FB Financial (FBK) 2026 年第 3 季法說會：放款成長率達 9.7%，淨利息收益率為 3.83%

FB Financial Corporation (NYSE: FBK) 公布 2026 年第三季獲利穩定，資產負債表呈高個位數成長。存款定價與房貸銀行業務收入下滑對淨利差造成壓力，但管理層仍維持全年成長與淨利差展望。

重點摘要

• 2026 年第三季淨利為 6,020 萬美元，調整後淨利為 6,090 萬美元。稀釋每股盈餘 (EPS) 為 1.20 美元，調整後 EPS 為 1.21 美元。
• 放款年化成長率為 9.7%，接近管理層預測的中至高個位數區間高檔。總存款成長 8.8%，而隨著經紀存款減少，客戶存款年化成長達 11.2%。
• 淨利差季減 12 個基點至 3.83%。管理層表示，在扣除特定項目（包括應計利息迴轉及收購會計增額減少）後，基礎淨利差約為 3.88%。
• 平均有形普通股權益報酬率為 15.2%，調整後為 15.7%。調整後效率比率為 54.3%，銀行部門效率比率為 50.8%。
• 信貸趨勢維持穩定。備抵呆帳提存費用為 140 萬美元，本季結束時的備抵呆帳覆蓋率為 1.47%。管理層表示，轉入非應計項目的約 1,300 萬美元放款具有充分擔保，預期損失風險有限。
• 管理層繼續預期全年放款與存款成長率將維持在中至高個位數區間，不含放款增額的淨利差為 3.7% 至 3.8%。

關鍵財務數據

自 FB Financial 初次公開發行 (IPO) 以來，不含累計其他綜合損益的每股有形帳面價值年複合成長率達 11.3%。

業務與營運表現

放款成長廣泛分布於企業及零售業務。社區市場帶來穩定的客戶關係驅動成長，而伯明罕、查塔努加與諾克斯維爾則貢獻了較大規模的企業放款案源。

本季工商業及營建放款動用率下降了 2 至 3 個百分點。管理層表示，動用率低於公司平時約 46% 的工商業放款常態水準，若客戶動用現有額度，將具有潛在資金動能上行空間。

存款拓展仍專注於客戶關係管理而非批發性資金。受惠於新企業客戶關係與平均餘額增加，客戶存款年化成長約 11%。納許維爾的存款成長尤為強勁，且後續案源仍具成長空間。

房貸銀行業務面臨長期利率急升的壓力。非利息收入減少 130 萬美元，主因是房貸銀行業務收入下降。該部門還認列了與房貸放款平台及次級服務安排轉換相關的 71.9 萬美元一次性費用。若排除該筆費用，房貸部門仍維持獲利。

FB Financial 正透過房貸銀行業務建立更廣泛的客戶關係。在參與新客戶關係計畫的借款人中，有 83% 開立了 First Bank 支票帳戶。他們的平均存款餘額約為現有客戶平均值的兩倍，而 FICO 信用評分中位數高於投資組合平均值，貸放比率 (LTV) 則低於次級市場發行的貸款。

該公司還將其位於阿什維爾地區的貸款推廣辦事處轉型為全方位服務據點。管理層將北卡羅來納州西部視為持續進行有機擴展的目標區域。

管理層財測指引

管理層預期全年放款與存款成長將維持在中至高個位數區間。儘管案源依然健全，但受到正常還款、續約以及大型企業案件結案時間影響，預計第四季成長將有所放緩。

不含放款增額的全年淨利差展望維持在 3.7% 至 3.8%。在當前遠期利率曲線假設下，管理層預計第四季核心淨利差將維持在接近第三季的水準。存款重定價壓力預計將由資產負債表成長、穩定的放款殖利率以及公司微幅資產敏感度的配置所大幅抵銷。

管理層估計，聯邦基金利率每調升 25 個基點，可為淨利差貢獻約 3 個基點。然而，實際效益將取決於存款競爭與資金成本。

該公司將全年銀行部門費用展望收窄至 3.25 億至 3.35 億美元，接近先前財測指引區間的下限。

高利率預計將降低房貸銀行業務在 2026 年第四季及 2027 年的獲利貢獻。管理層計劃在控管費用的同時保留房貸團隊，並維持該業務作為客戶關係與手續費收入來源的定位。

風險與關注領域

存款競爭依然激烈。管理層指出壓力來自客戶定價、經紀資金利率及指數型存款。在季末升息後，9 月的存款成本高於 7 月與 8 月。

放款定價同樣競爭激烈。新承作放款利率自上一季的約 6.30% 提升至約 6.44%，但管理層表示，部分競爭對手提供自用商業不動產放款的利率是 FB Financial 不願跟進的。

若交易不再能產生可接受的回報，高利率環境最終可能削弱放款需求。管理層表示目前尚未看到顯著放緩，並繼續將 2027 年的營運動能描述為強勁，但也坦言持續升息可能會抑低需求。

非應計放款的增加主要來自一筆約 1,300 萬美元的授信案件。管理層表示該筆放款有充足且多屬高流動性的擔保品支持，儘管協商處置程序仍在進行中，但仍預期損失規模有限。

