FISI 2026年第三季度业绩电话会：净利息收入创新高与商业贷款增长

核心要点

• Financial Institutions, Inc.（NASDAQ：FISI）公布2026年第三季度归属于普通股股东的净利润为1960万美元，即稀释后每股收益0.99美元。
• 净利息收入创下5430万美元的季度新高，环比增长2%；净息差保持在3.70%，同比提升5个基点。
• 总贷款较第二季度增长2%以上，同比增长近6%。商业贷款环比增长3%，同比增长10%以上。
• 在Courier Capital高达40亿美元管理资产规模的支撑下，投资顾问业务收入环比增长约2%，同比增长近11%。
• 年化净冲销率从第二季度的11个基点升至33个基点。管理层目前预计2026全年的这一比例约为30个基点。
• 管理层维持了核心盈利指引和盈利能力目标，包括平均资产回报率（ROAA）至少为1.30%，平均净资产收益率（ROAE）至少为12.5%，以及效率比率低于57%。

关键财务数据

业务与经营业绩

商业贷款仍是主要的增长引擎。商业房地产业务受益于纽约上州的建筑抵押贷款需求以及中大西洋市场活跃度的提升。由于新发放额足以抵消信贷额度使用率下降的影响，工商贷款亦实现扩张。

管理层表示，布法罗、罗切斯特、雪城以及中大西洋地区的商业贷款储备依然强劲。项目储备规模与2026年初大致持平，反映出随着现有余额的偿还，新项目在持续得到补充。

表内住宅抵押贷款组合较第二季度小幅增长，同比增长刚过2%。已出售并代管服务的住宅抵押贷款环比增长2%以上，同比增长约7%。房屋净值信贷额度申请量同比增长30%，且需求一直延续至10月。

消费类间接贷款环比增长约1%，但同比下降7%。FISI通过纽约州360多家新车经销商发放这些贷款，并表示将继续坚持严格的定价纪律和优质的信贷质量。

投资顾问业务收入仍是非利息收入的最大贡献来源。在拓展新业务和加大招募力度的支撑下，截至2026年9月30日，Courier Capital的管理资产规模已达40亿美元。

存款增长呈现广泛性，不过公共存款的季节性因素是环比增长的最大推手。管理层继续将部分公共存款转向互惠存款产品，以减少证券担保要求。财资管理业务投资也推动了商业存款的获取。

FISI在本季度回购了超18.5万股普通股。自该计划启动以来，公司已累计回购约68.6万股。

管理层业绩指引

• 管理层维持了全年贷款和存款增长指引，并继续以低单位数的存款增长为目标。
• 随着收益性资产重新定价，公司预计9月美联储加息将对第四季度息差形成支撑。管理层的目标是在12月前将月度净息差提升至约3.75%，而9月份为3.72%。
• 预计2026全年的净冲销率约为30个基点。
• 投资顾问业务收入目前预计将较2025年实现低双位数的增长，高于此前中单位数增长的指引。
• 全年掉期手续费指引从100万至200万美元下调至75万至120万美元。
• 2026年公司持有人寿保险（COLI）收入预计将超过1100万美元。
• 全年非利息支出增长预计将保持在低单位数，效率比率维持在57%以下。
• 有效税率预计为16.5%-17.0%，范围较此前的16.5%-17.5%有所收窄。
• 盈利能力目标仍为平均资产回报率（ROAA）至少达到1.30%，平均净资产收益率（ROAE）至少达到12.5%。
• 在2027年规划方面，管理层的目标是实现200至300个基点的正向经营杠杆，并将效率比率压降至接近55%。更详细的指引预计将在公布第四季度业绩时提供。

风险与关注领域

本季度年化净冲销率大幅上升，部分反映了此前披露的一笔处于重组处置中的商业客户最终风险敞口。与该客户相关的一处取消抵押品赎回权的房产已转入其他收回资产（OREO）。

