Cullen/Frost (CFR) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

DATE

Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chairman and CEO - Phil Green
• Group Executive Vice President and CFO - Dan Geddes
• Senior Vice President and Director of Investor Relations - AB Mendez

TAKEAWAYS

• Net Income -- $178.5 million, representing a 3.4% increase compared to the third quarter of last year.
• Diluted EPS -- $2.84, growing 6.4% from $2.67 in the third quarter of last year.
• Average Loans -- $23.4 billion, reflecting a 9% increase driven by broad-based growth across commercial and consumer segments.
• Average Deposits -- $43.6 billion, rising 3.6% primarily through increases in money market deposit balances and organic branch expansion.
• Net Interest Margin -- 3.78%, representing an increase of 3 basis points from the second quarter due to a volume mix shift from lower-yielding cash into loans and securities.
• Consumer Loan Portfolio -- $4.66 billion, increasing 18.7% year over year, with the mortgage portfolio surpassing $1 billion.
• Weighted Loan Pipeline -- $2.5 billion, reaching an all-time high and increasing 16% compared to the record set in the second quarter.
• Core Loan Commitments -- $1.2 billion, representing a record for loans under $10 million booked during the third quarter.
• Problem Loans -- $902 million, reflecting a slight decrease from $917 million in the second quarter.
• Non-performing Assets -- $67 million, or 28 basis points of period-end loans, decreasing from $114 million in the second quarter following the payoff of a large multifamily loan.
• Net Charge-offs -- $8.4 million, or 14 basis points of average loans, compared to $9.5 million in the second quarter.
• Branch Expansion Accretion -- $0.22 per share, accounting for 8.4% of total earnings per share in the third quarter.
• Investment Portfolio -- $21.2 billion on average, up $592 million from the previous quarter with a tax-equivalent yield of 4.09%.
• Unrealized Loss -- $2 billion on the available-for-sale portfolio, increasing from $1.1 billion at the end of the second quarter due to rising interest rates.
• Interest-Bearing Deposit Cost -- 1.73%, rising 12 basis points from 1.61% in the prior quarter.
• Full-Year NII Guidance -- 5% to 5.5% growth, representing an increase from the previous guidance range of 4.75% to 5.25%.
• Full-Year Loan Growth Guidance -- 8% to 8.5%, raised from the prior range of 7% to 8%.
• Non-interest Income Guidance -- 8.5% to 9% growth, increased from the previous expectation of 7.5% to 8.5%.
• Stock Repurchases -- $15 million, utilized to buy back 93,000 shares during the third quarter.
• New Relationships -- More than 1,000 added during the quarter, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of reaching that relationship addition level.

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RISKS

• Phil Green stated, "Interest rates impact things, so we'll continue to look at those as we move forward," regarding potential pressure on older vintage multifamily commercial real estate projects.
• Dan Geddes noted that the current interest rate environment could hinder deposit growth for the banking industry in the near term as customers seek higher yields elsewhere.

SUMMARY

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR) reported third quarter results driven by organic growth and expanding market share in Texas. Management stated that the company achieved record loan pipelines and strong relationship additions, specifically noting a 73% increase in new relationships from market disruption. The company raised its full-year 2026 guidance for net interest income and average loan growth to reflect sustained business activity. CFO Dan Geddes noted that the branch expansion program contributed $0.22 to quarterly earnings per share while supporting both loan and deposit acquisition. Management indicated that the consumer mortgage product serves as a strategic tool for acquiring new customer households, with a significant portion of those clients opening additional products.

• Phil Green stated, "Opportunities created by other banks' mergers and acquisitions, what we call market disruption, continues to be a strong source of new relationships for us."
• The company reported an 80% win rate on opportunities resulting from market disruption, up from its historical average win rate of approximately one-third.
• Management stated that 46% of mortgage customers since the program's inception have been new to the bank, and 37% of those new customers have opened additional products.
• The company plans to accelerate its branch expansion by opening 14 new locations in 2027, following 12 planned openings for the full year of 2026.
• Dan Geddes noted, "Investment purchases during the quarter totaled $1.6 billion, consisting of $625 million of agency MBS securities yielding 5.69%, $494 million of Treasuries yielding 4.21%, and $481 million of municipals yielding 5.89% on a tax-equivalent basis."
• The company implemented a strategy to purchase $750 million in Treasury bill bonds in January 2027, which provided a $5.5 million non-interest income benefit in the fourth quarter.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• C&I: Commercial and Industrial loans, typically made to businesses for working capital or capital expenditures.
• DDA: Demand Deposit Account, a bank account from which deposited funds can be withdrawn at any time without advance notice.
• NIM: Net Interest Margin, a measure of the difference between the interest income generated by a bank and the interest paid out to its lenders.
• PSF: Permanent School Fund, a state-backed insurance program in Texas used to enhance the credit rating of municipal bonds.
• CRE: Commercial Real Estate, property used exclusively for business-related purposes or to provide a workspace.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Thank you for your patience. The conference will be beginning in just a few moments. Again, thank you for your patience. We will be beginning in just a few moments. Greetings. Welcome to Cullen/Frost Bankers Incorporated Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to AB Mendez, Senior Vice President and Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

AB Mendez: Thanks, Sherry. This afternoon's conference call will be led by Phil Green, Chairman and CEO, and Dan Geddes, Group Executive Vice President and CFO. Before I turn the call over to Phil and Dan, I need to take a moment to address the safe harbor provisions. Some of the remarks made today will constitute forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended. We intend such statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended. Please see the last page of text in this morning's earnings release for additional information about the risk factors associated with these forward-looking statements.

If needed, a copy of the release is available on our website or by calling the investor relations department at 210-220-5234. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Phil.

Phil Green: Thanks, AB. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Today, we'll review the third quarter 2026 results for Cullen/Frost, and our Chief Financial Officer, Dan Geddes, will also provide additional comments and guidance updates before we take your questions. The third quarter of 2026, Cullen/Frost earned $178.5 million, an increase of 3.4% compared to the third quarter of last year. Per share earnings for the third quarter were $2.84, an increase of 6.4% from $2.67 in the third quarter of last year. Our return on average assets and average common equity in the third quarter were 1.31% and 16.16% respectively, and that compares with 1.32% and 16.72% in the third quarter of last year.

