WSFS Financial Corporation Q4 2025 Earnings Call - NIM Resilient While Management Pushes Aggressive Buybacks

Conference Call Operator: ...and welcome to the WSFS Financial Corporation fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker’s remarks, we’ll conduct a question-and-answer session. To ask a question at this time, you will need to press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I’d now like to turn the call over to your host for today, Mr. David Burg, Chief Financial Officer. Sir, you may begin.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Great. Thank you very much, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. Our earnings release and earnings release supplement, which we will refer to on today’s call, can be found in the investor relations section of our company website. With me on this call are Rodger Levenson, Chairman, President, and CEO, and Art Bacci, Chief Operating Officer. Prior to reviewing our financial results, I would like to read our safe harbor statement. Our discussion today will include information of our management’s view of our future expectations, plans, and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements.

Actual results may differ materially from historical results or those indicated by these forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the risk factors included in our annual report on Form 10-K and the most recent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as well as other documents we periodically file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All comments made during today’s call are subject to the Safe Harbor statement. I will now turn to our financial results. Our businesses continued to perform very well in the quarter, providing strong momentum moving into 2026. For the fourth quarter, WSFS delivered a core earnings per share of $1.43, a core ROA of 1.42%, and core return on tangible common equity of 18%, which are all up meaningfully on a year-over-year basis.

These results closed out a successful 2025 that included a full-year core EPS of $5.21, core ROA of 1.39%, and core return on tangible common equity of 18%. Our 4Q core EPS is up 29% over the prior year, and our 2025 full-year EPS increased 19% over the prior year. These core results for the fourth quarter exclude several non-core items, which resulted in a $5 million impact to net income, as well as a $0.09 impact to EPS in the quarter. These items are outlined on page 5 of the supplement. Net interest margin was 3.83% for the quarter, down 8 basis points linked quarter, driven by the rate cuts and a one-time interest recovery last quarter, which accounted for 4 basis points of the decline.

Importantly, our NIM is up three basis points year-over-year, while absorbing 75 basis points of interest rate cuts since the fourth quarter of 2024. We continue to successfully reprice our deposits, and our exit deposit beta for December was 43%. Core fee revenue increased 2% linked quarter and 8% year-over-year, driven by double-digit growth in wealth and trust, capital markets, and home lending. Our wealth and trust business continues to perform very well and grew 13% year-over-year, with 29% growth in WSFS Institutional Services and 24% growth in BMT of Delaware. For the full year 2025, WSFS Institutional Services was the fourth most active U.S. asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities trustee, with nearly 12% market share, moving up 2 spots in the rankings relative to 2024.

Total gross loans grew 2% linked quarter, or 9% annualized, driven by broad-based growth across our businesses. In commercial, growth was led by C&I, which delivered growth of 4% linked quarter or 15% annualized. Overall, we saw the largest quarterly fundings in over two years. Our residential mortgage and WSFS-originated consumer loans continued to build on their strong momentum and grew 5% linked quarter. Total client deposits increased 2% linked quarter or 10% annualized, with growth across trust, private banking, and consumer. Importantly, our non-interest-bearing deposits grew 6% linked quarter and now represent 32% of our total client deposits. Turning to asset quality, we saw a meaningful improvement across our problem assets due to favorable net migration and payoffs, and ended the year at the lowest level in over two years.

Non-performing assets were essentially flat compared to the prior quarter and ended the year down approximately 40% compared to year-end 2024. Delinquencies increased 46 basis points linked quarter due to several previously identified non-performing and problem assets moving to delinquent status in the quarter. 14 basis points of this increase was driven by non-performing loans. The remainder is primarily comprised of 2 office loans and 1 multifamily condo loan in our footprint. One of the office loans was already resolved in January, while the other is a medical office expected to be sold in the first half of 2026, which would result in a full repayment of our loan. We continue to work with the borrower on the remaining loan and believe we’re well secured.

