and Investor Relations. Luke, please go ahead.

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining Equity Bank Shares' third quarter earnings call. A quick note before we begin. Today's call is being recorded and is available via webcast at investor.equitybank.com, along with our earnings release and presentation materials. Today's presentation contains forward-looking statements which are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. After the presentation, we'll open the floor up for questions and discussion, a conversation we look forward to. With that, let me turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Brad Elliott.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Joining me today is Rick Sims, our bank CEO, and Chris Navratil, our CFO. Our third quarter shows what happens when a larger franchise starts to work together. Net income was $26.8 million, or $1.29 per diluted share. Core earnings was $29 million, or $1.40 per share, and our core ROTC was 16.5%. Pre-tax, pre-provision earnings were $36.9 million, the highest since we combined the three companies together, and our efficiency ratio was 54%. The story of the quarter is organic loan growth. This improvement is something that we have focused on for the last several years. Loans in our legacy markets grew at an annualized rate of nearly 12%. Production was the largest in our history. And for the first time since closing the acquisition, total loan balances increased during the quarter. Under Rick's leadership, Mark Parman, Justin Harris, Greg Kossover, Craig Dunn, and their teams have continued to make sales calls, cultivated relationships, and emphasize value creation for our customers on both lending and the deposit side. The results in the quarter reflect the effort and confirm the ability of our franchise to grow the balance sheet organically. Remaining focused on technology initiatives, finding ways to automate processes, enhancing lead generation, and expanding the services our customers rely on provides opportunity to add operating leverage and enhance shareholder returns as the balance sheet grows. I continue to be excited about the emerging technology will do in our industry and what it will do in our bank as we continue to pursue all that it offers. The funding market has tightened over the quarter as we have seen migration within both our legacy and acquired footprints. Declines are concentrated in large rate sensitive customers, including public funds, Thank you for joining us today. We are excited to operate during these periods as we think we have a competitive advantage. Mergers create financial statement noise, but strategically adding core deposits and expanding markets to the equity franchise is core to what we do. Execution on this strategy will provide opportunity to continue the success realized in the quarter. As you know, on September 3rd, we announced our agreement to merge Lincoln Bank Corp., the holding company of Lincoln Savings Bank, headquartered in Rhinebeck, Iowa, into Equity. Lincoln has served the Iowa community since 1902 and operates 16 locations across Central and Northeast Iowa. The transaction gives us a meaningful presence in the Des Moines and Waterloo Cedar Falls area and a strong in-market deposit franchise. It is financially attractive and builds on the disciplined approach of our 15 prior transactions since 2015. Proforma will be approximately $9.1 billion as a company. are on track to close Lincoln in the fourth quarter and momentum is building. We anticipate Lincoln will convert onto equity systems in the second quarter of 2027. We do not plan to close or consolidate any branches which protects the customer relationships that makes this franchise so valuable. Closing on time lets us capture cost savings and earnings accretion as early as possible. Lincoln brings exceptional banking talent, deep relationships and strong communities to the consolidated franchise. Under the continued leadership of their commercial and retail teams, we are excited for what this strategic combination will contribute to our growing company. I'm excited about the quarter and the trajectory of Equity Bank. Let me turn this over to Rick at this time.