Average deposits in the third quarter were $43.6 billion. That was an increase of 3.6% from the previous year, and average loans grew to $23.4 billion, up 9% from last year. Our consumer bank continues to deliver strong results that are grounded in consistent focus on customer experience and our investments in organic expansion, products, and technology. Consumer loans ended the quarter at $4.66 billion, an increase of $736 million or 18.7% year-over-year. Consumer real estate lending continues to drive this outstanding growth, and I'm happy to say that as I speak to you today, our mortgage portfolio exceeds $1 billion. Mortgage lending also remains an important opportunity to build broader relationships.

Since the program began, 46% of mortgage customers have been new to Frost, and 37% of those new customers have opened additional products. Consumer deposits also saw strong growth in what continues to be a very competitive market. Consumer deposits increased $297 million in the third quarter, driven primarily by increases in money market deposit balances. This growth is only possible through the focused effort of our sales, product, marketing, and technology teams, and of course, through the world-class customer experiences provided every day by our frontline bankers in every Frost branch throughout the state. Non-interest income continued to grow strongly, driven by our consistently best-in-class customer growth.

Consumer non-interest income increased $2.6 million, or 9.4% compared to the same period last year. Since launching our expansion program in late 2018, consumer checking accounts have grown 52%. Our commercial line of business is also showing impressive growth. Our 90-day weighted loan pipeline reached an all-time high of $2.5 billion in the third quarter, up 16% compared to what had been the previous record in the second quarter. Opportunities generated by our legacy financial centers grew by 14% in the third quarter, while opportunities generated by our expansion locations grew by 37%. Looking at new loan commitments booked, the third quarter was up 4% from a very strong second quarter, putting year-to-date commitments up by 19%.

Commitments of what we call core loans, that is those loans under $10 million, hit a record of $1.2 billion in the third quarter. We once again added more than 1,000 new relationships in the third quarter. The expansion continues to be a significant driver of commercial relationships and accounted for 21% of new commercial relationships for the quarter. Opportunities created by other banks' mergers and acquisitions, what we call market disruption, continues to be a strong source of new relationships for us. Year to date, new relationships from market disruption are up 73% compared to the same period last year. Our overall credit quality remains good by historical standards.

Total problem loans, which we define as those risk grade 10 or worse, totaled $902 million at the end of the third quarter, compared to $917 million last quarter and $828 million a year ago. Non-performing assets totaled $67 million at the end of the third quarter, compared to $114 million in the second quarter and $47 million a year ago. The quarter end non-performing asset figure represents only 28 basis points of period end loans and 12 basis points of total assets. The decrease in non-performers mainly relates to one large multifamily commercial real estate loan that was discussed in last quarter's call that paid off in full through an expected property sale in the third quarter.

Net charge-offs for the third quarter were $8.4 million, compared to $9.5 million last quarter and $6.6 million a year ago. Annualized net charge-offs for the third quarter represent only 14 basis points of average loans. In our last conference call, I mentioned my optimism about our efforts around expanding our wealth management insurance brokerage business. In our wealth management business, we saw managed accounts grow by more than 5% year-over-year. In our Frost Insurance Agency, commercial customers increased by more than 10% year-over-year. I'm proud of the way these teams have responded to the changes that we've made in those areas, particularly in an increasing competitive environment that they operate in.

Our continued efforts and investment in these areas will contribute to future results. All across our company, our people continue to serve customers and shareholders with their commitment to integrity, caring, and excellence. We've got the best bankers and the best markets, and that's what will continue to set Frost apart. With that, I'll turn it over to Dan for some additional insights.

Dan Geddes: Thank you, Phil. Let me start by providing some perspective on our branch expansion strategy and the growth we're seeing from those investments. During the third quarter, our branch expansion delivered $0.22, or 8.4% EPS accretion, and $0.51 year to date, or 6.6% of EPS accretion. We continue to be pleased with the volumes we've been able to achieve. On a year-over-year basis, average loans grew 40% and now represent 13.9% of total loans, up from 10.8% a year ago, and contributed 48% of the growth. Deposits grew 23% and now represent 9.1% of deposits versus 7.6% in the same period last year, and contributed 49% of the growth.

The expansion branches have now grown to $3.25 billion in loans and $4 billion in deposits. Since our last call, we opened one new location in the Dallas region and have four planned openings by year-end, bringing the total for the year to 12 locations. Now moving to third quarter financial performance for the company. Regarding our net interest margin, our net interest margin percentage was 3.78% for the quarter, up 3 basis points from 3.75% reported last quarter. Net interest margin was positively impacted by a volume mix shift of earning assets from lower yielding balances held at the Fed into both loans and investment securities. These were somewhat offset by both increased volumes of interest-bearing deposits and repos.

Looking at our investment portfolio, the total investment portfolio averaged $21.2 billion during the third quarter, up $592 million from the previous quarter. Investment purchases during the quarter totaled $1.6 billion, consisting of $625 million of agency MBS securities yielding 5.69%, $494 million of Treasuries yielding 4.21%, and $481 million of municipals yielding 5.89% on a tax-equivalent basis. Maturities during the quarter included $1 billion of Treasuries with an average yield of 2.88%, $257 million of municipals at an average tax-equivalent yield of 4.45%, and $368 million of agency MBS paydowns.

Given the recent run-up in rates, the net unrealized loss on the available-for-sale portfolio at the end of the quarter increased to $2 billion compared to the $1.1 billion reported at the end of the previous quarter. The tax-equivalent yield on the total investment portfolio during the quarter was 4.09%, up 13 basis points from the previous quarter. The taxable portfolio averaged $14.1 billion, up $496 million from the prior quarter, and had a yield of 3.68%, up 17 basis points from 3.51% in the prior quarter. Our tax-exempt municipal portfolio averaged $7.2 billion, flat with the prior quarter, and had a taxable equivalent yield of 4.93%, up six basis points from the prior quarter.

At the end of the third quarter, approximately 70% of the municipal portfolio was pre-refunded or PSF insured. The duration of the investment portfolio at the end of the quarter was five years, up from 4.9 years at the end of the prior quarter. Looking at our funding sources, on a linked quarter basis, average total deposits of $43.6 billion were up $950 million from the previous quarter. The increase was approximately 65% in interest-bearing and 35% in non-interest-bearing deposits. Thus far in October, deposit growth continues to show momentum with the average deposits for the month sitting at $44.4 billion.

The cost of interest-bearing deposits in the third quarter was 1.73%, up 12 basis points from the 1.61% in the second quarter. Customer repos for the third quarter averaged $4.9 billion, up $471 million from the second quarter. The cost of customer repos for the quarter was 2.67%, up 2 basis points from the second quarter. Looking at non-interest income and expenses, I'll point out a couple of items impacting the linked quarter results. Regarding non-interest income, other income was up $9.1 million, which included $7.6 million in gains from the sales of two legacy motor bank locations and a $541,000 gain on the sale of certain loans held for sale.