Net charge-offs increased 16 basis points to 46 basis points of average loans, primarily due to the partial charge-off of a non-performing land development loan. Net charge-offs were 40 basis points for the year, excluding Upstart, which is on the midpoint of our prior outlook. During the fourth quarter, WSFS returned $119 million of capital, including buybacks of $109 million, or 3.7% of our outstanding shares. This took our total buybacks for the year to $288 million, representing over 9% of our outstanding shares. On slide 15 of the supplement, we provided our 2026 outlook, which assumes a continued stable economy and three 25 basis point rate cuts throughout the year in March, July, and December....

Overall, we expect to deliver another year of high performance and growth, with a full-year core ROA of approximately 1.40% and double-digit growth in core EPS. As a reminder, we intend to maintain an elevated level of buybacks in line with our previously communicated glide path towards our capital target of 12%, while retaining discretion to adjust the pace of buybacks based on the macro environment, business performance, and potential investment opportunities. We expect mid-single-digit loan growth overall, with low single-digit growth in our consumer portfolio, where we expect continued momentum in residential mortgage and other real estate-secured consumer loans, partially offset by the continued runoff of our Spring EQ partnership portfolio. Building on a strong momentum in deposits in 2025, we expect continued broad-based deposit growth across our businesses in 2026.

Our outlook calls for deposit growth in the mid-single digits from 4Q levels. Our outlook for NIM is approximately 3.80 for the year, which incorporates the impact of the 3 additional interest rate cuts I mentioned. We continue to focus on deposit repricing opportunities while growing our portfolio and expect to maintain an interest-bearing deposit beta of low- to mid-40s throughout the year. While the path and timing of future rate cuts remains uncertain, it’s important to note that the impact of additional rate cuts on our financial results will not be linear, as we continue to manage our margins through several levers, including deposit repricing actions, our hedge program, and the securities portfolio strategy. We continue to see momentum and growth opportunities in our fee businesses, which contribute approximately a third of our total revenue.

Our overall fee revenue will grow mid-single digits, excluding Cash Connect. Wealth and Trust is expected to continue their strong momentum and again grow double digits in 2026. Cash Connect revenue is expected to decline due to interest rates, but will be more than offset in expenses. Our focus in Cash Connect continues to be on driving the profit margin, which has increased meaningfully in 2025. Our outlook for net charge-offs is 35-45 basis points of average loans for the year, consistent with our 2025 results. While we have seen strong improvement in problem loans and non-performing assets, commercial loan losses may remain uneven. Our outlook calls for an efficiency ratio in the high fifties for the year.

We plan to maintain strong expense discipline, but will continue to leverage opportunities to invest in the franchise, which, coupled with normal seasonality, may result in some variances quarter to quarter. We’re excited about the future and remain committed to delivering high performance. Thank you, and we will now open the line for questions.

Conference Call Operator: As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from Manuel Navas from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Hi. Yeah. On the loan growth, can you talk a little bit about the better commercial trends and kind of what are you seeing out there in terms of sentiment? There’s some better line utilization. The footings were up. Just kind of talk about what you’re seeing in commercial that’s driving this kind of strong originations and a good outlook.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yep, sure. And well, good afternoon. I’ll start off. So in commercial, as you know, in the first half of last year, there was, you know, quite a bit of uncertainty in the economy, with the tax bill pending, some of the tariffs and legislative issues that were ongoing. And I think as you heard Rodger mention a couple of times in our calls in the first couple of quarters of the year, that small business owners and entrepreneurs were... When faced with that kind of uncertainty, you know, were kind of delaying some business decisions. And so what happened over the course of the year was we continued those discussions with clients.

We saw that pipeline really build in the third quarter, and our pipeline reached over $300 million in the third quarter. And in the fourth quarter, when some of those things crystallized, the environment, you know, people felt better about making some of those decisions with the passage of the tax bill, a little bit more clarity on the legislative front. And so, you know, we saw very strong originations and fundings and, you know, we continue to see good momentum. We’re not going to see that kind of growth every single quarter, but, you know, we feel good about the momentum going forward from here.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: I appreciate that. Can I switch over to capital return for a moment?

