Reports Q4 revenue $142.4M, consensus $154.2M. Reports Q4 net interest margin 2.67% vs. 4.14% y/y. "We delivered another solid quarter and are extremely pleased with our 2022 results despite the challenging interest rate and economic environment," said Customers Bancorp CEO, Jay Sidhu. "Our Q4 2022 GAAP earnings were negatively impacted by after-tax securities net losses of $13.5 million, or $0.41 per diluted share, which will benefit net interest margin in the short-term and has an earn back of roughly one year as well as after-tax net losses on PPP loans of $6.0 million, or $0.18 per diluted share. However, we are very pleased to report that Q4 2022 earnings from the core bank* were $1.37 per diluted share, beating internal targets and estimates, and bringing full year 2022 core earnings (excluding PPP)* per share to $6.51. Our responsible organic growth strategy is laser focused on credit quality with 90% of our growth in low credit risk verticals. We have taken prudent risk management strategic actions over the past several quarters to ensure we are well positioned from a capital, credit, liquidity and earnings perspective especially as we head into a highly uncertain 2023. We are also pleased to report that we beat the upper end of our 2022 core earnings per share, excluding PPP* target of $4.75 – $5.00 by 13%, even before considering the Q3 2022 pre-tax provision release of $36.8 million. Core loan* growth in 2022 was led by increases in low-risk variable rate specialty lending verticals of $3.0 billion. Asset quality remains exceptional and credit reserves are extremely robust at 426% of total non-performing loans. Our loan and deposit pipelines remain strong and we are very focused on improving our margins, moderating our growth, controlling our expenses, actively buying back common shares to the extent we are trading below book value, and creating exceptional value for our shareholders. We remain very optimistic about our future."
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