Offsetting these gains was $7.5 million in losses on the sales of securities where we sold $17 million in Treasuries yielding 2.15% and $18.6 million in municipals yielding 1.92%. Given year-to-date actual performance, we recognized an additional $4.7 million in incentive compensation expense accruals during the quarter. Additionally, marketing and advertising was up $3.3 million due primarily to additional targeted media spend during the quarter. Regarding our guidance for full year 2026, our current outlook includes one 25-basis point hike for the Fed funds rate in December. We expect net interest income growth for the full year to fall in the range of 5%-5.5%. This reflects an increase from our prior guidance range of 4.75%-5.25%.

For net interest margin, we continue to expect an improvement of about 10 basis poins-13 basis points compared to our full year 2025 net interest margin of 3.66%, no change from our guidance a quarter ago. We expect full-year average loan growth to be in the range of 8%-8.5%. This increases the prior guidance of 7%-8%. Regarding deposits, we expect full-year average growth to be in the range of 2%-3%, unchanged from prior guidance. Based on current projections, we expect non-interest income growth of 8.5%-9%, up from the prior guidance range of 7.5%-8.5%. Regarding non-interest expense, we expect growth to be in the 5% range year-over-year.

It is at the upper end of the prior guidance of 4.5%-5%, and it is impacted by the additional incentive accruals and advertising expense mentioned earlier. Regarding net charge-offs, we expect full year 2026 to be in the range of 15-20 basis points of average loans, consistent with prior quarter guidance. Our effective tax rate expectation for full year 2026 is in the range of 15.5%-16%, consistent with the prior quarter. Regarding stock repurchases, I want to mention that during the third quarter, we utilized $15 million of our $300 million approved share repurchase plan to buy back approximately 93,000 shares, bringing total share repurchases for the year to $175 million and 1.26 million shares.

With that, I will turn the call back over to Phil for questions.

Phil Green: Thank you, Dan. Okay, we will open the call up for questions now.

Operator: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue, and for participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. We ask that you please limit to one question and one follow-up question and re-queue for additional questions. Our first question is from Will Jones with KBW. Please proceed.

Will Jones: Yeah. Hey, thanks. Good afternoon, guys.

Phil Green: Hey, Will.

Dan Geddes: Hey, Will.

Will Jones: Hey, I wanted to start on loan growth. Obviously, a really good result this quarter. Could you just dissect for us just the breakdown between commercial and consumer growth? It doesn't really feel like Frost is having to contend with the same payoff headwinds that maybe others are. I guess maybe, is that a fair comment? Just commentary you could give us around growth you saw in the quarter, that would be great. Thank you.

Phil Green: Okay. I think I'll talk about it in an overall way. We just heard from all our relationship managers with the feedback they give us as we prepare for our board meetings and to an extent, this call. I've made numerous visits to branches. By this time, I've visited most all of our markets. What I'll tell you is I've been surprised by the durability of activity and loan growth throughout this year, even as rates have moved up. As we talk to our people, they will tell you we're fighting headwinds. That we're fighting competitive headwinds with really good customers. There's big time competition against those and against those prospects.

I think that we're seeing smaller banks be more aggressive on structure, in many cases, things that you typically wouldn't do or see. But as they've told me, there's enough business out there that we're able to be successful enough to have these kinds of growth numbers. We talked about the number of disruption relationships that we've had. When we say they're up 73%, that means they've gone from, in round numbers, we had 150 new relationships last year. We're over 250 this year. So that helps some. On the consumer side, the mortgage product has been so successful and continues to become a recognized high-value product in the marketplace.

So, Will, honestly, it's very granular, and it's just very normal what we're seeing, where our people are working hard. We've got a great brand. There's disruption in the marketplace. One other thing I might say is that I have heard a few times that as rates began to move up, there was a bit of a fear of missing out and not wanting to see rates go higher and taking advantage of the rate that you see in the market today. So I think there's been a bit of that also.

But I guess the final thing I'll say is we have instructed our people to be competitive, and we don't want to do anything stupid, and there are structural things you don't want to do. But as we've said a number of times through these calls this year, we're a low-cost producer as it relates to funding, and we don't want to lose a great relationship, high character relationship, a great prospect that we've been after just for a few basis points. So we're willing to compete on price, and we've been doing that. So it's just a whole lot of things. It's not one thing, and it's been very successful in my view right now.

Dan Geddes: Will, I'll add just what I'm seeing is it's broad-based. I think you'll look at our growth on a linked quarter basis, and about 40% of it is what I'll call C&I related, both a C&I loan, but also what we secure with real estate, we call an owner-occupied real estate loan. That's about 40%. Another 40% is kind of the investor commercial real estate. Then really the majority of the other 20% is what Phil mentioned is our consumer real estate, our one to four family mortgage product. I think Phil mentioned the 1,000 new commercial relationships, I think it's around 42% of our loan growth is attributed to new customers that we've brought on in the last year.

Phil Green: Yeah, Dan, I think that we've had over 1,000 relationships for what, six quarters in a row?

Dan Geddes: Consecutive quarters. As Phil mentioned, we've seen an uptick. Typically, we would get half of our new relationships from the too-big-to-fail banks, and then the other half from the other regional community banks that we compete with. Now that number is more like 40% from the too-big-to-fail, and then the making up that difference is around this 10% from what we call the market disruption banks. As he mentioned, it's up nearly 75% year over year. You've seen an uptick in new relationships, and it's really, I think, encouraging because that cohort is heavily C&I related. When we look at what we're winning, it's what we would call kind of core C&I relationships in the communities that we're serving.

Phil Green: You might also mention, Dan, the percentage win rate business.

Dan Geddes: Typically, when I go back, and this was reports that I have looked at for 20 something years of my career, for a prospect on a dollar basis, we would typically win around a third of those opportunities on a dollar basis. We are currently hovering around 78% of won opportunities from the banks that are going through mergers and acquisitions. It has been a highly effective campaign, that in my previous experience being a banker out in the Houston market for 20 years, it has a long tail to it.

It usually lasts at least a 2-year period where I think if you are a business owner or if you are a consumer and your bank gets acquired, some people will leave immediately. Others will maybe hang around and see how the new organization runs, and may grow frustrated within six months, a year, or two years. It may coincide with renewal of a credit if the credit culture has changed. It is early on, but we are pleased with the results.