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Uh, sure.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: This was, this was a really strong quarter in terms of buybacks. What are kind of your parameters there? Is it just that CET1 ratio? This quarter also had return on AOCI, a little bit lower pricing, kind of book value per share growth. You hit the 110% total payout. Like, what should be the guidepost beyond CET1 going forward?

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: I think, Manuel, we look at all of those factors. I would say primarily CET1 and TCE, which does incorporate that AOCI volatility. And of course, you know, if we see our price dip, we take advantage of those opportunities. But generally, you know, our approach is, as you know, the majority of our capital philosophy, our capital return philosophy is through buybacks. Our dividend is kind of in the mid-teens, so about 85% of our capital returns is through buybacks, and we are continuing on this kind of multi-year glide path to get to the capital, to our capital target. And so, you know, I think we have the capacity, and you can kind of think about it as returning, you know, roughly 100% of the net income a year.

But I think importantly, you know, we will toggle that up and down, depending on what we see. If there are investment opportunities, you know, we want to take advantage of those. And similarly, if there’s some kind of stress in the economy or the market, you know, we may slow that down. So, I think that’s kind of the glide path, but all of the factors you mentioned are things we take into account. I appreciate that. I’ll step back into the queue. Thank you.

Conference Call Operator: Our next question comes from Russell Gunther from Stephens. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Russell Gunther, Analyst, Stephens: Hey, good afternoon, guys.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Hey, Russell.

Russell Gunther, Analyst, Stephens: Hi, David. Wanted to start on Cash Connect, if we could. So, three cuts baked into the outlook. I know 4Q can tend to see some seasonally lower ATM volume. But as you look at the year ahead, what type of revenue hit are you guys anticipating here? And then within that, if you could talk to just overall margin expectations. You mentioned the improvement, I think from what was a high single-digit margin to a low double-digit one now. So just helpful to get the puts and takes positive and negative over the course of 2026 in terms of profitability improvement here.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yep, sure. Sure, Russell. So yeah, when you look at Cash Connect, as you mentioned, the interest rates do have an impact on the pricing on the top line, but that’s more than offset in the expenses, so we do have a margin benefit there. I think the way to think about it is roughly about $2.5 million annual impact per 25 basis point rate cut is kind of roughly, you know, what you should think about on the top line. And so the impact of the rate cuts, like you said, about 3 rate cuts for the year, that’s really, you know, kind of the way to think about the impact on the top line for Cash Connect. But you mentioned the margin.

That’s really been the story that we’ve been focused on, because some of that macro pricing. But, not only are the interest rates accretive to margin, but we’ve also been taking a number of other actions to continue to drive margin. And those are, number one, pricing. We’ve leveraged some of the scale that we have in the market to increase pricing across our products, and that’s been a meaningful benefit. Number two, we’ve had a couple of things that we’re doing around expenses, and that includes both optimizing kind of in transit cash as well as just efficient management of expenses in the business.

The third thing that we’re doing is we’re taking a look at the client portfolio across that business and thinking about, you know, as there’s a page in the supplement which shows the mix of that business between smart safes and bailment. And you can see that smart safes have increased year-over-year from about 25% of total volume to about 33% of total units, rather. And the smart safes generally come with higher margin and higher kind of value-add product. And so as we continue to grow that business, which we think is kind of the growth vector within that business, that should also be accretive to our margins, and that’s part of our strategy.

It’s a combination of, you know, not just rates, but all of those actions that have allowed us to drive the margin. The goal is, you know, that we continue to drive that into the mid-single digits, you know, and hopefully higher.

Russell Gunther, Analyst, Stephens: Okay. That’s very helpful, David. Thank you. Then just switching gears, overall to expenses, you know, great to see the, the high single-- the, the high fifties efficiency. But outside of the lower result we’ll get, like, from the Cash Connect, as we just discussed, are there areas of outright reduction that can support a lower run rate from here? Just trying to think through, you know, what’s a decent core, not just-- or non-interest expense growth rate for WSFS?

