First Western (MYFW) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Friday, Oct. 23, 2026

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Scott Wylie
• Chief Operating Officer - Julie Courkamp
• Chief Financial Officer - David Weber
• Investor Relations - Lisa Fortuna

TAKEAWAYS

• Net Income -- $6.0 million, representing an 88% increase from $3.2 million reported in the third quarter of 2025.
• Diluted Earnings Per Share -- $0.60, an increase from $0.32 in the third quarter of 2025 reflecting improved net interest income.
• Total Loans Held for Investment -- $2.81 billion, a 3.5% increase from $2.72 billion as of June 30, 2026, driven by growth in the 1-4 family residential and commercial and industrial portfolios.
• New Loan Production -- $163 million, reflecting higher productivity from bankers added over the previous several quarters.
• Yield on New Loan Production -- 6.79%, representing a 42 basis point increase from the prior quarter.
• Total Deposits -- $2.92 billion, up 2.5% from $2.85 billion due to increases in non-interest-bearing and money market accounts.
• Net Interest Income -- $23.0 million, a 5.5% increase from $21.8 million driven by a higher net interest margin and an $81.1 million increase in average interest-earning assets.
• Net Interest Margin -- 2.95%, an increase of five basis points from the prior quarter due to higher yields on interest-earning assets.
• Gross Revenue -- $28.9 million, representing a 2.8% increase from $28.1 million in the second quarter of 2026.
• Non-interest Income -- $5.8 million, a 9.4% decrease from $6.4 million reflecting lower mortgage origination volume and reduced bank fees.
• Trust and Investment Management Fees -- $4.87 million, a 2.6% increase from the prior quarter driven by growth in investment agency, trust, and retirement fees.
• Efficiency Ratio -- 72.2%, improved from 74.0% in the second quarter of 2026 due to disciplined expense management.
• Non-performing Asset Ratio -- 0.39%, a decrease from 0.50% in the prior quarter driven by loan paydowns and a charge-off.
• Tangible Book Value Per Share -- $26.28, representing a 3% increase during the quarter.
• Subordinated Debt Redemption -- $10 million, reflecting the company's decision to call notes issued in Nov. 2020 to reduce interest expense.
• FHLB Borrowings -- $150.9 million, an increase from $36.4 million as of June 30, 2026, to support interest-earning asset growth.
• Assets Under Management -- $7.21 billion, a decrease from $7.28 billion due to lower market values in low-fee account types.
• Provision for Credit Losses -- $647,000, compared to a $469,000 release in the prior quarter, primarily driven by loan volume growth.
• Return on Average Assets -- 0.74%, an increase from 0.73% in the prior quarter and 0.40% in the third quarter of 2025.
• Return on Tangible Common Equity -- 9.31%, an increase from 9.19% in the prior quarter.

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RISKS

• Wylie stated, "mortgage production nationwide has fallen off the cliff," noting that rising interest rates have significantly reduced demand for residential loans.
• Weber reported that the cost of funds increased two basis points to 2.88% in the third quarter due to higher interest rates on money market accounts.

SUMMARY

First Western Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:MYFW) reported improved profitability for the third quarter of 2026, supported by expansion in net interest margin and continued loan portfolio growth. Management stated that new loan originations were diversified across multiple markets and industries, aided by the recruitment of senior banking talent from regional competitors. The company reported a shift in deposit mix toward non-interest-bearing accounts, which contributed to an 18% increase in net interest income compared to the same period last year. Management indicated that asset quality improved during the quarter, with a reduction in non-accrual loans driven by paydowns. The company remains focused on its relationship-based banking model, requiring primary bank status for new lending clients to drive further deposit stability.