Will Jones: Well, that is great. A lot of great color from both of you guys, so appreciate that. Dan, maybe one for you, just outlook for deposit costs. I recall last cycle rates move up that Frost was an early mover on deposit costs. Not a defense mechanism, but just because you thought it was the right thing to do for the customer. Is that going to be the same playbook here to the extent we do get a few rate hikes? If you could just help us out with the outlook for deposit costs and maybe what you expect betas to look like in this cycle.

Dan Geddes: Right now, we are anticipating kind of a, I would say, I will give you kind of what our expectation on loan and deposit beta is. It would be around 80% for the loans. Then from an interest-bearing perspective, we would expect maybe a similar basis, but from an overall deposit perspective, it will be around 50%-55% beta. So you should see us pick up margin as if rates were to go up into 2027.

Will Jones: Yeah. Okay. That is great. Well, thank you guys. Appreciate it.

Phil Green: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Jared Shaw with Barclays. Please proceed.

Jared Shaw: Thanks. Good afternoon. I guess starting on the expense side, you highlighted the expectation for four more branches to bring to 12 this year. Is that still a good sort of annual expectation for you as you look at future branch expansion? With that, can we still expect to see positive operating leverage?

Dan Geddes: On the expansion, I mentioned we expect to open 12 this year. Looking into 2027, we have I think 14 planned, so inflecting a little higher. I think that's, I would say that's 12-15 in the near term with I think the opportunity to continue to Our branch expansion has just been very successful, and I don't see us slowing down. In fact, I would tend to see over time us open up more than the 12-15. On your second question, we still have our budget to complete for 2027. I would say in looking at just the guidance that I gave for 2026, you're looking at for 2026, 50 to 75 basis point operating leverage.

For next year, we would hope for positive operating leverage maybe in that same area or range. We still have some As we've mentioned before, the wealth management is an area that we made some leadership changes in this year and late last year, and we've added some really strong leaders. We'll need some strong producers or wealth advisors to add into 2027 and 2028. I think that you'll see us invest in our wealth management business in 2027.

Jared Shaw: Okay. All right, thanks. I guess on the fee income side, the guide for Q4 implies sort of a continued healthy growth. Should we think that could start to accelerate once you get traction with the planned wealth management hires?

Dan Geddes: Yes. I'll point out the fourth quarter is impacted by a put that we put in place for some Treasury bill bonds that we're going to purchase in January. They're $250 million each for three-year, four-year, and five-year, that we just decided to exercise a put, and we have about $5.5 million benefit to non-interest income in the fourth quarter. That's going to help that fourth quarter growth number.

Jared Shaw: Thanks.

Dan Geddes: But I guess going into your question on wealth management, there's a lot of factors going into next year. I would say that it's just too early to tell. There's a ramp-up from the hiring to the advisor producing. I would say that a typical ramp rate might be 12-18 months before that producer is really paying yourself back. I think it will be a long-term investment.

Operator: Our next question is from Ebrahim Poonawala with Bank of America. Please proceed.

Ebrahim Poonawala: Hey, good afternoon. I guess just a question around, I guess maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way. When we think about, or at least when I think about the branch expansion, I do believe as you get sort of customer primacy that should drive deposit growth and your non-interest-bearing deposit growth has been quite strong, including this quarter. Just talk to us as we look forward the next year or two, is it your expectation that loan growth will exceed deposit growth? Is that a result of it's too competitive and given the makeup of your balance sheet, you don't need to be super aggressive to chase rate-sensitive deposits?

Dan Geddes: I think that right now it's with the interest rate environment, there still is an opportunity for both individuals and corporate controllers to go seek yield. Deposit growth has been just for the industry below loan growth. We're certainly, I think hitting above our weight in both categories. I would say for the near term, you're probably right in that loan growth, we have the ability to go acquire relationships with that loan growth. We're not going out there growing our loan book just to grow it. I mentioned kind of that owner-occupied category. Those loans are specifically designed as relationship loans. They're not transactional real estate loans.

I think over time I think we've shown the ability to grow deposits in a lower interest rate environment at a higher rate. I think that's the backdrop, Ebrahim, is just the interest rate environment that would hinder deposit growth.

Ebrahim Poonawala: Got it. I just wanted to follow up. I think if I heard it correctly, Phil, in your prepared remarks about half the mortgage customers new to Frost, and I believe, I think you said one-third of those added a second product.

Phil Green: Almost half.

Ebrahim Poonawala: Almost half. Okay. I guess my question was, historically, we viewed the mortgage product as commoditized, rate sensitive, most of them are securitized market. Are you seeing, just based on what you've seen over the last year or two, as the mortgage product reliably becoming something that becomes a relatively sticky client acquisition tool? It sounds like it's happening at least with half the customers.

Phil Green: It is. I said almost half. It is really almost 40%, but still a really good number as far as the secondary products they are bringing on. Ebrahim, you are right. That is how we are seeing it. You recall we may have talked about this before, but we had a rule around here when we started offering this product that nobody could say that we were going in the mortgage business. In fact, if you did, you had to pay five bucks to whoever was here. It cost me 60 bucks in one meeting. I screwed up and said it. But what we wanted is to offer a mortgage product, okay?

Because we had four of the five consumer real estate products, but we did not have mortgage. We were getting the call to have it. We just wanted a high service product that we service, that we would integrate with our overall customer service processes, and including on your mobile app, it is all there, very integrated in an elegant way, a great customer experience as you go through it.

In fact, someone told me last week, I will not name the bank, but it was too-big-to-fail, and that they had gone through the mortgage process in our Austin markets, and said, "It pains me to say this, but I had a fantastic experience." So it is all about providing a product that really expands our relationship. We are servicing them, and so we have a lot of flexibility in terms of how we price them and other things. I would say another thing that drove us this way is we are creating this amazing distribution network around this state of Texas, which is tremendously powerful economic environment.

It is a natural to have that product to push through that distribution system. So all those things work together. One other thing I will say, Ebrahim, and it is a different way of doing it, but we do not have any salespeople, any commissioned salespeople on the street. We just have advisors that help people get into houses, right, and get through the loan process. All those things like that, the commission part of the business and the selling of the assets and all that was a part of the, quote, "business" that we were in before. We are not doing that today.

We are really offering a high-quality service product that people are really enjoying, and we are being really successful in doing it. So that is the way we are thinking about it. I hope I have captured your question within that.

Ebrahim Poonawala: No, that's helpful. If I may sneak in just a follow-up to Dan's response earlier about maybe you could do more than 12-15 branches per year. What's the constraint there? There's a Midwest bank expanding into Texas, 150 branches over the next three years. I'm assuming you mastered the art of opening a branch and the science behind it. Is the constraint capital expenses or finding the right bankers for why that 12-15 could not be 2x?

