock up or slow on the commercial real estate front there as projects maybe require more equity or tougher to debt service coverage? Just curious what you're hearing from your folks on the ground.

Patrick Ryan

Yes. Listen, I think when you see a big change, like we saw yesterday, that can cause people to try to get back to the table to renegotiate if there's still wiggle room on a deal that's sort of in process. But I don't think it's really gumming up the general traditional like I had a 5-year loan that came due, I got to refinance and roll it over. You're going to do it -- you're going to try to get the best rate you can, but you're not going to not refinance it and it may slow things down a little bit and new projects that haven't come out of the ground yet, people might sharpen their pencil and make sure the projects still make sense. But the short answer is we have not seen a significant pullback or slowdown based on what's happened over the last month or 2. But if they move again, is that a potential risk? Yes, certainly, it is.

David Bishop

Got it. I appreciate that color. And I guess one final for me. I guess I maybe missed the announcement on the new market President, the new leader. Any color you can provide there in terms of his background, et cetera?

Patrick Ryan

Yes. No, we're excited. Dan Cuneo joined the team, I think, about 1.5 months ago, and Dan's got a breadth of experience at community banks and regional banks, all within that Southern Jersey, Southeastern PA market. And so we're excited. We think he's going to be a great addition, and we're looking forward to seeing a rev up on the growth side with him helping to lead the team there.

Operator

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Patrick Ryan, President and CEO, for closing remarks.

Patrick Ryan

Okay. Thanks, everyone. We appreciate your time today. Appreciate your interest in First Bank, and we look forward to regrouping with everybody once we get through the end of fourth quarter. Thanks, everyone.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.