The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Good morning. My name is Nick and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the second quarter 2026 earnings call for The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key, followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star and then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Noah Fields, Butterfield's Head of Investor Relations.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, we will be reviewing Butterfield's second quarter 2026 financial results. On the call, I'm joined by Michael Collins, Butterfield's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Schrum, President and Chief Financial Officer, and Bri Hidalgo, Chief Risk Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the call up for a question and answer session. Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release announcing our second quarter 2026 results. The press release and financial statements, along with a slide presentation that we will refer to during our remarks on this call, are available on the investor relations section of our website at butterfieldgroup.com. Before I turn the call over to Michael Collins, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussions will refer to certain non-GAAP measures, which we believe are important in evaluating the company's performance.

For a reconciliation of these measures to U.S. GAAP, please refer to the earnings press release and slide presentation. Today's call and associated materials may also contain certain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Additional information regarding these risks can be found in our SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to Michael Collins.

Thank you, Noah, and thanks to everyone joining the call today. Butterfield's second quarter performance demonstrated the strength of our franchise, the value of deep customer relationships, and the disciplined execution of our strategy. As a reminder to anyone new to Butterfield, we are a leading offshore bank and wealth management company with franchise-level market shares in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, complemented by an expanding retail banking presence in the Channel Islands. Additionally, we provide wealth management solutions to high-net-worth individuals, families, and institutions through our offices in the Bahamas, Switzerland, Singapore, and the U.K., where we originate high-net-worth residential mortgages for prime central London properties. Our business is built around enduring client relationships and a diversified suite of services that includes banking, wealth management, trust, asset management, and custody.

This diversified business model, combined with our strong capital position, high-quality balance sheet, and disciplined risk management framework, enables us to generate consistent returns while remaining focused on delivering value for our clients, communities, and shareholders. I will now turn to the second quarter highlights on page six. Butterfield reported net income of $46.9 million and core net income of $63.9 million. We reported core earnings per share of $1.58, with a core return on average tangible common equity of 25% in the second quarter. The net interest margin was 2.74% in the second quarter, one basis point lower than the prior quarter, with the cost of deposits increasing one basis point to 125 basis points from the prior quarter. We again announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.50 per share. During the second quarter, we continued to repurchase shares with a total of 300,000 shares.

Following the announcement of the agreement to acquire CIBC Caribbean, we paused share repurchases on May 28th, 2026. We will likely continue this pause or potentially scale back relative to our previous repurchase activity as we evaluate growth prospects and build back capital organically. I am pleased to say that the integration of R&H Guernsey is progressing smoothly. We are already seeing the benefits of combining complementary capabilities while maintaining the high level of service our clients expect. The successful execution reinforces our confidence in our ability to integrate acquisitions effectively while remaining focused on delivering strong day-to-day operating performance. The second quarter marked an important milestone for Butterfield. The announced agreement to acquire CIBC Caribbean represents a significant step forward in our long-term growth strategy, expanding our scale, expanding our regional footprint, and enhancing our ability to serve customers.

Opportunities like this one do not come along often, CIBC Caribbean is a business that we know well. We're excited about the combination for our clients, our employees, and our shareholders, our teams are working diligently to prepare for a successful integration following the close of the transaction, which remains subject to the required regulatory approvals. Bri will provide a deal progress update later in the call. I will now turn the call over to Michael Schrum for more details on the second quarter.

Thank you, Michael, good morning. On slide seven, we provide a summary of net interest income and net interest margin. In the second quarter, we reported net interest income before provision for credit losses of $95.6 million, an increase of $2.3 million from the prior quarter, an increase of $6.2 million from the second quarter of 2025. The improvement was driven primarily by some growth in interest-earning asset volumes, as well as an extra day when compared to the prior quarter.