Phil Green: It's all those things. I think that if we wanted to, we could expand that 15. We have, in a sense, warehoused some of our future locations because we knew others were going to be coming into these markets, and I didn't want to be behind the curve like we were 20 years ago when Wachovia tried to build an organic network in Texas before they failed. They bought up all the great sites, and it was impossible to get a site if you wanted a bank site. So we, a couple of years ago, began putting together sites in communities that weren't quite ready for it, but we thought would be ready for it in a couple of years.

So I feel confident about our warehouse, if you will. It's really important to have the right people. Because it's not just a great location and a great facility. We could put up 100 branches, and it wouldn't do anything. You've got to have the right person leading, and you've got to have the right processes that integrate with your other lines of business and a coordinated approach to developing a trade area, which is what these branches are built to do. That takes time. Could we scale it? Yes. But I'm not confident we would do it quite as well as we're doing right now. Will we be doing more than 15 at some point?

Of course, we will, because the math of it is that to get a consistent percentage on your base that's growing, you have to grow. But right now, I think giving you guys an indication of 15 or so, 12-15 or so a year, I think that's a good indication. We'll let you know if we decide, and you'll see it if we decide to ramp it up.

Dan Geddes: The only other thing I will add is that

Ebrahim Poonawala: Thank you. Go ahead.

Dan Geddes: When we started, I was updating the management team in Houston, then we moved into Dallas, so the Dallas and then Houston, then we moved into Austin, and now we really have it going statewide where we are updating the management team from each of our major regions. I think our reach now is not just one region or two regions. It is really looking for the best people statewide.

Ebrahim Poonawala: Got it. Thank you.

Phil Green: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Peter Winter with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed.

Peter Winter: Thanks. Good afternoon. I wanted to talk on expenses first. Based on the updated guidance, the expense growth is 5% this year versus around 10% the prior two years. Do you think mid-single digit is the good level of expense growth for next year? Secondly, do you see opportunities maybe to leverage AI to increase productivity and efficiency and maybe self-fund some of these investments to help with the expense growth rate?

Dan Geddes: Peter, the mid-single digits, I think next year, as I mentioned, we're going to have some investments in wealth management. So I would anticipate it being a little higher than just right in the middle, but not get back up to the high single digits. That's just my expectations without having gone through the entire budgeting process. I do know that we'll be investing there. To your question on AI, I think at some point we will get to realize self-funding AI projects. I wouldn't say that we're there yet. I would hope in the near future that's the case to where you can get efficiencies and see it through your expense growth.

Peter Winter: Got it. On credit, nice to see the decline in non-performing assets from the resolution of that multifamily loan. Are there any portfolios that you are watching more closely, especially as rates are moving higher?

Phil Green: Peter, I think they relate still to commercial real estate. As we have said before, there are still a few of these older vintage multifamily projects. I think we probably have four of them, but they have different maturity dates. I think one of them is this, I think it is this year.

Dan Geddes: This year.

Phil Green: I think one of them is this year, there may be two in 2027 and one in 2028. They are the same song that we have been singing for the last two years, right? Rents are less, part of the lease up, more concessions, expenses higher. What you really have to rely on is the performance of the sponsor as they either raise the equity needed to rightsize it, or they go about the process to sell the property. Maybe they find bridge financing. All those, I think are the other thing is that the market improves to the extent that they are able to meet their necessary debt coverage ratios and those things.

So that is the thing that is happening with all those projects to various degrees. I do not have any concern about any of them. I think that the sponsors that we have are good. I really think the underwriting that we've done speaks for itself because, if you take a look at that property that was sold, basically they sold it for what our loan was. We underwrote it, I don't know, somewhere from 55%-60%. To me, that shows that our underwriting standards that we utilized at the time were adequate to meet a really unfavorable situation. That's one of the things that gives me confidence as we look at the remaining deals.

Interest rates impact things, so we'll continue to look at those as we move forward. That would be the one that I think we look most closely at.

Dan Geddes: Peter, I think anything interest rate sensitive, home builders are feeling the margin pressure if they're offering interest rate incentives for people to buy their homes. Home building, I think we have about $290 million in that category to loans to home builders. It's not a huge part of our portfolio, but we're watching that. The consumer has held up really well. I think our charge-offs were 25 basis points on the consumer side, and I think our past dues were under 1%, which that's a good signal for the health of the consumer in what we see.

Peter Winter: Got it. That's really helpful. Thank you both.

Operator: Our next question is from Ryan Kenny with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

Ryan Kenny: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. I have one on the non-interest-bearing deposit growth. I'm guessing part of that comes from the treasury management investments you've been making pretty consistently over the years and ability to win commercial operating accounts. Is that part of what's driving the growth or is it more on the consumer side?

Dan Geddes: Right now we're seeing it in what we call DDA, which is what you just mentioned, kind of the commercial side, where, yes, I think our investment in our treasury platform and the customer service that our clients receive from our bankers and their teams, I think is really what sets us apart. A lot of times it's the ease of doing business. That's an area that we get rated really high in terms of when we're evaluated by Greenwich Associates.

We have the sales force in terms of the people, and it's paired with really great technology and I would say kind of the back of the house customer service when somebody needs help 24/7, they can pick up the phone and get a hold of a person. I think that all those things play into our ability to grow those core DDA accounts. I think it goes back to our branch expansion, that we're going into communities and targeting both consumers and commercial businesses in the markets that we're entering. We don't put a branch up just anticipating retail balances and offering either really out of market CDs or any sort of teaser to come over.

We offer a square deal. We offer incredible customer service paired with world-class technology.

Ryan Kenny: Is your sense that the competition in treasury management is getting more intense as new entrants enter Texas and as the technology landscape evolves? Are there any numbers you could share on the percentage of commercial clients that have a treasury management relationship with you?

Dan Geddes: I don't have that at my hand, but we can get that to you. But what I would tell you on just the competition is I don't think it's any different than what we've faced before. It's certainly competitive out there, but a lot of times for the commercial, it's part of a whole package. So it's not just, hey, I have the best either technology or here's something that you might find useful in your business. It's part of a whole relationship. So it could be paired with a line of credit. It could be paired with an equipment loan. So it's not just in and of itself. It's part of who are you going to be dealing with?

And I think that's where we really shine is our people out in the marketplace.

Ryan Kenny: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Janet Lee with TD Cowen. Please proceed.

Dan Geddes: Hey, Janet.