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yeah, Russell, I would say a couple of things there. You know, our efficiency for the year this year was 59%. You know, we set high 50s, so we, you know, we’d like to be in that range or a little bit better next year. You know, we don’t want to give a specific number because, as you know, we want to take advantage of opportunities and invest in the franchise. And so if those opportunities exist with talent additions or technology, we want to take advantages of those opportunities. And so that’s why quarter to quarter, there may be fluctuations.

But to give you a little bit of a sense of, we-- you know, other things that we do on expenses, we do have a number of different productivity actions that we’re taking. For example, we’ve been optimizing our real estate portfolio, and that’s been a nice tailwind for us and will continue to be. So we’re really leveraging those opportunities hard. Another one is, you know, we have divested a number of products or businesses that are not central to our strategy. Those include Upstart earlier in the year, Commonwealth, Powdermill, we exited the joint venture with Commonwealth, and all those things are also taking out expenses for things that are, again, not central to our strategy.

And, you know, in addition to all of that, I think having really good, strong discipline around our headcount and expenses overall, including particularly in the shared functions. So, I mean, all of those things give us confidence, but importantly, we want to really continue to invest in the business if those opportunities exist.

Russell Gunther, Analyst, Stephens: Okay. Yep, I hear you. I appreciate it. And then just last one for me. Curious as to the anticipated mix of deposit growth. So you guys are basically looking to match fund loan growth. Just wondering, any willingness to flex with the below peer loan or deposit ratio around 76%, right? Just maybe fewer market rate deposits. And then I guess an adjacent question really would be just expectations around the overall size of the balance sheet, if you could touch on the investment portfolio and cash balances, how they could trend over the course of the year.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Sure. So, first on deposits, so that’s, you know, that’s a trade-off that we do take into account. We’ve been running off, if you look over the course of the year. We’ve been reducing a little bit of our CD book, and that’s been really price driven, so it’s not an intentional runoff, but we’ve been aggressive on pricing there, and that’s really because of the strength of the deposit growth in other businesses, we were able to do that. You know, particularly for clients that only have the CD relationship. So we will continue to look at opportunities to, you know, to flex pricing.

But, you know, as you know, a lot of our deposit growth has come from non-interest-bearing deposits, and those are clearly kind of core operating deposits that we certainly want to continue to bring in and are super accretive in the long run. So I would say we are trying to be fairly aggressive on pricing while continuing to grow core clients and relationships. And on your question around securities portfolio, we have over the course of the year, we’ve been bringing down our portfolio a bit. I would say over the course of the past, you know, couple of years from elevated levels, now we’ve reached a point where it’s in the low 20s, about 21%, and our intention is to keep it here.

So, from this point forward, we’re going to anything that really comes off the securities portfolio, we will look to reinvest it in the same type of securities that we essentially have. So, agency, not taking a lot of credit at all, credit risk in any way, MBS, those type of securities, but we’re going to keep it flat at this level.

Russell Gunther, Analyst, Stephens: Okay. Excellent. Thank you very much for taking my question.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yep. Thanks, Russ.

Conference Call Operator: Our next question comes from Kelly Motta from KBW. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Hey, thanks for the question.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Hi, Kelly.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Just at a high level, you know, you, over the past, you know, year or so, exited a couple of businesses where the risk-adjusted returns aren’t there. It feels like, given your guide and outlook, you know, these headwinds are abating somewhat. Are there any, as you strategically look at your diversified businesses, are there any things that you’re continuing to evaluate that you could share or kind of thresholds of profitability you look at of these kind of niche businesses and deposit and loan verticals that you have? Thanks.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yeah. I’ll start off, and I’m sure Roger will weigh in as well. So, Kelly, we continue to, we have an initiative here we call it Relook, where we continue to look at different parts of our business and think about the fit and the strategic fit of that going forward. And that’s something that we continue to do, and like you said, we’ve done a good job of shedding some of those things. You know, at the end of the day, you know, I can’t really discuss anything specific that’s on the horizon right now, but it’s really, I would say, part of our strategic plan and part of our ongoing strategy to always evaluate those type of things.

