First Merchants Corporation ($FRME)

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the First Merchants Corporation First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Before we begin, management would like to remind you that today's call contains forward-looking statements with respect to the future performance and financial condition of First Merchants Corporation that involves risks and uncertainties. Further information is contained within the press release, which we encourage you to review. 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 financial and other quantitative information to be discussed today as well as a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Mark Hardwick, CEO. Mr. Hardwick, you may begin.

Good morning, and welcome to First Merchants' First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. Thanks for the introduction and for covering the forward-looking statement on Page 2. We released our earnings yesterday after markets closed, and today's presentation materials are available via the link on Page 3 of the earnings release. Turning to Slide 3, you'll see today's presenters and members of our executive management team. Joining me on the call are Mike Stewart, our President; John Martin, our Chief Credit Officer; and Michelle Keiowski, our Chief Financial Officer. Slide 4 highlights our footprint and financial scale. We now operate 127 banking centers, reflecting the addition of Southern Indiana following the First Savings acquisition. Total assets stand at $21.1 billion with $15.3 billion in loans and $16.5 billion in deposits. Adjusted performance metrics remain strong, including an adjusted ROA of 1.25% and an adjusted return on tangible common equity exceeding 14%, reflecting the underlying strength of our earnings engine. Turning to Slide 5. First quarter reported net income was $27.7 million or $0.45 per diluted share. Reported results included 2 notable noncore items. First, the legal close of First Savings acquisition on February 1 resulted in $17 million of onetime acquisition-related expenses. Second, during the quarter, we strategically repositioned $357 million of mortgage loans from held for investment to held for sale, and we expect to complete the sale of these loans by the end of the second quarter. These loans carry a weighted average coupon of 3.46% and the liquidity provided by their sale will be used to immediately pay down higher cost deposits and over time, will be deployed into commercial loans at a 6% plus yield. This repositioning resulted in a $29.8 million mark-to-market charge in the quarter with a tangible book value earn-back of approximately 4 years. Excluding these items, adjusted earnings per share totaled $1.03, up from $0.94 a year ago, representing 9.6% growth, driven primarily by net interest margin expansion and solid fee income growth. Our tangible common equity ratio remained strong at 9%, even after completing the acquisition and continuing disciplined share repurchases, including $24.9 million in the first quarter. Now Mike Stewart will discuss our line of business momentum.

Thank you, Mark, and good morning to all. Our business strategy is summarized on Slide 6. Building our Midwestern strength by growing organically remains our primary objective as a company. Our 4 primary business units work together in delivering financial solutions for businesses and consumers focused primarily on the maps you see on Slide 7. As Mark stated earlier, the first quarter was busy with the closing of First Savings Bank and the preparation for the May integration date. The legal close increased our overall loan portfolio size with organic growth relatively flat during the first quarter. After the strong fourth quarter loan growth, declines in our sponsor and investment real estate portfolio outpaced our C&I growth within our region banking markets. The portfolio declines were normal course payoffs that simply stacked in the quarter, sponsors selling their portfolio companies that we had financed or real estate projects that achieved secondary market takeouts. I expect growth in both these portfolios to resume in the second quarter. Our regional banking teams, inclusive of the new team in Southern Indiana, continued to deliver solid loan growth. It's very pleasing to see our Midwest economy continuing to expand, our clients' businesses continuing to grow and see our bankers continuing to win new relationships. New loan production during the first quarter for our real estate and our asset-based teams was at record levels and demonstrates the value of our diversified loan origination teams. While this quarter's organic growth was flat, I remain confident in our expected mid-single-digit loan growth through the course of 2026. Let's turn to Slide 8, deposits. During the first quarter, our core relationship-focused deposit franchise continued to show growth through the commercial, consumer and our Southern Indiana market. The bullet points below the table detail that, that total deposit decline came from public funds, consumer CDs and repayment of First Savings broker deposits. Each of these deposit categories is a higher cost source of funds as compared to the primary and operating accounts, which generated increases during the first quarter. Michelle will be reviewing net interest margin improvement during the quarter, which was a direct result of the disciplined deposit and loan pricing. Our continued deployment of new and enhanced products during the quarter. Our digital platforms wrapped with smart and effective marketing continue to deliver quality growth in our markets. Our people are our strength in meeting the financial needs within our communities. During the quarter, we added new teammates within our sponsor, investment real estate, community banking and private wealth teams to build on our brand and momentum. Before turning the call over to Michelle, one last comment regarding First Savings Bank. Our integration efforts are on track. The engagement of their team continues to be strong. On-site training and preparation for the May integration are advancing as scheduled. Our model of community banking in Southern Indiana has demonstrated its strength. Turnover of frontline personnel has been minimal. And as the prior pages demonstrated via the growth in loans and core deposits, their clients continue to be patient during the transition. The specialty verticals have continued to show consistent production in new business during the quarter. This production will continue to contribute to the fee income of First Merchants as the bulk of the originations are sold. I do want to highlight the SBA business model as a direct enhancement to the rest of First Merchants franchise. Having the ability to offer SBA product solutions to our clients is a natural extension of being a community and commercially focused organization. The new SBA team will be the fulfillment team for all of our existing consumer, small business and community bank teams. There are early successes that I expect to build post integration. I'm going to turn the call over now to Michelle to review in more detail the composition of our balance sheet and the drivers on the income statement. Michelle?

Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Slide 9 covers our first quarter performance, including 2 months of operating results from First Savings following the February 1 closing of the acquisition. There was meaningful growth in total revenues in Q1. Net interest income grew $12.2 million and noninterest income grew $2.5 million linked quarter. This resulted in a $6.3 million increase in overall pretax pre-provision earnings of $78.7 million. Tangible book value per share declined 2.8% linked quarter, but increased 7.3% over the same period in prior year. The linked quarter decrease was due to the impact of the acquisition and share buybacks. However, dilution from the First Savings acquisition at close was less than what we had estimated at announcement. Actual tangible book value dilution was only 2.4% versus 4.8% that we shared at announcement, and the tangible book value earn-back is now estimated to be 2.4 years. The difference was primarily driven by a lower interest rate mark, which totaled $53.1 million at closing. Slide 10 shows details of our investment portfolio. The bond portfolio declined from $3.4 billion to $3.3 billion due to changes in valuations and principal payments. First Savings had a $252 million bond portfolio that we sold at closing, creating liquidity for future loan growth. Expected cash flows from scheduled principal and interest payments and bond maturities through the remainder of 2026 totals $276.7 million with a roll-off yield of approximately 3.24%. We plan to continue to use future cash flows generated from the bond portfolio to fund higher-yielding loan growth. Slide 11 covers our loan portfolio. The loan portfolio yield declined by 23 basis points from the prior quarter to 6.09%, which was impacted by the lower day count in the first quarter and repricing of assets due to the Fed rate cuts in late 2025. During the quarter, new and renewed loans were originated at an average yield of 6.18%. The allowance for credit losses is shown on Slide 12. This quarter, we had net charge-offs of $10.3 million and recorded a $4.9 million provision. The transfer of $357 million of loans to held for sale reduced the loan balances requiring reserve coverage and contributed to a lower provision than the prior quarter. At closing, we also reported a $22.3 million increase to the allowance related to the credit discount on the First Savings loan portfolio. As a result, the allowance for credit losses totaled $212.5 million at the end of the quarter, representing a coverage ratio of 1.39%. Slide 13 shows details of our deposit portfolio. The rate paid on deposits declined meaningfully by 23 basis points to 2.09% this quarter. Our team strategically reduced deposit rates following the Fed's rate cuts late last year, resulting in a $4.6 million reduction in deposit interest expense in the first quarter even as deposits grew by $1.2 billion with the addition of First Savings. As noted on our slide, our noninterest-bearing deposits increased to 23% this quarter, up from 16% last quarter. This was driven by the redesign of our consumer checking account products. This change more accurately reflects the strength and quality of our deposit franchise. On Slide 14, net interest income on a fully tax equivalent basis of $157.7 million increased $12.4 million linked quarter and was up $21.3 million from the same period in prior year. Net interest income was positively impacted by a $1.2 million recovery from the successful resolution of a nonaccrual loan. As a reminder, we had a $3.3 million recovery last quarter. Our quarterly net interest margin of 3.35% increased 6 basis points from prior quarter despite the lower day count in the quarter, which reduced margin by 5 basis points. Our strong core margin reflected our continued pricing discipline. Next, on Slide 15 shows the details of noninterest income, which totaled $5.8 million on a reported basis and $35.6 million on a normalized basis. Customer-related fees were strong with quarter-over-quarter growth in wealth management fees and gains on sales of loans. Moving to Slide 16. Noninterest expense for the quarter totaled $125.1 million and included $17 million in acquisition-related costs. The acquisition costs were primarily incurred in the salaries and benefits and the professional and other outside services categories. First quarter expenses also included $1.1 million of annual benefit plan expense as well as a onetime charge of $900,000 for the write-down of the building. The cost synergies we expect to gain from the First Savings acquisition are on track and legacy First Merchants expenses are in line with the guidance I provided last quarter. Slide 17 shows our capital ratios. The tangible common equity ratio declined to 9% due to the acquisition and share repurchases. Since the beginning of the year, we have repurchased more than 700,000 shares for $27.6 million year-to-date. We remain well capitalized with the common equity Tier 1 ratio at 11.22% and are well positioned to support continued balance sheet growth. That concludes my remarks, and I will now turn it over to our Chief Credit Officer, John Martin, to discuss asset quality.