商业贷款市场竞争依然激烈，对利差形成挤压。管理层强调，未来的增长将取决于维持严格的定价纪律和充足的回报率。

第三季度资金成本有所上升，平均计息负债成本上升6个基点至2.67%。管理层指出，降低资金成本是推动经营杠杆进一步增强的潜在驱动因素。

非利息收入受到商业背靠背掉期业务减少以及27.4万美元有限合伙企业亏损的影响。管理层指出，合伙企业收益可能会随底层投资的表现而波动。

公共存款及相关的证券购买仍具季节性。在第三季度因公共存款担保要求而增加后，管理层预计第四季度投资组合规模将有所回落。

分析师问答环节亮点

关于息差敏感性，管理层表示，约43%的贷款组合随优惠利率（Prime）和SOFR浮动，另有13%从五年期收益率曲线开始可调。9月的加息在季度末开始提振资产收益率，但由于时间原因，对第三季度的整体影响有限。

关于贷款增长，管理层表示商业贷款储备依然强劲且正在积极补充。贷款增长提速可能有助于推动2027年经营杠杆超出预期目标，但公司强调不会放弃定价纪律。

关于存款，管理层将基础增长归因于对财资管理的投入，以及将商业贷款发放与客户存款绑定吸纳的策略。提升在个人业务、小微企业和商业银行领域的深层客户关系仍是战略重点。

关于资本配置，管理层表示在股票被低估时回购股票仍具吸引力，但资本配置必须与有机增长及其他战略机遇保持平衡。

业绩电话会议完整文字记录

完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Financial Institutions Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce Ms. Kate Croft, Director of Investor Relations for the company. Ms. Croft, you may begin.

Kate Croft

Thank you for joining us for today's call. Providing prepared comments will be President and CEO, Marty Birmingham; and CFO, Jack Plants. He will be joined by additional members of the company's leadership team during the question-and-answer session.

Today's prepared comments and Q&A will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors. We refer you to yesterday's earnings release and investor presentation as well as historical SEC filings, which are available on our Investor Relations website for a safe harbor description and a detailed discussion of the risk factors relating to forward-looking statements.

We will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures intended to supplement and not substitute for comparable GAAP measures. Non-GAAP to GAAP reconciliations can be found in the earnings release filed as an exhibit to Form 8-K or in our latest investor presentation available on our IR website, www.fisi-investors.com. Please note that this call includes information that may only be accurate as of today's date, October 30, 2026.

I will now turn the call over to President and CEO, Marty Birmingham.

Martin Birmingham

Thank you, Kate. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. In the third quarter, our team delivered healthy balance sheet growth while maintaining solid profitability. Commercial lending strength drove loan growth of more than 2% from the end of the second quarter and nearly 6% year-over-year. Net interest margin of 3.7% was stable relative to the linked quarter and up 5 basis points from the third quarter of 2025. This supported stronger net interest income generation, which reached a new quarterly high of $54.3 million. Investment advisory income, the company's leading contributor of noninterest income, increased about 2% and more than 10% from the linked and year ago quarters, respectively.

Our efficiency ratio remained below 57% for the quarter, reflecting our strong focus on sustained profitability. Our strong capital position allowed us to repurchase more than 185,000 shares of common stock during the quarter. This performance came together to support net income available to common shareholders of $19.6 million or $0.99 per diluted share. While this was lighter than the linked quarter, our year-to-date performance has been very strong and supportive of the targets we established at the start of the year. To that end, our core earnings guidance is unchanged, though we did tighten some ranges based on year-to-date results.

We are affirming our guidance for full year loan and deposit growth, net interest margin, returns on average assets and equity and efficiency ratio. On the credit side, we now expect an annual net charge-off ratio of about 30 basis points at the midpoint of the previous range of 25 to 35 basis points. In addition, the high end of our tax rate guidance has been lowered, and we've made some refinements to noninterest income. Jack will walk through these during his discussion of the income statement in a few minutes.

Before that, I'd like to provide some commentary on third quarter balance sheet trends. Commercial lending continues to lead overall loan growth. Total commercial loans increased 3% from June 30, 2026, and more than 10% from September 30, 2025. Growth in the quarter was driven by commercial real estate lending, including strong construction mortgage activity in Upstate New York and increased activity in our Mid-Atlantic market. Commercial and industrial loans also increased as originations more than offset lower line utilization as compared to the second quarter. We continue to see compelling commercial lending opportunities across Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse regions.

