Operator: Thank you for standing by. My name is Trevor, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the First Internet Bancorp Earnings Conference Call for the Q3 2026. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. Please note that this event is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Julia Ferrara from ICR. You may begin your conference.
Julia Ferrara: Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss First Internet Bancorp's third quarter 2026 financial results. The company issued its earnings press release earlier this afternoon, and it is available on the company's website at www.firstinternetbancorp.com. In addition, the company has included a slide presentation that you can refer to during the call. You can also access these slides on the website. Joining us from the management team today are Chairman and CEO, David Becker, President and COO, Nicole Lorch, and Executive Vice President and CFO, Ken Lovik. David and Nicole will provide an overview, and Ken will discuss the financial results, and then we'll open up the call for your questions.
Julia Ferrara: 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 conditions of First Internet Bancorp that involve risk 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. 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 the GAAP and non-GAAP measures. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to David.
David Becker: Thank you, Julia. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Let me start with a headline. The fundamental earnings power of First Internet Bancorp continues to improve. We generated record revenue in Q3. We expanded net interest margin for the fourth consecutive quarter. We grew adjusted pre-provision net revenue 14% from Q2. We continue to improve the mix of loans and deposits while deploying capital efficiently. At the same time, the overall credit normalization we discussed last quarter is on track, with net charge-offs and delinquencies declining meaningfully. For Q3, we are reporting earnings of $0.54 per diluted share. Excluding non-reoccurring expenses, adjusted earnings per share rose to $0.57, more than double what we reported last quarter. We also had one significant credit relationship move against us late in the quarter. I want to address that one directly.
David Becker: Early in the quarter, we were working with a franchise finance borrower on a forbearance arrangement. It was intended to give the borrower time to refinance with another lender. Late in the quarter, the borrower's financial condition deteriorated, and it became clear that refinancing was no longer viable in the near term. We moved the relationship to non-accrual. We established a $2.6 million specific reserve and reversed $600,000 of interest income. For this relationship, we believe there remains a path to repayment. However, based on what we knew at quarter end, including the delinquent status of the related loans, the prudent course of action was to recognize the deterioration, and we did. That's the bad news in the quarter. But it is important not to lose sight of what happened everywhere else in the business. Provision expense declined sequentially. Net charge-offs fell by more than half.
David Becker: Delinquencies fell to 48 basis points from 78 in Q2. That includes a significant drop in franchise finance delinquencies. Those are meaningful improvements, and they show the broader credit trends are moving in the direction we expected. More importantly, our operating performance gave us the capacity to absorb the impact of this relationship. We produced record revenue, record net interest income, and continued margin expansion, and we still grew adjusted pre-provision earnings by double digits. That's what I mean when I say the fundamental earnings power of this company is improving. We are confident in the direction of the business as we execute on our strategy with foresight and discipline. Nicole will talk about how that strategy is changing the economics of our business for the better, and then Ken will walk through the financial results and what we expect in Q4. Nicole.
Nicole Lorch: Thanks, David. The way I would characterize this quarter is simple: The business model is working. We're seeing the benefit of decisions we've made over multiple quarters about where we deploy capital, how we fund the balance sheet, and which businesses can generate attractive returns without requiring traditional balance sheet growth. Start with lending. We continued to move capital out of lower-yielding or exited portfolios and into businesses where we see stronger risk-adjusted returns. New funded originations came onto the balance sheet this quarter at a weighted average yield of 7.51%. That is the strategy in action. As lower-yielding loans pay down, we redeploy that capital into opportunities with better returns. Quarter by quarter, that is changing the economics of the portfolio. This quarter, the overall portfolio yield increased another 8 basis points to 6.42%. The point isn't simply that loans grew.
Nicole Lorch: It is what is growing and what is shrinking. Construction and investor commercial real estate, single-tenant lease financing, wealth advisory lending, and embedded finance grew during the quarter. At the same time, healthcare finance, franchise finance, and residential mortgage continued to run off. That remixing lets us grow interest income faster than the balance sheet. We do not need outsized balance sheet growth to grow earnings. That is exactly what we have been working toward. Our fintech partnerships business adds another dimension to that model. Fintech deposits increased just over $1 billion during the quarter to $4.7 billion, including $2.9 billion held off balance sheet at quarter end. Average on-balance sheet fintech deposits increased 40%, giving us additional capacity to replace higher-cost CDs and broker deposits with lower-cost fintech funding. But the value of the fintech franchise goes well beyond funding.