The net interest margin was one basis point lower than the prior quarter at 2.74%. This decrease is primarily due to one basis point increase in deposit cost during the quarter. We continue to expect NIM to be broadly stable with a slight positive bias for the remainder of the year due to continued asset repricing. Balance sheet trends show average loan balances increasing quarter-over-quarter, supporting earnings growth while average investment balances remained relatively flat. Overall, the quarter reflects continued asset growth and higher net interest income generation while maintaining a stable margin profile. Slide eight provides a summary of non-interest income, which increased modestly to $63.4 million in the second quarter of 2026, up $700,000 from the prior quarter, and continuing the generally stable trend observed over the past year. Compared with $57 million in the second quarter of 2025, fee-based revenue has shown solid year-over-year progress.

This quarter's improvement was primarily driven by the higher trust revenues, reflecting onboarding activity related to R&H during the period. This benefit was partially offset by lower foreign exchange revenue due to reduced transaction volumes and lower banking fees. Overall, the results highlight the resilience of the bank's fee income franchise, with non-interest income providing a meaningful component to net interest income. The fee income ratio of 40% compares favorably with historical peer averages, underscoring the strength and diversification of the organization's revenue base. On Slide nine, we present core non-interest expenses. Core non-interest expenses increased to $92.9 million in the second quarter of 2026, up 3.3% from the prior quarter, primarily reflecting the new expenses from the recently acquired R&H Guernsey business. Higher salaries and benefits, technology and communications expenses, property cost, and amortization of intangibles contributed to the increase.

We would expect a continued quarterly core expense run rate of $93 million-$95 million until the closing of the CIBC Caribbean transaction in the first half of next year. Despite the higher expense base, operating efficiency remains strong. The bank's core efficiency ratio was 57%, slightly higher than the prior quarter's 56.4%, but still comfortably better than management's through cycle target of 60%. Slide 10 shows Butterfield's balance sheet remains strong and is stable in the second quarter of 2026, with total assets increasing 2% to $14.3 billion from year-end 2025. Growth was primarily driven from higher balances in short-term investments, while the loan portfolio increased modestly to $4.4 billion, and the investment portfolio remained largely unchanged at $5.7 billion. The balance sheet continues to reflect a conservative asset mix supported by substantial liquidity and a low-risk profile.

Funding trends were also positive, with period end deposits rising to $12.9 billion from $12.7 billion at year-end, and average deposits increasing to $13.1 billion during the quarter. The bank maintained a low-risk density of 27.9%, underscoring the quality of its balance sheet. Overall, the quarter was characterized by steady asset growth, strong deposit gathering, and continued balance sheet strength. On Slide 11, we show that Butterfield's asset quality remains strong in the second quarter of 2026, supported by a conservative loan portfolio and high-quality investment holdings. The $4.4 billion loan portfolio is heavily weighted towards full recourse residential mortgages, with nearly 79% of those mortgages carrying a loan-to-value ratio of below 70%, underscoring the low-risk profile of the book. The $5.7 billion investment portfolio also remained exceptionally strong with 100% rated double A or better, reflecting a highly liquid and investment-grade securities portfolio.

Credit performance remained resilient despite a modest increase in non-accrual loans to $96 million, or 2.2% of gross loans, up from 2.0% in the prior quarter, primarily driven by residential real estate exposures in the Channel Islands and U.K. segment. Importantly, the allowance for credit losses remained stable at $27.8 million, representing 0.6% of total loans, while the net charge-off ratio remained effectively zero, highlighting the continued strength of the bank's underwriting standards and overall credit quality. On Slide 12, we present the average cash and securities balances with a summary of interest rate sensitivity. Butterfield continued to maintain a balanced interest rate profile with meaningful earnings upside in a rising rate environment. The investment portfolio duration declined to 4.7 years as fixed rate securities matured.

We estimate that a 100-basis point increase in interest rates would increase net interest income by 3.4%, while a 200-basis point increase would increase net interest income by 6.9%. Net unrealized losses on available for sale securities increased to $106.7 million at June 30th, 2026- From $99.7 million at the end of the previous quarter.