利率波動、地緣政治發展、能源價格與財政政策仍是可能影響公司營運市場之信貸表現及經濟活動的因素。

分析師問答亮點

• 放款成長：管理層預計 2026 全年放款呈高個位數成長，儘管第四季因季節性因素有較高的還款額。即使產業放款成長放緩，公司仍打算在 2027 年爭取市占率提升。
• 淨利差敏感度：約一半的放款投資組合及 61% 的投資組合為浮動利率。在季末升息後存款重新定價速度加快之際，管理層預期資產重新定價將提供支撐。
• 資本配置：FB Financial 在本季發行了 1.25 億美元的次級債券，以支援放款成長及戰略規劃。管理層亦進行了股份買回，並表示未來的庫藏股買回將取決於股價及對資本的影響。
• 證券投資組合：證券約占總資產的 9%。若存款成長超過具吸引力的放款機會，管理層可能會暫時擴大該投資組合，並可能採用浮動利率證券。
• 併購策略：管理層對併購保持開放態度，但強調嚴謹的選擇標準。公司對擁有強大存款基礎且文化相容的社區銀行表示興趣。
• 人才策略：FB Financial 在本季招募了約 10 名銀行業務人員。該公司結合精準的外部招聘與初階員工培育，以支援長期有機擴展。

法說會完整逐字稿

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完整財報電話會議逐字稿

管理層陳述

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the FB Financial Corporation Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Rachel Deresky, Financial Management Associate for FB Financial. Please go ahead.

Rachel Deresky

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for FB Financial Corporation's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call.

Joining me on the call this morning is Chris Holmes, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Michael Mettee, Chief Financial and Operating Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind listeners that during today's call, management may make forward-looking statements regarding the company's plans, expectations and outlook. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from those discussed. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties, including risk factors that could cause actual results to differ can be found in our earnings release, our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

FB Financial undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. In addition, today's discussion may include references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are available on our 3rd Quarter 2026 financial supplement posted to the Investor Relations section of our website at www.investor.brbankonline.com and on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Mr. Chris Holmes.

Christopher Holmes

Thank you, Rachel, and good morning. We appreciate you joining us today and your continued interest in FB Financial. We reported EPS of $1.20 and adjusted EPS of $1.21 and growing our tangible book value per share, excluding the impact of AOCI at a compounded annual growth rate of 11.3% since our IPO.

Our net income was $60.2 million or $60.9 million on an adjusted basis. And our returns remained healthy with return on average tangible common equity of 15.2% or 15.7% on an adjusted basis. This quarter's performance was highlighted by strong growth in both loans and deposits, solid profitability and stable credit quality. We grew loans at an annualized rate of 9.7% and is at the very high end of our forecasted range of mid- to high single digits.

Our deposit growth rate was 8.8%, which included a decline in broker deposits. We actually grew our customer deposits at an annualized rate of 11.2% and the brokered deposit decline brought that net growth rate down to 8.8%. Growth in both loans and deposits was fueled by our commercial and consumer businesses, which reflects our continued success in attracting new customer relationships across business units.

Given the size and scale of our balance sheet today at approximately $17 billion in total assets, the growth levels are notable and represent continued meaningful expansion of our business. As I reflect on the third quarter, which stands out what stands out is the consistency of execution and the continued momentum in our business. We see healthy activity levels across our markets, strong pipelines and meaningful opportunities to deepen existing relationships while adding new customers. High quality execution across the franchise remains a defining characteristic of our organization, and we continue to invest in people, process improvement and technology that drives long-term growth. That investment includes adding great people to our organization but also involves developing talented associates already within First Bank and creating opportunities for them to grow and lead.

What differentiates First Bank from its -- what differentiates First Bank is the combination of an award-winning client service, which, by the way, is certified by J.D. Power as the highest level of customer satisfaction in our region, engaged and talented associates, which we use a third-party Willis Tire Watson to track for us and a relationship-focused business model. When these execution strengths, combined with attractive markets, we get strong growth and profitability, and you see that in our results. While our core operating performance remained strong during the quarter, there were a couple of items of impact that should be noted.

Specifically, our Mortgage Banking segment faced headwinds with a sharp rise in interest rates in the back half of the quarter. And we also recognized an interest income reversal on a loan that was moved to nonaccrual in the quarter. And I'll let Michael touch on the specifics of both mortgage and the nonaccrual loan. But I will say that the credit is being managed by our special assets team, which continues to work constructively with the borrower. We're working together on that to achieve the best possible outcome, and we believe the credit has relatively low, if any, loss content.

Overall, credit [indiscernible] across the loan portfolio remains stable. We continue to feel good about the quality of our portfolio and the underlying risk of our company. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the opportunities in front of us. The operating environment for banks remains favorable. Customer activity remains healthy, and our markets continue to benefit from strong economic fundamentals. While there are always factors outside of our control, including interest rate volatility and broader macroeconomic developments, the underlying drivers of economic activity throughout our footprint remain constructive, employment trends remain healthy. Commercial activity remains solid. We believe our markets across the Southeast remain positioned to outperform many areas of the country. We see meaningful opportunities for profitable growth and remain confident in our ability to deliver mid- to high single-digit balance sheet growth while maintaining a disciplined approach to risk and capital management.

With that, I'm going to turn the call over to our Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Michael Mettee, for some additional color on the quarter. Michael?

Michael Mettee

Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I'll start my comments with the balance sheet. As in the prior quarter, we delivered strong loan and deposit growth, with both increasing at high single-digit annualized rates. Loan demand remained healthy across our commercial and consumer businesses. Community markets led the growth with Oliver Nonin and Tuscaloosa continuing to perform well. Metro markets also contributed solid production, particularly Birmingham, Chattanooga and Knoxville as larger commercial loans with longer lead times move through the pipeline.

