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Transcript Summary

Butterfield reported a strong Q1 2026, featuring core net income of $63.2 million and a core ROE of 24.1%. A major highlight was the closing of the Rawlinson & Hunter Guernsey acquisition, which expands the bank's trust business to $146 billion in AUA and adds roughly GBP 8-10 million in annual fee income. Net Interest Margin (NIM) expanded to 2.75% as deposit costs fell 13 basis points, outpacing the decline in asset yields. While Bermuda and Cayman show healthy economic indicators—3% and 2% GDP growth respectively—the bank saw a slight increase in non-performing loans to 2%, primarily due to prime London residential mortgages. Management clarified these are well-collateralized and represent temporary borrower liquidity issues. Capital management remains aggressive, with $42.4 million in share repurchases and a consistent $0.50 dividend. The bank maintains a liquid, low-risk balance sheet with a 28.7% risk density. Looking ahead, Butterfield intends to pursue further disciplined M&A in the private trust space, targeting high-quality books of business that enhance its fee-to-income ratio and provide long-term value to stakeholders.

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Full Earnings Call Transcript — Q1 • 2026-04-29

Operator: Good morning. My name is Bailey, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call for The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Noah Fields, Butterfield's Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Noah Fields: Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, we will be reviewing Butterfield's first quarter '26 financial results. On the call, I am joined by Michael Collins, Butterfield's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Michael Schrum, President and Chief Financial Officer; and Jody Feldman, Managing Director of Bermuda. 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 first 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 www.butterfieldgroup.com. Before I turn the call over to Michael Collins, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussion 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.
Michael Collins: Thank you, Noah, and thanks to everyone joining the call today. The first quarter of 2026 represents a strong start to the year with solid financial performance and continued execution of our disciplined growth strategy. We were pleased to announce the agreement to acquire Rawlinson & Hunter Guernsey, reinforcing our commitment to build scale in key markets. Demand across our core businesses of banking, wealth management and trust remained robust, reflecting the strength of our client relationships and the resilience of our franchise. Net interest income benefited from lower costs, while deposit volumes remained stable across all jurisdictions. At the same time, we improved noninterest expenses, demonstrating our ability to manage costs effectively in a low rate, more volatile environment. I'm also pleased to report that following our announcement in February, the acquisition of both Rawlinson & Hunter Guernsey has now closed. This is a strategically important transaction that enhances the scale and capability of our private trust business in Guernsey and further strengthen our position as a leading international provider of trust services with group assets under administration of $146 billion. Looking ahead, acquisitions remain a key driver of our growth. We will continue to pursue high-quality opportunities in Island banking and trust that align with our strategy and deliver long-term value for our stakeholders. Butterfield is a leading offshore bank and wealth manager with strong leading market positions in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands and an expanding retail presence in the Channel Islands. Across markets, we deliver a broad range of services, including trust, private banking, asset management and custody, which are designed around the needs of our clients. We also support international private trust clients in the Bahamas, Switzerland and Singapore and originate high net worth residential mortgages for prime London properties through our London office. I will now turn to the first quarter highlights on Page 5. Butterfield reported net income of $62.6 million and core net income of $63.2 million. We reported core earnings per share of $1.55 with a core return on average common equity of 24.1% in the first quarter. The net interest margin was 2.75% in the first quarter, an increase of 6 basis points from the prior quarter with the cost of deposits falling 13 basis points to 124 basis points from the prior quarter. But we again are announcing a quarterly cash dividend of $0.50 per share. During the first quarter, we continued to repurchase shares with a total of 800,000 shares at a cost of $42.4 million. We continue our active capital management and plan to continue to return excess capital that we do not require to support the business and growth initiatives. I will now turn the call over to Jody for an update on Bermuda and Cayman markets and businesses.
