Banner Corporation (NASDAQ: BANR) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Apr. 23, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Mark J. Grescovich — President and Chief Executive Officer
Rich Arnold — Head of Investor Relations
Jill Rice — Chief Credit Officer
Robert G. Butterfield — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Ryan Payne — Analyst
Matthew Clark — Analyst
David Feaster — Analyst
Andrew Terrell — Analyst
Charlie Briscoe — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Tiffany, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Banner Corporation First Quarter 2026 Conference Call and Webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to turn the call over to Mark Grescovich, President and Chief Executive Officer of Banner Corporation. Mark, please go ahead.
Mark J. Grescovich — President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. I would also like to welcome you to the first-quarter 2026 earnings call for Banner Corporation. Joining me on the call today is Rob Butterfield, Banner Corporation’s Chief Financial Officer; Jill Rice, our Chief Credit Officer; and Rich Arnold, our Head of Investor Relations. Rich, would you please read our forward-looking safe harbor statement.
Rich Arnold — Head of Investor Relations
Sure, Mark. Good morning. Our presentation today discusses Banner’s business outlook and will include forward-looking statements. These statements include descriptions of management’s plans, objectives or goals for future operations, products and services, forecast of financial or other performance measures and statements about Banner’s general outlook for economic and other conditions.
We also may make other forward-looking statements in the question-and-answer period following management’s discussion. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from those discussed today. Information on the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ are available in the earnings press release that was released yesterday and our recently filed Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2025.
Forward-looking statements are effective only as of the date they are made and Banner assumes no obligation to update information concerning its expectations. Mark?
Mark J. Grescovich — President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Rich. As is customary, today, we will cover four primary items with you. First, I will provide you high-level comments on Banner’s first-quarter 2026 performance. Second, the actions Banner continues to take to support all of our stakeholders, including our Banner team, our clients, our communities and our shareholders. Third, Jill Rice will provide comments on the current status of our loan portfolio. And finally, Rob Butterfield will provide more detail on our operating performance for the quarter, as well as comments on our balance sheet.
Before I get started, I wanted to thank all of my 2,000 colleagues in our company who are working extremely hard to assist our clients and our communities. Banner has lived our core values, summed up as doing the right thing for the past 135 years. Our overarching goal continues to be to do the right thing for our clients, our communities, our colleagues, our company and our shareholders and to provide a consistent and reliable source of commerce and capital through all economic cycles and change events. I am pleased to report again to you that is exactly what we continue to do. I am very proud of the entire Banner team that are living our core values.
Now let me turn to an overview of our performance. As announced, Banner Corporation reported a net profit available to common shareholders of $54.7 million or $1.60 per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31st, 2026. This compares to a net profit to common shareholders of $1.30 per share for the first quarter of 2025 and $1.49 per share for the fourth quarter of 2025. Our strategy to maintain a moderate-risk profile and the investments we have made and continue to make in order to improve operating performance have positioned the company well for the future. Rob will discuss these items in more detail shortly.
The strength of our balance sheet, coupled with the strong reputation we maintain in our markets will allow us to manage through the current market uncertainty. To illustrate the core earnings power of Banner, I would direct your attention to pre-tax pre-provision earnings, excluding gains and losses on the sale of securities, changes in fair value of financial instruments and building and lease exit costs.
Our first-quarter 2026 core earnings were $66.3 million, compared to $58.6 million for the first quarter of 2025. Banner’s first-quarter 2026 revenue from core operations was $169 million compared to $160 million for the first quarter of 2025, an increase of nearly 6%. We continue to benefit from a strong core deposit base that has proved to be resilient and loyal to Banner. A very good net interest margin and core expense control. Overall, this resulted in a return on average assets of 1.37% for the first quarter of 2026.
Once again, our core performance reflects continued execution on our super community bank strategy that is growing new client relationships, maintaining our core funding position, promoting client loyalty and advocacy through our responsive service model and demonstrating our safety and soundness through all economic cycles and change events. To that point, our core deposits continue to represent 89% of total deposits.