While competition remains intense and has created spread pressure, the quality of our existing commercial pipeline underpins our confidence in the opportunities ahead. We believe that the pipeline positions us well for the remainder of the year and heading into 2027. Third quarter credit activity included the transfer of a foreclosed property to other real estate owned, which reflected the final exposure to a previously disclosed commercial business relationship that had been in workout.

Turning to consumer lending. Our on-balance sheet residential portfolio was up modestly during the quarter and up just over 2% year-over-year. Sold and serviced residential mortgages were up more than 2% and approximately 7% from the linked and year ago quarters, respectively, as our model is weighted toward a held-for-sale approach in support of fee income. Home equity lines of credit have been a bright spot with third quarter applications up 30% year-over-year, and we've seen sustained demand throughout October.

Consumer indirect loans increased about 1% from the second quarter of 2026 and were down 7% year-over-year. We originate these loans through a network of more than 360 new car dealers across New York State and maintain discipline on spreads and prime credit mix. That supports solid credit metrics as compared to national trends. Our third quarter delinquency ratio, which is inclusive of loans 30 and 60 days past due and those on nonaccrual, is more than 100 basis points lower than the recent national average for loans just 30 and 60 days past due. As we approach the end of the year, we expect typical seasonality to impact both volume and credit metrics for this line of business.

Investment securities were up 4.5% from the second quarter and a little more than 2% from the year ago quarter. The linked quarter increase was primarily due to public deposit seasonality, and we expect the portfolio to come back down in the fourth quarter. Period-end total deposits of $5.47 billion were up more than 3% from June 30, 2026, and 2% from September 30, 2025. Linked quarter growth was led by public deposits, which peak in the first and third quarters of each year, but deposit growth was broad-based with all categories contributing.

On a year-over-year basis, public deposits were down modestly, partially offsetting growth in all other categories. We continue to focus on shifting some public deposits to our reciprocal portfolio, which helps to relieve collateral requirements in the securities portfolio. The retention and acquisition of core nonpublic deposits remain high priorities, and we continue to target low single-digit deposit growth for the full year.

Now my pleasure to turn the call over to Jack for additional details on our results and guidance.

Jack Plants

Thank you, Marty, and good morning, everyone. Our third quarter results underscore the strength of our core businesses, disciplined balance sheet management and continued focus on profitability. Loan growth drove an increase in average earning assets, while effective balance sheet management supported a stable net interest margin of 370 basis points. Net interest income increased 2% from the prior quarter to $54.3 million. The investment portfolio yield of 4.46% was consistent with the linked quarter, and the average loan yield picked up 1 basis point to 6.08%. The cost of average interest-bearing liabilities increased 6 basis points to 2.67% for the third quarter.

We expect that the latest Fed rate hike in September will have a positive impact on our margin in the fourth quarter as earning assets reprice and we actively manage our funding costs. Noninterest income of $10.5 million was down 4.5% from the linked quarter. Key driver of this variance was lower commercial back-to-back swap activity in the third quarter following a very strong second quarter. We now expect swap fees for the year to come in between $750,000 and $1.2 million, down from the previous guidance of $1 million to $2 million.

We also recorded a loss of $274,000 for limited partnership income in the third quarter compared with a loss of $140,000 in the second quarter. As a reminder, revenue associated with these partnerships, which are primarily small business investment companies, fluctuates given the performance of underlying investments. Investment advisory revenue growth was again a highlight, up about 2% quarter-over-quarter and nearly 11% year-over-year, leading us to increase our full year guide from the mid-single-digit growth to low double-digit growth versus 2025.

Our wealth management subsidiary, Courier Capital, is the primary driver of this revenue stream. With $4 billion in assets under management as of September 30, this continues to be an important component of our diversified fee income. Year-to-date, new business activity has been strong, reflecting investments we've made in attracting top talent. Company-owned life insurance revenue of $2.9 million was up 2% from the linked quarter. COLI income is now expected to exceed $11 million for 2026. We reported quarterly noninterest expense of $36.8 million, up about 3% from the linked quarter. Salaries and benefits expense of $19.7 million was up 3% from the second quarter as expected, driven by costs related to our self-insured medical plan that typically increase as we approach year-end.