As securities continue to mature and are reinvested, and as market rates evolve, management expects these unrealized losses to improve over time, with OCI projected to improve by approximately 20% over the next 12 months and 43% over the next 24 months based on current forward rate expectations. Slide 13 summarizes regulatory and leverage capital levels. The board of directors has once again approved a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share. TCE to TA continues to be conservatively above our targeted range at 6%-6.5%. I will now turn the call over to Bri Hidalgo to provide an update on the CIBC Caribbean transaction. Bri? Thank you, Michael. Following our May 28th announcement of the agreement to acquire CIBC Caribbean, we've been making excellent progress towards closing, which we expect to be in the first half of 2027.

Our work streams are focusing on securing key regulatory, governance, financing, and stakeholder approvals required to complete the transaction and prepare for integration. Near-term priorities include filing and completing regulatory licensing applications, finalizing pro forma financials, obtaining board approval, and securing shareholder approval at the AGM in mid-September. In parallel, the team is working through creditor-related reverse diligence, jurisdictional stakeholder engagement across key Caribbean markets, and communication planning for clients, employees, and other stakeholders. A second major work stream is funding and transaction readiness. Refreshed CIBC Caribbean data is incorporated at key milestones, supporting pro forma updates and transaction analysis. These activities collectively aim to achieve closing requirements and maintain deal momentum through the approval process.

Overall, we are moving forward at pace. First, securing approvals and transaction prerequisites, then advancing financing and stakeholder engagement activities while building the operational and TSA framework needed for closing and eventual post-closing integration. We remain on schedule and currently expect all required milestones to be achieved. Finally, I would like to add that financial performance of both companies remains on track and consistent with financial projections underlying the acquisition model. I will now turn the call back to Michael Collins.

Thank you, Bri. Before we open for Q&A, I just want to reiterate how excited we are to strengthen and grow Butterfield through the CIBC Caribbean acquisition. The combination of Butterfield and CIBC Caribbean creates a leading independent banking platform across the Atlantic and English-speaking Caribbean, anchored by top-tier market positions in our current markets of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Diversification and scale through an expanded presence across nine new key international financial centers, including Barbados and the Bahamas. The pro forma organization's expanded capabilities are expected to provide enhanced corporate, personal, and wealth management services across our combined client bases and to the benefit of all stakeholders. The pro forma combined bank is expected to have approximately $29 billion in assets, $25 billion in deposits, $1.7 billion of tangible common equity, and more than $400 million of run rate earnings.

This positions the company among the largest independent banks in the region, with a balance sheet significantly larger than most Caribbean peers and a stronger platform for growth and profitability. As we look ahead, we remain confident in the strength of our franchise, the quality of our balance sheet, and the opportunities before us. While the operating environment continues to evolve, our strategy remains unchanged, delivering sustainable earnings growth, maintaining disciplined risk and capital management, investing in our businesses, and creating long-term value for our shareholders. Thank you. With that, we'd be happy to take your questions. Operator? Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session.

To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star and then two. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble the roster. The first question will come from David Feaster with Raymond James. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning, everybody.

Morning, David. I wanted to touch a bit on the deposit side.

You all have done a great job managing deposit costs. I was hoping to get your thoughts on the deposit backdrop and the competitive landscape across your jurisdictions. It sounds like you think you're going to be able to keep funding costs relatively stable near term, just wanted to get your thoughts there and any update on those temporary deposits that you've been expecting to flow out.

Yeah, thanks. Good morning, David. It's Michael Schrum. Yeah, they keep hanging around. I think the businesses have done a very good job at focusing on cost of deposits and managing client expectations. Going forward with the rate outlook that may be leading to more difficult conversations. I think so far so good. I think the deposit gathering is still something that's a focus for us, obviously, as we can see the earnings coming through. I think the temporary deposits are still hanging around for a little bit, but we're The reason why our cash and short-term securities is quite elevated at the moment is partly because obviously we don't behavioralize those deposits, and we continue to expect that they're going to flow out at some point.