Thanks, Michelle, and good morning. My remarks begin on Slide 18. This quarter, we streamlined the credit slides and moved the detailed loan portfolio trend page to the appendix for reference. In today's remarks, I'll focus on portfolio insights, asset quality and the asset quality roll forward, highlighting both the diversity and overall credit quality of the portfolio. On Slide 18, total loans ended the quarter at approximately $15.3 billion with overall credit performance remaining solid. C&I line utilization increased modestly to 51%, which we view as healthy borrower activity rather than stress. Our shared national credit portfolio totals about $1 billion across 90 well-diversified borrowers with no outsized single name exposure. In sponsor finance, outstandings are approximately $832 million, supported by strong credit metrics, conservative leverage and healthy coverage ratios. We remain disciplined on structure and intentionally underwrite with room for downside. Within CRE, retail is our largest exposure at $859 million and is largely credit tenant and triple net leased, performing as expected. Construction lending totals about $900 million across commercial and residential projects with continued emphasis on borrower equity and prudent underwriting. From a concentration standpoint, we remain well within regulatory levels with CRE construction at 40% of capital and total CRE around 181%, providing the flexibility to selectively grow while maintaining a strong risk profile. Overall, we are pleased with portfolio performance and remain focused on balanced growth and disciplined credit risk management. On Slide 19, let me briefly touch on asset quality. Our overall asset quality remains stable and our metrics are performing within expectations. As at quarter end, nonaccruals remained manageable with the largest relationship tied to income-producing real estate, including a $9.9 million multifamily construction credit and 2 office-related exposures totaling roughly $12 million. These credits are well known, clearly closely monitored and reflect areas of CRE we've been proactively managing. Importantly, we are not seeing broad-based deterioration across the portfolio. Credit issues remain idiosyncratic rather than systemic with no meaningful migration beyond a small number of relationships. Charge-off activity and criticized asset trends remain in line with expectations and reserve coverage continues to appropriately reflect the portfolio's risk profile. Overall, we are comfortable with asset quality trends and remain focused on early identification, active management and disciplined resolution where necessary. On Slide 20, turning to nonperforming asset migration. During the quarter, we added a $12 million nonaccrual office relationship, which was largely offset by a payoff of a $12.9 million multifamily construction credit. So overall, NPA levels remain well controlled with movement driven by a small number of individual credits rather than systemic deterioration. Resolution activity continues to progress as expected, and we remain focused on early engagement and disciplined management where stress arises. Taken together, asset quality and NPA trends reinforce our view that credit risk is contained and easily manageable. I'll turn it back to Mark to discuss our capital position and outlook.

Thanks, John. Good report. Turning now to Slide 21. Our long-term track record of shareholder value creation remains a key strength. Tangible book value per share has grown at a 7.5% compound annual growth rate over the last 10 years. Given the earnings enhancements created by First Savings acquisition and the modest balance sheet repositioning, I'm particularly pleased with the limited tangible book value dilution from year-end 2025 through March 31, 2026, which Michelle highlighted in her comments as well. It's just really pleasing to be at this point with what was a pretty modest tangible book value reduction and such strength in the earnings stream. It's a good place for us to be. Slide 22 highlights our 11.7% total asset CAGR over the past decade, reflecting a consistent strategy of organic growth complemented by disciplined value-accretive acquisitions that expand our demographic and geographic footprint. The First Savings acquisition is well aligned with this strategy and meaningfully strengthens our presence in a high-growth Indiana market. We look forward to building on our Midwestern strength throughout the rest of 2026 by focusing on our people, our clients, our products and technology. And it's -- I hope it's clear that organic growth is our top priority for the year. We're going to get through the integration on May -- mid-May, May 15. And -- and we've got great momentum with the First Savings team, as Mike Stewart highlighted. Thank you for your continued support and investment in First Merchants, and we are happy to take questions at this time.