As a reminder, we modeled higher benefits expense in our guidance based on our 2025 experience. Professional services expense of $1.5 million was $212,000 or 17% higher than the linked quarter, primarily driven by the timing of typical external audit-related expenses. There were also a couple of one-time items included in other noninterest expense that together totaled about $325,000. This included write-downs associated with other real estate owned and a legal settlement to resolve an employment-related matter. Prudent expense management remains a top priority, while we maintain positive operating leverage, and we remain on track to limit full year noninterest expense growth to the low single digits and to achieve an efficiency ratio below 57%.

We reported an effective tax rate of 16.9% in the third quarter compared to 17.3% in the second quarter. We've tightened our annual tax guidance to between 16.5% and 17%, down from between 16.5% and 17.5%. Annualized net charge-offs to average loans were 33 basis points in the third quarter compared to 11 basis points in the linked quarter. As Marty mentioned, we now expect this ratio to be approximately 30 basis points for full year 2026.

Our allowance for credit losses were fairly stable, down 1 basis point to 99 basis points of total loans as of September 30, 2026. We remain comfortable with the allowance and associated coverage ratio given our strong asset quality. Overall, our third quarter results underscore our ability to translate disciplined execution into growth, with commercial lending leading the way.

Our full year profitability targets remain intact, outlined by a return on average assets of at least 130 basis points and a return on average equity of at least 12.5%. Despite the impact of AOCI from the securities portfolio, our balance sheet remains a source of strength with a TCE ratio of 8.4% and a CET1 ratio of 11.36%. This provides us with flexibility to pursue growth while returning capital to shareholders. Together, these measures underpin our capital allocation priorities, supporting organic loan growth, investing thoughtfully in our business and returning value to our shareholders. That concludes my remarks.

I'll now turn the call back to Marty.

Martin Birmingham

Thanks, Jack. Overall, our year-to-date performance has been strong, and we are well positioned to maintain momentum through the fourth quarter. Our team remains focused on credit-disciplined loan growth, core nonpublic deposit growth, prudent expense management and disciplined execution against our strategy. Our focus on these priorities remains centered on delivering profitable growth and creating long-term value for our shareholders.

That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the call for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Damon DelMonte from KBW.

分析师问答

Damon Del Monte

First question, just probably for Jack here on the margin. I think you had said that you should probably see a little benefit to the margin from the rate increase that we saw in September. Just wondering if you could kind of walk us through some of the thoughts behind that outlook. And then also, if we do get another rate hike here in December, kind of how you think the margin would be responding as we go into 2027?

Jack Plants

Yes. Thanks, Damon. So as you may recall, about 43% of our loan book floats off of prime and SOFR. And then we've got about 13% of the remaining book that is adjustable from a 5-year point of the curve on end. We've seen some immediate repricing from that rate hike in the back half of September. It has a little bit of a muted impact on monthly margin just given the timing of the adjustment for the quarter.

But as we wrapped up September, our monthly margin was about 3.72%. And as we look to the rest of the year, I think we're targeting December wrapping up around 3.75%. So the earning asset side of the portfolio continues to benefit for the rest of the year. If there's a hike in December, the impact would be fairly muted on the quarterly margin.

Damon Del Monte

Got it. And would you expect those dynamics to continue as we go into '27, given the additional rate hike?

Jack Plants

No.

Damon Del Monte

Okay. Great. And then I guess just on loan growth, solid quarter. I think you guys had kind of messaged earlier in the year that you thought the growth would be more in the back half of the year. And I think we saw a good second quarter and now a good third quarter. Just kind of -- I know you've kind of reiterated the mid-single digits for the year, but anything that's kind of standing out here in the fourth quarter that really gives you confidence for another solid quarter?