Our diversified footprint allows us to generate growth from multiple sources. Community markets provide consistent relationship-driven production while metro markets create opportunities to win larger, more complex relationships. Both strategies contributed to a meaningful growth and position us to perform across a range of operating environments. As we balance growth and profitability, contractual loan yields remained stable at 6.21% while late quarter production came on at approximately 6.44%. These results reflect our team's pricing discipline and the appeal of our customer-focused approach.

As discussed previously, being easy to do business with is a strategic priority, and this quarter's growth provides further evidence that those efforts are working. On the deposit side, we strengthened our granular core deposit base through growth in active customer accounts and average balances while adding several large commercial relationships. Customer deposits grew approximately 11% on an annualized basis during the quarter. We remain encouraged by customer acquisition trends and believe relationship-based deposit gathering will remain a long-term competitive advantage.

Deposit pricing remained competitive with our cost of deposits increasing 6 basis points and blended rates on new production ended the quarter at approximately 3%. We expect funding competition to remain elevated and we'll continue to emphasize profitable growth and disciplined pricing. Our customer relationships, experienced teams and diversified funding base positions us to grow deposits while managing funding costs effectively. With year-to-date growth tracking within our forecasted range, we expect growth to moderate into the fourth quarter due to the normal timing of pay downs, renewals and larger commercial closings. Pipelines remain healthy, and we continue to expect full year loan and deposit growth within our mid to high single-digit range.

Turning to earnings. Net income totaled $60.2 million, increasing from the prior quarter as higher net interest income and lower provision expense more than offset the deposit pricing pressure and a challenging mortgage banking environment. Profitability remains strong with return on average tangible common equity above 15% and return on average assets above 1.4%.

Core net interest margin compressed consistent with our prior expectations as funding costs continue to rise. Margin reflected the reversal of approximately $1 million of accrued interest income on a credit move to nonaccrual during the quarter. As Chris noted, our teams know this credit well is supported by adequate collateral values, and we discussed this on last quarter's call.

Quarter-over-quarter margin declined 12 basis points from 3.95% in second quarter to 3.83% in the third quarter. [indiscernible] accounted for 5 basis points of this decline, a 2 basis point reduction in purchase accounting accretion and a 3 basis point impact from the accrued interest reversal noted earlier. Excluding those items, core margin declined approximately 7 basis points from 3.95% to 3.88%, primarily reflecting continued industry-wide deposit pricing pressure.

Looking ahead, we remain comfortable with our full year net interest margin outlook, excluding loan accretion of 3.7% to 3.8%. Continued deposit competition and aggressive loan pricing remain headwinds, while our asset-sensitive position should provide support if rates move higher as expected. For the fourth quarter, we expect core margin to remain near third quarter levels as deposit repricing pressure is largely offset by balance sheet growth, stable loan yields and our slightly asset-sensitive position. This outlook assumes the current rate forward curve and remain sensitive to changes in market rates.

Turning to noninterest income. Revenue declined $1.3 million, primarily due to lower mortgage banking income, higher swap fee and investment services and [indiscernible] partially offset this decline, which was supported by healthy customer activity. Given the significant rise in long-term rates during the quarter, particularly the 10-year treasury yield, I'd like to briefly discuss the mortgage segment and our outlook for the business. Like others across the industry, we expect higher rates to weigh on near-term origination volumes and profitability.

Even so, our view of the mortgage business is unchanged. Mortgage banking remains an important source of new customer relationships provides meaningful optionality for balance sheet growth and fee income growth and creates opportunities to deepen relationships across the broader franchise. During the quarter, we launched a program to deepen relationships with new mortgage customers through deposit investment accounts and the early results are encouraging.

Today, 83% of participating borrowers have a checking relationship with First Bank with average deposit balances approximately twice our existing customer average, median FICO scores above the current portfolio average and loan-to-value ratio below secondary market originated loan values. These are the types of relationships we want to attract and retain reinforcing the strategic value of mortgage banking beyond its stand-alone earnings contribution.

Mortgage banking remains an important part of our long-term retail strategy, although the higher rate environment will likely reduce its earnings contribution in the fourth quarter in 2027. We will actively manage expenses while balancing profitability with our priorities of growing relationships, retaining a high-quality team and delivering strong customer service and offering competitive products. In addition to the challenging rate environment, you'll see a onetime transition expense of $719,000 within the segment's results due to conversion costs incurred as we transition our mortgage origination platform and subservicing arrangements.

Our teams have spent considerable time and effort executing these projects, which we believe will enhance the customer experience in the future. Absent this nonrecurring expense, the segment remained profitable during the quarter.

Turning to noninterest expense. Total expenses were $96 million, up approximately 5% from the prior quarter or 4% on an adjusted basis. The increase primarily reflected higher performance-based compensation accruals tied to significant balance sheet growth, attractive profitability and earnings growth as well as the 719,000 onetime mortgage segment, charge noted earlier. On an adjusted basis, the efficiency ratio was 54.3% and the Banking segment efficiency ratio was 50.8%.

Industry expense pressures remain elevated, particularly across compensation, benefits, insurance and technology. We continue to manage expenses carefully while investing in the [indiscernible] long-term growth. We did not generate positive operating leverage this quarter as mortgage revenues pressure and the nonaccrual interest reversal offset the benefit of balance sheet growth, while incentive compensation increased with business activity.