Thanks, Brad. This quarter was about organic growth, and the numbers show it. Total loans grew $39 million to $5.44 billion, our first quarterly increase since the acquisitions closed. In our legacy markets, balances grew $106 million, or 2.9%, to $3.5 billion. That is nearly 12% annualized. Within our acquired markets, we continue to see period-over-period decline in balances, although it was slowed as production improved by 55% as our teams continue to find traction post-integration into equities processes. Production across the bank reached a new high. We closed $379 million in loans at an average rate of 6.9%, up $64 million or 20% from last quarter, and up $136 million or 56% from a year ago. Our legacy markets produced $279 million of that, up 11% from last quarter. Specifically, I would like to note Kansas City under the leadership of Jeff Keyes, Wichita under the leadership of Harrison Helms, Western Missouri under the leadership of Blake Moreland, Tulsa under the leadership of Ryan Morris, and Western Kansas under the leadership of Levi Goetz for the production and balances they were able to generate this quarter. Looking forward, our 75% weighted pipeline stands at 534 million, up 27% from last quarter, and line utilization was at 55.3%. We have hired 13 bankers year-to-date across Oklahoma City, Omaha, Lincoln, Wichita, and Des Moines, and those teams are still ramping up. Total deposits declined $136 million, or 2.2%, to $6.17 billion. In our legacy markets, deposits were down $102 million. Excluding public funds, which declined due to pricing pressure and seasonal payments, balances in legacy markets were effectively flat on the quarter and up 3.6% from a year ago. Average deposit balances for the period were flat. Non-interest bearing deposits were 18.7% of total deposits, down from 20.2% in the first quarter. Rebuilding that mix and replacing brokered funding with core relationship deposits over time is a priority for our retail and treasury teams. On accounts, our legacy markets produced 6,269 accounts in the quarter, up 22% over same quarter last year. In addition, digital active users reached almost 79,000, up 10% from a year ago. 759 business accounts were opened in the quarter, which is an area of focus with the average balance per business account growing nearly 4%. Bancshares, Inc., Brett Alan Reber, Richard Sems, Gregory Kossover, Mark Parman, Net charge-offs were $2.1 million, or 15 basis points annualized, up from 12 basis points last quarter. Non-performing assets were 1% of total assets. Non-accrual loans were $69 million. Classified assets to regulatory capital were 10.42%, down 140 basis points in the quarter. We remain comfortable with the overall credit posture of the portfolio. On Lincoln, integration planning is well underway. Local leadership and decision-making will stay in place as we welcome their teammates, customers, and communities. We now operate in seven growing metro markets. We believe the best in the Midwest. And with Lincoln, we add density in Des Moines and now enter Waterloo, Cedar Falls, as well as other surrounding community markets, which gives us opportunity for future growth. I'll now turn it over to Chris.

Thanks, Rick. Good morning. Net income for the quarter was $26.8 million or $129 per diluted share. Excluding M&A expenses of $1.0 million, intangible amortization of $1.8 million, and securities gains, core net income was $29.0 million or $140 per share in line with last quarter. Core return on average tangible common equity was 16.5%. Net interest income was $72.8 million, down $1 million from the second quarter. The periodic decline was driven by increasing costs within the deposit portfolio, as well as declining yield on interest-earning assets. Total cost of deposits moved up seven basis points on a flat average balance. As both Brad and Rick mentioned, the market tightened for deposits as we saw the short end of the curve rise. Investment yield declined as excess discount realization from the previous quarter did not recur. Loan coupon yields declined five basis points. Net interest margin was 4.2%, down 16 basis points, affected by the same drivers as net interest income, as well as composition dynamics. Average earning assets increased to $6.87 billion from $6.80 billion, driven by cash and securities, which were funded by expanded borrowings. Thank you for joining us. The FOMC's decision to raise interest rates in September will provide a near-term benefit as contractual earning asset balances are repriced. 14% of the loan portfolio reprices daily and 22% monthly. New production is coming on at 6.91%. The spot coupon on the loan portfolio is up 8 basis points to 6.48%, while production and repricing will continue to be accretive to the book. Thank you for joining us. Debit and credit card, trust and wealth management, and treasury all grew. We expect fourth quarter non-interest income, exclusive of the impact of Lincoln, between $10 and $11 million. Noninterest expense was $47.7 million, excluding $1 million of merger costs. Expenses were $46.7 million, flat with the second quarter. The efficiency ratio was 54%. We expect fourth quarter noninterest expense, exclusive of the impact of Lincoln, between $47 and $48 million. Provision expense was $1.7 million, and the allowance for credit losses was 1.18% of loans, effectively flat to the previous quarter. Thank you for joining us. The decline in per share value reflects a $35 million negative adjustment to AOCI as rates rose during the period. Excluding AOCI, tangible book value per share grew $1.19, or roughly 3.6%. CET1 was 12.15%, and total risk-based capital was 14.94%. Capital generation was approximately $21 million for the quarter. During the period, we announced a 22% increase in our dividend to 22 cents per share. Our repurchase plan remains in place, though it is currently paused as we work to finalize the Lincoln transaction. At close, we expect pro forma TCE to total assets of approximately 8.5% and total risk-based capital of approximately 13.4%. As Brad and Rick mentioned, the Lincoln merger is continuing to progress as anticipated. As we expect a late fourth quarter close, impact of the transaction has been excluded from our forecast figures. No changes to previously announced expectations have been identified. I'll turn it back to Brad for closing remarks.