Operator: Janet—

Dan Geddes: Janet.

Operator: Please check if your phone's muted.

Janet Lee: Oh, sorry. Hi. Can you hear me?

Dan Geddes: Hello.

Operator: Yes.

Janet Lee: Hello. Hi. Sorry about that. I just want to make sure that I'm understanding your NII guide for 2026 correctly. If we assume kind of like the midpoint of your average loans, deposits, and NIM, when we layer in like the loan, you're talking loan beta in the 80% and deposit beta in the 50%-55%. It's hard to not be above your 5%-5.5% NII growth for 2026. So I'm just wondering if there was any front-loaded benefit from loan yields in the third quarter or if there is anything that is missing.

Dan Geddes: I don't have anything that I would say that we're necessarily holding back. Our one cut or one hike, I'm sorry, is projected in December, and so it doesn't have much of a benefit in 2026. It would really be more of a 2027 benefit. I think it'll be determined by volumes, and so if we're able to achieve either higher loan volumes. I think that if we're able to achieve higher volumes and higher yielding assets, then maybe there's some upside there.

Janet Lee: [inaudible]

Dan Geddes: A little inside baseball here, and I am stepping out on a ledge, but with that credit that paid off, sometimes there is accrued interest that happens. That was in the third quarter, which benefited us. We had a non-accrual loan that was paid off, and we did get, and I want to say that was something like about a $3 million benefit to the third quarter, which helped the NIM in the third quarter.

Janet Lee: Okay, got it. Circling back on your interest-bearing deposit beta comment. I believe the increase in interest-bearing deposit costs in the third quarter reflected the pricing actions you took on a good portion of your money market balances in June. You are effectively getting ahead of the September hike. Are there similar actions that are on the plate, or how should we think about the magnitude of the pricing increase on your deposits?

Dan Geddes: I guess I will kind of mention that we mentioned last quarter that we were increasing our money market rates in these consumer tiers under $1 million and over 250. I will just kind of tell you how that has been playing out so far is we had seen those tiers decline in balances in the second quarter around 3% in those tiers on the consumer side. We were able to actually see a slight increase, I want to say around 1%. More importantly, we kind of stemmed the tide of seeing balances go out of those.

The idea around that strategy was to capture more of the wallet share of this consumer that we are picking up that was much younger. It was the Gen Y and Gen Z customer that we mentioned. I think we have been pleased with that program. I think when I look out into the fourth quarter and I just try to kind of see, okay, what are we looking at in terms of just our cost on interest-bearing deposits going out into the fourth quarter with those changes, I think we are looking with that interest rate hike in December.

Right now we are looking at, gosh, I would say deposit costs, total interest-bearing growing around 10 basis points from like a 170. There will be an impact in the interest-bearing side.

Janet Lee: Okay.

Dan Geddes: I'm sorry, from 173 to like around 187. So around 12 to 15 basis points.

Janet Lee: Right. Do you have a spot NIM?

Dan Geddes: Let me get back to you with that.

Janet Lee: Okay, thanks.

Dan Geddes: I did want to answer that one question. I think right now that somebody had asked on commercial customers on Treasury, and approximately 7% of our commercial customers are on our Treasury platform.

Janet Lee: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Jon Pancari with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.

Girard Sweeney: Hey, good morning. Good afternoon, this is Girard Sweeney on for Jon. Just one on the buybacks.

Dan Geddes: Hey, Girard.

Girard Sweeney: On the buybacks slowdown this quarter from recent quarters, how much of this was determined by the securities repositioning you had in the quarter versus the higher rate backdrop more broadly or even where the stock was trading in the quarter? Then looking ahead, how has your outlook compared to that $70 million-$90 million quarterly cadence that you had over the past year or so?

Dan Geddes: Girard, it was more to do with, we had discussed kind of having a consistent buyback approach. So there's a component of us just being in the market. Then I would say the delta between what we had done in the previous quarters to the $15 million that we did in the third quarter was really just the market. We were just looking at how our stock was trading and relative to the index, and then also just wanting to hold back some powder in case of some macro event that we could utilize the balance.

Girard Sweeney: Got it. Thank you. So in terms of forward implications, really anything to think about outside of where the stock's trading, like you mentioned?

Dan Geddes: I'm sorry, repeat that.

Girard Sweeney: Just on the forward implications, and just getting back to maybe that more typical cadence that you talked about, the more consistent cadence.

Dan Geddes: Yeah. Again, I think that we'll kind of have that three-pronged approach, is be consistent with a component, have another that we kind of feel like we can use strategically during the quarter. Then again, if you want to think about a third, a third, and a third. But a third that we would just kind of hold back for some level. But we feel good. If we end up the year in the $190 million-$200 million, I think we'd be happy with that.

Girard Sweeney: Okay. Thank you very much. Then just one quick one on expenses. Given the continued branch openings, investment in wealth, if the revenue growth slows down a bit, do you think you have the levers to still achieve the positive operating leverage in 2027?

Dan Geddes: Yeah. I think there is an opportunity. We will have to make sure that we have really looked at the investments we want to make from a technology standpoint, from, we have talked about the branch expansion, and then the wealth management. But I do think that depending on how many rate hikes we see in the forward curve, I think there is an opportunity to have a similar positive operating leverage that we are anticipating for 2026.

Girard Sweeney: All right, great. Thank you very much.

Operator: Our next question is from Casey Haire with Autonomous Research. Please proceed.

Casey Haire: Yeah, great. Thanks. Good afternoon. I wanted to circle back on the beta guidance of 50-55. That is a little bit higher than what we saw from you last cycle. Does that still hold each 25 bip hike is good for $2 million of NII a month? Or does that higher beta knock that down a little bit?

Dan Geddes: It's a little bit below that. We're looking at around 1.5 million to 1.7 million.

Casey Haire: Okay. All right. Just going back to the loan-to-deposit ratio question. At 55% today, is there a ceiling where you would not You guys have a lot of runway to move that higher. I'm just wondering, is there a level where you would not want to see that go to or exceed?

Phil Green: I think we're way off of where we were at a previous high, and that was, when was that? That was, I think right around the great financial crisis or so. I think we may have gotten to 80% for one month, and that's still way below peer, but that's an area that begins to impact your thinking in terms of funding acquisition, what you're willing to do to support continued growth there. I think that the answer is, I don't think we have a specific number, but directionally, what we want to have over time is a consistency in the level of loan growth we're generating compared to the level of deposit growth that we're generating.