Reflective of this performance, coupled with our strong regulatory capital ratios and the fact that we increased our tangible common equity per share by 11% from the same-period last year, we announced a core dividend increase of 4% to $0.52 per common share. Finally, I’m pleased to say that we continue to receive marketplace recognition and validation of our business model and our value proposition. Banner was again named one of America’s 100 Best Banks, as well as one of the Best Banks in the World by Forbes. And Newsweek named Banner Bank one of the most trustworthy companies both in America and the world again this year and just recently again named Banner one of the best regional banks in the country. Additionally, J.D. Power and Associates named Banner Bank the best bank in the Northwest for retail client satisfaction for 2025.
Our company was certified by Great Place to Work, S&P Global Market Intelligence ranked Banner’s financial performance among the top 50 public banks with more than $10 billion in assets, and as we’ve noted previously, Banner Bank again received an outstanding CRA rating.
Let me now turn the call over to Jill to discuss trends in our loan portfolio and her comments on Banner’s credit quality. Jill?
Jill Rice — Chief Credit Officer
Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. As detailed in our press release, we again had a strong quarter of loan originations, in line with that reported in the fourth quarter and 61% higher than that reported in the first quarter of 2025. Still, significant commercial real-estate payoffs, coupled with expected paydowns within the ag portfolio, offset production such that portfolio loans decreased $14 million when compared to December 31st, 2025. Year-over-year loan growth was modest at 2.4%.
Production within the commercial real estate portfolio continued to be meaningful with owner-occupied CRE up 3% in the quarter and 15% year-over-year, and investor real estate up 1% in the quarter and nearly 8% year-over-year. Those increases, however, were almost entirely offset by the significant commercial real estate paydowns within the multifamily portfolio, down 6% in the quarter and 9% year-over-year as stabilized properties moved into the secondary market.
Within the construction portfolios, the 12% increase quarter-over-quarter in commercial construction reflects the continued funding of previously approved projects. In addition to the multifamily payoffs noted previously, we had two large land development project payoffs, which resulted in a 7.5% decrease in balances this quarter.
We are continuing to see an elongation of the days on market within the for-sale one- to four-family construction portfolio, given the elevated interest rate environment and general economic uncertainty. Still, the level of completed and unsold inventory remains within historical norms, and the builders continue to have strong balance sheets and profit margins to work with. In total, the one- to four-family construction portfolio continues to represent a modest 5% of the loan portfolio, and the total construction portfolio, including land and land development continues to be acceptable at 14% of the loan book.
After declining 3% last quarter, C&I line utilization moved closer to normal, increasing 2% this quarter. In total, commercial loans were up a modest 1%, both in the quarter and year-over-year. Agricultural balances, as expected, were down 6% in the quarter as crop proceeds reduced line balances and the decline reported year-over-year reflects the collection and payoff of multiple classified ag balances.
Shifting to credit quality, our credit metrics remained strong. Delinquent loans increased 2 basis points and now represent 0.56% of total loans, which compares to 0.63% reported as of March 31st, 2025. Adversely classified loans increased by $42 million in the quarter, representing 2% of total loans and total nonperforming assets at $51.7 million represent a modest 0.32% of total assets.
The increase in adversely classified assets is centered in three relationships, operating and manufacturing, residential construction and wholesale agricultural supplies. As of March 31st, the allowance for credit losses totaled $160.4 million, providing a 1.37% coverage of total loans, consistent with prior quarters. Loan losses in the quarter totaled $1.5 million and were offset in part by recoveries totaling $253,000. The risk rating migration discussed previously, coupled with the net charge-offs, resulted in a provision of $1.3 million to the reserve for credit loss of loans. This was offset by a release from the reserve for unfunded commitments of $2.1 million for a net provision recapture of $796,000.
The first quarter of 2026 continued to be impacted by economic uncertainty, given persistent inflation, the higher-for-longer interest-rate environment and increasing geopolitical issues. Through this, we have maintained consistent underwriting standards, which include a focus on strong sponsors, properly margined collateral, seasoned repayment sources and, in the vast majority of cases, personal guarantees. And we continue our practice of robust quarterly portfolio reviews in order to identify any emerging issues early. We remain well positioned to weather the uncertain economic environment ahead.
With that, I will hand the microphone over to Rob for his comments. Rob?