The other thing that's impacting a little bit is obviously FX movements in the balance sheet, particularly from sterling. As you know, we have about 22% of our deposits in sterling, and that's remained at FX rates, remained relatively stable as you can see in the deck. Not much movement there, but if that were to move again, that could impact the deposit levels and come back sort of over the average life of the deposit, if you will.

Okay. That's helpful. Then, Michael Collins, you talked about providing more enhanced services and products to your clients. I guess, as you step back, after the deal, as you step back and think about the combined company, and you've gotten to dig in further since the announcement, is there anything that this combined company's not going to have that you need to build out? Are there any products or services that you might need to be upgraded as you look to provide maybe some more sophisticated products? Just in your attempt to more fully service your clients because of the materially larger platform, just kind of curious if there's anything that needs to be upgraded or added.

Good question. We're just getting to know their systems and technology franchise, which is actually really quite good. We're looking at both our systems and their systems. They've got great online banking. They're very digital. Their Caribbean is very digital. They've got great products and services. I think there's more we can do on the wealth management side, both within Butterfield and the broader platform, just in terms of providing more services. Online banking they have is good. We're focused on, right now, just improving our online banking, just sort of the look and feel. The technology is great. Straight through wire transfers, FX transactions in any currency anywhere in the world immediately without anyone touching it. We have all that, we really are focused on look and feel of the technology now that we've got all that in place.

I think the combination of the two organizations, it's a broad array of products. They have more corporate products than we have. They do a little bit of investment banking, which we don't do. I think we're going to be able to provide huge suite of services to corporates, retail, high net worth, across the region.

David, it's Michael Schrum. I would just add, obviously they do have a sizable trust company in Bahamas and Cayman, which we'll combine obviously over time with our trust company. That adds some scale to that business, and I think it's fair to say we are a trust bank, and so I think we will definitely focus on that and distribution to clients. The added scale of the company is going to add some new opportunities for our corporate clients in Bermuda that we haven't been able to serve properly before. It's difficult to quantify, and we obviously haven't included anything in the projections, but there are meaningful opportunities.

I think on the flip side, there are some things that they may be doing that we need to have a closer look at to see whether we would like to continue those, like equity options trading, or whether we want to partner up with CIBC post-close and kind of allow customers to transact through us onto their balance sheet. There's a lot to do, but definitely pretty positive on the wealth side.

That's extremely helpful. Thank you. I wanted to get a pulse on the housing markets and updates on your resi mortgage book. We saw a slight increase in non-accruals. Obviously, that book is extremely well underwritten, like you highlighted, with low levels of leverage, but are there any jurisdictions that are seeing more pressure? Just how underlying borrowers are holding up and the health of that book broadly.

Hey, it's Bree. I'll take that. As you would guess, we continue to watch the Channel Islands, specifically the U.K. market. Clearly, there's been softening in that market over time, and that's where you see isolated incidents where we have increased non-accrual loans, even though non-performing loans improved quarter-over-quarter significantly. We are watching the U.K. market very closely. The good news is those portfolios have very low LTVs, and so we have headroom with respect to performance and or any softening of the markets and property valuations. That is the space that we're looking at.

Yeah. I would just add, sorry, David, it's Michael Schrum. The Bermuda market is very vibrant right now with multiple offers, probably as strong a recovery as I have seen in my 25 years of banking here. There was a post GFC kind of lull, and now it seems to be really picking up with new international businesses setting up. Cayman is sort of cooling off a little bit. Still a very vibrant market in terms of number of transactions. I think the Bermuda market is a bit tougher for us to get into because there's a lot of cash transactions in the market. Certainly in terms of the robustness of the price discovery is very good.

I'd just add in the Channel Islands and Guernsey and Jersey, we're still continuing to build out our retail or sort of mass affluent bank without branches. We don't have to have a huge platform, but we have about GBP 650 million deposits and about GBP 350 million mortgage books. That's gone quite well, and it's actually becoming much more of a sticky deposit retail bank than we thought we would be able to at this point. That's good. That's awesome. Thanks, everybody.

Thank you. Again, if you have a question, please press star and then one.