• Scott Wylie stated that the company expects to operate at a 1% return on average assets during 2027 based on current financial trends.
• David Weber reported that the company maintains $200 million in notional capital cash flow hedges on the deposit portfolio to manage interest rate risk.
• Scott Wylie noted that the company added 14 senior hires from FirstBank who are already impacting loan growth and deposit acquisition.
• The company reported that its loan pipeline remains strong, and management expects approximately 10% loan growth for the full year 2026.
• David Weber indicated that the bank has $740 million in indexed money market accounts that currently carry a 100% beta.
• Julie Courkamp reported that the yield on new loan originations of 6.79% was 53 basis points higher than the average rate of 6.26% on loan payoffs during the quarter.
• Scott Wylie stated that the company remains in the mortgage business primarily for strategic defensive purposes to serve private banking and jumbo mortgage clients.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• AUM: Assets Under Management; the total market value of the investments that a person or entity manages on behalf of clients.
• Beta: The measure of how much a bank's deposit rates change in response to changes in market interest rates.
• C&I: Commercial and Industrial loans; loans made to businesses for working capital or other commercial purposes.
• CRE: Commercial Real Estate; loans secured by income-producing properties such as offices, retail spaces, or multifamily housing.
• DDA: Demand Deposit Account; a bank account from which deposited funds can be withdrawn at any time, typically non-interest-bearing.
• MLO: Mortgage Loan Officer; a person who helps borrowers through the mortgage loan application process.
• NIM: Net Interest Margin; the difference between the interest income generated by a bank and the amount of interest paid out to its lenders.
• PTIM: Planning, Trust, and Investment Management; a specific business segment within First Western focused on wealth advisory services.
• PTPP: Pre-tax, Pre-provision net income; a measure of earnings before taxes and provisions for loan losses are subtracted.
• ROAA: Return on Average Assets; a financial ratio that shows how profitable a company is relative to its average total assets.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Thank you for standing by and welcome to First Western Financial's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to hand the call over to Lisa Fortuna, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Lisa Fortuna: Thank you, [ Latif ]. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for First Western's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Joining us from First Western's management team are Scott Wylie, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Julie Courkamp, Chief Operating Officer; and David Weber, Chief Financial Officer. We will use a slide presentation as part of our discussion this morning. If you have not already done so, please visit the events and presentations page of First Western's investor relations website to download a copy of the presentation.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements with respect to the future performance and financial condition of First Western Financial that involves risks and uncertainties. Various factors could cause actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors are discussed in the company's SEC filings, which are available on the company's website. I would also direct you to read the disclaimers in our earnings release and investor presentation. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call.

Additionally, management may refer to non-GAAP measures which are intended to supplement but not substitute for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The press release available on the website contains the financial and other quantitative information to be discussed today, as well as the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Scott.

Scott Wylie: Thanks, Lisa. And good morning, everybody. We executed well in the third quarter and saw positive trends in many areas, including loan growth, improving deposit mix, net interest margin expansion, trust and investment management fee growth, well-managed expenses, and improved asset quality. This resulted in another quarter of strong profitability. Pre-tax, pre-provision net income increased 15% in the third quarter, that's not annualized, compared to the prior quarter, and 27% compared to the third quarter 2025. We continue to maintain a conservative approach to new loan production with our disciplined underwriting and pricing criteria.

The new banking talent added over the past several years and increasingly over the past few months, and our healthy economic activity across our markets, fueled strong loan production that was diversified across markets, industries, and loan categories. As a result of our financial performance and balance sheet management strategies, we continued to grow tangible book value per share this quarter. Moving to Slide 4, we generated net income of about $6 million, or $0.60 per diluted share, in the third quarter, both of which were 88% higher, respectively, than the third quarter of 2025. With our prudent balance sheet management, our tangible book value per share increased by 3% this quarter to $26.28.

Now I'll turn the call over to Julie for some additional discussion of our balance sheet and trust and investment management trends. Julie?