Our objective remains to convert customer and balance sheet growth into revenue growth that outpaces expenses and produces returns above our target levels. Looking ahead, we expect disciplined expense management through the year-end and are narrowing our banking segment guidance outlook to $325 million to $335 million, which is near the lower end of our prior guidance. We remain focused on balancing targeted growth investments [ for ] strong operating performance and shareholder returns.

Turning to credit. Provision expense totaled $1.4 million for the quarter, our ACL process continued to incorporate some downside economic scenarios through a weighted forecast, although the assumptions this quarter were modestly more favorable than those used in the second quarter. The improved forecast was largely offset by reserves associated with loan growth.

Reserve activity for individually evaluated credits were limited as the elevated activity recorded in the second quarter did not reoccur. As a result, provision expense remained modest despite another quarter of solid balance sheet growth. Our allowance coverage ratio ended the quarter at 1.47%, reflecting strong loan growth and stable underlying credit performance.

Net charge-offs in the nonperforming asset ratios also remained stable, supporting our view that the broader portfolio credit trends remain sound. The increase in nonaccrual loans during the quarter were primarily attributable to the credit discussed earlier. As noted, this loan is supported by adequate collateral values, and we continue to believe loss content is limited. We continue to monitor the potential economic effects of interest rate volatility, geopolitical developments, energy prices and fiscal policy on our business and markets.

Even so, we remain encouraged by the fundamentals across our footprint including healthy employment, solid customer activity in markets that continue to compare favorably with many regions of the country. Looking ahead, absent a meaningful change in the economic outlook or credit performance we expect provision expense to be driven primarily by loan growth and changes in individually evaluated credits. We also expect net charge-offs to remain within our long-term target range.

Turning to capital. We issued $125 million of subordinated debt during the quarter, further strengthening our capital position. We plan to deploy the proceeds over time to support loan growth in our markets and fund strategic initiatives that advance our long-term growth. Our tangible common equity to tangible asset ratio declined 17 basis points during the quarter, primarily due to continued share repurchases, reflecting disciplined and opportunistic capital deployment. Even after those repurchases, our capital levels provide significant flexibility to support growth, return capital to shareholders and pursue strategic opportunities.

Our balance sheet is resilient across a range of interest rate environments. Approximately 61% of the investment portfolio is floating rate with relatively limited embedded and unrealized losses. This positions us to allocate capital opportunistically, while many institutions remain constrained by balance sheet considerations. That flexibility, combined with our earnings power and capital generation remains a meaningful competitive advantage.

Our capital ratios remain well above regulatory requirements with our common equity Tier 1 ratio of 11%, a Tier 1 leverage ratio of 10% and a total risk-based capital ratio of 13.6% at quarter end.

In closing, I want to thank our associates for their hard work, dedication and commitment to our customers. This quarter demonstrated the strength of our franchise through strong balance sheet growth, solid profitability stable credit trends and disciplined capital management. We remain optimistic about the opportunities ahead and confident in our ability to deliver sustainable long-term value for shareholders.

With that, I'll turn the call back over to Chris.

Christopher Holmes

All right. Thanks for the color, Michael. And operator, at this time, I'd like to open the line for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Russell Gunther from Stephens.

分析師問答

Russell Elliott Gunther

So on the loan growth side of things, high single digits, high end of your guide, it was broad-based. It would be helpful to get some comments on how utilization rates trended in the quarter, where pipelines stand post another strong print and then I think you mentioned a little bit of seasonality in the fourth quarter. But as you look ahead, would you guys expect to be able to sustain this high single-digit pace? Or is there an absolute level of rates where we start to see some demand destruction and loan growth begin to slow?

Christopher Holmes

Yes. We'll tag team this one. Yes, you're right. We've been, I'd say, practically double digits, at least most of the year, start out the year a little bit slower, but we're high single digits at this point in terms of loan growth, and we expect to end up the year in high single digits.

So fourth quarter seasonally is usually just a little behind the first couple of quarters or I'm sorry, the mid-quarters, but we still expect to see really good activity and really strong pipelines as we head into '27. So as we -- we're projecting through Q4 a little bit of elevated payoff activity, but that's normal -- I mean that happens and we don't consider that to be really abnormal and we see us ending the year still in the mid -- I'd say high single digits is where we'll be for the year on the loan side and growth on the deposit side, I'd say high single digits as well. There's a chance that we might be double digits on deposit growth. And frankly, when I'm thinking deposit growth, also I'm thinking customer deposit growth. We did mention -- or we did mentioned in the comments that we were over 11% customer deposit growth in the quarter, and that continues to be strong as well. Michael?

Michael Mettee

Yes. Rusell. So Actually, I would say, activity in the quarter was actually -- if you look at extended credit versus utilization back to your utilization credit, it's actually even better than we probably obviously funded. So our utilization rates were down 2% to 3% on construction and commercial and industrial loans.

So opportunity for growth there if you just kind of work back into our normal C&I range of 46% utilization. We were a couple of percent below that. It's just -- our clients just didn't tap into their new lines yet, so some upside there. The pipeline actually quite robust. We felt good about it all year, and that momentum continues. Chris touched on the deposit piece as well. I mean, the deposit pipeline is actually quite robust as well. So that's encouraging to be able to fund loan growth organically. We're a customer-driven balance sheet, which I think is pretty unique relative to a lot of the rest of the industry, especially with rising costs in broker and wholesale. So we're excited about that and the loan opportunities in front of us.

