Earnings call transcript: US Century Bank exceeds Q2 2025 forecasts

US Century Bank (USCB) reported a strong second quarter for 2025, surpassing earnings and revenue forecasts. The bank achieved a diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.40, slightly ahead of the forecasted $0.38, representing a 5.26% surprise. Revenue reached $24.4 million, exceeding expectations by 2.87%. The bank’s impressive 32% year-over-year revenue growth demonstrates its strong market position. Following these results, USCB shares rose by 0.76% in after-hours trading, reflecting positive investor sentiment. InvestingPro analysis reveals the bank is trading at an attractive PEG ratio of 0.16, suggesting strong value relative to its growth potential.

Key Takeaways

• EPS of $0.40 beat the forecast by 5.26%.
• Revenue of $24.4 million surpassed expectations by 2.87%.
• Stock price increased by 0.76% in after-hours trading.
• Net income rose 29% year-over-year to $8.1 million.
• Strategic focus on diversifying loan portfolio and expanding international deposits.

Company Performance

US Century Bank demonstrated robust performance in Q2 2025, with a notable 29% increase in net income year-over-year. The bank’s focus on diversifying its loan portfolio and strengthening its presence in the Miami-Dade market has contributed to its solid results. The bank’s strategic initiatives, including a $100 million universal shelf offering and achieving an investment-grade debt rating, have further bolstered its market position.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $24.4 million, up from the forecasted $23.72 million.
• Earnings per share: $0.40, compared to $0.31 in Q2 2024.
• Net income: $8.1 million, a 29% increase year-over-year.
• Return on average assets: 1.22%.
• Return on average equity: 14.29%.
• Net interest margin: 3.28%.
• Efficiency ratio: 51.77%, the lowest since 2021.

Earnings vs. Forecast

USCB’s EPS of $0.40 surpassed the forecast of $0.38, marking a 5.26% surprise. Revenue also exceeded expectations, reaching $24.4 million compared to the anticipated $23.72 million. This performance highlights the bank’s ability to navigate market conditions effectively and deliver stronger-than-expected results.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings announcement, USCB’s stock price increased by 0.76% in after-hours trading, closing at $17.18. This positive reaction reflects investor confidence in the bank’s strategic direction and financial health. With a market capitalization of $347 million and a P/E ratio of 11.65, the stock appears undervalued according to InvestingPro Fair Value metrics. The stock remains within its 52-week range, with a high of $21.86 and a low of $13.84, indicating room for potential growth. Notably, the bank offers a 2.31% dividend yield, demonstrating its commitment to shareholder returns.

Outlook & Guidance

USCB anticipates continued loan growth in the low double digits, with expectations of $150-180 million in new loan production quarterly. The bank is preparing for potential rate cuts and aims to improve its net interest margin by maintaining a liability-sensitive balance sheet. Future guidance projects an EPS of $1.57 for FY 2025 and $1.78 for FY 2026, with revenue forecasts of $96 million and $105.2 million, respectively. For deeper insights into USCB’s growth potential and comprehensive financial analysis, investors can access the detailed Pro Research Report available on InvestingPro, which covers over 1,400 US stocks with expert analysis and actionable intelligence.

Executive Commentary

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, stated, "U.S. Century Bank’s performance throughout 2025 consistently met or exceeded management’s budget expectations." Rob Anderson, CFO, added, "We’re looking at a liability-sensitive balance sheet and our margin should improve." These comments underscore the bank’s strategic focus and commitment to financial growth.

Risks and Challenges

• Potential interest rate changes could impact net interest margins.
• Economic conditions in Florida and broader macroeconomic pressures may affect loan demand.
• Competition in the Miami-Dade market remains intense.
• Regulatory changes could pose compliance challenges.
• Dependence on international deposits may expose the bank to geopolitical risks.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about USCB’s strategy for international deposits, which currently account for 10-15% of total deposits. The bank aims to expand relationships with Caribbean and Central American banks to enhance this low-cost deposit source. Additionally, potential talent acquisition through market consolidation was discussed, highlighting USCB’s proactive approach to growth opportunities.

Full transcript - US Century Bank (USCB) Q2 2025:

Conference Operator: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Q2 twenty twenty five USCB Financial Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen only mode.

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Please

Conference Operator: also note, today’s event is being recorded. At this time, I’d like to turn the floor over to Mr. Luis de la Aguilera, CEO. Sir, please go ahead.

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, USCB Financial Holdings: Thank you, and good morning. Thank you for joining us for USDB Financial Holdings twenty twenty five second quarter earnings call. With me today reviewing our Q2 highlights is CFO, Rob Anderson and Chief Credit Officer, Bill Turner, who will provide an overview of the bank’s performance, the highlights of which commence on Slide three. I’m very pleased to report that U. S.