Julie Courkamp: Thank you, Scott. Turning to Slide 5, we'll look at the trends in our loan portfolio. Our loans held for investment increased $95 million from the end of the prior quarter, marking the sixth consecutive quarterly increase. On a year-over-year basis, total loans increased 8%. We continue to be conservative and disciplined in our new loan production. However, the higher productivity of the bankers added over the last several quarters is driving an improvement in loan originations. New loan production was $163 million in the third quarter and was diversified across various markets and loan types with a focus on relationship-based lending. Additionally, we are attracting deposit relationships with these clients.

We continue to be disciplined with respect to pricing, which resulted in the average rate on new production of 6.79% in the quarter, which was 42 basis points higher from the prior quarter and 53 basis points higher than the average rate of loan payoffs of 6.26% in the quarter. Quarter-end loans outstanding were almost 3% higher than average loan balances for the quarter, which is providing strong momentum going into the fourth quarter. Moving to Slide 6, we'll take a closer look at our deposit trends. Our total deposits increased 2.5% from the end of the prior quarter with growth in non-interest bearing and money market accounts. On a year-over-year basis, total deposits increased 2.4%.

Average non-interest bearing deposits increased $14 million or 3.9% in the quarter and 10% using quarter-end balances. We remain focused on continuing to improve our deposit mix to drive further NIM expansion going forward. Now I'll turn the call over to David for some additional discussion of our balance sheet.

David Weber: Thank you, Julie. Turning to Slide 8, we'll look at our gross revenue. Our gross revenue increased 2.8% from the prior quarter, primarily due to an increase in net interest income partially offset by a decrease in non-interest income. Turning to Slide 9, we'll look at the trends in net interest income and margin. Our net interest income increased 5.5% from the prior quarter due to an increase in net interest margin and an $81 million increase in average interest-earning assets. Our NIM increased 5 basis points from the prior quarter to 2.95%. This was primarily due to an increase in yield on average interest-earning assets, partially offset by an increase in cost of funds.

The yield on interest-earning assets increased 7 basis points driven by an increase in loan yields, while the cost of funds increased 2 basis points due to higher rates on money market accounts. Our net interest income increased 18% from the third quarter of 2025 due to a 41 basis point increase in NIM and higher average interest-earning assets. Turning to Slide 10, our non-interest income decreased by $600,000 from the prior quarter. This was primarily due to a decrease in net gain on sale of mortgage loans as origination volumes were negatively impacted by higher mortgage rates and a decrease in bank fees, partially offset by an increase in trust and investment management fees.

Trust and investment management fees increased 2.6% from the prior quarter, driven by increases in investment agency, trust, and retirement fees. Now turning to Slide 11 and our expenses. Our non-interest expense decreased $400,000 from the prior quarter. The decrease was primarily driven by a decrease in technology and information systems as well as salaries and employee benefits. The decrease in technology and information systems was primarily attributable to a $400,000 non-recurring charge that we recorded in the second quarter of '26. The decrease in salaries and employee benefits was primarily driven by lower employer payroll taxes.

Our efficiency ratio improved to 72% compared to 74% last quarter and 76% in the third quarter of 2025, as we continue to tightly manage expenses while also making investments in the business that we believe will positively impact our long-term performance. Now turning to Slide 12, we'll look at our asset quality. As Scott indicated earlier, we saw improved trends in the loan portfolio in the third quarter with a decrease in non-accrual loans driven by paydowns. Our non-performing asset ratio decreased to 39 basis points in the third quarter. Increased loan volume contributed to a provision of $600,000 during the third quarter of 2026.

Our allowance coverage ratio was 74 basis points in the third quarter, down from 75 basis points in the previous quarter. Now I will turn it back to Scott. Scott?

Scott Wylie: Thanks, David. Turning to Slide 13, I'll wrap up with some comments about our outlook. Based on our third quarter performance and what we're seeing in our markets, we're encouraged and we expect further improvement in our financial performance in the fourth quarter of the year. Overall, we continue to see relatively healthy economic conditions in our markets. We're seeing good opportunities to add new clients and banking talent due to the ongoing disruption from M&A activity in our markets. Our loan pipeline remains strong and should fuel solid loan growth going forward.