Rodger Levenson, Chairman, President, and CEO, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yeah. Kelly, it’s Rodger. I would just add to what David said is, I think if you look at the actions we took in 2025, those were primarily decisions made, you know, in which this looked very different than we are today. And because they were low scale, low profitability partnerships or businesses that we had, we thought it just made sense for the reasons that David said to move on from those. I don’t think there’s a large group of followers to that, but I do think, as David said, there’s opportunities to relook at a lot of things, you know, that we’re doing based on the evolution of the company, and I think this was an important year to kind of start to build some of that muscle.

We’ve always been very disciplined, obviously, about, you know, evaluating our profitability, you know, by business line and shared service area. I think this will, this exercise will help us continue to do that, you know, going forward. So it’s, when you go through a period of rapid growth like we did, you know, four or five years ago, I think as you settle into your scale and you see where you’re getting that higher growth, you’re looking to free up capital and resources to continue to invest in those areas, and in areas where we’re not seeing that to, you know, either, redeploy that capital or resources. So it’s an important part of our strategic plan and will continue to be going forward.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Got it. That’s helpful. Maybe a question on M&A, if I could. It’s been several years now since your last deal. I know you’ve, you’ve been internally focused and clearly, you know, you’ve had a nice glide path, with what you’re doing organically, but, you know, just as we get another year out, you know, entering 2026, I’m wondering if you have any updated thoughts here, given the integration and work you’ve done so far. Thank you.

Rodger Levenson, Chairman, President, and CEO, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yeah. This is, you know, Rodger, again. I’m, I’m sure you’re referring to bank M&A, which I’ll address in a second. But, you know, as David said a couple of times, we-we’re continuing to invest, you know, very heavily, you know, in the business, whether it’s the fee businesses, you know, or the banking business, and that could come through, you know, one-off lift-outs or talent or small firms, or it could come as something, you know, larger.

As it relates to traditional banking, I, you know, we’ve been clear over the last year or so that if something came along that would strengthen our position, our very strong position, you know, in the greater Philly, Delaware region, you know, we would absolutely consider that, and I think, you know, we have demonstrated now our ability to execute on those, you know, very well. But we also feel good about the organic growth, and so, you know, we can continue to achieve our objectives as we outlined for 2026 by focusing on the organic opportunity, and then we’ll supplement those with, you know, inorganic opportunities, you know, should they come along?

Janet Lee, Analyst, TD Cowen: Great. Thanks a lot.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Thank you.

Conference Call Operator: Our next question comes from Christopher Marinac from Janney Montgomery Scott. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Christopher Marinac, Analyst, Janney Montgomery Scott: Yeah, hey, I wanted to look at sort of risk-adjusted returns in the loan portfolio, and you know, particularly as Upstart is now behind you. You know, do you see those getting stronger, or does the rate environment sort of limit what you can get on a risk-adjusted return?

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Hey, Chris, it’s David. Yeah, I think so when you look at our loan pricing and our risk-adjusted returns, you know, it’s really a combination of the different businesses that we have. Like you said, if you look at the consumer business, we’ve divested Upstart, and really, most of the portfolio is now a real estate secured portfolio. And so, you know, when we think about kind of risk-adjusted returns, and going a little bit to the previous question, really, we want to focus on things where we feel we have a competitive advantage and are able to originate better than others in the market, and that’s really around the home lending product.

That really goes to risk-adjusted returns and our ability to not just grow, but also grow at the right price points. And so, you know, that’s why when you think about our growth going forward, it’s really on the residential side, on the home equity line side, installment line side, but kind of on that real estate secured portfolio, where losses are, you know, have a very different profile than on the unsecured portfolios that we’ve seen. On the commercial side, you know, we continue to be, you know, the primary product is really the C&I relationship product, and that’s really where we continue to see the growth. We are not the lowest price point in the market.