Jody Feldman: Thank you, Michael. Starting with Bermuda, the economic outlook remains constructive, underpinned by steady growth in a thriving international business sector anchored by reinsurance. Real GDP growth is estimated at 3% for 2025, reflecting continued economic momentum. Bermuda's fiscal position has improved markedly with the government projecting a record surplus of $472 million for the 2027 fiscal year, largely driven by revenues from the new corporate income tax. While economic growth is positive, Bermuda continues to navigate structural challenges, including a high cost of living and doing business, an aging population and limited availability of affordable housing. These factors remain important considerations as the island plans for sustainable long-term growth. The hospitality sector is benefiting from renewed investment with $182 million of capital spend planned for infrastructure and tourism revitalization. The partial reopening of the Fairmont Southampton in late 2026, followed by a full reopening in 2027 is expected to bring hotel room inventory above pre-pandemic levels. We are also encouraged by plans for the redevelopment of Elbow Beach Resort, which is expected to commence later this year. Finally, Bermuda continues to reinforce its global profile as a premier destination for international sporting events, including the PGA Tour Butterfield Bermuda Championship, the Newport to Bermuda Sailing Race and SailGP. These events not only support tourism and international visibility, but also reinforce Bermuda's position as a high-quality jurisdiction for business visitors and residents alike. Now turning to the Cayman Islands. GDP forecast suggest that growth is expected to moderate in 2026 to around 2% for the year, which is a steadier and more stable pace of development in the past few years of 4% to 6% GDP growth. Unlike Bermuda, Cayman has seen significant population increases, which are forecasted to grow to the low 90,000s over the next couple of years. Tourism and financial services continue to grow. January and February saw record stayover arrivals consisting primarily of U.S. tourists. Financial Services in Cayman continue to grow with reinsurance a growing industry and the international fund services business remaining a cornerstone. The Cayman government continues to be fiscally disciplined with 2026, '27 budget expectations of a modest surplus, suggesting Cayman is entering a slower growth phase following rapid expansion. I will now turn the call over to Michael Schrum for more detail on the quarter. Michael?
Michael Schrum: Thank you, Jody, and good morning. On Slide 6, we provide a summary of net interest income and net interest margin. In the first quarter, we reported net interest income before provisions for credit losses of $93.3 million, an increase of $700,000 from the prior quarter. Net interest margin increased 6 basis points to 2.75% compared to 2.69% in the prior quarter. This increase is largely due to lower deposit costs and increased investment yields, partially offset by treasury and loan yields as central banks cut market interest rates as well as a lower day count in the first quarter of 2026. We expect the NIM to be broadly stable with a slight positive bias for the remainder of this year. Average investment volumes increased as assets were deployed into higher-yielding available-for-sale investment securities, helping to increase the average investment yield by 6 basis points to 2.78%. Average loan balances were stable compared to the prior quarter. Net loan volumes actually increased during the quarter in Jersey and Cayman. However, the impact of foreign exchange translation from the weakening of the pound sterling against the U.S. dollar masked this uptick. During the quarter, the bank continued to pursue its conservative strategy of reinvesting the paydowns and investment maturities into a mix of U.S. agency MBS securities and medium-term U.S. treasuries. Slide 7 provides a summary of noninterest income, which totaled $62.6 million, a decrease of $3.7 million over last quarter. This was due to expected decrease in seasonally higher comparative fourth quarter banking fees. Gross fees were also down due to lower time-based and special fees compared to the prior quarter. Foreign exchange fees increased slightly due to higher volumes in the quarter. The fee income ratio decreased overall to 40.6% compared to 41.7% in the prior quarter and continuing to compare favorably to historical peer averages. On Slide 8, we present core noninterest expenses. Core noninterest expenses decreased compared to the prior quarter due to lower costs associated with professional and outside services fees for project work, lower technology and communications expenses, which were offset by higher payroll taxes related to the annual vesting of share-based compensation in the first quarter. Slide 9 shows Butterfield's balance sheet is liquid and conservatively positioned. Period-end deposit balances were slightly elevated compared to the prior quarters. Butterfield's low-risk density of 28.7% continues to reflect the regulatory capital efficiency of the balance sheet. On Slide 10, we show that Butterfield's asset quality remains strong. The Investment portfolio is low risk, consisting entirely of AA or higher rated U.S. treasuries and government-guaranteed agency securities. Credit performance was stable this quarter with negligible net charge-offs, nonaccrual at 2% and allowance for credit losses at 0.6% of total loans. Our loan book is anchored by high-quality residential mortgages with 71% full recourse loans with nearly 80% at loan-to-value below 70%. We continue to apply conservative underwriting across Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and our U.K. and Channel Islands businesses. On Slide 11, we present the average cash and securities balances with a summary of net interest rate sensitivity. Net unrealized losses in the AFS portfolio included in OCI were $99.7 million at the end of the first quarter, an increase of $10.3 million over the prior quarter. Interest rate sensitivity has increased slightly against the prior quarter, driven by changes in asset composition with an increase in short duration assets. We continue to expect improvement in OCI with additional burn down over the next 12 to 24 months of 20% and 47%, respectively. Slide 12 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 of 6% to 6.5%. Finally, tangible book value continued to increase and closed the quarter at $26.56 per share, an increase of 0.6% over the prior quarter end. I will now turn the call back to Michael Collins for closing remarks.