Robert G. Butterfield — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Jill. We reported $1.60 per diluted share for the fourth quarter compared to $1.49 per diluted share for the prior quarter. The increase in earnings per share compared to the prior quarter was primarily due to the current quarter having lower expenses, a recapture of provision for credit losses.
In addition, the prior quarter included a decrease in the valuation of financial instruments carried at fair value and a loss on the disposal of assets. Core pre-tax pre-provision income for the current quarter increased 13% or $7.7 million compared to the quarter ending March 31st, 2025. Our performance metrics remain solid as we reported a return on tangible common equity for the current quarter of 14% and return on average assets of 1.37%. As Jill previously mentioned, loan balances were essentially flat during the quarter as the good loan production was offset by an increase in payoffs.
The loan-to-deposit ratio ended the quarter at 85%, giving us ample capacity to continue to support existing clients and to add new clients. Total security balances were relatively flat as normal portfolio cash flows were mostly offset by security purchases. Deposits increased by $97 million during the quarter due to core deposits increasing $165 million or 5.5% on an annualized basis.
The increase in core deposits was partially offset by time deposits decreasing $67 million, mostly due to $50 million of brokered CDs maturing during the quarter, ending the quarter with no brokered deposits. Core deposits ended this quarter at 89% of total deposits. Total borrowings decreased $142 million during the quarter, ending the quarter with no outstanding FHLB advances. The tangible common equity ratio increased from 9.84% to 9.97%.
As a reflection of our robust capital and strong liquidity positions, Banner repurchased 250,000 shares during the quarter and declared an increase in the quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share. Net interest income decreased $2.3 million from the prior quarter due to a combination of lower earning assets and two fewer interest-earning days in the current quarter, partially offset by an 8 basis-point increase in net interest margin.
The decrease in average earning assets was primarily due to average interest-bearing cash and security balances decreased to $153 million. Tax-equivalent net interest margin was 4.11% for the current quarter compared to 4.03% for the prior quarter. Funding costs decreased 9 basis points due to deposit costs decreasing 8 basis points.
Deposit costs benefited from a full quarter of the deposit pricing reductions implemented in the fourth quarter of last year. We also benefited from an improved earning asset mix as lower-yielding cash and security balances were a smaller percentage of earning assets. The improved earning asset mix offset the 3 basis-point decline in loan yields. The average rate on new loan production for the current quarter was 6.69% compared to 6.88% for the prior quarter.
Non-interest-bearing deposits ended the quarter at 33% of total deposits. Total non-interest income increased $3.9 million from the prior quarter, primarily due to the prior quarter, including a loss of $1.4 million on the disposal of assets and a fair-value decrease of $2 million on financial instruments carried at fair value, while the current quarter had a $1.7 million fair-value increase on financial instruments carried at fair value, partially offset by a loss of $1.2 million on the sale of securities.
Total non-interest expense was $1.5 million lower than the prior quarter, with decreases in occupancy and equipment, marketing and legal expense being partially offset by an increase in salary and benefits. Our strong capital and liquidity levels continue to position us well to support our existing clients and to add new clients.
This concludes my prepared comments. Now I will turn it back to Mark. Mark?
Mark J. Grescovich — President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Jill and Rob, for your comments. That concludes our prepared remarks. And Tiffany, we will now open the call and welcome questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Jeff Rulis with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead
Ryan Payne
Good morning. This is Ryan Payne on for Jeff Rulis.
Mark J. Grescovich
Morning.
Ryan Payne
Just starting on the margin, had some deposit fluctuations and lower CD balances this quarter, benefiting the NIM, but just trying to gauge your thoughts on expectations for the margin added?
Robert G. Butterfield
Yeah, sure. This is Rob. So we typically see an increase in funding costs during the second quarter as clients start to use deposit balances to make tax payments early in the quarter and we supplement that temporary decline in deposit balances with some FHLB advances.We think that this should be mostly offset by an increase in loan yields as adjustable rate loans continue to reprice up and the new loans coming on are still coming on at higher yields than the average of overall portfolio yield [Phonetic], which suggests that NIM would be relatively flat probably in the second quarter, which is similar to what we saw last year where the Q2 NIM was flat compared to the first quarter.