We are, you know, we sell kind of our relationship, our ability to provide different products, our ability to provide superior customer service and that personalized touch. That’s really what we think is our competitive advantage. And so, you know, we’re not the lowest price point in the market, but we think we’re the best service in the market and the best, most responsive in the market. And so that’s what we’re going to continue to lean on. So C&I is our primary product, but commercial real estate continues to be an important product that we’re going to continue to grow with the right sponsors with whom we have relationships, and you know who are known in our footprint.

Rodger Levenson, Chairman, President, and CEO, WSFS Financial Corporation: Hey, Chris, this is Roger. I obviously 100% agree with what David. The other component, which you’ll hear us continue to talk about more, is getting more out of our client relationships, particularly C&I, but across the platform by, you know, referrals throughout our franchise, especially on the wealth side. So, I think it’s taking that total relationship view and allocating that to, you know, various products is where we see an opportunity to get a little bit more overall profitability through the franchise just because of the strength of the relationship. I think we’ve done a good job on that front, but we also feel like we’re just getting started, particularly on those referrals, you know, into wealth, and vice versa.

Christopher Marinac, Analyst, Janney Montgomery Scott: Great. Thank you both for that. I appreciate it. And then, David, just a quick question on taxes. Is that sort of 24-25 range still a good number to think about going forward?

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yep. Yeah, that’s a good number. Yeah, the tax bill really didn’t have a material impact, you know, on our business. Maybe a little bit of a negative impact because some deductions are no longer allowed, charitable deductions, for example, up to a certain point. So, a small impact, but generally, that’s the right range.

Christopher Marinac, Analyst, Janney Montgomery Scott: Okay. Very well. Thank you both. I appreciate it.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Thank you, Chris.

Conference Call Operator: Our next question comes from Janet Lee from TD Cowen. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Janet Lee, Analyst, TD Cowen: Good afternoon.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Hey, Janet.

Janet Lee, Analyst, TD Cowen: I wanna, I wanna step back and understand, the driver behind your strong, very strong non-interest-bearing deposit growth in the quarter. I assume a lot of that has to do with Wealth and Trust momentum that has been growing. In terms and, and aside from the deposits, the Wealth and Trust revenue on the fee side is also growing double digits. So I want to understand, is it a function of your overall institutional, trust market increasing, or are you taking market share? I want to understand the competitive dynamics there and whether that $340 million of non-interest-bearing deposit increase in the quarter should normalize in the quarter ahead. Thank you.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Hey, Janet, it’s David. Thanks for the question. So yes, I think generally, we expect that our non-interest deposit growth will be consistent with our interest-bearing deposit growth. So we want to continue to at least maintain that NIB ratio and, of course, try to grow it. So I’m not sure, you know, the growth that you saw this quarter, the 6% quarter-over-quarter growth, you know, that’s probably not. We’re not going to put up that kind of growth every single quarter, but generally, we want to continue to grow those at least in line with total deposits. And I would say importantly, the growth that you’ve seen came from two businesses. One is trust, and two is private banking, predominantly in this particular quarter.

But importantly, when you look at the composition of non-interest-bearing deposits across our business, it’s pretty broad-based. About 40% of that is in consumer. About 35% of that is across trust and private banking, and about 25% of that is in commercial. So every business is contributing meaningfully to that non-interest-bearing balance, and, you know, really comes with the relationship growth and the relationship account growth that we have. So again, while private banking and trust have been, and predominantly trust have been the engines this quarter, I think the composition is pretty broad across the business.

Janet Lee, Analyst, TD Cowen: Got it. Thanks for the color. In terms of credit, problem assets and NPAs were down quarter-over-quarter, NCOs increased a bit. So given the favorable migration in those problem assets, which I believe you cited that at the lowest level in over two years, how does this impact your expectations around where your NCO could land versus that 35-45 basis points guide?