As Chris mentioned, the fourth quarter can get a little bit heavy on payoffs and normal year-end activity but we feel pretty well positioned.

Russell Elliott Gunther

I appreciate both your thoughts there, guys. And then just last one for me would be on the margin. You gave us some color in terms of how you expect to end the year. But Michael, it would be helpful to get a sense for kind of how the margin trended throughout the quarter, perhaps touch upon where deposit costs ended 3Q.

Michael Mettee

Yes. So the rate increase, right, was, I think, 13 days before quarter end. So your deposits reprice kind of immediately as what I'd say, Russ, on our index deposits. Loan growth resets over 90 days, 50% of our portfolio is floating 61% of the investment portfolio, that generally happens kind of the first day of the quarter. So you haven't seen some of the asset sensitivity help margin. So that's why we're a little bit kind of bullish on being able to maintain our margin guide. Deposit costs, new deposits on a blended basis came in around 3% for the quarter. So if you think about our total portfolio in that kind of 240 range. Obviously, it's coming in higher, and I think that continues, given where brokered is, brokerage is not 4.5-plus percent range. The new deposits are pretty competitive.

Operator

Our next question comes from Stephen Scouten from Piper Sandler.

Stephen Scouten

Maybe continuing on that new deposit blended rate. I think you said it was around 3% this quarter. I think if memory [indiscernible] around 2.7% last quarter. And then with the rate hike towards the end of the quarter, would we expect that to continue to trend appreciably higher from here? Or what do you see in kind of just in the last couple of weeks, maybe to give some color into where deposit costs could continue to trend?

Michael Mettee

Yes. And I think I probably didn't answer that part of Russell's question, actually. Yes, deposit costs in September were higher than July and August. I do you think that's reflective of the rate increase. And if you've got kind of a 50% beta in there, 40%, 50% as we see that. We did have some large deposits come in that are indexed, which drove our deposit costs higher, kind of north of that 3%, Stephen, in September. But based on what we can tell it probably sticks in this range unless there's another rate increase in October.

Currently, we think there's probably going to be a Fed hike in December. So that would be late quarter. But if you saw one in October, I think you'd see deposit costs maybe higher.

Stephen Scouten

Makes sense. And are you guys thinking about the deposit and loan betas any differently kind of in this potential, hopefully, small uprate cycle that we're seeing, I guess, if we see -- like you said, we've seen the one, maybe we see in December. Who the heck knows what happens after that. But you just mentioned 40% to 50% deposit beta. How do you think about loan betas in this kind of mineral up cycle here?

Michael Mettee

Yes. I mean, it's roughly the same. I'd say the pressure on loan yields that we've seen throughout the summer does not follow the yield curve, right? The yield curve has been steepening. So you'd expect to see kind of the 3, 5 portion of term loans move higher. We did see that at the end of the quarter. I mentioned we were at around 644 on new production. I think if you look back last quarter, 630-ish. So you saw that same kind of what I'll call 45%, 50% beta. But I would expect we'd want to expect to see that move higher as rates move higher.

Stephen Scouten

And then just in terms of composition and loan growth, it looked like maybe there's a little bit more weighted towards the 1 to 4 family this quarter. Anything of note there or just kind of attractive yields that was worth holding on balance sheet this time around? Or kind of how can you -- how can we think about what the composition of new loan growth might continue to look like from here?

Michael Mettee

Yes. I think we try to maintain a balanced approach, Stephen. So 1 quarter, it may be 1 to 4 family, 1 quarter maybe C&I on or may be owner occupied. The composition, I mean, part of that was the mortgage platform, mortgage segment platform that I talked about, which was a deposit generation portfolio kind of campaign was actually really successful weighed on some of the gain on sale results. But then a portion of that is also branch originated, more community-based lending type of activity.

So I think higher mortgage rates would kind of dictate that, that would slow down. I think that that's expected. But what I really like about our mortgage division is that optionality, as you mentioned, it's probably not the end of the world to have 7.5%, 7.75% mortgage originated paper on your balance sheet right now that sticks around for kind of 5 to 7 years if you think rates are going down. Pretty good lever to have.

Unknown Executive

And we always -- that's an originate to sell channel for us. But it's nice that if we're thinking about where rates are and what is supposed to have the optionality that we could keep some of that on the balance sheet if we opted to do that. So -- and if rates go then make...

And then if rates do go down that generally leads to a later date on that. So yes...

Operator

Our next question comes from Will Jones from KBW.

Unknown Executive

Welcome. Nice to have you as the primary.

William Jones

Yes. Absolutely. Great to be here. I wanted to circle back on the discussion on asset sensitivity. Michael, it sounds like this next quarter as we start to see some of the rate lift on the asset side, you'll be able to see more of a stabilized margin and then kind of offset some of the funding pressure that is on coming. To the extent -- as we look out at the floor curve, we do see additional hikes into the future. Do you feel like that same dynamic will be a play where your general asset sensitivity can offset incremental funding pressure? Or will there be a point where deposit competition just becomes too fierce and it may start overcoming some of that general asset sensitivity.