And our first question comes from the line of Daniel Tamayo of Raymond James.

Maybe first just starting on the loan growth side. seasonally down in the first quarter. You had some -- the loan sale in there. Mike, you sounded pretty bullish on loan growth prospects going forward. Maybe just give us a little bit more color, if you can, on what's driving that, thoughts on paydowns, the timing of the slowing going forward? And if you're still comfortable with -- I think we talked about 6% to 8% growth for the year last quarter, if that number still holds.

Dan, I'll start with the yen. Yes, I do feel confident with that mid-single-digit growth rate and reaffirm. And what kind of what demonstrates that in my confidence level is you really take a look at our commercial pipeline. They're as strong as they have been historically. And what I tried to talk about there is in that first quarter, we just had some stacked normal course payoffs that were underneath what we would look at in a normal run rate of reduction, but the payoffs are a little bit higher. Remember, we also had a really strong fourth quarter and some of those anticipated fourth quarter payoffs didn't happen until the first quarter. But it's the investment real estate portfolio that was paying along with the sponsor book and both of those production levels were really strong during the quarter, and we'll see the growth come back into those business units. That community bank model, which is the core C&I that sits in our franchise, demonstrates a really good growth rate there, which is really fundamental for us. And another point of view that I'd just share is that I know where we stand as of yesterday. And that growth is coming through in a really strong manner. So if you look at how we think about normal course or known amortizations and what we think about known course of payoffs, it was just a little bit higher, but nothing unexpected out of the blue of people coming -- people leaving undue reasons. And the production level that we had, which is on pace for about $2 billion as we got it in the first quarter, just that we were stacked with some payoffs and feel really good about where the pipelines are, where those 2 business units are already driving record productions and bringing it into manifesting our balance sheet and then where I've seen our current April footing.

Mike, I'd love to just add, you made this in your actual comments earlier, but the paydowns really came exactly the way we would hope they would come, maybe not the timing. investment real estate moving into the secondary market, which is what we always expect and anticipate, which is great for credit quality. And then the sponsor book, exactly as you would anticipate that over time, that those sponsors liquidate those companies, sell them to maybe another sponsor, et cetera. But it's anticipated it was just a little more first quarter heavy than what we had expected.

That's exactly what I'm trying to say. Some of it we thought might have happened in the fourth quarter, it led over to this and some we might have had queued up in the second quarter, happen early because the secondary markets are good real estate.

Great. Very helpful. And maybe for Michelle on the margin, just curious where you see that moving going forward. You'll have the loan sale happening in the second quarter. I'm curious how you're thinking about the impact from that. I don't know if you gave more specific timing or you're able to yet other than in the second quarter. But just curious kind of how that impacts the margin and just overall thoughts for the rest of the year.

Yes. Well, I'll address the loan sale first. And so as Mark said in his comments, the loans that we're selling have a weighted average coupon of 3.46%. And so immediately, once we get that liquidity, we'll pay down some of our higher cost deposits. And I would say those are probably averaging about 3.80%. Over time, we will invest that liquidity in loans. And so of course, that will happen over the course of the next 18 to 24 months. And so we'll get some margin pickup over time, but it won't be immediate. so it will be a little more neutral right out of the gate. For margin over the next few quarters, just because the day count in Q1 always depresses our margin by 5 basis points. Once we get into Q2, Q3, Q4, we will see margin pick up a few basis points. if anything, just because of the day count and also just because I think some of the repricing from rate cuts last year, we've already seen some of that. I think deposit rates will be on rates that we pay on deposits will be relatively steady. And so I would expect there to be a few basis points of pickup on margin through the year.

Okay. So that's inclusive of the 5 basis points reversal, I guess, from the first quarter. So just, call it, a handful of basis points up from the first quarter level of margin? Yes, that's correct.