Century Bank delivered another consecutive record quarter with continued improvement in our profitability ratios, posting a return on average equity of 14.29%, a return on average assets of 1.22% and a fully diluted earnings per share of $0.40 compared to $0.31 per fully diluted share for the same period in 2024. This past Monday, the bank marked its fourth anniversary since launching a successful IPO on 07/21/2021. Since then, management’s overarching focus has been to safely grow the bank as a high performing franchise while prudently managing risk and capital allocation to deliver long term value to our shareholders. That goal remains. Our efforts continue.

And as always, the team executes on a clearly defined and communicated business plan. Our strong franchise presence in key South Florida markets enables us to achieve steady, sustainable, profitable growth, reflecting the success of our strategic initiatives and diversified business lines. Also, the success of our deposit verticals has resulted in a diversified funding base, which has helped us to manage our NIM under an evolving economic environment. Part of this success has been reflected in our valuation. USCB stands out as one of the few independent banks with a meaningful scale in the Miami Dade MSA, having $2,100,000,000 in local deposits across 10 branches, positioning us uniquely among area competitors, offering clients a relationship driven experience backed by local decision making with deep market knowledge.

Our ability to combine personalized service with strong financial performance continues to differentiate UCB and our competitive landscape. To this point, average deposits increased 13.7% annualized compared to the previous quarter to $2,300,000,000 reflecting the trust and confidence of our clients as well as the efforts to prudently hire proven production personnel. As previously reported and in support of our deposit focus, we added four new producers in the first half of the year, two in Business Banking, one deposit focused Business Developer and another supporting our association banking, which targets the deposit rich South Florida condominium market. Next month, our private client group will add another experienced Vice President at our Coral Gables location. As management develops our three year strategic plan, we aim to remain agile and responsive to accretive hiring and business opportunities and their execution.

To this point, the company has done two things to prepare ourselves for the quick execution if and when market conditions present themselves. In May, we filed a $100,000,000 universal shelf offering. The shelf allows the company to offer various securities over a period of time as needed without the requirement to file a new registration statement for each offering. Shortly thereafter, Kroll Bond Rating Agency assigned both the company and the bank investment grade debt ratings. The investment grade ratings will support the deposit gathering activity of our foreign correspondent bank team as several of their existing and potential bank clients set deposit limit on U.

S. Bank correspondence unless they are credit rated. This action will allow us to gather more deposits from this customer base. We view both actions as customary and prudent steps to further prepare ourselves to quickly and efficiently execute strategic initiatives as they present themselves over time. The following page is self explanatory, directionally showing nine select historical trends since recapitalization.

Profitable performance based on sound and conservative risk management is what our team is focused on consistently delivering. So now, let’s draw our attention to our specific financial results and key performance indicators, which will be reviewed by our CFO, Rob Anderson.

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Thank you, Lou, and good morning, everyone. Looking at pages five and six, I would describe the 2025 as a highly successful quarter for USDB. In fact, it was another record for us. Net income was $8,100,000 or $0.40 per diluted share, up 29% over the prior year. Total loans were up 15.1% annualized compared to the prior quarter and the portfolio hit another milestone by closing above $2,100,000,000 Deposits rose 4.5% annually from the previous quarter, giving us strong liquidity to support upcoming loan growth.

Profitability ratios were equally as impressive. Return on average assets was 1.22%, return on average equity was 14.29%, the NIM improved to 3.28%, efficiency ratio improved to 51.77%, and our tangible book value per share was up zero three zero dollars for the quarter to $11.53 And last, credit metrics remain within management expectations. The net charge off of 14 basis points this quarter was in large part provided for last quarter, so the impact on earnings this quarter was negligible. Bill will touch on this in a bit. With that overview, let’s discuss deposits on the next page.

Deposits have demonstrated sustained growth on both quarterly and year over year basis. Through ongoing effective execution across our diverse business verticals, have been able to grow our deposit book and reduce the cost of deposits, despite no movement in the Fed funds rate this year. The increase in deposit balances and improvement in the cost of funds is mostly driven by higher average DDA balances for the quarter. Average DDA balances increased $17,100,000 or 12.2% annually compared to the prior quarter. And we successfully lowered interest bearing liabilities by five basis points from the prior quarter, which helped improve our overall cost of deposits by three basis points.

Let’s move on to the loan book. On a linked quarter basis, average loans grew $70,000,000 or 14.3% annualized. Compared to the second quarter of twenty twenty four, we grew $229,000,000 or 12.5%. Regardless of the comparison point, our growth was at the top end of our previous guidance. Alongside this growth, we saw our loan yield climb six basis points from the previous quarter and seven basis points compared to Q2 of twenty twenty four.