We expect positive trends to continue across several key areas, including loan growth, deposit growth, deposit mix improvement, net interest margin expansion, and increased activity in our wealth management business. Combined with disciplined expense management, we believe continued revenue growth should drive even more positive operating leverage and further improve our financial performance. We had a net interest margin expansion of 26 basis points in 2025 and another 24 basis points in expansion so far in 2026. This will continue. We remain disciplined with expenses, continuing to invest selectively in opportunities that can enhance long-term shareholder value. Continued M&A disruption in our market is creating attractive opportunities to add experienced banking talent and new client relationships.

And we're well positioned to capitalize on those opportunities as they emerge. Based on the trends we're seeing in the portfolio and the feedback we're getting from our clients, we're not seeing anything to indicate that we'll experience any meaningful deterioration in asset quality through the rest of the year. With positive trends across several key areas in the business, we believe we're well positioned to deliver continued improvement in financial performance and create additional value for our shareholders. So with that, we're happy to take your questions. [ Latif ], please open up the call.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Hannah Wynn of KBW.

Hannah Wynn: I wanted to start on loan growth. I know you had talked on the call last quarter about expecting to see strong loan growth in the second half of the year. So it was great to see that 14% number this quarter. Just wondering if you could give us a sense of how pipelines are shaping up for the fourth quarter and into 2027, and curious if you think we could expect to see another 14% number double-digit growth quarter to end the year?

Scott Wylie: Well, I'm always reluctant to say, well, this quarter is going to be this percent because it does bounce around a little bit, but there are definitely favorable trends that we've seen progressing through the year, which we expected. We said we were going to be investing in more talent in the first half of the year, and that would produce more growth in the second half of the year. That's exactly what we're seeing. I was actually talking to the team this morning.

We've seen more loans in our credit working group, which meets 3x a week, to preview upcoming credits, and then also credit committee over the past several weeks now than we've seen in the first half of the year. So pipelines are stronger and continue to be strong. The actual work in process that we're seeing and the activity we're getting from our frontline folks is stronger. So I do think that we're going to see positive trends.

I feel like our forecast for this year, kind of, 10%-ish growth, seems like we're on track for that, and I think a 15% run rate here going into 2026 seems like -- or 2027, I mean, seems like a reasonable indication of what we're seeing.

Hannah Wynn: Great. That's really helpful. And the next, just wanted to touch on mortgage. I know the rate environment has been a bit of a headwind there. Just curious how you see activity trending from here if rates continue to rise?

Scott Wylie: So mortgages as a percent of revenues for us is a small number. We just are in that business primarily because we think it's strategically important for a private bank to be able to play good defense with our clients that want mortgages and to use that to play offense to attract jumbo mortgage clients that we can turn profitably into full relationships. So definitely the production nationwide has fallen off the cliff. We actually looked with our mortgage team earlier this week to see how we were doing relative to the overall secondary market and we're outperforming. And I think that's because we're doing the things we can.

We can't control obviously the 10-year treasury, [ we ] can't control demand for mortgages, which is way down nationally, but what we can control is the fixed expenses in that area, which we've cut, and the quality and productivity of the MLOs that we have in place who are commission based, so there's not a significant direct cost to them on an ongoing basis. But we have had a lot of success over the last year adding MLO. So that helps with our strategic benefit, but it also helps when the market comes back, which eventually it will, we'll be able to take advantage of that. But it's a little bit of a sideshow.

I actually think the more interesting part of the fee income story this quarter, and we, kind of, glossed over page 7 of the deck, so I just want to go back to that for a minute. Is it page 7 or? The fee income this quarter was down thanks to insurance and mortgages, but actually our PTIM fees -- the AUM was down, so it looks all negative, but we said that we've done this restructuring of our PTIM folks and completely reorganized that business for the future over the last couple of years. We brought in Brandon Summers from Goldman Sachs, and he's leading that team. We said we're going to see some results of that in 2026.