Thank you, Chris. Now let's step forward and let's talk a little bit about 2027. Bancshares, Inc., Brett Alan Reber, Our legacy markets grew loans at nearly 12% annualized and production was a record $379 million. The Lincoln and Omaha teams, that's Lincoln, Nebraska, we hired are building pipelines in markets we were not present in a year ago. As a transition from our recent acquisition works through the balance sheet, that growth shows up in total balances. In this quarter, we saw the first signs that we are able to grow as an organization organically. Second, Iowa. Lincoln Savings Bank contributes excellent bankers, strong communities, and additional scale to perform a balance sheet. It also positions us for further bolt-on opportunities in the state with more than 200 banks under $2 billion in assets chartered there. We convert in the second quarter of 2027. And with half the cost savings realized in the year, 2027 is where the accretion begins. Third, customers and deposits. We have 166,000 accounts, 79,000 active digital users, and treasury platform that continues to gain momentum. Core relationship growth and a full treasury suite are the answers to growing new deposit relationships and fee income. And the early signs are in the numbers as Rick shared in his comments. Fourth, efficiency. Expenses were flat in this quarter. We believe we can grow the balance sheet and deepen relationships without growing the cost structure at the same pace. M&A has always been part of how we have built this company, and Lincoln Savings Bank is a good example of the discipline we apply. It fits our strategy, it meets our return for shareholders, and it makes equity a better company. We remain active, but our energy is on executing what is in front of us, organic growth, integrating Lincoln and building tangible book value for our shareholders and increasing earnings per share. Year-to-date core earnings per share are at $4.14, which puts us in a position to surpass our $5 target for 2026. That is what this team has done every year, and we plan to keep doing it, building earnings per share as we grow the company. Thank you for joining us on the call today, and now we're happy to take your questions at this time.

We will now begin the question and answer session for this earnings call. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you're muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Jeff Roules with DA Davidson. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. maybe a jump off from Brad your comments as you as you look into 27 and I guess preliminarily I wanted to think about maybe net loan growth given the expectations the organic side really coming on strong and then I guess if you kind of think about the possible runoff from from Lincoln kind of framing I guess you know this year you're kind of on pace for low single-digit if you've asked any acquisitions. How does it frame up for 27, either big picture or specifically?

Yeah, so we've in some of the modeling and the numbers that we released, Jeff, we reflected some of the runoff that we expect already in Lincoln Savings Bank. If you just smash the two companies together on asset basis, it doesn't equate to $9.1 billion. So we think we did a better job of disclosing some of that shrinkage that naturally happens as part of the merging of the companies together. So hopefully the modeling and analytical work that's been done on that in the industry is already better suited than we had in the last two transactions. So, you know, we're looking, I mean, Rick's teams are doing a really, really good job. I feel very confident that the The Oklahoma group and the Nebraska group are on the way to growth. We have really strong production out of all the rest of our teams. Everyone in the company from the board down to the line lender is all focused on doing the right thing every day. So, you know, on an organic basis, I think single digit upwards of that is something that we can definitely target in 2027.

Sorry, Brad, he said, is that mid-single digit?

Mid-single digit, yeah. I don't think we're going to get to 10%, but somewhere between 5% and 7% is something that I think we can hit as a company with the acquisition. I think without the acquisition, I think we could be actually stronger than that.

Okay. Appreciate it. And Brad, another one for you on the M&A side. Just wanted to see if kind of the shifting sands of maybe rate expectations as we that new environment. Do you think, you know, that coupled with we've heard kind of rumors of sort of as midterms approach and any potential catalyst if there's a shift on that front? I guess to the question, you know, rates or midterm elections, Do you see that having any preliminary impact to deal activity or is it kind of business as usual on that front?

So, you know, most of the things that we've done are driven by age of ownership and age of management. And so those two factors still exist. And so the conversations that I already have scheduled for this quarter, the reach out that I've received or that we've made. We have four or five conversations that are active at this point in time. and so it just matters on where they go. I do think the rising rates will put smaller banks on the sidelines again. I think their AOC eye is going to go the wrong direction for them. I think that's what's kept them from coming to market in the We have a lot of active conversations that are agnostic to that or don't have AOCI real issues. So I think we have a lot of opportunity that we can pick and choose from as we go through the process. It's not something that we need to do next year, but there are conversations that could happen next year if the numbers work together and the strategies work in the right direction.