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yeah, so you’re the-- you’re absolutely right in terms of our problem assets, and we’ve had the migration, you know, we’re down about $95 million. It was a combination of just migration as well as payoffs and pay downs that contributed to that. I would say in terms of our net charge-off guide, you know, this year, if you exclude Upstart, we were 40 basis points, and we assume we’re gonna be in the same position next year. Really, the commercial is gonna continue to be uneven. And that’s really kind of the message. So you may see some fluctuations there. You know, some of the non-performing assets, you know, you may see some of those go to loss.

But at the end of the day, I think we continue to feel good about our portfolio. And one of the things that differentiates us in our commercial real estate portfolio is the fact that we have a very high level of recourse. So, you know, we have in our office portfolio, we have 80% recourse, in our multifamily portfolio with 86% recourse. And so, those, in addition to the asset collateral, makes us feel better about the, you know, those portfolios, but they will continue to be uneven. And then on the consumer side, you know, with the divestiture of the Upstart portfolio, really, the majority of it is real estate secured.

And so, you know, that portfolio, from a net charge-off perspective, has been low and continues to behave very well.

Janet Lee, Analyst, TD Cowen: Thank you.

Conference Call Operator: Our last question comes from Manuel Navas, from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Hey, hopping on to try to clarify something. Is the double-digit EPS growth on core or reported EPS?

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: It’s on, it’s on, it’s, it’s core. It’s looking at core relative to core, Manuel.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Okay, great.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yeah.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Quick question on the NIM with that guide. Has there been any shifts in your hedging profile, and any other kind of wild cards in the NIM outlook?

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: No, no, no wild cards. As you know, our NIM, as you see, our NIM outlook is for 3.80%. We finished—the quarter was 3.83%. Our exit rate for the quarter in December was also 3.83%. So, we are, we’re trying to manage the interest rate cuts that are—that we’re forecasting or assuming in the, in the outlook for next year. You know, and we do that through three ways. Deposit pricing being the main one, but also the hedging program and the securities portfolio. And, on the hedging program, we are, to give a quick update there, we have about $1.3 billion of hedges that are currently in the money, and with another rate cut, we would have $1.5 billion of hedges that are in the money.

So that’s an important tool that we use to mitigate subsequent rate cuts. And then the securities portfolio, as I mentioned earlier, we’re reinvesting that now and kind of keeping it flat, and that’s providing an uplift because the securities portfolio is yielding. The yield on that portfolio is like 2.35-2.4, and we’re reinvesting that at about 4.3-4.4. So about 200 basis point uplift, which is offsetting some of the interest rate impact. So all of that put together, that’s why the impact for next year, you know, is a bit less than what the sensitivity would suggest. But that’s, you know, those are the things we continue to manage.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: And with that, you described really strong deposit growth with this outlook, and I think you talked a little bit about it in the trust business, but where do you see all that, the growth across all your other businesses? What are kind of the opportunities for deposit growth?

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Yeah, so our outlook, our goal is really for continued mid-single-digit deposit growth. As you know, in institutional services, we’ve continued to increase share, and we believe we’re gonna continue to do that. So that continues to be a growth engine. Rodger mentioned the referrals that we’re working on within commercial and wealth, and we think there’s a huge opportunity for us around that that we haven’t tapped yet. So that should power additional deposit growth as well. And again, you know, growing the C&I portfolio is also an important source of deposits for us.

So the combination of all those things, I would say, as well as, you know, small business is also an important contributor of deposits that, that we think, the growth is gonna accelerate there. So, you know, we, we do feel good about the mix of businesses and, and all of them contributing.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: I appreciate the commentary. Thank you.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. With no further questions in queue, I would like to turn the conference back over to David Burg.

David Burg, Chief Financial Officer, WSFS Financial Corporation: Okay. Thank you everyone for joining the call today. If you have any specific follow-up questions, feel free to reach out to Investor Relations or me, and have a great day.

Conference Call Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.