Michael Mettee

Yes. Well, welcome. Glad to have you. So I mean roughly for every 25 basis point increase in Fed funds, you should see, I'm going to say, around a 3 basis point increase in our margin. I think the the reason we've kind of stuck with our guide and that range is the behavior you mentioned on competition. I think some market sanity probably comes in at some point. But a lot of it depends on where people can fund in that broker and wholesale market. And right now, getting customer deposits even at Fed funds target rate or slightly above kind of 4%, just a better funding mechanism than wholesaler brokered. And -- so as long as that is the case and kind of the back end of the curve is steeper, I think you see what you said, fierce deposit competition -- so we've kind of muted our margin asset sensitivity based off expected competition, and I'd like to think there's some upside there, but time will tell.

Christopher Holmes

Yes. I would also say when we're thinking of our margin, we think of it net of accretion and we also -- and so when you look at -- we've said 3.70% to 3.80% range net accretion in -- and if you -- we did have an unusual in where we had the nonaccrual interest reversal this time, which this quarter, which caused us at 3 basis points in the quarter. And so if you look at our core margin, we're really right in the middle of the range that we have projected if you take those things, those 2 net of accretion and the one in youth wider this quarter were really right at that sort of 375 range.

Michael Mettee

Yes. I think one other thing I'd add was it's really important to us that we're growing customer relationships. And so balance sheet growth, a nominal decrease in margin, but you have to grow net interest income, right? You have to grow earnings and yet to grow relationships. And so that's where we have our team focused. We want to be disciplined in pricing, but a couple of basis points of margin compression with double-digit growth is not the end of the world for us. In fact, we're quite happy about it.

Christopher Holmes

Exactly nothing in the world will take.

William Jones

Yes. No, that's totally fair, hidden right on the NIM versus NII debate that I feel like we're all trying to figure out nowadays. Maybe just, I guess, a little backward looking when you -- so what happened with the September hike, I know you've got about 40% of your deposits that are indexed, but for the remainder, where there may be more exception or negotiated prices? Did you find yourself having to play more defense on those depositors? Or just give us a flavor of kind of what client reaction client behavior was to the September hike?

Michael Mettee

Yes. I think there's general excitement, right, from anybody when the Fed increases rates. I think that initially said, "Hey, you need to raise your deposit cost, but don't raise the loan rates. I think it's in general how the world thinks about it. But it was actually quite muted. We generally are very not generally. We are very fair to our clients when it comes to deposit price. So we're not interested in trying to get everybody to zero deposit cost so that when the Fed hikes rates, they get a cost and say, hey, man, why is Fed funds at 380 and you've been paying me 2 basis points. So we don't think that's a good customer value proposition.

So it does limit some of the client reaction and then you mentioned index deposits, right? We did that in '22, I believe it was for this very thing so that we could just be fair to our clients in all rate cycles. No matter if rates go up or down, they're treated fairly and the company is treated fairly and the shareholders are treated fairly. So that mutes that a little bit, Will. Now when 2-year treasuries at 480 or whatever, you start to get some people call and say, "Hey, what are we thinking here? And so those costs do happen with people with a lot of money, which makes sense.

Christopher Holmes

Yes. I would add one point. The historical inefficiency in deposit pricing is being sucked out of the industry, I think, primarily and I think it's going to just be more that way with technology. And so then you asked a good question. But with our clients, they come to know that we're going to move on and so we go ahead and move our relationship, good client relationships, we go ahead and move them, and they don't have to ask for them to be moved. And so we've actually taken more -- we've added efficiency to the process with our clients, but we think one that's helping us defend -- helping us retain them because it creates a really good client experience, and we think it's helping us get more. And so we've seen some of our biggest deposit clients become bigger deposit clients because they know that, hey, they don't have to call on and they know that it's going to be adjusted whenever rates adjust and that creates a better client experience.

And the other thing, shout-out back you guys good piece, good research piece from your group, Will, on the NIM versus NII. I think a lot of good stuff in there. And just as Michael put it earlier, hey, we'll give up 2 basis points of margin if we can get double-digit growth, and that's we think we're using our capital really effectively in that. So...

William Jones

Yes, I appreciate that. We're trying to just be thoughtful around that debate there and what the kind of how the right way to view that dynamic is going forward. So I appreciate that. Last one for me, guys. I'll just throw in we're kind of hovering around that 9% TCE range that we talked about being a target last quarter. Just any thoughts on the buyback and what you guys might think about strategically there going forward?

Christopher Holmes

Yes. On the -- you saw our repurchase activity this quarter. And we do think at certain price levels, it's a good use of capital at other price levels. Maybe it's too dilutive to capital. And so we will continue to be thoughtful and active around that and at price levels that we think are appropriate.

Operator

Our next question comes from Brett Rabatin from StoneX Group.

Brett Rabatin

Wanted to start on just the organic expansion plans here and talk about maybe the Asheville new facilities and you're trying to grow in North Carolina. Just wanted to hear your plans for that market and just what you guys see the opportunities to expand into some of those markets you've been eyeing possibly possibly for M&A, but possibly for organic opportunities as well?

Christopher Holmes

Yes. Thanks, Brett. And you're right, we didn't actually mention that in our comments, but we -- we've been in [indiscernible] with a loan production office, and we converted that to a full service location. So it's now -- we're in North Carolina. We have said that's a target market -- target expansion for us. We think it's a fantastic place for -- to live work and play a lot like where we are in our headquarters market at Tennessee and the markets we're in, in Georgia and Alabama and so and [indiscernible] Greek Kentucky.

So we think Western North Carolina particularly is a great spot for us to start there. And we have a beachhead location and I would assume that others would follow over time. So that's going to be a place where we continue to grow and build our presence, build out our brand.