It doesn't sound like the political winds are anything that you're overly concerned with or impacting conversations, maybe broadly speaking.

I think if there's a blue wave that happens on the House and the Senate side, I think some people are going to get upset. more focus on getting something done before the White House seat comes up in two more years. So I think over the next 24 months, I think there could be a wave of activity that comes to the marketplace. How that affects Equity Bank is, you know, we'll just be consistent on what we're doing and how we're doing it. You know, we can do one or two deals a year. And so, you know, we'll have to pick and choose what those opportunities look like for us.

Okay, appreciate it, Brad. Thanks.

Your next question comes from the line of Brendan Nozzle with Hovde Group. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking the questions. Morning. Starting off here on the net interest margin, a bit of a softer result this quarter, but you kept the outlook for the fourth quarter of this year. There's a bunch of moving pieces in there. Can you kind of maybe decompose the magnitude of each of those drivers for next quarter? I mean, you've got the tailwind of asset remixing and the Fed hike, but you've also got the headwind of rising funding costs also from the Fed. So how much is each of those worth as you kind of work the math on getting to your range?

Yeah, so good question, Brennan. There's a bit to unpack there. On the current period results, if you take in the excess liquidity that we allow to carry for the period, that's seven-ish basis points of impact to net interest margin that's neutral to net interest income. So managing that, reduced cash, et cetera, takes care of seven basis points of the delta. On the changing interest rates, the Fed move adds about 10 basis points to loan yields. The increase in deposit funding is heavily realized through the end of the quarter. We're going to continue to see some migration up there, but The 10 basis points on the loan side should outpace it. So normalizing for the liquidity is $4.27, adding the impact of the additional rate movements adds a few more basis points to get you in that range of that $4.25 to $4.35.

Okay, got it. That's helpful. And then to the extent that we get additional rate hikes in the future and we don't have kind of mixed considerations as well, we'll take a rough ballpark estimate of kind of what each rate hike does to your margin.

Yeah, it adds between three and five basis points for every 25 basis points up.

Got it. Okay. Fantastic. Thanks for taking my questions.

Your next question comes from the line of Matt Olney with Stevens. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. On the deposit side, it sounds like the balances in the third quarter were relatively flat and the legacy markets X those public funds that you highlighted. It sounds like you're expecting some nice deposit growth here in the near term. Any more color on just the incremental cost of these New deposit flows that you're anticipating?

Yeah, so I'd say a couple of things. One, we're optimistic about continued remixing and opportunity in our non-interest bearing and low cost commercial and retail aspects of the business. You know, we went through payment of taxes in April. We've seen continuation of a relatively lower balance. So there's some opportunity there as we close out the year as balances grow into You know, the end of the year that we typically see seasonally. So there's there's some benefit there. As you think about a new incremental deposit, to the extent you're pulling it from a special or a public fund opportunity or something that's actively bid, you're seeing it up at the top end of what you would think a short term interest rate is. But that's most of where Rick's time is spent. Most of where his team's time is spent is on the customer relationship, the development of those customers that aren't as rate sensitive and are focused on the broad relationship aspect. So that's where our time and efforts are. But where we have to go get funding kind of at market, it's more aligned with brokered funding and those kind of costs.

We always have a huge, yeah, huge, large percentage inflow of deposits in the fourth quarter because I don't remember the number of municipalities, but it's somewhere between 50 and 100 municipalities that we bank across our system that have tax revenues that come in in the fourth quarter. So we always see a nice flow of deposits into those accounts because we have their operating accounts.

and Matt, I want to sort of strategically and down to the tactical level, one of the things that we've been doing is we're actually on accounts kind of sort of year over year, same stores. We're about 20% up in the quarter, third quarter for the number of accounts. So our teams are really driving those accounts. We've also implemented a few tools that allows them to be more proactive in identifying additional business that customers have with other banks. And so we're actively seeking that. So those things take a little time on it, but those are some of the tactical things we're doing that we, why we're optimistic. Obviously, we've seen that in the legacy markets with the growth of loans, and we're doing more of that now on the side of deposits, and so we're positive on that.