Well, in 2Q we talked a little bit about green shoots and now we see that was up -- our trust and investment management fees were up over $100,000 in Q3, which if you look at that on a growth rate basis, that's 2.6% increase, or annualized, that's, what, 10.4%, and up 5.1% from a year ago. So those are trends that we haven't seen in years here. And I think that's really a very bright spot in our fee income story that's, kind of, buried in some of the headwinds from mortgages and our insurance sales.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Clark of Piper Sandler.

Matthew Clark: Just on the deposit cost side. Maybe if we could just start with getting the spot rate at the end of September and then the beta assumption we should use on interest-bearing deposits, assuming we get 1 or 2 more rate hikes here.

David Weber: Yes, Matt, the spot deposit rate for total deposits was 2.86% at the end of September. And from a beta standpoint, the way I look at the deposit portfolio is really focusing on the money market accounts from a beta standpoint. So we have $740 million in index money market accounts, which would translate to 100% beta. And then we have $760 million in standard money market accounts. That's how I refer to them, which that's where it's more of a standard type of beta, and we saw a 28% beta on that September hike. We think that's certainly what we're targeting going forward.

Scott Wylie: So just to add a little bit of strategic overview on that too, Matt. We've focused on building our deposit base, and I thought we saw some really nice progress in Q3 on that. Not only in the growth that we saw, but also the mix. And David and his team did a drill down on that, and there's really 3 components seem to be driving that. Our business development focus that we're working on the deposit side, we brought in this new deposit czar 9 months ago now, and the focus we're doing there seems to be working. And then we've restructured and rebuilt our treasury management team. We've always had a competitive treasury management offering.

But we've really changed that pretty significantly and upgraded that. And then the third area is we require relationships with every loan we do. We've been doing that for, I don't know, a year and a half now, something like that. And we literally write into every loan document a requirement that the borrower use us as their primary bank. So those 3 components are driving deposit growth, they're driving a deposit shift into more DDAs, non-interest bearing deposits, which of course is an area full of opportunity for First Western.

David Weber: Matt, 1 data point I should also mention is we do have $200 million notional of capital cash flow hedge on the deposit portfolio, and that's a pay-fixed swap. So that effectively takes that $740 million of index money markets down 200 basis point -- or $200 million, sorry.

Matthew Clark: Yep. Okay, great. And then just, I want to ask about the borrowings at the end of the quarter. It looked like on average they were down but up a decent amount at the end of the quarter. And you expect margin expansion to continue. Can you just provide some color on those additional borrowings and whether or not they might stick around? I would I would think that would be a headwind for the margin in 4Q.

David Weber: Yes, on an average basis, we expect that to normalize. We do have internal liquidity policies and things of that nature that drive some of the borrowing at the end of the quarter. But like I said, on an average basis, we do expect that to normalize.

Matthew Clark: Okay. Similar to where you were is what you're implying?

David Weber: Yes.

Matthew Clark: Okay. And then just some profitability. Any thoughts on when you think you can achieve a 1% ROA? And I think we all know how you can get there, but any thoughts on timing there?

Scott Wylie: Well, we've been working on our plan for 2027 and I think for -- if we define that as, kind of, the short term here, we do think that we'll be operating a 1% ROA during 2027, whether that's mid-year or the average for the year, the full year, I would be reluctant to say today. But I think from the progress we've seen now the last 3 years and then these trends that I talked about, which seem to be accelerating in Q3 that are so positive, I do think that, that is something we can achieve over the course of 2027.