Nicole Lorch: Fintech fee revenue increased 13% from Q2 and is up more than 190% on a trailing 12-month basis. We added 2 partners during the quarter and have additional partners in the onboarding pipeline across payments, deposits, and lending. Fintech is doing multiple jobs for us. It is improving our funding mix. It is generating fee income. Through embedded lending, it is creating another avenue to deploy capital and grow interest income. Those pieces reinforce one another, making the business more valuable as we scale it. Now, SBA. Production here has been softer than we expected. Originations increased 14% sequentially, but overall activity did not reach the level we anticipated. Industry volume has been weaker, and we have also deliberately tightened our own underwriting standards over the past several quarters. Let me be clear about the trade-off we are making.
Nicole Lorch: We are not going to manufacture loan growth by compromising credit discipline. The SBA changes that became effective 1 October reinforced several of the underwriting principles we have been applying for the last year. With industry activity subdued and our underwriting standards tighter, we expect SBA originations and gain on sale revenue to remain lower in Q4. We can live with that on a short-term basis. Yes, we want the volume, but we want the right volume. The credit trends David Becker discussed tell us the changes we have made in underwriting, servicing, and portfolio management are having the intended effect. This quarter illustrates something important about the company we have built. SBA production was below our expectations, and yet we generated record revenue. That does not mean SBA matters less to us. It demonstrates that our sources of revenue are steadily diversifying.
Nicole Lorch: Finally, I want to spend a moment on operating leverage because this is just as central to where we are taking the company. Our technology strategy is not about implementing AI for the sake of AI. The objective is straightforward: use technology to support more customer activity, more revenue, and more growth without requiring expenses to increase at the same rate. We are beginning to see tangible evidence of that. During Q3, we completed a multi-phase project to automate significant portions of SBA origination. At current usage levels, we estimate that work creates approximately 620 hours of annual lender and processor capacity. Manual data entry has been reduced by more than 80%, and median SBA approval time in the measured comparison improved by roughly 10 days. We are now looking at how to apply similar capabilities elsewhere in the company. Step back and the picture is clear.
Nicole Lorch: We are generating higher returns from the loan portfolio. We are lowering our funding costs through fintech deposits. We are growing fee-generating businesses that do not depend entirely on balance sheet growth. We are creating operating capacity to support growth without a commensurate increase in expense. We have more ways to generate revenue, more ways to fund growth, and more places to put capital to work at attractive returns than we did just a few years ago. That diversification matters. We are building a company with multiple sources of revenue and growth that build on one another. The result is a broader, more durable revenue engine and a business model with more levers for creating value. That is what we mean when we say the business model is working. Ken will now tie these strategies into our financial results and what they mean for the Q4. Ken?
Ken Lovik: Thanks, Nicole. We reported Q3 net income of $4.8 million, or $0.54 per diluted share. Excluding $400,000 of non-recurring severance expense, adjusted net income was $5.1 million, or $0.57 per diluted share. Total revenue reached a record $43.9 million, up 7% sequentially. Combined with well-managed expenses, adjusted pre-provision net revenue increased 14% from the Q2 to $17.1 million. Net interest income was also a record at $34.7 million, or $35.9 million on a fully taxable equivalent basis, up 7% sequentially and 14% year over year. Net interest margin expanded 8 basis points to 2.47%, or 2.55% on a fully taxable equivalent basis. Strong growth in net interest income was achieved despite $1.2 million of interest reversals associated with franchise finance loans moved to non-accrual status, which reduced net interest margin by approximately 9 basis points. Half of those reversals are related to the relationship David discussed.
Ken Lovik: The underlying margin drivers remain favorable on both sides of the balance sheet. Loan yields increased 8 basis points sequentially to 6.42% as we continued to redeploy capital from lower-yielding portfolios into our core and emerging lending businesses. At the same time, the cost of interest-bearing deposits declined 6 basis points to 3.32% as fintech deposits replaced higher-cost CDs and broker deposits. That is the balance sheet strategy David and Nicole described, and you are now seeing it flow through the income statement. As we look at the interest rate environment going forward, we remain modestly liability sensitive, but materially less so than we were 2 years ago. Our loan portfolio is now 57% fixed rate, 43% adjustable rate, compared with 75% fixed and 25% adjustable in September 2024. We have also emphasized shorter duration securities as we reinvest cash flows.