Our next question comes from the line of Russell Gunther of Stephens.

I wanted to see if you could touch a bit more on the deposit migration into noninterest-bearing this quarter, perhaps how you're thinking about the sustainability of the remix, whether you assume any runoff from the consumer product redesign. And then as a follow-up, Michelle, you touched on this a bit, but just overall cost of deposits going forward, assuming a Fed on pause, do you think you have the ability to flex that lower from here? Or is there kind of a slight upward bias to overall deposit costs going forward?

I'll start with the deposit account or checking account redesign. So we've migrated those customers to our newly designed checking accounts. And so we've been tracking whether there's any runoff. And it's been very stable and I think pretty well received. And so we're not anticipating any runoff. I would expect our noninterest-bearing to maintain that 22%, 23% level that we're seeing today. On the deposit rates, deposit rates are pretty competitive. And so I don't anticipate that we'll be lowering deposit rates meaningfully through the year. I would expect it to be overall more steady.

I'm just going to add a little bit more on that. So we worked at the end of last year to redesign our consumer core checking account. So now what happens is we don't have any paying small interest-bearing that all went to noninterest-bearing. So that's where the big shift if you look from the prior quarter is. And it is what I was trying to point out is our core primary account activity, I didn't talk about it, but both in units and in dollars continue to grow. So that new product set that we call PROSPER and PROSPER Plus is being well received in the marketplace with the new features and functionality with some of the new digital platforms, and it aligns then with how we want to represent it in noninterest-bearing deposits.

We're in year 2 of very strategically remixing the deposit base to be as core as possible with less dependence on CDs and public funds. And it just takes time, but we're really pleased with the progress we're making.

I appreciate all the color and nice to see. Maybe switching gears for me from a capital perspective, healthy levels of CET1 with the deal close. Do you have a sense of the potential impact from the Basel III proposal on RWAs and CET1? And then from an overall kind of capital return perspective, would you guys expect to remain active with the buyback here?

Well, on the -- we have evaluated the capital proposals. And I would say right now, our estimate is that it will benefit us probably somewhere between like 50 to 80 basis points, somewhere in that range. It's really driven mostly from some of the risk-weighted asset relief, particularly on the mortgage product. So that's our estimate at this time. And so we'll keep an eye on kind of where it gets finalized. From just capital management perspective, yes, we would -- given where our valuation is, we will continue to be active in the buyback space in the coming quarters.

Our next question comes from the line of Brendan Noble of Hovde Group.

Maybe just sticking with capital for a moment. As we all know, pro forma readings came in stronger than expected even with the repositioning of the mortgage portfolio. Totally get that you want to remain active in the buyback and loan growth is going to pick up here. But I'm just kind of curious if you see any other need for additional balance sheet optimization over the course of the year.

No. I mean, if you mean additional loan or bond sales, we're not anticipating anything else. We think this is kind of perfect for 2026. It gives us liquidity so that we can continue a mid- to high single-digit loan growth number that we talk about and allows us to stay really diligent with deposit pricing and just remix the loan book at this point from -- because we're cognizant of the loan-to-deposit ratio as well from lower-yielding loans in our portfolio with a little longer duration to higher-yielding loans with shorter duration. So at least in the coming months, I'm not anticipating anything further. We do evaluate all the time just what our options are. But really, we're pleased with the earn-back and especially the modeling of this, the way Michelle talks about it, is we just assumed our mid- to high single-digit loan growth would continue in a normal course is the way we budget for a couple of years. And then said if we redeploy this money, out of mortgages into commercial over a 24-month window, what kind of pickup do we have? And that's how the 4-year earnback was calculated. And so I'm pretty confident that we'll be able to accelerate some of that. And if -- and this year, we'll be using that liquidity for current loan growth. And so you can model it a lot of different ways. We think the 4-year earnback is the most conservative, but I just want to be sure everyone understands how we're thinking about it.

Yes. That's helpful color, Mark. Maybe pivoting to a question on First Savings. Now with the deal on the books and closed, can you just give us your latest thinking on how you view the 3 specialty businesses now that you've had time to see them in action? And I heard your commentary on SBA, but I guess I'm more curious about first lien HELOC and the triple net lease product.