The other interesting question that I have been wondering about and asking David and his team about is when we were doing $0.54 in 2023, we're thinking, boy, it's our EPS, we gotta get back to 1% here. Is 1% any, kind of, a ceiling for us? And our new 3-year forecast that we use internally we can see a line of sight to 3 -- 1.5% ROA, just based on, kind of, stable, healthy markets, upward sloping yield curve, relatively stable rates, healthy economy, if those sorts of things continue, I think that's something that we can look forward to in the medium term to drive shareholder value here.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Liam Coohill of Hovde Group.

Liam Coohill: So 1 of the highlights for me this quarter was definitely the noninterest-bearing balance growth. Now, curious to hear about what you think some of the key drivers are there, especially given how difficult it is to grow noninterest-bearing balances in this rate environment?

Scott Wylie: Yes. So at First Western we've always focused on business owners and those individual entrepreneurs and their families and their charities. And I think what's changed here? And I mentioned some of this a minute ago, but the business development focus, our treasury management focus, our relationship-based lending that we require for each borrower, I mean, those are all positives. Some of what we saw in Q3 was also just fluctuations in operating accounts we already have. But a big driver of all this for us today, and I think going forward for the foreseeable future, is all of this market disruption.

And it's really profoundly affecting the competitive environment here in a way that I haven't seen in my 40 years of banking in our own banks here in the market. And where that translates into is our ability to attract really outstanding talent. We brought in this quarter, we added Bill Sullivan as our Head of Strategic Planning here. Bill is a really interesting guy. He's been around Denver forever. He's got a great reputation among our target markets and among bankers here because he's so well known and well liked.

He built the Colorado State story for -- he was the former CEO of Bank of Oklahoma here, and they bought Colorado State Bank and Trust, which is where a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of personal trust business went over the years. And then 10 years ago, the Bank of Oklahoma bought Colorado Business Bank, which was another place that's full of our type of clients. So Bill knows that market really well. He's actually working on some really interesting strategic initiatives for us. But it's not just Bill, right? It's Brandon that we brought in from Goldman. It's 14 hires now we've made of senior folks out of what used to be FirstBank.

And these folks, a number of them have a C&I focus, all of them have a focus on our type of clients and providing that kind of community-oriented, team-based service that's something that FirstBank was so good at and that we believe in here. And of those 14 hires, I mean, they're all hitting the ground quickly and having a big impact here and really feel comfortable in the culture of First Western and how similar it is to some of the really great qualities that FirstBank had over the years. So I mean all those things I think are going to drive deposit growth, deposit opportunity, and DDA, treasury management relationship banking opportunities for us.

Liam Coohill: That's helpful, especially the last point you made there about the new hires impacting loan growth. We definitely saw that in the quarter. Originations were really strong. But 1 question I did have was payoffs did tick up a little bit, and I was wondering how you expect payoffs to trend in a higher rate environment? And are those mostly like variable rate loans that are paying off?

Scott Wylie: Yes, that's a great question. And David, I think you took a look at that to see if there was anything in particular there that stood out.

David Weber: Yes, no real trends to call out. Our clients do tend to be episodic at times, and I think that's just what we're seeing this quarter. The payoff number seems to be about $100 million a quarter. We've commented on that before. Was higher this quarter? Do we expect that to go back to $100 million for the next few quarters? Yes, but will it bounce around? It historically has, yes. But there's no big trend. The other interesting point there is these higher rates are actually creating opportunity for us with this disruption. And like yesterday we were out on a call and we heard this story from a client where their loan was maturing at another bank.

And so they were having a discussion with the bank about their new pricing and when you find out your coupon, your loan's going to go from 3% or 4% to something like 7% or 8%. If another bank delivers that bad news and they're already mad at that other bank and they come here to see what we'll do and it's similar, that's opportunity for us. So I think it actually helps create opportunity for us to see that kind of impact going on in the financial markets.

Julie Courkamp: I maybe would just add in on the yield side. I mean, the payoff yields were about 6.26%, while origination yields were at 6.79%. So it's not -- they're not that low really for us and it's creating a nice bump in our NIMs.