Okay. That's all great, Keller. Appreciate that. And then I guess shifting over towards the credit side, curious what you're seeing this quarter. Looks like charge-offs were a little bit heavier, but any cleanup commentary there? And then just taking a step back with high rate expectations from here into 27, I'm What the credit team is focused on at this point. Thanks.

Yeah, I don't think we're I mean, we're still optimistic with our credit. We're we're obviously seeing positive results from most of our commercial customers. And we cleaned up a lot of stuff in the classified and positive resolutions along those lines. So, you know, we're obviously the consumers being a little bit impacted. You see that sort of in some of their deposit bases, a little stress in that from a cost perspective. But that said, we don't have a lot. That's not a big piece of our portfolio. And we haven't seen that fully move through to commercial. So we're still very positive on the credit side at this point.

It seems like the commercial business is making money. And we see that because the average balance of our commercial account is actually up So the average commercial customer is stronger, where our consumer customer average balance is down about $1,000 on average per account. So you can see that coming through in those two ways.

Okay, guys, that's helpful. Thanks again.

Your next question comes to the line of Nathan Race with Piper Sandler. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I was curious, maybe Rick, if you can just comment on what you're seeing from a competitive pricing perspective on new loan production. Obviously, you know, record production in the quarter. It sounds like the pipeline is pretty strong. But, you know, just curious as you guys, you know, kind of expand your teams in some larger markets, whether it's Oklahoma City or Omaha, if you're seeing some segregation in terms of kind of what you're getting on new loan pricing. Thank you for joining us today.

Thank you so much for joining us. Some competitive craziness in a few of our markets, but in the most, at this point in time, we're actually, and I think that's part of why you're seeing the pipeline grow, is that we're in pretty good shape at this point in time.

Okay, great. That's helpful. And then, you know, just as we think about kind of excess capital manager priorities in the next year, you know, I imagine you're probably going to be in a kind of digest the phase with Lincoln at least for the next quarter or two. But as you kind of just think about kind of returning excess capital shareholders into 27, you know, can you just maybe, Brad, comment on the buyback appetite given the stock trace today and kind of any other capital initiatives you're contemplating? I obviously saw the dividend hike here in 3Q as well.

Yeah, so, you know, as everyone knows, when there's a filing with the SEC, Thank you for joining us. That's one way we'll return capital. And then I think we have plenty of ways to deploy capital through acquisition and organic growth.

Okay. And then just maybe one last one for Chris. Obviously, it's going to be a bit noisy expense-wise next year, but just kind of any thoughts on around the kind of legacy expense growth rate that we expect from the equity franchise? and, you know, within that context, you know, curious to what degree some of the AI initiatives and other technology items that are laid out in the slide deck can kind of limit expense growth to some degree next year.

Can you summarize that question again, Horst?

Yeah, just trying to think about the legacy operating expense growth run rate from the legacy equity franchise into next year and to what degree some of the technology initiatives and the AI implementations laid out on the slide deck can maybe limit expense growth to some degree into 2027.

Yeah, Nate, I'll say around that, just generally speaking, we're in the process of budgeting and outlook expectations, so more formality to come around this as we move forward, but But off the top, our expectation is that these initiatives over time allow us to grow the balance sheet without growing the expense right at the same clip. So as we look to next year, as you look at NIE, the average assets, and you look at efficiency ratio, our goal and expectation is that on a legacy basis, that's coming down. Some of that comes with asset growth. A lot of it comes with control of costs, specific initiatives for how technology moves the needle there. are coming together, but I don't have a clear line of sight today to give you the specifics, but I can tell you we're focused on it, we're motivated by it, and we do see that there is positive leverage to be attained there. We just don't have it to a number that I want to stand on today and say it's definitively this.

We spent the last two days with a A team going through some account verification and loan verification processes that are meaningful moves. When we get those implemented, Chris's point is this stuff will trickle in. You'll see it come in through the balance sheet. It's not going to be a huge announcement that we're implementing this process. wonderful software and it's going to eliminate 4% of our efficiency ratio. That's not how these things are going to be implemented. They're going to be implemented as the companies all in the industry are able to implement these things and through growth and through shrinkage of turnover, you'll see these things optimize fairly quickly. We're already seeing it today, but it's not going to happen in Stair Steps. It's going to happen in a gradual line.