Yes. It might be a good point to just reiterate how well the integration process is going. The connectivity of our teams is the best it's ever been in an acquisition. And I'm going to let Mike jump into that answer because Mike's never been closer on the ground to every single action that we're taking, especially in those verticals. But I'm really pleased with where we stand today and excited about getting through the integration and then moving forward and every day that we own the company, the more excited I am about the verticals.

Yes. Look, let's start with the triple net lease. Nice thing about since the end of the year through the close through now, their production has remained very stable, which is a good thing in my opinion. And they were originating the triple net lease on, I'll say, somewhat of a national basis and they would sell that portfolio or put it on the balance sheet. And it's an extension of investment real estate. It's an extension of what we understood that we really didn't focus on. So it feels natural for us to be able to continue to support how Tony and team is continuing to generate triple net lease businesses in originate model and gives us option to put it on the balance sheet if we so choose or sell. The first lien HELOC business is a unique business for us, and they built a really nice model that also has continued to have similar production levels as they were through this period of time. And that has been for them a complete originate and sell. We've got secondary buyers on that and secondary servicers. So it's a fee generation business that there is some of that on our balance sheet today. It was on their balance sheet. So we just kind of modeled that we'll keep our balance sheet flat for the first lien HELOC. And as they continue to generate new business, it turns into fee income, much like our current mortgage business originate and sell model. And like I referenced with SBA, they built a really nice infrastructure and ability to not only originate, but obviously underwrite and service and collect, which is just not a model that we have built. So they were doing around $100 million of SBA transactions last year. That first quarter production is actually higher than they were, again, during this noise period of time first merchants. and First Merchants SBA production last year was less than $10 million. So our infrastructure of small business banking and community banking looks to them as a new product set to continue to fulfill community banking and SBA products in our own backyard, which they really weren't overlapping with. So it's just a natural extension of actually probably bringing them more volume and letting them be the fulfillment team and whatnot. So that's how I'm viewing those 3 verticals, and we're watching it through integration day. And then my team here is regularly, what I call day 2. We're going to continue to figure out where do we want to go with growing the businesses or continue to incorporate into our core model.

And Mike, I think it's worth just adding, it's part of the reason we're so bullish about loan growth for the remainder of the year. The verticals are a really nice add. We've stayed exactly in the credit kind of profile and size that First Savings operated the business. But we do see opportunity to mostly just in the size of credits to start to make some adjustments, especially if you think about the triple net lease business, it is a lever that we could use. And so far, we've said, let's just maintain the growth profile and the size of each credit exactly the way it is. And I would just say it leans on the small side. So excited about how it can continue to help facilitate our growth in the future.

Our next question comes from the line of Damon Monte of KBW.

First question regarding the margin. Michelle, hoping you could give a little color on the expectation for the fair value accretion marks that we could expect going forward?

Yes. So for the first 2 months of us having the First Savings acquisition, I think we've recorded probably maybe $1.5 million of fair value accretion. And so that's on a 2-month basis. And so I would consider the run rate on a go-forward basis to probably be fairly similar.

Okay. Great. Okay. And then could you kind of give us a little guidance on the outlook for the combined expense base here in the second quarter as you get a full impact from FSG?

Sure. I think that reiterates the guide that I gave last quarter on legacy First Merchants. And so on the legacy First Merchant space, I had given guidance that we expected a 3% to 5% increase year-over-year. And then you add in First savings, but in the back half of the year, of course, recognizing the cost synergies that we're on track to achieve. And when you put all those pieces together, the quarterly expense total like on a quarterly run rate will probably be somewhere between $111 million to $114 million.

And you think that level is kind of like once the savings hit, so that's kind of like almost like an exit rate of in the fourth quarter?

Yes, yes.

Okay. Got it. Okay. Great. And then I guess just lastly, when you think about kind of just market disruption, broadly speaking, and opportunity to maybe pick up commercial lending teams, are there any plans to add to certain areas of the footprint? Or do you feel that the efforts you put forth in recent years is sufficient and you kind of have a good team at the table right now?