Scott Wylie: That actually is a great point, Julie. I was thinking about this, there's 5 different ways right now that are driving higher asset yields for us. So 1 would be new production. So when we see the yield that Julie was talking about there, that's on all the new loans that's coming in at that average rate. Then of course you're replacing the low rates that are maturing or prepaying or that's a second source and that's $100 million.

Julie Courkamp: We have quite a few of those coming through 2027.

Scott Wylie: Yes. And then the third area is floating rate. We have about $1 billion in floating rate loans and bonds. And that didn't really even show up in Q3 because that Fed Funds increase was actually on September 15th. So you'll see that benefit really for the first time in Q4. So that's $1 billion out of our $3.2 billion or whatever it is today. Then you've also got, to Julie's point, $370 million in loans either maturing or ARMs that are repricing through the end of next year. And on top of that, you've got another $400 million in fair value cash flow swaps that we have in our books.

So you add all that stuff up, and it really gives us a lot of protection on an [ up-rate ]. And it really puts First Western in the position we want to be in, which is a relatively neutral balance sheet.

Liam Coohill: That's really helpful. And just 1 more for me, this is more of a housekeeping question, but I believe this is the case, but that tax benefit looked like a one-time benefit to me. Do you expect the normalized rate to, kind of, be back around 23% or so? Yes.

David Weber: Yes, it was a one-time in the quarter. Not to say that we won't explore those opportunities again, but without those the 23% effective tax rate is a reasonable, reasonable estimate.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Bill Dezellem of Tieton Capital Management.

William Dezellem: A couple of questions. First of all, relative to the dynamics setting you up for loan growth, are we hearing you correctly that both the underlying dynamics and factors that will lead to loan growth are accelerating in addition to the loan growth itself and so therefore the flywheel has begun? Is that what we're hearing?

Scott Wylie: I think so. We talked last quarter about green shoots and we said we're seeing some green shoots on the banking side, we're seeing some on the PTIM side, and now those green shoots seem to be sprouting a little bit more and showing up more in the numbers. I think those are going to create opportunities for us going into 2027, Bill.

William Dezellem: And not to get too far out over our skis here, are the characteristics setting up such that you could see quarters ahead where the year-over-year growth is in the -- loan growth is in 20% sort of range?

Scott Wylie: I don't know that's a goal for us. I think that mid-teen growth is a great place to be. And if you can produce the, kind of, operating leverage that we have been, and I don't see any reason that changes. We've seen our operating expenses bump up from $20 million a quarter to $21 million a quarter. I think that's a good number for us today. I think we can still drive a lot of earnings gains and I talked about kind of our 3-year outlook and where we think we can get to. So I'd like to see us continue on in the mid-teens for now. And then what that lets you do is be picky.

In today's market that's a good thing. I mean, we were in a credit committee last week and a couple of the relationship bankers were talking about loans being priced at 90% and 95% -- basis points -- 90 and 95 basis points over comparable treasuries at competitors. And we've seen this cycle before. We know that when somebody comes in, does a big acquisition, they want to show that they're able to protect the client base and stuff like that, they'll do that kind of thing. It doesn't make any sense. I mean, we can buy Ginnies, floating Ginnies, at a yield like that. And, in fact, we have been.

And I mean I think then you have something that's no credit risk and no capital requirement and a really attractive yielding asset for that built into that NIM story we told you, right? So I think if we're seeing more demand that could produce 20%, 25% loan growth, don't need to do it. You can just be more selective and get the relationships and the terms and the rate that you want.

William Dezellem: That's very helpful. And then in the press release you referenced a roughly $10 million redemption of notes. Walk us through the background of that, please.

David Weber: Yes, those were some subordinated debt notes that we had issued in November of 2020, and they were in -- they were eligible for call. And so we went ahead and decided to call those, which will give us a benefit from a NIM perspective. And we're comfortable with our -- where our capital ratios are, so saw no real issues for that side either.