Ken Lovik: We analyzed several rate scenarios on a static balance sheet, assuming 2 more Fed rate increases over the next several months, ranging from parallel and ramped rate shocks to a bear flattener scenario with rate increases in December 2026 and March 2027. The most punitive scenarios indicate about a -2.5% to -3% impact on forecasted net interest income over the course of 2027, which we do expect to be up substantially over 2026. Importantly, though, these are static assumptions. Continued execution of our lending and deposit strategies significantly reduces the modeled effect. Turning to credit, provision expense declined to $11.6 million from $13.4 million in the Q2, reflecting lower net charge-offs, partially offset by higher specific reserves on franchise finance loans. That large relationship accounted for $2.6 million of specific reserves.
Ken Lovik: Including the associated interest reversal, actions taken on this relationship reduced pre-tax earnings by approximately $3.2 million, or $0.29 per diluted share. Outside of that relationship, the broader trend improved. Net charge-offs and delinquencies both declined materially during the quarter, while non-performing loans increased as additional franchise finance balances moved to non-accrual, including $6.6 million related to the large relationship. Now let me turn to our outlook for Q4. We continue to expect fully taxable equivalent net interest margin of 2.75% to 2.80%, and fully taxable equivalent net interest income of around $38.5 million, driven by continued portfolio optimization and stable deposit costs, assuming a 25 basis point increase in the Fed funds rate in December. We expect non-interest income of around $7.5 million, incorporating our revised expectation for lower SBA originations, but offset by continued growth in fintech fee revenue.
Ken Lovik: Additionally, non-interest expense should come in around $26.5 million. Based on the improving delinquency trends and the franchise finance actions taken this quarter, we expect provision expense of $7.5 million to $8 million. Those assumptions lead us to expect Q4 diluted earnings per share of approximately $1.02 to $1.07. In Q2, we reported diluted earnings per share of $0.27. This quarter, operating earnings per share more than doubled. We believe it will nearly double again in Q4. We believe that outlook demonstrates the underlying earnings trajectory we have been discussing today. Continued growth in net interest income, continued margin expansion, growing fintech fee revenue, disciplined expenses, and moderating credit costs. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for questions.
Operator: We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Brett Rabatin with StoneX. Brett, your line is open.
Brett Rabatin: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for the questions. Wanted to start with Ken, maybe just some color around the guidance. When I think about the margin guidance for Q4, you could kind of do it a couple different ways, but essentially you're kind of implying a 15 basis point increase in earning asset yields and a 15 basis point increase in, or decrease in funding costs.
Operator: My apologies, Brett. Sorry to interrupt. This is Trevor, the Q4 moderator. We are just having a technical issue on our end. We are going to pause the podcast briefly for technical issues. Please stand by while we resolve the issue. Thank you. We are experiencing technical difficulties and have placed the call on hold. Please stay on the line. The event will resume shortly. Hello everyone, this is Trevor, your Q4 moderator. Thank you for your patience. We have resolved the issue. Brett, if you would not mind starting your question over again, please. We will move on to the next question. If Brett would like to redial in and join the queue, that would be great. Our next question comes from the line of Tim Switzer with KBW. Tim, your line is open.
Tim Switzer: Hey, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I appreciate all the color on the potential impact of rate hikes. I just want to make sure I heard it right. Did you say one 25 basis point rate hike would have about a 2% to 3% impact on annualized NII in 2027? Was that the right number?
Ken Lovik: No, it was two rate hikes, Tim. We assumed that we would get a rate hike in December, and we would get a rate hike in March.
Tim Switzer: Okay. That is-
Ken Lovik: And obviously that
Tim Switzer: Those two are a 2% to 3% impact to 2027 NII.
Ken Lovik: Yeah. I would also add to that also captures kind of the fully baked-in impact of the rate hike that we had back in September as well.
Tim Switzer: Okay. That is very helpful. If we think about the, I guess, the path of this rate hike cycle, it is obviously a little uncertain right now. If we continue to get several rate hikes at a gradual pace, does that impact change over time, or is it pretty consistent?
Ken Lovik: No. The further we get out, I guess as more time elapses, each rate hike becomes less impactful. One thing we did analyze, we looked at another rate hike in September, and that was significantly less, call it 50 basis points. It kind of ratchets down because if you think about it, we continue to have lower-yielding loans continue to pay down. Those get redeployed into variable rate channels such as construction, investor commercial real estate, SBA, or get originated in a higher rate environment. And we continue to have some of the CDs pay down as well. Over time, the impact of rate hikes get muted.