Michael Collins: Thank you, Michael. Butterfield's geographic footprint includes some of the world's key global financial jurisdictions, which position us well for sustained expansion, supported by both targeted acquisitions and internally driven growth initiatives. We continue to seek overlap and complementary bank and private trust acquisitions that best utilize our management team's extensive experience and furthers our ambition as a leading independent bank and wealth management group operating across strategic financial centers and island economies with favorable profiles and potential for growth. Our capital-light fee-driven businesses continue to offer distinctive solutions tailored to evolving client needs, reinforcing our strong competitive position. Looking ahead, we are committed to further improving operational effectiveness while maintaining disciplined cost management. Butterfield's capital management remains central to our approach. Strong earnings generation enables us to strike an appropriate balance by delivering consistent shareholder returns through dividends, investing in organic growth, pursuing strategic and value-enhancing acquisitions and executing share repurchases as appropriate. Our balance sheet remains strong with a conservative liquidity profile that is closely aligned with our operating model and regulatory oversight. The bank is well positioned to deliver service and value to all stakeholders. Thank you. And with that, we would be happy to take your questions. Operator?
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Evan Kwiatkowski with Raymond James.
Evan Kwiatkowski: This is Evan on for David Feaster. I just wanted to start off on the deal. I know it's early innings still, but just curious how things are progressing and what you're hearing from both the team and customers broadly. And then maybe on the financial impacts, I'm just curious what your updated fee income growth expectations are? And then any additional onetime costs that are expected from the transaction?
Michael Collins: It's Michael Collins. It's -- the client base is very similar to ours. So we've been in the private trust business for 70 years, and this was a founder-owned trust company that we've looked at for years in Guernsey. So we know it quite well. The client base, I think, will be very comfortable with our approach. Very similar to their approach. We don't sort of compete in terms of trying to sell asset management into our private trust relationships and clients appreciate that. It's 50 really highly qualified staff in Guernsey, 71 client groups and about $9 billion of assets under trusteeship. So that takes us up to about $146 billion assets under administration or trusteeship. So it's not huge. And as we've said in the past, we're very disciplined in terms of how we price these acquisitions. So it's sort of up to $50 million in terms of private trust acquisitions, 8x EBITDA sort of 12%, 15% IRR or higher and has to be at least 2/3 private trust. So we know the business well. It's incremental in terms of fee income. It helps quite a bit, but it gets us 70 new client groups, which are very high quality. So we're very happy with it. It's closed. We're working on integration. It should be seamless, very low risk.
Michael Schrum: Yes, Evan, it's Michael Schrum. Just on the question in terms of updated fee projections, we're sort of expecting this to add about GBP 8 million to GBP 10 million annualized. So obviously, we'll start to put that into the next quarter. Obviously, with that comes -- both the integration costs and also the cost line will obviously increase due to onboarding of the new colleagues as well. I mean I think it's a really good book of business and the people we've met have been very pleased with the model that we run, which is the independent trust model. This gives our new colleagues a genuine sort of career path and the clients really do like Butterfield. It's a well-known brand in Guernsey. And I think, again, this will be -- they'll be comforted by the private credit rating of the bank and obviously, the balance sheet that sits behind the new fiduciary provider. So we just closed it. We're just in the process of looking at, obviously, the integration and potential synergies, et cetera. So we'll come back once we finalize the PPA work next quarter and give some more detail on how it's going.
Evan Kwiatkowski: That's really helpful. And then next, I thought I would touch on the NIM. I noticed you called out you managed the duration of the portfolio a bit to be a bit shorter, increasing rate sensitivity. And I'm just curious how you view the NIM trajectory from here given current Central Bank expectations?
Michael Schrum: Yes. No, great question. Obviously, maybe better than it was a month ago. I think we view the flat, higher for longer rate environment is constructive for the balance sheet. I think I said last quarter, NIM should be broadly flat. We have some tailwinds and headwinds in that. And actually, the -- I think the exit NIM for March month was at the 2.70% level. So it's a little bit lower, but again, plus/minus 5 basis points depending on the deposit composition. And what's really driving that is this quarter was really the lowering of deposit costs overtaking essentially the downward trajectory in treasury and short cash repricing. So I think for the remainder of the year, we sort of remain cautiously optimistic that we can fight those headwinds with the asset repricing model that's in there, both on the loan and the investment securities. So at the moment, the average investment security yields for the quarter was 3.96%. And so that provides -- when you have that $1 billion or close to $1 billion resetting over the next year with a tailwind of 1%, that should be a positive bias. And certainly, like I said, central banks are, I think, weighing their options at the moment. And any time we see a higher for longer environment around us, that's going to be better for us because we get the whole asset repricing coming through.
