Cambridge Trust Co. saw deposits drop by 3.3 percent in the first quarter, with most of the outflows occurring before the bank failures in March.
Total deposits at the end of the first quarter were $4.66 billion, down $158.6 million from $4.82 billion at the end of 2022. Excluding wholesale deposits, deposits decreased by $300.2 million, or 6.8 percent, in the first quarter.
During the bank’s first quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Cambridge Trust President and CEO Denis Sheahan said customer deposits fell by $219 million in January and February as clients sought higher yields in Treasurys and other deposit offerings. Those deposit outflows had stabilized by mid-February, Sheahan said.
After Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed in March and First Republic Bank experienced significant deposit outflows, Cambridge Trust lost a net of $81 million in deposits. Sheahan said $38 million of that amount did move over to the bank’s wealth management products. He added that some of the other funds moved to larger banks.
“Overall I am very pleased with this outcome,” Sheahan said, noting the extensive local news coverage that the bank failures had received.
The bank saw the amount of uninsured deposits decrease during the quarter, in part from using the IntraFi Network. The bank now has 33 percent of its deposits uninsured, down from 52 percent at the end of 2022, Sheahan said.
Cambridge Trust had first quarter net income of $12.4 million, or diluted earnings per share of $1.58, compared to $11.3 million, or diluted earnings per share of $1.44, in the fourth quarter. In the first quarter of 2022, before the bank’s October acquisition of Northmark Bank, Cambridge Trust had net income of $13.3 million, or diluted earnings per share of $1.89.
Sheahan said Cambridge Trust completed the system conversion for Northmark customers over the weekend, a process he said went smoothly.
Cambridge Trust’s total assets decreased from $5.56 billion at the end of 2022 to $5.53 billion at the end of the first quarter.
Total loans decreased by $44.8 million, or 1.1 percent from $4.06 billion on Dec. 31 to $4.02 billion on March 31.
Sheahan said the bank saw less loan demand in the first quarter and is looking toward the second half of the year for a change in loan demand.
Chief Credit Officer Peter Halberstadt said Cambridge Trust has not seen any year-over-year changes in loan delinquency levels.
Noting that the bank’s diversified commercial real estate portfolio includes a focus on multifamily properties, Halberstadt said the bank has a positive outlook for those properties, even with a potential slowdown of rental growth in the near-term.
He added that the bank’s office portfolio is geographically diverse with a weighted average loan-to-value ratio of 56 percent.
“While we expect the office market may show some property value declines from its peak, we feel we are well positioned to absorb any market correction based on our historically strong underwriting fundamentals,” Halberstadt said.