Scott Wylie: Just to be clear, those are subordinate notes that are Tier 2 capital at the holding company level. So it's just part of a capital management thing. But it actually reduces our debt load at the holding company, which is a good thing.

William Dezellem: And was the entire issuance available to call and you just chose the $10 million and you can do the remainder later? Or are there specific dates? I've actually not looked at the details when you can then call incremental pieces.

David Weber: The entire -- it was a $10 million note, the entire note was eligible and we decided to call the full $10 million.

William Dezellem: And by the way, congratulations on a great quarter.

Scott Wylie: Thank you. Appreciate that.

Operator: I would now like to turn the conference back to Scott Wylie for closing remarks. Sir?

Scott Wylie: Yeah, so 1 of the things I didn't get to highlight was a story actually from yesterday. Julie and I were out on a client call yesterday. And I tell our people, frequently we can compete on value, we can compete on price, and guess which one we'd rather see you out competing on. And so we were visiting this client, been a long-term client, and he's an entrepreneur in a very niche, interesting business, C&I, and really has had a great experience at First Western.

So he's telling us a story, which interestingly, I didn't know this story, which tells you it's, kind of, a culture thing here, not one off, and the story was that he had a CFO look at doing an acquisition of a supplier that had run into trouble with their bank and was trying to sell to this upstream commercial business. And so the CFO came back and said, well, it doesn't really make sense. And so the principal that we were meeting with, the owner of the business, took a look at it. He decided, no, this is a great thing for us.

It's going to lower our costs, going to help us with vertical integration, going to be great for our business and makes a ton of financial sense. So he calls us and says, hey, I've got 1 day to get this loan done, is that possible? If we turn around, approve the loan in 1 day, funded it in 3 days, and this guy said, what bank in America is going to be able to fund an acquisition loan for a business we wanna acquire in 72 hours?

And I think it just tells you a lot about the position we put ourselves in, the quality of people we have here, the infrastructure that Julie and her team have built here, and our ability to be responsive and drive value instead of price in the market here. And so, I think what you're seeing here is us taking advantage of these extraordinary market conditions. We've never seen market disruption like this. We've really been able to take advantage of that. We set up that disruption task force we told you about a year ago, and they're having a heyday with recruiting and with sales and marketing initiatives.

Prospects today want a stable, local, expert team and an institution that can deliver that. Especially in our niche servicing entrepreneurs and their businesses and their families. Our small market share we have in these growing markets creates a lot of opportunity for us. We have strong, healthy economies, and our new hires, as we said, are already having an impact. The investments and changes we've made over the last couple of years are really paying off. We were hoping to see evidence of that in Q3, and in fact we did. The PTIM restructuring that we did is working.

The increased attention that we've given to the planning, trust, and investment management area, each has had significant impact and is showing some nice results. I said last quarter there was no real magic bullet to our earnings gains, that it was driven by 5 different things and they're all progressing nicely. And those 5 things, number 1, organic growth, that was up at a 14% rate in Q3. Number 2 was continued NIM improvements. We talked a lot about that on the call. Number 3, fee income, which looks bad in the headline because of mortgages, but it's actually, I think, a really great turnaround story for us there that will play out in '27.

Expense control, of course, and then asset quality, which was another great story in Q3 for us. And that's going to drive ongoing improvements in core earnings. Our pre-tax, pre-provision numbers, which we were asked about in the first half of this year, that's now turned around up $1 million quarter over quarter, which is 57% annualized in Q3 and 27% year-over-year. I mean those are great numbers. And we're headed back to this 1% ROAA in the near term.

So I just want to give a special shout out to our Board, to the leadership team, to the organization changes that we've made over the last couple of years with Julie's leadership, our associates I think are doing a great job of taking advantage of this environment and of course our clients for supporting all this change. I just feel like there's great things to come here and really appreciate people's time and attention dialing in for a call today. Thank you.

Operator: -- today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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