We could see some expansion in NIM in the third quarter due to funding costs coming back down as FHLB advances are replaced by deposit increases in the typical seasonality we see in the third quarter. And in addition, we would expect that loan yields would increase in the third quarter as well as long as the Fed remains on pause. So we would expect some net interest margin expansion in the second half of the year.
Ryan Payne
Helpful. Thank you. With the loan production impacted by payoffs this quarter, where do you see payoffs trending from here, and maybe your overall expectations for growth?
Jill Rice
Sure, Ryan. So we had anticipated that the headwind of commercial real estate payoffs would potentially offset growth into 2026. I expect that they will slow. I’m not prepared to tell you that they’re done coming in, but I think that the rate of payoffs will slow down. Still, the loan production volumes, which were solid and indicative of future loan growth, the strong backlog of construction fundings we have is meaningful, and our pipelines are strong. So we’re still sticking with the mid-single-digit growth rate for 2026.
Ryan Payne
Got it. Thanks. Last for me, capital priorities, we had the dividend increase and buyback. What’s your appetite for continued buybacks here? And where would you see M&A on the list of priorities?
Robert G. Butterfield
Yeah, it’s Rob again. As you know, we did increase the core dividend by 4% this quarter, which was the second increase we’ve done in the last three quarters. Our goal from a dividend perspective is to pay out 35% to 40% of earnings as a core dividend. And in addition, we did do those share repurchases again in the first quarter, that’s the third quarter in a row that we’ve done that. As we think about capital priorities, we always look at the different opportunities we have there, which certainly include additional share repurchases that we could consider in the second quarter, but ultimately, it’s really depending on market conditions on where the stock price is trading and other things as we evaluate the best use of our capital.
And as always, we just continue to look at different ways we can deploy capital. Mark, as far as M&A?
Mark J. Grescovich
Yeah, thanks for the question, Ryan. Our position on M&A hasn’t changed since I’ve been here, which is we look and try to partner with folks that would be a great fit for Banner, add additional density to our market, and be very good core deposit franchises, and it has to be very opportunistic.
And so we’re very selective on the M&A front. We feel very good about our organic opportunities to continue to grow the bank and improve profitability. But if an opportunity exists, in which we can add additional density with a good core deposit franchise and a strong bank, we certainly would look to do that.
Ryan Payne
Awesome. Thanks, guys.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Clark with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
Matthew Clark
Hey, good morning.
Mark J. Grescovich
Good morning, Matt.
Matthew Clark
Good morning. On the funding side of the equation, but then for the margin outlook, on the deposit side, if you had the spot rate on deposits at the end of March and then how are you thinking about deposit pricing going forward with the Fed on hold? Do you think you’ll just be managing as best you can to hold that level? Or do you feel like there are opportunities to trim exception-based pricing and CD rates?
Robert G. Butterfield
Sure. Thanks, Matthew. It’s Rob. So the spot price of the cost of deposits for March was the same as the quarter. It was pretty much across the board at that 135 basis points. Early in the quarter in January, we did make some additional rate reductions, really in response to the December Fed rate cut that we saw, and we did that in early January. So, really, the whole quarter benefited from that.
As we think about going forward, while the Fed is on pause, I don’t think you’re going to see much change in our core — deposit pricing for our core products. Where we might get a little bit of benefit is on the CD pricing side of it, just because the cost of our CD book, we would expect to continue to trend down for the next few quarters as the lag effect of the rate cuts that we saw the Fed do in the fourth quarter.
The average rate of the new CDs coming on is around 3% right now. The CDs rolling off are around 3.30%, approximately 40% of our CD book matures in the second quarter. So we would expect some there. But what I’d say is what happened is now that the expectation is the Fed will be on pause through the remainder of the year, maybe seeing the rate cut late in the year and fourth quarter or something like that, we are seeing some additional pressure on deposit pricing right now, where we are seeing some competitors start to increase some of their promotion specials on deposits right now. So okay with that as we ultimately will have to respond to what the market is doing.