Dan, it's Mike Stewart. Yes, we look very opportunistically and very active right now strategically in overlap markets where being able to add quality talent in our markets would just augment our brand and growth. So we're very active in that space. especially I would say in the Michigan market, in particular, that being also said, I referenced that we've had just continued strategic hires along the way. That's part of our business model of 2026 and 6 new bankers to asset-based lending to investment real estate through sponsor, but more importantly, our core community bank with several more joining soon in treasury management, just continues to build. I feel like the infrastructure that's there. And that's not including what we've recently done in our private wealth group, which I think as you saw that, that had a really nice fee growth as we continue to win in that space.

Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Race of Piper Sandler.

Michelle, I was wondering if you could kind of just frame up fee income expectations for the second quarter and just generally are you still thinking kind of mid- or high single-digit growth for the full year and just what you're contemplating perhaps coming from First Savings, if you're thinking maybe that some of the verticals that you've discussed earlier, whether it's single-tenant lease or first lien HELOC could be a driver for some gain on sale revenue going forward, just given that I imagine those relationships don't really come with deposits.

Yes. So when you look at our Q1 normalized level of total noninterest income, it was $35.6 million. And so where I think about where that goes in the coming quarters, I would expect to get a full quarter -- a full 3 months of First savings with the expectations that we have on gains on sales of loans coming from those verticals as well as our mortgage business. I would expect Q1 to see a lift of about 3% to 4% in the coming quarters. So I think that's how you can think about what kind of lift you'll see Q2, Q3, Q4.

Okay. So 3% to 4% lift in the second quarter and then similar trajectory in the back half of the year?

Yes, yes.

Okay. Got you. And I jumped on late, so I apologize, John, if you could kind of touch on the drivers for the charge-offs in the quarter. Were there any kind of marked First savings loans that came through in some of those charge-offs? And just generally kind of how you're thinking about some resolutions of some of the NPA inflows from First Savings and just kind of the legacy resolutions as well going forward?

Yes. The charge-offs for the first quarter were really legacy First Merchants. There were 2 names, as I mentioned in my comments that came out of the portfolio, more idiosyncratic normal course kind of charge-offs. -- the regional bank and not of sponsored finance. It wasn't really driven at all by the charge-offs coming out of First Savings. So the asset quality there thus far, and it's early, has been fine. When I look forward to resolution, we run processes every quarter and assess what's in that NPA bucket and keep our eye on the level of actively working with borrowers to work out credits as well as any other strategic loan sale if we choose to go that direction. But for the most part, it's just normal course charge-offs that happened in the first quarter. It was higher. We had a couple of names that we've been working for some time that just finally came to ahead and move...

Got it. And assuming maybe charge-offs kind of normalize to the levels that we saw during last year, do you guys see a need to provide for kind of that high single-digit loan growth guidance that you reiterated and just kind of grow into your unallocated excess reserves? I know there's a number of inputs involved just given CECL and so forth. But just curious how you guys are thinking about maybe needing to provide for growth this year.

Yes. I mean, typically, we will -- we start with a goal of providing for our loan growth. And then it really just has to get adjusted based on the economic model. And right now, I think we're in a really good place when we look at kind of like the different economic scenarios that we run and kind of within that range.

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Martin of Brink Capital.

I just one thought on the -- Michelle, you talked about the roll-off rate on the securities. Just on the loans, can you just remind us now with FSSG, what's repricing over the balance of the year? And what type of pickup you get on what's coming due?

Yes. Well, I know one of the things that generally you're interested in, Brian, is on the fixed rate loans. And so like our fixed rate loan maturities, we've got about $100 million that matures at a rate of about 4.5% each quarter. And so there's definitely a tailwind there. And so -- and as you know, 2/3 of our portfolio reprices pretty much immediately with any rate changes. And so the rate changes that we had in the back half of the year, I feel like a lot of that asset repricing is already reflected in our overall portfolio yields.

Got you. Okay. All right. And then I think on the -- Mike, you talked about the -- just -- I was going to ask you about the people you hired, but it sounds like you've maybe hired 5 to 6 people recently. Just want to get a sense if they're already kind of included in the loan pickup or anything that's coming from them is not yet in kind of the run rate?

They're not in the run rate yet. I think we just smart first quarter additions. First quarter is typically a time when bonuses get paid and people that were actively looking to move, make that dissemination, and we were inune with that. So...

And I would add on top of that, Brian, in the guidance that I gave, I don't know if you recall my remarks when I gave the year-over-year increase on legacy First Merchants expense base of 3% to 5%. The reason why it's leaning a little bit higher than we normally operate is because we did anticipate hiring and adding to our commercial team and our private wealth team, which is what Mike is talking about. So that is built into the guidance that I provided.

