NIM declined to 3.13% from 3.29%. President and CEO John Montgomery stated, “Our third quarter results, while impacted by pressures on funding costs, continue to support our model of investing in our franchise and focusing on delivering an exceptional client experience. As we have noted for several quarters, the net interest margin compression continues as our customers respond to the overall increase in market interest rates, while being partially offset by the gradual and increasing shift in our asset base from consumer loans into higher yielding commercial and industrial loans and commercial real estate loans. We continued to make investments in our team, resulting in substantial loan growth and onboarding of new relationships. We firmly believe that the challenges of the economic environment provide an opportunity for quality relationship growth, increasing our long term franchise value and benefiting all of our stakeholders. In addition to our loan growth, our asset quality remains strong with nonperforming assets to total assets decreasing from the previous quarter. During the quarter, significant progress was made on a number of strategic initiatives, including investing in technology and refreshing our branch network, creating the physical environment for technology and our team members to work cohesively in serving our customers. Additionally, we also declared and paid a $0.25 cash dividend during the quarter, continuing our commitment to our shareholders.” Montgomery concluded, “As I have noted previously, we remain focused on maintaining solid capital and liquidity positions as we continue to navigate the challenging economic environment and position ourselves for the future.”
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