On a long-term basis, we think that somewhere in the mid to high single digits for both of those would be optimal over the really long period of time. That would be what I would hope to achieve. I love operating with a lower loan-to-deposit ratio because it gives you optionality in terms of what you do with your balance sheet. The real benefit and value of any banking organization is in the deposit franchise. It's really not in the asset franchise. Just something that comes to mind is that I looked back historically. I think the latest I could get to was 90 years ago or so.

If you look at the compound annual growth rate of our company over that 90-year period in terms of absolute size, which would imply the deposit growth, it was like 8.85% over that 90-year period. I think over the long term, we've demonstrated the ability to have a balance between deposits and loans, and I'd hope over the long term going forward, we'd see that same thing.

Casey Haire: Got you. Okay. Just one last one. The bond book restructure, was that late in the quarter? And just any help you could give us with where the bond book yield will be in the fourth quarter, just given all the It sounds like they were very low-yielding securities that you sold.

Dan Geddes: Yes. I think it was at the end of the third quarter where we made those sales with a loss. And your second question was just kind of looking at where we think our bond portfolio will be in the fourth quarter. I would say overall, you're going to look at around a 4.15, 4.20 in that ballpark, tax equivalent.

Casey Haire: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Michael Rose with Raymond James. Please proceed.

Michael Rose: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just going back to Ebrahim's questions on the branch expansion. Phil, I think you said nearly half of the incremental loan or deposit growth is coming from those branches. From when you started this, 10 or so years ago, these expansions, has the opportunity and the size of these branches, the profitability of these branches, has it evolved over time? I think you probably learned a bunch from what you did in the early days in Dallas and Houston 1.0. It seems like it continues to be a really good opportunity for you guys to drive growth and ultimately profitability.

If you can just talk about kind of the evolution of the branch expansion over the year, break even, deposit size, any sort of details, because it seems like it is pretty compelling at this point, particularly given some of the dislocation that we are seeing across the Texas markets with M&A.

Dan Geddes: This is Dan. I will jump in and then let Phil fill any gaps that I leave. When we started the Houston expansion, it was really a commercial centric in terms of the loan side and then kind of a 50/50 deposit opportunity, and so we executed that, and it was really successful. As we entered into the Dallas expansion and we saw that we were really growing consumer loans in Dallas faster than we were growing commercial loans.

So it really gave us this opportunity to kind of take a step back and say that this could be not our kind of Frost typical, let us find a high commercial small business market, but we could go into some consumer markets. We actually have one in the San Antonio area that just knocked it out of the park, and it was all a rooftop play. It does really good on the commercial side, but the consumer side has just done really well. It gave us this kind of realization that it doesn't have to be one or the other, it can be all of it.

We went back in and we did a 2.0 in Houston, then it really kind of set us up for the Austin market because you think about the Austin dynamics and it's going to be a little more consumer centric. With our, I think, 17 years now of JD Power Awards on the consumer banking side, that we can grow this into a great consumer experience and grow our consumer deposits with our new— make sure I don't have my $5 bill when I say the right, our mortgage product, not getting into the mortgage business. That with our mortgage product, you've seen that be a factor now with the loan growth we've had in the mortgage business.

I think they're all complementary and I was looking at some economic data from an economist that looked at growth in Texas, and the growth in Texas in population is going to be around 2.5x the growth rate of the U.S. And about one in every four kind of population growth will be in Texas over the next five years. We have customers coming to us from other states, and so this is a great opportunity for us to go into, I would say, greener markets than maybe we would've gone into at Houston 1.0 because of the confidence that we have on the consumer side. I think you've seen our ability.

We think we do it better than anyone in the country. We think the results show it in terms of our ability to grow deposits, especially in these markets that we're entering.

Phil Green: Yeah, Dan, I think you're doing a great job of explaining that evolution. Just to give you some insight into our overall thinking as we look forward, today we're about, I don't know, a $55 billion or so company. Our deposit base is roughly half consumer and half commercial. As we make our way towards a $100 billion organization, and that'll take some time, but we'll get there, I'm very confident that we're going to continue with that same relative mix. What that means is, as you look at Cullen/Frost as a $100 billion Texas organization, that with that same mix, we're going to be a $50 billion consumer bank in the state of Texas.

But I don't know of a $50 billion consumer bank in the state of Texas right now. Maybe part of it too-big-to-fail has got that, but that's a really big consumer bank. It made sense to me that we're evolving into a company that has this developing expertise in tapping these consumer markets because that's who we're going to have to be as we continue to grow and as our size gets to be at that level. I'm really encouraged by the fact that we have the chops to compete in the consumer markets. It's not just being able to compete on physical distribution, although that is very important.

You've got to have the technological chops to meet the customers' needs today. If you look at the JD Power reports that Dan referred to, at least the last one that I looked at, and for the several that I've looked at, we have the number one ranking in digital satisfaction. We spend a lot of money to keep it there. That's one of the reasons why our expense growth is high, along with the other things that we invest in to make sure our service levels are high. This ability to compete on the consumer side, in addition to what we've always done in the middle market commercial, I think it's a big positive.

It's just another reason why this mortgage product is an example of leveraging that franchise and being successful at it. We've raised $1 billion in great assets since we've put this product in place, and they're great relationships in addition to that. I'm just so confident of our ability to develop this Texas market. I really hope that you all are sensing that as these are not just numbers, these growth rates that are really good. I've been in this business a long time. I know a good growth rate when I see one. It's more than just numbers on a page.

We're just being successful day to day, relationship to relationship, and the value proposition's working and we're in the best markets you could ever conceive being. I'm very encouraged with what we've got going on here.

Dan Geddes: Just one other thing to add is that when we look at our branch share to market share, when you look at some of the markets that we've been in for a really long time, San Antonio, Austin, even Fort Worth, our deposit share exceeds our branch share. For instance, San Antonio, our headquarters, we have about a 10% branch share, but a 27% market share. In Austin, it's around 6% branch share and around 7.5% deposit share. Fort Worth, 6% branch share and almost 11% market share. Where we started in Houston back in 2018, we were at a 2.6% branch share and only a 1.8% market share.

Now we've increased our branch share in Houston to almost 5% and our deposit share to 2.3%. We've grown at 50 basis points. It has a lot of room to run. I mean, in order to even get at par with our branch share. In a similar trade in Dallas, where back in 2019 it was a little under 1.5% branch share and a little under 1% market share, well, now we are up to almost 4% branch share, and the deposit share has grown 20 basis points, 1.1%, but you see the opportunities in both of those markets for us to continue to invest and to continue to gain market share.