Matthew Clark
Okay, great. And then on the service charges and fees line this quarter, up pretty nicely in a quarter with two less days. Did you do anything — did you change your product pricing there at all or what can you attribute that to and is that sustainable?
Robert G. Butterfield
Okay. Yeah. So we didn’t change any of our pricing there. We did renegotiate our Mastercard contracts. So we’re seeing a little bit of benefit from that from the first quarter. So, otherwise, I think if you looked at the trending there, the first quarter is probably a pretty good trending when you look at that.
Matthew Clark
Okay. And then on the non-interest expense run rate, down nicely, pretty broad-based outside of the seasonal increase in comp, anything unusual there? Is that more partly a seasonal decline relative to the fourth quarter? I’m just trying to get a sense for that run rate going forward.
Mark J. Grescovich
Yeah. There certainly is some seasonality to that. Typically, the first quarter, we have lower advertising and marketing expense in the first quarter and the campaigns that we run throughout the year start to ramp up. So that’s a bit lower. And the fourth quarter did have kind of a legal settlement charge in there of around $1 million that didn’t carry forward into the first quarter.
If you think about the remainder of the year, we’ve talked about expecting normal inflationary increases in ’26 compared to ’25. And I think if you look at the full year, that’s still my expectation. And Q2 will be higher from a salary standpoint and benefits just because we do our annual salary increases really in mid-March. So you didn’t really see that impact in the first quarter. So I would expect expenses to be a bit higher as we move throughout the year.
Matthew Clark
Okay. Thank you. Last one for me, just back to M&A. Have there been — have you seen or heard of an increase in — among sellers maybe being more willing to talk? Just trying to get a sense for a change in — relative to last quarter.
Mark J. Grescovich
I don’t — Matthew, this is Mark. Thank you for the question. I don’t think that there has been a change in behavior. I think there are a number of folks that are trying to strategically figure out what the best next step is. And as you might suspect, given my earlier comments about who we think would be a good partner with Banner, in which we could leverage our balance sheet to service their clients in a more robust way. The universe is still fairly limited on the West Coast and we know that the partners, it would make a lot of sense for Banner. So I wouldn’t suggest that there’s been an increase in conversations, but I wouldn’t be surprised if folks as they go through and are delivering on their first-quarter strategic plan are trying to figure out what the best thing to do for their organizations are.
Matthew Clark
Okay. Great. Thanks for the color.
Mark J. Grescovich
Thanks, Matt.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of David Feaster with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
David Feaster
Hey, good morning, everybody.
Mark J. Grescovich
Morning, David.
David Feaster
I wanted to maybe touch on, I guess, two things. Jill, from — on the loan growth side, originations have held up pretty well. How is demand? Like have you seen — I mean, obviously, there’s a lot of macro uncertainty. I’m curious if that has impacted demand and pipelines at all from your standpoint? And then just, I was hoping you could give some color on the payoffs and paydowns that you’re seeing.
Like what’s driving that? Is it deleveraging asset sales, competition and losing some deals? Just kind of curious on those two fronts.
Jill Rice
So in terms of pipelines, David, everybody is telling me that they’re busy, they’re having good conversations and moving things forward, whether it’s early on in the discussions or whether it’s my credit team busy working through deals. So demand is out there, I can’t say that the level of economic uncertainty doesn’t give some pause, but there is still demand. And as we move through them, we certainly see pricing being pushed and multiple banks going for these same deals. So it’s tough out there, I guess, I would say, in terms of getting to the close, and I feel good about what we have been pulling through in terms of origination and what that means for our future growth.
As to — what was the second part, driving the payoffs?
David Feaster
Yeah.
Jill Rice
Yeah. So if you think about it, they’re just delayed. Many of these loans, we ultimately expected to pay off, and we expected them to pay off 18 months ago, and they sat waiting for what was going to be the lower rate environment in those mini-term loans that we offer at the end of a construction and/or as they were stabilizing and getting stronger.
So it is delayed payoff, not losing because we don’t want them or to competition, but to the secondary market that offer terms that most regional banks don’t offer, long-term interest-only, non-recourse, those sorts of things. So again, expected, they just are lumpy because of the delay from 18 months ago.