Brett Rabatin

Okay. And Chris, any updated thoughts on M&A? And just if you see that as more or less likely than maybe you have in the past and just what you're seeing or hearing from possible partners.

Christopher Holmes

Sure. You've heard me say often, banks are sold, they're not bought. And so we are willing and thoughtful participant. And so we stand at the ready. And if the right thing comes along, then we would act upon that. [indiscernible]

We love community banks. We love strong deposit side of the balance sheet, and we love cultures that are let's say, straightforward what you see what you get, and that's really what we really get excited if we get opportunities that are like that. And we, like I said, we stand [indiscernible]

Brett Rabatin

Okay. Okay. And then if I could ask one last one, just around -- you've talked some about your value proposition and how the inefficient market for deposits is going to change with technology. The M&C CEO at a conference recently basically said I it could be scary, but what it's going to do is make banks more efficient. So if you wake up and banks are 20% more efficient, that probably goes to the customer. And so you have to find ways to say, at the higher end of margins for the industry. What are you guys have thoughts on that? And just everyone is worried about AI changing the dynamic around deposit rates?

Christopher Holmes

I think that as regards to AI technology, I do think the efficiency in terms of how we think of the efficiency ratio. And we think of the efficiency ratio, not just as an expense measure, we think of it as how efficient are we -- how efficient are we carrying out our business every day. And so we do think that, I think most of your -- a lot of your primary applications of AI are going to be in that area for banks. But also the that for many folks, deposit in terms of rates has already become quite efficient. If you look at the -- at what is available to you, Brett, look, you're an educated consumer when it comes to financials and think about how you get rates and you're able to get very competitive. I'm sure. I don't know your all your financial picture, but I know you and I'm sure you're able to get there, very good deposit rates very efficiently. So you can already do that. The average -- but you're better than an average more knowledgeable than your average consumer.

So I don't I think that, that continues to grow over time, but I don't think it is like a light switch. I don't think it just flips on 1 day. So I think it will continue to get more and more efficient. I think as technology continues to become the technology in that space continues to become more adapted and easier to use and more prevalent. I think that it just becomes a very efficient deposit market. along with more efficient on the expense side of getting more out of what -- of every expense dollar we spend. So I think that -- we think of those kind of actually is almost separate and we work both sides. But going back to what we discussed earlier, we're making it pretty efficient for our customers today by part of our value proposition is you don't have to watch your bank every day to make sure they're giving you a good, strong customer value proposition.

We're going to make sure we're presenting that to you whether you're calling us when rates change or not.

Operator

Our next question comes from David Bishop from Hovde Group.

David Bishop

Yes. quick question, Mike. You noted the stress on both the deposit and the loan yield side here. In a perfect world, where should we see that new origination yield be running out. I think you mentioned $640 or so at the end of the quarter. Just curious on a normalized basis where you'd expect those to be coming in on.

Michael Mettee

Well, perfect world, it'd be 7-plus percent. I guess if you think about the spread over the 5 years, I think we see a wide range of competition. I mean there's some people here locally that are doing owner-occupied CRE in the 5s, which is not something that we're willing to do. And so that keeps pressure on loan yields, I think they should be those upper 6s, low 7s as you see kind of the belly of the curve steepen, but a little bit of that function on competition, right?

David Bishop

Absolutely. And then noticed the increase in the metro versus community deposit growth this quarter. Just curious if you see much of a pricing differential between those 2 channels?

Michael Mettee

Yes. Metro, I mean, the Nashville market had a really, really strong deposit quarter, and that's kind of the driver there and there's more in the pipeline. As well. I mean, I got to say all of our markets are competitive. And so there's no free lunches anywhere, but I think the way that Chris just touched on the prior question, look, we're not treating people in a metro market versus community market any differently. We're trying to be fair to everyone and create value for our customers, which creates a customer-driven balance sheet.

So not a whole lot of pricing difference. We give the same amount of authority and discretion to the smallest market we're in to the largest market we're in. And we expect them to go get relationships and grow them in the same way.

Operator

Our next question comes from Steve Moss from Raymond James.

Stephen Moss

Maybe just following up on maybe just following up on loan growth and rates here. Just kind of curious given a little bit of moderation in fourth quarter, wondering as you expect, if rates -- or new origination rates go higher here, do you expect maybe loan growth could slow into 2027?

Christopher Holmes

Yes, fair question. We haven't seen that indication yet, but Yes, we do think it could. But we haven't seen it yet. At some point, deals begin to fall out, pencil out anymore on the loan side. And so again, we haven't seen it yet, but -- but we do think it's certainly a possibility that, that could happen if rates continue to increase.

Stephen Moss

Okay. Appreciate that. And then just on the credit here. I know you guys highlighted 2 criticized classified assets last quarter for our call correctly. Kind of curious what the nonperforming area. How large is it -- and just kind of what type and maybe how long it works out of this system, if you guys have any color.

Christopher Holmes

Yes, the 1 loan we referenced is about $13 million size. Again, adequately collateralized, liquid collateral. For the most part, there's some other collateral also. But for the most part, it's collateral that we could liquidate we are working with the borrowing bars, working with [indiscernible]. Again, a good outcome for everybody. It's not obviously unplanned for the borrower. Obviously, also a plan for us, but it's a strong collateral situation.

Operator

Our next question comes from Christopher Marinac from Brean Capital.

Christopher Marinac

Chris and Mike, would you consider growing the securities portfolio more is the competitive pricing were to either get worse or just not be adequate as we roll through these next few quarters?