The next question will come from Emily Lee with KBW. Please go ahead. Emily, your line's open on our end. It might be muted on yours.

Hey, everyone. Sorry about that. This is Emily stepping in for Tim Switzer. Thanks for taking my question, guys.

Sure. Good morning. Yeah. As it relates to the CIBC transaction, can you just walk us through some of the dynamics across these new jurisdictions outside of your legacy markets?

Maybe just an update on what you've been seeing and where do you expect the most opportunity to come from? I believe the Barbados economy appears to be improving, so maybe just discuss some dynamics around there.

Hey, Emily. This is Bri Hidalgo. I'll take that. Since we last spoke, what we've been focusing on primarily is the regulatory applications and filings. That's a critical step in the closure process. We successfully completed the first round. We went on-site with our local management team and met with a number of the executive leaders domestically within Barbados and Bahamas, and received positive feedback, not only from our initial regulatory interactions, but also our team member interactions. We're on point and on task to complete under our existing timeline. All positive movement forward there. Back to working with the local teams. We have seen that they continue to have a robust credit book. They have great underwriting criteria and standards, and we can see that within their financial performance figures. Everything's holding up and working well.

Hey, Emily. It's Michael Schrum. I'll just add to that. Obviously, we've been primarily focused on the larger components of the transaction, there's still some discovery for us on some of the small islands. No doubt we'll find some jewels in there. Certainly Barbados, very robust sort of a pivot towards more retail, residential mirroring our existing platform. We would expect that over the sort of medium term. Great opportunities, very positive feedback from Barbados as well. Bahamas, we'll go in with a 25% market share, and Cayman, obviously consolidating what we already have onto the combined platform. That brings some scale to the business. Some of the smaller markets are under review, shall we say.

I think definitely there's going to be positive developments there, I think the team on the ground, certainly in Barbados, very positive about the network effect as well.

I'll just add that if you look at across all the islands, sort of the post-COVID recovery Barbados obviously had the IMF step in. They're all doing quite well. Barbados is really recovering, growing well. Bahamas, from a tourism perspective is just amazing. Every time you go drive from the airport, it's like a different place. A lot of money flowing there. Cayman will have a substantial market share, we obviously know that market pretty well. Really good market shares across the jurisdiction. I think the timing is really great in the sense that they're all recovering and they're all growing. I think it's a perfect time to do it.

That's really helpful. Thank you. Then just on capital deployment, you noted plans to kind of focus on organic growth post CIBC with buybacks likely remaining on pause or at, I guess, lower levels post-close. Would you be comfortable returning to buybacks once the total capital ratio returns to the low 20% range that you target? What are the puts and takes there on capital deployment?

I think we've been very strong in terms of saying that we know we need to raise some financing here. Our preference is obviously having as much CET1 as possible and boost our, confirm our ratings on that basis. In terms of making this a reality, there is a need to go to financing on the subordinate debt market, which we are preparing for and will likely do in Q4 after the shareholder vote, et cetera. I think the capital priorities you should expect over the medium term to return to what they are now. There's a bit of debt to unwind over time. We're evaluating the impact of the new incoming corporate income tax regime as well. If there's some benefiting having some leverage on the balance sheet. There will certainly be many more updates in the future.

Low 20s sound like a good number to kind of put a modest buyback in to help the capital return story again. Near term, we're just building. Obviously this quarter we had R&H and we had some buyback before pausing in May. Next couple quarters, we should expect sort of significant capital build, and then we'll just see how the earnings profile goes. Our aim is ultimately to reflect the ROE of the combined entity back to the shareholders in the form of either dividends, so it could be a review of the dividend rate or starting to buy back once we get into a comfortable sort of 20 plus.

That's great. Thank you for taking my questions, guys. Congrats on the quarter. Thank you.

Thanks. This concludes our question and answer session.

I would like to turn the conference back over to Noah Fields for any closing remarks.

Thank you, Nick, and thanks to everyone for dialing in today. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Have a great day. The conference has now concluded.

Thank you for attending today's presentation.