Evan Kwiatkowski: That's helpful color. And then lastly for me, you already kind of alluded to it, but just keeping in mind your through-cycle efficiency ratio target of 60%. Curious, is it fair to see core expenses tick back into that $90 million to $92 million range per quarter for the rest of the year? Or just any updated expectations there, especially with the deal? And then maybe any seasonality trends would also be helpful.
Michael Schrum: Yes. Great question. It's Michael Schrum again. So I mean, the first quarter is always a little bit seasonally low. There tends to be a lot of sort of expense drive up to the end of the year. But I mean, it's not enough really to call it out. But in terms of the deal, so I think, yes, $90 million to $92 million without the additional new colleagues that we're onboarding and system conversion, et cetera. So it's a little bit of noncore cost this quarter related to the drafting of the SBA and that type of thing. But we're sort of expecting, obviously, for this to be accretive overall. And so if you think about the fees that are getting added to the top line, we would expect for that to sort of generate that cost drive as well on the cost increase from salaries. And as we onboard the new folks there, they're going to be brought on to our platforms. And so it's a little bit early to talk about forward guidance on cost. But without the deal, I would say $90 million to $92 million is a good number.
Operator: Our next question comes from Emily Lee with KBW.
Emily Noelle Lee: This is Emily Lee stepping in for Tim Switzer. Congrats on the quarter. So just on credit, NPLs and provision took a step up this quarter. So I was wondering if you could provide any color on the drivers there and what we should expect on both metrics going forward.
Michael Schrum: Yes. I mean we're starting from a very low base. Sorry, it's Michael Schrum again. I would say when you look at Note 6 to the financials, you'll see some past due migration. And really, it's something that we've seen in sort of the -- we've seen a few of these cases in -- over the last couple of years. And these are really related primarily to residential mortgages in our prime Central London loan book. And they went into -- they drop into the sort of short-term past due account this quarter. Just as a reminder, these are 3- to 5-year mortgages underwritten at 60%, 65% LTV. So really well secured, and there's a lot of equity in these loans. We continue, therefore, to believe that they will resolve themselves over the medium term as liquidity in the London prime and super prime markets is sort of relatively thin at the moment. There's been a number of policy changes in that market, and we are patient lenders, as you know. And so we've continued to work with borrowers facing sort of temporary liquidity issues. So I think bottom line, it's a little bit elevated right now, but we expect for that to normalize either through refinancing or through repayment when the property is sold. But these are sort of similar to what we've seen before in terms of prime Central London mortgages.
Emily Noelle Lee: Got it. And then how is the current loan pipeline looking? And what are you hearing from borrowers on the demand front? Are there any particular industries or jurisdictions that are seeing strength or that you're leaning into other -- over others right now?
Michael Schrum: Yes. I mean maybe I'll start off and Jody, who's closer to the clients can give a little bit more color on that. But essentially, it's been -- the market is all different. I think prime, super prime in London is facing some uncertainty around governmental policy changes, including the Res Non Dom regime changes that are phasing in some additional property taxes that need to kind of filter through the market in terms of either valuation changes. So there's a lot of buyers on the side at the moment in that market. On the flip side, we're seeing the sort of Middle Eastern situation. There's a lot of people moving back and renting. So that's kind of a temporary fix, if you will, for that, particularly from Dubai, people are moving back into Central London now. Cayman actually is looking pretty good. We obviously want residential mortgages because our model is a return on risk-weighted asset model. So 35% risk weight and now potentially even lower at LTV bands under the Basel IV Endgame. So we strongly prefer residential mortgages. The Cayman loan book actually is looking decent. So as you know, we have in Bermuda and Cayman fully amortizing mortgages underwritten at 80%, max 80% LTV with the appropriate exception underwriting in place. And for the first time in a couple of years, actually, the Cayman residential mortgage book originations overtook those amortization rundown as we improve the LTV profile overall. And Jody, do you want to talk about Bermuda?
Jody Feldman: Yes. Thanks, Michael. And let me just highlight, obviously, we're not a loan growth story. But as Michael pointed out, some good pipeline, particularly here in Cayman with some of the high-end resi towers that are popping up. We're participating pretty prominently in a lot of those, which is great to see. On Bermuda, obviously, some pretty acute supply/demand imbalances in housing, but we do have a good position within the retail and private banking lending space, particularly in Bermuda, constrained a little bit on the corporate side in Bermuda just to lack of pretty significant projects coming online. But overall, we're seeing some decent pipeline in all of the markets combined, but a little bit subdued in Bermuda, but some good pockets of opportunity in Cayman.