Tim Switzer: Okay. That makes sense. In this scenario with a hike in December, a hike in March, do you think we can have a higher NIM in Q4 2027 compared to Q4 2026?
Ken Lovik: Absolutely. I think the way to think about it too, and Nicole Lorch talked about this in her comments. We get an incredibly powerful bump from just redeploying cash flows from, say, the healthcare portfolio, the residential mortgage portfolio, public finance. If you think about maybe one way to look at it is over the next 12 months, we will have about, call it $200 million of principal cash flows from those portfolios as well as throw franchise finance in there as well at call it a blended 4% to 4.5% rate. Those are being redeployed 3 to 350 basis points higher. I guess the way to think about a rate hike for us is if we did not have a rate hike, if we had no rate hikes in the model, understanding that we are going to get less deposit leverage as more CDs roll off.
Ken Lovik: Let us just say NIM would be up 20 basis points Q4 2027 versus Q4 2026. That increase gets cut in half. That would go to perhaps 10 basis points of NIM increase. So our expectation is to continue growing NII, and we do expect NIM expansion. It will just be a little bit muted because of the impact of rate hikes.
Tim Switzer: Okay. That is very clear. Appreciate it. The other follow-up I have is as we look into 2027, I know it is a little uncertain, but how can we think about the trajectory of some of the key credit metrics and provision costs as we move throughout the year?
Ken Lovik: Yeah. I think the way that we are looking at it, we gave some outlook on what we think Q4 is going to look like. I think a conservative approach would be to say take our Q4 and run rate that for the year. We hope that we can come in better than that, but I think that might be a conservative way to model it as you look at 2027.
Tim Switzer: Got it. Okay. Well, thank you guys for taking my questions.
Ken Lovik: Yep. Thanks, Tim.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Brett Rabatin with StoneX. Brett, your line is open, and thank you for your patience.
Brett Rabatin: Hey, everyone. Can you hear me okay?
Ken Lovik: Yeah. We can hear you loud and clear this time.
Brett Rabatin: Can you guys hear me?
Ken Lovik: Yeah, we can hear you great. Thanks.
Brett Rabatin: Yeah. I don't know what happened. Anyway, wanted to just go back to the guidance and just thinking about the various numbers. The margin guidance for the Q4, Ken Lovik, essentially, we're kind of looking at 15 basis points up on average earning asset yields and 15 basis points down on funding costs. Is that a fair way to think about the Q4 dynamic with the margin? The NII guide related to that would kind of suggest flattish earning assets in Q4 relative to Q3. Are those two things kind of in your ballpark of thinking, or any thoughts on those two line items?
Ken Lovik: No. You probably see on average some growth in interest-earning assets. Again, it kind of comes back to the thing you need to think about, and as I explained to Tim Switzer and Nicole Lorch talked about was just the redeployment of cash flows coming from lower-yielding portfolios. One thing, too, in the Q4 in terms of the impact of the September rate hike. Certain of our fintech deposits all kind of reprice in different cadence. So while we will get a benefit of a full pretty much across the board on all of our assets. Some of that rate hike, the impact on fintech deposits kind of has to get layered in over the course of a few months. So we don't really feel the full impact of a rate hike
Ken Lovik: immediately on all of our fintech deposits. But I do think deposit costs will probably be flattish, but the earning asset yields should be up, should continue to grow as they did last quarter. I think one thing you probably need to think about when you do the math on that is the large relationship that David Becker talked about and some other interest reversals. Those did impact margin in the past in Q3 by 9 basis points. They impacted loan yields by 12 basis points. So from period over period, the growth might seem like a lot, but when you take into effect what we had to reverse out, I think the growth is more, it's strong because of the assets we're putting on the books today. But it might not be as eye-popping as if you're just doing the math right now.
Brett Rabatin: Okay. That's helpful. On credit, wanted to ask, obviously you had the franchise finance issue this quarter that was seemed to be a bit unexpected, but just wanted to see if there were underlying trends with franchise finance or the SBA portfolio relative to maybe a quarter ago. Then just wanted to get an update. I know that the Q2 substandard or special mention loans were higher due to those commercial real estate loans, those four properties in the non-owner occupied bucket that are going to go through stabilization. Just wanted to see how that was trending for those credits as well.
David Becker: Two of the four credits have been, I guess, raising the ratings on them. They're back to performing and everything's according to plan. We did have a couple others. The regulators made it pretty clear if they're slow on construction and slow on lease up, obviously there's some crazy weather going on all across the United States right now. So we have very few construction projects 100% on target and on time that they want us to change the ratings on them because they're not performing to the original plan. So we've had loans move in and loans move out, but we're not worried about credit on any of those loans at the current time. There's no big change other than things are getting better in the SBA and the franchise pools.