David Feaster
Okay. That’s helpful. And then there’s been a lot of disruption across your footprint. I mean, over the past 12, 18 months, I mean, really from top to bottom, right? I wanted to get a sense of how you’ve been capitalizing on that, your appetite for new hires potentially coming out of some of those deals or just hires in general?
And what markets or segments you might be interested in adding talent to?
Jill Rice
So I’ll start and then if Mark or Rob want to jump in behind me. If you think back to the last several quarters, we’ve talked about the personnel we’ve added because of the disruption in the — across the footprint. And really when we find good, strong bankers in the markets, we want to add them. This last quarter, we’ve added a commercial banking center manager. We’ve added multiple portfolio managers and some treasury management personnel. So it isn’t about one business line or one market. When we find the right people, we’re adding to improve our talent.
Mark J. Grescovich
Okay. David, I would just follow-up with that. This is Mark. It’s been across the geography. So it’s not specific to any particular area. I think we’ve had — done a very good job of adding talent into the organization and as you’ve heard me say before, we tend to do this as a rifle shot, not a shotgun shot, right?
So that we end up doing this because we know who those good bankers are. We court them over time. And when the timing is right, because there is disruption, we find that we are a good source for them to join our organization.
David Feaster
Okay. Okay. And Mark, maybe just another higher-level one. I’m curious how you and your team are thinking about technology. I think investors, when I have conversations and there’s a lot of conversations around AI and stablecoin or digital deposits in general. I’m just kind of curious, how are you thinking about those two issues today?
And what are some of the things that you’re working on? And how do you see this kind of playing out for Banner?
Mark J. Grescovich
Thank you for the question, David. I’m going to ask Rob to answer that because we made some — a series of investments, but at the same time, we’ve set up a governance structure, I think that will help guide us as a lot of this technology and AI infrastructure is evolving. Rob?
Robert G. Butterfield
Yeah. Thanks for the question, David. So as Mark mentioned, we do have a fintech counsel committee that we have internally that evaluates all the different kind of new AI-type technology or even different technology products that are being offered by fintechs out there. And so we try to stay on top of what the current pulses on that stuff, and we have started to adopt some AI technology. At this point, it’s more turning on AI within existing software platforms.
And of course, we’ve made some significant investments that we’ve talked about recently with the new loan and deposit origination system that went fully live last year. And then we also have a lot of conversations around tokenized deposit stablecoin, that type of stuff as well. As part of our annual strategic planning process, we’ve brought in different experts in those fields to talk to our executive committee to make sure we understand what’s out there. And so while we haven’t necessarily have any plans to roll that out in the short term, we’re really staying on top of what all the different kind of payment channels are out there and keeping our pulse on that kind of stuff.
Mark J. Grescovich
So David, just to follow up on that, when you think about AI, regional banks like us have to — we want to be very cautious and make sure that we’re protecting the data integrity of our clients. So examples of AI would be BSA, AML in which you can really utilize some of the tools there, and certainly the call center, which will allow you to be more responsive to your client base over a 24/7 period of time. So those are the kinds of things I think when you think of regional banks, the investments we’ll be making in AI..
David Feaster
That’s terrific. Thanks, everybody.
Mark J. Grescovich
Thanks, Dave.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Terrell with Stephens Inc. Please go ahead.
Andrew Terrell
Hey, good morning.
Mark J. Grescovich
Morning, Andrew.
Andrew Terrell
Most of mine were addressed already, but just on the margin, and you guys have kind of consistently been outperforming the kind of margin expectations you lay out. I know in the past, we’ve talked about no rate cuts better for kind of the near, medium-term margin trajectory.
It seems like kind of the backdrop we’re getting now, but still sounds like relatively flattish in 2Q and maybe some back-half expansion opportunities. I guess the question is why not more constructive on the margin? And can you walk us through the puts and takes, and specifically kind of the limiting factors for the margin near term?
Robert G. Butterfield
Yeah. Thanks, Andrew. It’s Rob. So, if you think about the second quarter and I talked about it a little bit, I’m just looking at normal seasonality there. We always see deposit outflows early in the quarter. You have to supplement those with FHLB advances. And typically, the second quarter has been a little bit better for us from a loan growth standpoint as well, and we’re going to be funding those loans with FHLB advances.