Understood. I appreciate all the color. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Damon Del Monte with KBW. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just to kind of follow up on the expense commentary, Chris, just wondering if you kind of had a ballpark of kind of where First quarter 27 would start on a combined basis with Lincoln and then kind of, you know, a cadence over the coming quarters throughout the year.

Yeah, what I'll say on non-interest expense and really the culmination of what is Lincoln is the expectation on the EPS side continues to be the 27 cents. But as we have moving pieces into closing that transaction and understanding that the dynamic of Some various pieces we've talked about. I don't want to specifically say it's going to be non-interest expense or it's going to be NII or some other component. We're fully confident that we'll get the 27 cents. It's where it comes from. So, Damon, on that one, I just will provide more explicit guidance as we get closer and close that transaction. But for now, specific line items aren't the way to look at it.

Thank you for having me. you've made the necessary investment in the infrastructure side of things from risk management and compliance and things of that nature to go over whenever that time comes or do you feel you need to continue to do work in that regard?

No, we've made a lot of progress over the last three years. We've been very focused on that. We have a very specific operating plan on how to get to that number. Rick honestly did a good job of bringing in a couple of Federal Reserve Bank risk employees that were on furlough at the time that helped us write that plan over a 90-day period. We've been operating off of that plan. And so our chief risk officer we hired 18 months ago, I believe, approximately, has done a great job with his team and building out the processes. So I feel very confident with where we sit today that if a transaction took us over tomorrow, we'd be ready to meet those challenges. Okay, great.

Appreciate the call. That's all that I had. Thank you. Thank you.

Your next call comes from the line of Brett Rabaton with Stonex Group. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Wanted to go back to the margin and just assuming that Lincoln closes, let's say, early December, just wanted to see if you guys could give some thoughts on the margin impact from Lincoln and 4Q aside from the standalone operation.

Okay. Yeah, the impact to Lincoln as currently modeled, and again, Brett, I'll caveat this with the moving pieces of what is the closing of Lincoln and the composition of both balance sheet and income streams is a little bit in flux, but The impact of Lincoln on the run rate margin is 8 to 10 basis points down. So as you think about that on a single month out of three, you're looking at two to three basis points of degradation based on, call it a December 1st close.

Okay. Yeah, that's kind of what I was looking at. Okay. And then just, you know, I know you don't want to give margin guidance for 27, and there's a lot of variables that are in place, so to speak. But there's some definite tailwinds on the loan side with the origination rates and loan repricing and higher rates. But my question is, is there a risk that the margin relative to 4Q would see some additional pressure in 27 just from funding new growth, i.e. new production on the balance sheet is at a lower margin than the existing one, which is obviously

Yeah, I think I'll say two things there. One, 436 margin in Q2, 420 today, all numbers that we're really proud of and as an industry are hard to retain. So maintaining and growing margin from here is going to be, to your point, Brett, tough. But we're focused on how can we control for credit risk challenges to the balance sheet while also growing NII over time. So we don't want to take high risk investments. We don't want to play capital poorly, but where we can grow the balance sheet, drive NII increase, even if it's at a slight detriment to overall margin, we're okay with it because we want to get EPS and we want to get tangible book value growth for our shareholders. And that's what's driving us at this point. So yes, there could be some compression there based on incremental growth, but it's expansive to NII.

Okay, yeah, perfect answer there. And then the last one, if I could, just around M&A. Brad, this is a question for Brad. Your first response around M&A kind of led me to question, you've obviously been an M&A-focused institution doing a deal every quarter, two or three, and you've built out the geography quite a bit in the past few years. Do you think there's a shift to, hey, we're an organic story now and maybe we're less interested in M&A? Or Brad, just any thoughts on what you see as the tools to double your franchise, as you say, in every five to seven years from here? Can that be more organic than it is M&A?

Yeah, I think we actually traditionally have We've been good at organic. We actually are good at organic today. And as Rick has helped bring some clarity to that, we're doing a really good job in our core markets of originations. I think we have a lot of room for that growth. I'm most excited about this year. The number of checking accounts we have grown in our same stores, legacy markets, is exceptional. Jonathan Roop and that retail team have done an amazing job of growing those number of checking accounts. And I think we can just improve on that every year. So I think there is an organic story in our picture. We don't need to do another M&A transaction to be meaningful and relevant. So we're always, the LSB transaction, Okay. Okay.

There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending and you may now disconnect.