David Becker: The one loan that we had to, by policy, take the hit on at the tail end, it was literally the Friday afternoon at 4:00PM when we got word that the loan refinance was not going to come through before quarter end, and we made that adjustment. It's a great customer. He's talking with us, working with us. He's got a business person. He's a multi-franchise owner of different franchises and stuff, and he's got an outside counsel working with him to stabilize his organization, and we think we're going to recover. We had credit committee this morning. Nobody's sweating. We feel at the current time we've more than reserved for that loan and issues. But overall, as the delinquency fell Q3 versus Q2, going into Q4, we're starting off with a pretty clean slate and we're looking good for year-end.
David Becker: As Ken said, if you take the charge-offs we did have Q1 and Q2, take where we're going to be anticipated in the Q4, we definitely moved the needles by millions over the course of the year. We think that's a conservative guesstimate. If you just take that number, run it forward into 2027, that we can even do better than that. So no fear on this side. Like you say, we had an incident with the one loan, but everything else is right on target, doing exactly what we thought it would be doing.
Brett Rabatin: Okay. If I could sneak in one last one just around SBA, thinking about that business into 2027. You have obviously taken a more measured approach to it. This year, you have ratcheted it down on the underwriting standards, and that has led to reduced originations and gain on sale trends. Is there more ratcheting still to happen that could reduce that further in 2027? Do we grow in 2027 on SBA? Just any thoughts on where you see that business trending relative to Q4?
Nicole Lorch: Sure. Thanks for the question, Brett. We are looking forward to 2027 being stronger in terms of origination volume than it has been in 2026. The SBA across the country, production has been off. SBA recently issued new SOPs that were effective 1 October that changed some of the parameters for business acquisition lending, which is a key component of our SBA program. But much of what SBA is now requiring were things that we had, like quality of earnings reports, for instance, on certain size deals. We were already doing that, have been doing that for a year. I think the largest and most tightening that we did in underwriting guidelines was about a year ago this time.
Nicole Lorch: We are getting back to normalizing our volume as our lenders have pivoted, have reached out to new referral sources, and in some ways have even been trying to diversify the types of deals. We are also seeing that the loan size on average is coming down a bit. So even if loan numbers might, they are a little softer, but you are going to see a bigger impact on production volume because the average loan size has gone from a little over $2 million to, year to date, it has been more like $1.8 million. Some of that is because we were seeing disproportionate credit struggles with the larger size loans. So we have put more scrutiny on those new loans as they are coming through origination for approval. So the loan size has been coming in over the last two years, which is also then going to impact volume.
Brett Rabatin: Okay. That is helpful, Nicole. Thanks for all the color.
Nicole Lorch: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Race with Piper Sandler. Nathan, your line is open.
Nathan Race: Thanks. Afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. Just going back to the margin discussion a bit. Just curious what the deposit growth expectations are for Q4 and thinking about just the size of the balance sheet and earning assets and to what extent that margin guide contemplates cash coming down. It looked like it was a bit elevated in the quarter relative to Q2. Not sure if you could share some thoughts on those topics.
Ken Lovik: Yeah, I think at quarter end, our cash balance was elevated. It happens probably more frequently than not because of month-end, quarter-end payment activity from one of our fintech partners, their clients. So the period end balance was up. But even if you look at the quarter balance in cash, it was elevated relative to where it has been. We do expect that cash balance to start coming down. Maybe the average balance hopefully will be down about $100 million or so if we look into Q4 and into next year. A little hard to predict that, but that's what we're forecasting right now. As you're putting that cash to use, it's kind of the same thing as redeploying the cash flows from the lower yielding portfolios. So we got a little bit of earning asset growth.
Ken Lovik: We will have some scheduled larger paydowns in construction happening in this Q4. So the period end balance may be certainly lower than what the average is going to be. But it will be deposit growth to support that. A little bit unpredictable just because of the timing of when fintech deposits come on. But we do try to push as much of that off as we can to try to start to increase that loans to deposit ratio. But kind of all in all, loan growth should be higher than deposit growth because we are putting that excess cash to work.
Nathan Race: Okay. Got it. Can you just remind me, I apologize, I hopped on late, just kind of what the loan growth expectations are for the Q4 and then as you get into 2027 as well?