So I think just naturally, you’re going to see funding cost increase in the second quarter. And some of that will be offset by the repricing of loan portfolio. So that’s why I’m thinking more flat for the second quarter. And if you look at last year, it’s the same seasonality we saw last year.
First quarter last year, we saw net interest margin expansion. Second quarter was flat. Third quarter is typically one of the better margin expansion quarters for us. So I think that’s where you’re going to see some additional expansion, again, would be in the third quarter because funding costs will come back down as deposits flow in. So, we’ll pay off FHLB advances. We’ll get the benefit of the asset growth that we saw in the second quarter. And so — and then in addition, naturally, you’re going to see loan yields also increase in the third quarter. So I think the third quarter will probably be the strongest quarter for the remainder of the year from a net interest margin expansion standpoint.
And if Fed is on pause, then we would expect some additional margin expansion in the fourth quarter. But I don’t think you’re going to see the benefit on the funding side at that point. Here, what you’re going to see is just kind of the loan yield continuing to reprice up, which is repricing up about 3 basis points a quarter right now while the Fed is on pause.
Andrew Terrell
All right, great. No, I really appreciate it. And then last question for me. I guess looking back, last time you were generating a comparable, call it, 130-ish ROA consistently was back in 2018, 2019. Your stock was trading 4 times higher on an earnings multiple, call it, 40%, 50% higher on tangible book value multiple then. Your capital is 200-plus basis points better. Today, your allowance is 30 basis points higher. Thus, the growth environment feels a little bit slower and then, I guess, with that as a backdrop, why not get more aggressive on the buyback here?
Robert G. Butterfield
No. I mean, I think anytime we look at the capital priorities, we’re weighing all the different options there, Andrew. We’ve certainly had the conversations around the level of share repurchases, and where they should be, where we repurchased shares at last quarter, the earn-back on that is attractive, and the multiple is attractive.
So we’re just trying to balance the different ones. But to your point, if we think about the TCE ratio right now approaching 10%, that’s above where we’d like it to be. So we will have to address that over time as we think about different capital actions. Ideally, we’d like that to be about 100 basis points lower than it is today.
So we’re continuing to have those conversations and think about the best use.
Andrew Terrell
Okay. Thanks for taking the questions.
Robert G. Butterfield
Thank you, Andrew.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Charlie Briscoe with KBW. Please go ahead.
Charlie Briscoe
Hi, this is Charlie on for Kelly. Most of them have been answered. Just kind of want to give you guys the opportunity to take a step-back on credit here and talk about what you’re seeing. It feels like NPA has kind of stabilized here, but just any color you can give us on what’s in that portfolio, any areas of concern if things do take a downturn?
Just high-level here. Thanks.
Jill Rice
So I’ll just start by saying that when the portfolio is as clean as it is, you’re going to see bits and starts of things moving in and out of adversely classified and NPAs. When you look at the non-performing loans, relatively flat this quarter, but centered in consumer and small-business and ag-related businesses, average loan size of non-accrual loans less than $250,000, and the largest loan is approximately $3 million. So nothing that is extremely worrisome in terms of that portfolio.
And in the substandard, we’re early to downgrade. We work them as fast as we can. And so some of them may sit there a little longer because we’re slower to move them on up and out. We don’t want them bouncing around. But when you think about that portfolio, the changes when they’ve gone in there, it’s idiosyncratic.
There’s no one industry that raising alarms. And we just are beginning to see the impact of the higher interest rates and wage inflation and other economic factors strain certain business operations.
Charlie Briscoe
Great. That’s it from me. Thanks for the color today, guys.
Mark J. Grescovich
Thanks, Charlie.
Operator
That concludes our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Mark Grescovich for closing remarks.
Mark J. Grescovich
Great. Thank you, Tiffany, and thank you all for your questions and your attention today. As I stated, we are very proud of the Banner team and our first-quarter 2026 performance. It’s been a strong kickoff to the full year. Thank you for your interest in Banner for joining our call today.
We look forward to reporting our results to you again in the future. Thank you again, everyone, and have a wonderful day.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]