Martin Birmingham

I just -- it's Marty, Damon. Thanks for the questions this morning. Our pipelines continue to be pretty solid and consistent with where they've been in the year-over-year periods going back to '25, '26 and the outlook for '27. So that's across the board in CRE and C&I as well as generally upstate for the most part. But even our Mid-Atlantic loan team is showing growth in their opportunities that they're looking at. But specifically, how that translates to the outlook, Jack, how would you?

Jack Plants

Yes, I would say that we've been actively replenishing our pipelines across all portfolios, and they remain strong. From a sizing perspective, the pipeline is around the same size as it was when we entered the year. So our commercial lending folks have been really active in replacing the cash flow that comes off and generating new clients to backfill. So I'm optimistic about our ability to generate loan growth on the commercial side through year-end.

Damon Del Monte

Okay. Great. Appreciate that color. And then just one more quick one for me. Jack, I noticed like the average securities were down linked quarter. Just curious, should we expect there to be kind of a build back up? Or do you think it's going to be kind of run-rating at a lower level now?

Jack Plants

There will be a seasonal build back up for collateral to secure public deposits that come in at the end of September and into the first part of October. Those purchases are largely on short-term T-bills. We've been actively working with our public depositors to try to transition their collateralization needs into our reciprocal deposit portfolio to relieve some of the need to use investment securities.

Operator

The next question is from Manuel Navas from Piper Sandler.

Manuel Navas

Could you go into a little more detail on your strong deposit flows? Like, how much was seasonality in public funds versus maybe some commercial wins? And just kind of future -- discuss the deposit initiatives that you're leaning into most.

Jack Plants

Yes. This is Jack. I'll take that one, Manuel. So to remove some of the seasonality, I look at the year-to-date performance, and we've really had strong performance across the commercial platform for the first 9 months of the year. That momentum has really been driven by the investment that we made and have continued to make in our treasury management platform. So typically, we'll lead with a loan origination and then bring the deposit profile from that customer along, and we're really seeing some solid wins.

Martin Birmingham

Manuel, the other thing I just would add is that primacy is a fundamental strategic focus across all of our business activities, primacy of relationship on a consumer basis, small business, commercial. So all of our sales teams are aligned and they are incented to try to maximize the opportunity and balance utilization of our balance sheet in terms of loans with deposits that come with that. So we feel good about the progress we've made, reinforcing alignment, and the outcomes are starting to follow that.

Manuel Navas

Appreciate that. As you kind of think about where you're ending the year with that NIM and 3.75%, I think that should be really helpful. But is that -- what are kind of some of the puts and takes to potentially targeting positive operating leverage next year? And is that first a goal? And is that -- what are some of the puts and takes for that?

Jack Plants

Yes. This is Jack. I'll take that one. We're in the probably middle phases of building out our 2027 plan. But our target right now is positive operating leverage of 200 to 300 basis points and an efficiency ratio that's approaching 55%.

Manuel Navas

I appreciate that. What would be the biggest ways you could potentially outperform it?

Jack Plants

It would really come from some sort of accelerated loan growth, but we're really disciplined in where we're pricing. So right now, that's where our target is. We'll be able to share more details when we come out with our fourth quarter earnings and our guidance for full year 2027.

Martin Birmingham

So we have our eye on loan growth and disciplined pricing and ensuring we have adequate spreads. The other thing related to deposits, like every bank of all sizes, to the extent we can continue to drive our cost of funds down, that would be an accelerator of performance and operating leverage.

Manuel Navas

The buyback was nice this quarter. Can you just talk a little bit about where it fits in your capital deployment? Are you going to keep this pace? How does it fit in versus organic growth? How does it fit in versus conversations on M&A?

Martin Birmingham

Yes. I think that's exactly it. It kind of really depends. It's really been a really nice opportunity for us. I think since we initiated our program, we purchased a total of 686,000 shares. The earnback in the early part of the program was a year or less and most recently, about 3 years or less. So as long as we're undervalued, we know the risk of execution, and it's a very straightforward capital decision for the company. But of course, we are on a path and driving growth. So we're balancing all those issues.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Birmingham for closing comments.

Martin Birmingham

Thank you very much for joining us. We look forward to continuing to keep you updated on our progress on our next call.

Operator

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for your participation.