Ken Lovik: For the Q4, like I said, period end might be flattish because as I said, we do have some large payoffs occurring later this quarter in the construction bucket. But the average balance should be up kind of maybe low to mid-single digits. I think as we look into next year, we are obviously still working on our forecast for next year. But again, kind of coming back to a comment Nicole Lorch made, we do not have to grow the loan portfolio at a high rate to drive what we would call continued significant growth in NII. So if we are thinking about loan growth for next year, let us just call it 10%. But we fully expect NII to be up much higher than 10% next year.
Nathan Race: Got it. Okay. Just kind of unpacking the margin drivers around Fed rate hikes or just kind of the key factors that I think you alluded to earlier. Can you just update us in terms of your index deposit levels, maybe on a dollar percentage basis of total deposits? I think you mentioned the floating rate loans as well and how that proportion has increased. But could you just give us maybe the breakdown more specifically between prime and SOFR, just given that SOFR moved ahead of the February hike at September?
Ken Lovik: I guess the way to look at it is probably everything in the investor commercial real estate and the construction bucket is SOFR based. Everything in the SBA bucket, the small business lending, that is prime based. I think where we feel good on the front end of the curve heading into, again, a potentially rate hiking cycle is that, as I said, the period end deposits were elevated, cash was elevated. But if we kind of normalize some of the payments programs we do for our fintech borrowers, you could probably say in Q3, normalized deposits from fintech and others that were tied to Fed funds were, call it $1.9 billion. If I look on the other side of the balance sheet, though, we have, as we said on the call, we are 57% fixed, 43% variable or adjustable rate today.
Ken Lovik: That 43% translates into, call it somewhere between $1.6 billion, $1.7 billion. But if you extend that to our securities portfolio where we have been buying variable rate bonds as well that are generally, again, those are tied to SOFR or prime. That is another $400 million to $500 million. So we got $2.1 billion of assets that reprice immediately as well, or immediately or within the next 3 months. I think we have done a lot of things on the balance sheet side to make the asset side far more variable rate. It obviously gives us a lot of protection going into a potentially tightening rate cycle.
Nathan Race: Yep. Indeed. Got you. I am sure it is kind of middle innings of your budget and planning process for next year, but you are tracking for with the Q4 guide, 10% expense growth this year. Any kind of early thoughts on kind of what the expense growth outlook looks like for next year, particularly if you are growing loans kind of 10%-ish, as you alluded to?
Ken Lovik: No, I think we will come in lower than that. I think it will speak to some of the comments that Nicole Lorch made about operating leverage and our increasing use of AI to streamline. I will tell you, we do not have a lot of new, I do not think we have any brand-new positions to hire for for next year. We might replace some people, but certainly any headcount, any increases in the compensation line item is really going to just have to do with merit and truing up bonuses. As Nicole Lorch talked about, SBA production is expected to be up next year, so we will have higher commissions there. We will continue our construction business as well, so there is incentive comp there.
Ken Lovik: But I think across the board, other than perhaps some of the, as our fintech programs begin to grow, especially on the lending side and paid program management fees, there will probably be some increase in that loan expense line item there. But most other line items are expected to be either flat to just modestly up. So when you boil all that together, it is much less than a 10% expense growth.
Nathan Race: Okay, great. Then maybe one last one for David Becker. Is there a specific TCE or capital ratio target you are looking for to maybe reenter the market and start buying back shares?
David Becker: From my perspective, rather than buying back shares, I would rather throw out some more loans and make some more money. So, yeah, I think from the capital standpoint, we are good and we are operating within the right parameters. But if we can grow capital, I think we will grow balance sheet and add more loans and activity. We got an awful lot of cash sitting on the sideline. If we can put it to work, then goes up, earnings go up, everything works to our favor. So rather than buy back, I think we will use it to expand the balance sheet.
Nathan Race: Okay. Got it. I appreciate all the color. Thanks, everyone.
Ken Lovik: Thanks, Nate.
Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to David Becker for closing remarks.
David Becker: Thanks, Trevor, and thank everybody for joining us today and all your thoughtful questions. We are sorry for the little snafu we had, but apparently it worked out great on your end. It was a little choppy on our side, but as just discussed here, particularly during the Q&A, we are really pleased with the progress that we made this past quarter. We are even more optimistic about Q4 and where we are going into 2027. So we appreciate your continued support and look forward to updating you again at the end of next quarter. Have a good evening.
Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
Operator: This event has now concluded. Thank you for joining First Internet.