Michael Rose: Very detailed response. I appreciate all the thoughts there. That is very helpful. Maybe just one quick follow-up for you, Dan. I think last quarter you maybe discussed adding some forward-starting swaps. Any changes or any updated thoughts there? Thanks.

Dan Geddes: We have not added any more than what we already had put on. I think we got about a 200 basis point spread over what we were paying fixed on that one, and it is not quite as. I think it is a little bit under maybe 30, 40 basis points below that right now. So I think we will likely put another on. Our plan is to kind of put one on about every year and have them be.

This one we put on is a two-year forward-starting swap, and if we put another one on next year and then another one, and over about four or five years, we should have between $2.5 billion to $3 billion built up. But we will certainly evaluate opportunities as they come. That is kind of the thought process as we start getting closer to $100 billion or whatever the. If they raise that limit, we will look to lower that duration of our bond portfolio over time. That can be an effective tool to do that.

Michael Rose: All right. Helpful. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from David Chiaverini with Jefferies. Please proceed.

David Chiaverini: Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. On the net interest margin, very nice expansion over the last several quarters to 3.78%. With mix shift driving the expansion, does the tailwind of mix shift have legs looking out over multiple quarters?

Dan Geddes: I would say yes, but depending on the shape of the yield curve. So if it's positively sloping, I think we still have several years where we'll be repricing either fixed rate loans or our investment portfolio into higher yielding assets. Just to give a sense, and I've given these numbers before, so I can kind of just help a little bit with kind of where we see that opportunity on our fixed side. We have in the fourth quarter just around $275 million in fixed rate loans that are rolling off at a 5.25%, and that we could likely get around 7.25%, so there's pretty good pickup there.

Next year, we have a little over $1 billion in fixed rate loans anticipated to run off, and those come around like they have a runoff yield around 570, and we likely are modeling a similar 7.25% rate. So there is an opportunity there. On our securities portfolio for the fourth quarter, we are looking at around $800 million at around 4.1% that it will either mature or prepay. In 2027, it is around $1.9 billion and around a 4.5% interest rate.

David Chiaverini: Very helpful. Thanks for that. You mentioned earlier about how market disruption has been a source of new relationships, up like 73% year-over-year. Are you able to size how much of your loan pipeline of $2.5 billion is from disruption in the market versus grassroots loan demand?

Dan Geddes: Let me see if I can find that. Right now, let me see. Let me see if I can get that for you. What I can tell you is what we have created is, I would say, and this is for the year to date, we have created about $250 million in opportunities. So it is not, I would say, a huge component of our overall opportunities that we create. It is probably in that same, I would say, if it is representing 10% of our new relationships, it is probably 10% of our prospect opportunities. Relatively, it is a lot more than it was.

I think that is probably the best way I would describe it, is that we are seeing it increase probably twice as much as what we were doing last year just because of the raw numbers, and we are winning 80% of them.

David Chiaverini: Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator: Our final question is from Jon Arfstrom with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Jon Arfstrom: Hey there. Thanks for—

Dan Geddes: Hey, Jon.

Jon Arfstrom: hanging around with us. Phil, one comment on the pipeline. You made a comment earlier that the weighted 90-day pipeline was up, I think 15% or 16% sequentially from the prior quarter.

Dan Geddes: Fifteen.

Jon Arfstrom: Yeah. That's a big number. I think I asked this a couple of quarters ago, but that's another big number. What would you attribute that to?

Phil Green: A lot of things. It's fairly broad-based. I will say I'm aware of some large commercial real estate opportunities that are included in there, but I wouldn't say it was all commercial real estate. Dan, you've got some numbers there that give some insight into it. Yeah, into just our—

Dan Geddes: Our growth in our—

Phil Green: Weighted pipeline—

Dan Geddes: —weighted pipeline. Yeah. It is substantially above kind of where it has been this time last year. It was $1.8 billion, $1.85 billion. What is encouraging is it is about two thirds weighted towards customer and a third weighted towards prospects. Jon, what I kind of mentioned is, typically, if it is a customer, on a kind of a dollar basis, we usually close about two thirds of those, just over a long period of history, and then prospects about a third. It tells me a couple things. It tells me that our customers are, despite all the uncertainty out there, that they are active and they are still looking to grow, and they still see opportunity in this environment.

You have seen that. It is a pretty good split. You had a little bit of an increase in C&I. Again, there was a bigger growth in the CRE growth, and I would say that is more of our customers in CRE. That to me means that these are relationships that we have over years, and it is not us going and stretching on structure. It is our customer base that is active, and they are looking for us to be their financial resource.

Phil Green: I think one thing also that is great about that weighted pipeline is we have looked at the correlation between fundings and that pipeline, and it is actually pretty strong. We have had the process for a number of years, and it is really a part of our sales effort on the commercial side. When I see that number being up at that level, it really gives me some confidence.

Dan Geddes: And just looking at which regions, it is basically led by what you would expect, that Dallas was actually up the most, and then Houston, San Antonio, and then Austin. So kind of four of our core markets are driving a lot of the expectation for closings in the fourth quarter into start 2027.

Phil Green: Yeah. What that really means, and Dan did a good job of outlining, it is nothing unusual. There is nothing weird driving this activity or this success. It is pretty much basic boots on the ground, really.

Jon Arfstrom: Okay. That is good. Just a small question. Phil, my earnings model goes back 25 years, not 90 years. But

Dan Geddes: Yeah

Jon Arfstrom: in all those earnings calls, I do not think I have ever heard the term motor bank. Dan, can you just touch on the branch sale, what that was all about so we can understand it. It seemed kind of random.

Dan Geddes: Well, this probably stems from some property that when we acquired a bank in Fort Worth. You still have it, maybe a little more history.

Phil Green: I was going to say, Jon, maybe you would call it a drive-through lanes or standalone drive-through.

Jon Arfstrom: Okay.

Phil Green: It is not a bank on wheels. It is where you drive up to the teller kiosk, and they take care of your business at an off—

Dan Geddes: Bank drive-through. They give you, yes.

Jon Arfstrom: Okay. That is just cleaning up a couple of branches that do not fit. That is simple as that.

Dan Geddes: That's-

Phil Green: I cannot believe you have not heard motor bank, man. Maybe that is just a Texan thing. Motor bank, man. That is what it is.

Jon Arfstrom: All right. Okay. Thanks, guys.

Dan Geddes: Thank you.

Phil Green: You are welcome.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Phil Green for closing remarks.

Phil Green: All right. Thanks, everyone. Great questions. Great interest that you show, and we appreciate it. We will be adjourned. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect at this time, and thank you for your participation.

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