Emily Noelle Lee: That's very helpful. And if I could just squeeze in one more. You mentioned expectations for asset repricing to kind of help fight those pressures on the NIM. How are incremental loan yields looking right now?
Michael Schrum: I didn't catch the last bit. How is incremental...
Emily Noelle Lee: Loan yields looking?
Michael Schrum: Revenue?
Michael Collins: Loan yields.
Michael Schrum: Loan yields. Yes. I mean there's a couple of dynamics in there. As you know, in Bermuda, we underwrite LTV. We have a lot of fixed rate loans that are coming up actually this year, both in Bermuda and Cayman, which are sort of temporarily or you would probably call them arms. So they're resetting back to their original floating rate, which obviously is still elevated. So there's some significant tailwinds from that asset repricing. I would say new loans in Bermuda, typically around the 7% mark. Cayman is a little bit more competitive around new originations. There's a number of other participants who are pretty aggressive on price competition in this market, so around kind of 6-ish. Channel Islands maybe around 5%. Again, these are sterling, Bank of England, fixed and floating rate loans that are 3 to 5 year. So if you average that out over new originations probably ends up somewhere in the 6% range, which is reasonable for that risk weighting. And the pipeline really is beyond what we can control. We can be a participant in the market.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Robert Rutschow with Wells Fargo.
Robert Rutschow: A question on deposits. Could you give us an update on the outlook for deposits? Any concerns that we should think about in terms of outflows? And then do you expect to get any inflows from the R&H deal?
Michael Schrum: Yes. It's Michael Schrum again. Maybe I'll just talk about the R&H deal. Initially, these clients are trust clients. And obviously, occasionally, we can provide banking services to those clients as well. Actually, a few of them were already banking clients of ours because obviously, they were an independent trust company. So it's always something that we would like to do for administrative ease ins and outs, and we sort of can see and understand the client a bit better that way. But obviously, we're not competing on asset management for those clients. So there could be a little bit of trickle in, but I wouldn't expect it to be a major uplift to deposit balances overall. We, for a while, have been monitoring a couple of these sort of lumpier deposits, which are typically from our trust business in Bermuda and private client business in Bermuda and some corporate deposits. So we were expecting some further outflows and for the balance sheet to kind of normalize at around $12 billion. Now we're getting notified of some new incoming deposits. So it could be a bit longer and some of the composition of the deposit base will probably end up changing a little bit over time. So I think at the moment, it's $12 billion to $12.5 billion is probably a decent number for now. We'll obviously see it when we see it, but some of those corporate deposits are held up in court proceedings and appeals processes and that type of thing. So -- but generally constructive, actually, I think.
Robert Rutschow: Okay. Great. And if I can follow up with a broader question. As you think about the acquisition opportunities, how many competitors might be out there that you would be able or willing to buy? And is there any increase in competitive pressures that might encourage someone to sell like technology requirements or anything else that might spur a little more activity than we've seen, say, over the past 5 years.
Michael Collins: Yes. So there's sort of 3 types of offshore trust entities, so to speak. So the first is the private trust companies that we're interested in. And the first type is sort of founder-owned, which is what  R&H Guernsey was. So part of an affiliated network, Rawlinson & Hunter, but founder-owned, really good book of business, usually pretty small. So as we talked about, it's not huge, but a great book of business. Then you have the sort of big bank-owned trust companies, whether it's an HSBC or RBC. Those are a lot bigger. We still think that a lot of big banks are motivated to sell offshore trust companies just from regulatory pressure. And let's be honest, scale-wise, it's just sometimes not worth having something like that. So we still think that there could be opportunities there. And the third kind is sort of the big private equity-owned fee businesses offshore, which do basically like third private trust, company administration and in fund administration. We've looked at those. We're sort of hesitant to go into those sorts of businesses because we're really focused on private trust. Fund administration is very different. It needs a lot of technology. Company administration is tough because you have AML issues sometimes. So we're very focused on private trust. And also, if you're sort of the third buyer from private equity, it's probably not the best price. So we tend to stay away from that. So there's a lot of opportunities, founder-owned and also big sort of onshore bank-owned offshore trust companies, and we just have to be patient and stick to our guns. So we're not going to really pay above 8 or 9x EBITDA, and it's got to be a decent IRR. And we're 40% fee income ratio. So our goal is to get that higher and become more of a fee company. And every one of these acquisitions adds a couple of percent on to that fee income ratio. So we just need to be patient, buy the right books and be very disciplined about pricing.
Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to Noah Fields for any closing remarks.
Noah Fields: Thank you, Bailey, and thanks to everyone for dialing in today. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Have a great day.
Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.