Michael Mettee

Chris, this is Michael. The runs about 9% of total assets. I mean, I think we've been in a range of up to probably that kind of 14%, 15% range. So if we had a large deposit growth, we certainly deploy into kind of some of the floating rate securities we've been in so that when loan growth does come at the right kind of return, Barry, you would deploy it into that. We are focused on growing our relationships and I've said that like 3x. And so our goal is to continue to deepen and grow that part of the balance sheet. If there's irrational pricing and it's better to get into some flooding right securities to deploy deposits, excess deposits. And yes, we would do that for short term. But in the long term, we're trying to grow the company and that generally happens through relationship-driven activity.

Christopher Holmes

Christopher, I would also just say for our securities portfolio today, it's about 61% floating and so even when we're deploying it into the investment portfolio, we think of that as make sure we got plenty of liquidity for anything that happens, including additional loan growth. And so that's strategically how we think about that.

Christopher Marinac

No, that's helpful. And for your point on liquidity. I mean there's been just small drops in liquidity the last quarter or 2, and those are not meaningful, but just curious if you have flexibility to push those a little lower, again, just to kind of try to manage income and outcomes.

Michael Mettee

Yes, absolutely. We've got a lot of optionality in our balance sheet portfolio. So that's absolutely, Chris.

Christopher Holmes

Yes, absolutely. And we did add a slide on capital flexibility in our deck, which -- when you look at our AOCI plus our HTM securities marks, then you'll see that's actually very low relative to a typical bank our size, very low.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from David Rochester from Cantor.

David Rochester

I wanted to ask about your recent banker hiring and the talent pipeline, how that looks today, how that opportunity set looks coming into next year. You have at least 1 big integration coming up in market? It seems like that could be a good opportunity for you guys. Just hoping maybe you could talk about that as well.

Michael Mettee

Yes, Dave, it's Michael. We had around 10 or so this quarter, generally the pace we've been going at. It's been across the footprint. So both in our community and our metro markets, including Nashville, I'd say the pipeline is just as full as it's ever been. I know I say this a lot, and you've heard me say is we're more focused on hiring the right people than hiring people. And so that makes a big difference for us. And so I don't give our group's targets to go out and hire, but we're definitely focused on getting the right people culturally that are focused on relationships and deposit generation, full banking activity. And so that's really good in fact, we were working on one this morning that is pretty early. And we have one that's about to come across finish line super excited about that and we continue to recruit.

You mentioned the conversion. I think we keep doing what we're doing, right? And so -- it's kind of like dating. You just have conversations and it's ongoing if they want to marry you on the first date, it's probably not the right person. And so the stuff can take years. And we're actively cultivating relationships and that will play out over time. And at the same time, we're hiring young people, and we need to develop them to create our own organic pipeline of talent. And so we're trying to hit it from both ends.

Christopher Holmes

And Dave, I'll just add to that last piece, reiterating one of the things Michael said. Is a long term. We view that as a long-term proposition for us in 2 ways. One is like just like Michael said, it when folks make a -- I mean the folks that we're interested in make a move, it's going to be somebody that we've known for a long time. We've talked -- we've had conversations and they've watched our company and then they just decided to make a move. It's generally how that goes. And then the other thing I think that Michael squeezed in there that's really important is and I think this has been a change for us over the last 3 or 4 years. And that's developing folks. A lot of our -- for the folks that we're the most excited about are folks that have been with our company now for maybe 5 years and they started right out of college or they started or 5 years or less, and they came in at very young and have really matured and actually been going to -- been making contacts around town and they blossomed into really important folks to manage relationships for us, and they're doing a fantastic job. And so -- that's an important part of our plan as well. And so we're actually leaning into that with more development and training at for early career stages.

And so I think banks have generally gotten away from that. And I know of another bank or two around the country from talking to peers that are doing the same thing because they think that's going to be the best route going forward. And so we're really focusing on 2 different angles. One is we continue to recruit. But two is we are really developing our development, if you will, to be able to drive people along.

Unknown Executive

And the good news is we can do both. I mean it's not one or the other. And so you can do better.

David Rochester

Sounds like you got strategy. Maybe just one last one. You talked about loan growth next year, potentially slowing a little bit with higher rates. I was just curious what you're seeing or what you would expect in higher rates for paydown activity, you think you get a little bit of a breather there, but that's something that could help support you. Just what's your line of sight into that kind of activity next year?

Christopher Holmes

Yes. And David, just one thing that we may not have been totally clear on -- in response to a question about could it slow in higher rates, we said, well, yes, it could. That's not actually what we're thinking. That's not actually what we're forecasting. We are -- we continue to see activity to be quite robust in '27. Michael?

Michael Mettee

Yes. I think it's important that our people have to go. We have to go grow the company. And if loan growth slows for the industry, that means we got to take it from other people. And we've got to build market share, whether that's loan or deposits and continue to expand our presence in any rate environment. I think there's been some really fair questions at what point from a margin perspective, do you kind of pull back. And I think we can have a nice balance in growth and profitability. But the goal is to increase market share across our footprint and expand in some new ones, and that's what we expect in '27.

Operator

And with that, we'll be ending today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Chris Holmes for closing comments.

Christopher Holmes

All right. Thank you very much, everybody, for joining us. We always appreciate your interest in FBK, and hope everybody has a great day and great rest of the earnings season.

Operator

And with that, we'll conclude today's conference call and presentation. We do thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.