Yes. And I started to mention earlier, I think we added 15 FTEs in that space last year, and we have 10 in the plan this year. So we're really pleased with the opportunity. The individuals that are available to us that are interested in First Merchants and their performance once they're on the team. But when Mike talks about the new 10 or so that we're hiring, we're not anticipating immediate performance.

Yes. And those -- you hired -- all those were hired in the first quarter or some of those hired last year?

No, 15 were throughout the year last year, a little more back end. And then we have 10 planned this year that...

I referenced 6 in commercial and 2 in private wealth, a couple of them also replaced those are this quarter. So we're all like we wanted to. So that production should start to see itself by the back half of this year.

Got you. Okay. And I think, Michelle, just kind of on the margin for a minute, given the day count and the change there, I mean -- and I know there was the $1 million of benefit. I mean is a jumping off point, maybe a little bit lower than where it ended, but you still maybe see a 4 or 5 basis point pickup just given the day count or 3 to 4 or whatever, something off of the current level that's how to think about kind of going into 2Q?

Yes. No, I think that's right. We will see -- I do expect to see that kind of pick up. And I would just say, I know we've talked about a lot of the pieces on our earnings. Overall, I feel like consensus is in the right place. I feel like it reflects what we expect to deliver this year. So I did want to make sure that I made that point to kind of reiterate consensus.

Got you. Okay. And then last 2 for me, just the tax rate. And then I think just there's some commentary recently about commitment to the SBA by the government. Just is that any -- I guess, maybe you said -- and I joined late, if you already talked about the SBA or any potential impact. Is there any thoughts that, that changes your outlook on the SBA business?

On the SBA, not yet. Our Chair, Jane Latoich, is in the SBA business and has their own company, that's what they do. And so it's -- we've had a really good understanding of SBA for a long time. We've now acquired a significant business in that space through First Savings. But we're -- we feel like we have a good handle on it, and we're excited about the future.

Okay. And Brian, just to respond to your tax rate question, 13% effective tax rate is what we would expect in normal -- on a normal quarterly basis 13%...

Okay. And I think you said, Michelle, the accretion is around -- is it around $3 million? Is that -- it was kind of breaking up when you were saying that. But I guess what the quarterly accretion you're thinking about with a full quarter in there, is that kind of the range of $3 million to $4 million type of number?

It won't quite be that high. It was $1.5 million over the first 2 months that we had first savings. And so I expect it to be a little over $2 million per quarter.

Just from your piece of...

Correct Yes. I mean the remaining pieces aside from First savings, it typically ran about $1 million or so, sometimes a little less depending on what we see.

Action.

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'll now turn it back to Mark Hardwick for closing comments.

Yes. Thank you. My closing comments really are just to try to stay as high level as possible as we remain incredibly optimistic about the remainder of the year. And some of it, there's no way that you can see it. It's just what we see and what we feel is just the speed of play just keeps improving. I feel like the culture of our company is so strong. We have incredible teamwork and I feel like a sense of urgency that I haven't maybe felt in the past just throughout all the lines of business. People are just getting after it and producing results. And that also just includes our ability to handle something like First Savings for us to continue to run the business and to build great relationships and ensure an effective integration is an area where I'm incredibly confident. The drivers of our performance continue to be really good. Our balance sheet growth, as we've talked about, we remain optimistic, even though the quarter was flat, I feel great about the remainder of the year. Margin management is in probably the best place it's been in a while. It's been challenging since '23 since Silicon Valley, and I feel like we are in as good a spot as we've been in a while. Fee income has been growing double digits for really an extended period of time. And we were just kind of walking through all those categories that we disclosed in the slides and just the growth rates year-over-year we're all in the double-digit range. And then our expense control has been something we've been great at for years. So we've got adequate capital. It's allowing us to be active in the share repurchase space. If we're going to trade at these levels, then we're going to be active in buying back our own shares. And I think it just sets us up for a really strong '26 and kind of feeds into 2027. So I appreciate your investment in the company and happy to continue to have one-on-one discussions with any interested investors or current investors for that matter. So thanks for your time. We appreciate it, and we'll talk to you next quarter.

That concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation, and have a great day. You may now disconnect.