The loan yield improvement was driven by higher yields on new loan production and a stable SOFR rate throughout Q2. Looking ahead and assuming no rate changes this quarter, loan yields are expected to remain stable or improve slightly as new loans are booked with yields higher than the portfolio average yield. Moving on to page nine. For the quarter, we closed $187,000,000 in new loan production, with $95,000,000 of that closing in the last couple of weeks of June. Due to the late addition of these loans, the full impact of the quarterly loan production to interest income was not fully realized in Q2, but will more fully materialize in Q3.

The weighted average coupon on new loans was seven point one two percent and eighty nine basis points higher than the portfolio average yield. Our loan portfolio continues to diversify, shifting away from real estate related loans and into other various loan types. Now having reviewed both deposit and loan performance, let’s see the impact on the margin. On both a quarterly basis and a yearly basis, the NIM continues to improve, reflecting the strength of our asset mix and disciplined balance sheet management. Net interest income experienced notable growth, increasing by $1,900,000 or 40.3% annualized over the prior quarter and up 3,700,000 or 21.5% compared to Q2 of twenty twenty four.

This increase was driven by several factors, including a larger balance sheet, higher yields on both loans and securities, coupled with lower deposit costs. Additionally, and as just mentioned, the $95,000,000 in new loan production, which happened late in the quarter, will more fully impact earnings in Q3. Let’s turn to page 11 to see the impact on changing rates on our balance sheet. In the past several quarters, our strategy has been to prepare for a lower rate environment and a more normalized yield curve. This strategic positioning has begun to yield benefits, as evidenced by an increasing margin and profitability.

Our balance sheet currently demonstrates a liability sensitive profile for year one and transitions to an almost neutral balance sheet for year two. We view this transition very positively for two reasons. First, if rate cuts occur in the near term, this will allow us to reprice our funding sources more quickly than our assets, which should provide a boost to our net interest margin. Second, as the yield curve returns to a more traditional shape, a positive upward sloping yield curve, we will be well positioned to capture the widening spread between lower cost short term funding and higher yielding long term assets. This combination of agility and preparedness enhances our ability to navigate both the declining and normalizing rate environment, supporting sustained margin improvement in the quarters ahead.

So with that, let me turn it over to Bill to discuss asset quality.

Bill Turner, Chief Credit Officer, USCB Financial Holdings: Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Please turn to Page 12. As you can see from the first graph, the allowance for credit losses increased to $24,900,000 in the second quarter. The increase was due to the net effect of the $1,000,000 quarterly provision and the $700,000 loss on the sale of a yacht and a tender vessel, which collateralized the consumer loan relationship. This amount had been reserved in previous quarters.

The allowance for credit loss ratio is at an adequate 1.18% of the portfolio at second quarter end. The million dollar provision was driven by the $77,000,000 in net loan growth during the quarter. The remaining graphs on page 12 show the nonperforming loans at quarter end at $1,400,000 and decreased to 0.6% of the portfolio 0.06% of the portfolio and are well covered by the allowance. The decrease was related to the liquidation of the vessels mentioned before and the payoff of a non accrual residential loan. No losses are expected from these remaining non performing loans.

Classified loans also decreased during the quarter to $5,600,000 or point 27% of the portfolio and represents less than 2% of capital. The decrease was again related to the sale of the consumer loan relationship vessels and the residential loan payoff. No losses are expected from the remaining classified loans. The bank continues to have no other real estate. On page thirteen, first graph shows the diversified loan portfolio mix at second quarter end.

The loan portfolio increased $77,000,000 on a net basis in the second quarter to $2,100,000,000 Commercial real estate represents 57% of the portfolio or $1,200,000,000 segmented between retail, multifamily, owner occupied and warehouse properties. The second graph is a breakout of the commercial real estate portfolios for the non owner occupied and owner occupied portfolios, which also demonstrates their diversification. The table to the right of the graph shows the weighted average loan to values of the commercial real estate portfolio at less than 60% and debt service coverage ratios are adequate for each portfolio segment. The quality and payment performances are good for all segments of the portfolio, with the past due ratio at 0.19% and nonperforming loans remain below peer banks. Overall, the quality of the loan portfolio remains good.

Now let me turn it back over to Rob.

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Thank you, Bill. Non interest income continues to improve with a variety of different revenue streams. Both wire and swap fees increased over the prior quarter and as mentioned on previous calls, all loans are booked with prepayment penalties, so in the event of an early payoff, we receive compensation. These fees are booked under the other line item in service fees. Title insurance fees and bank owned life insurance are also in this line item.

SBA loan sales were down slightly from the prior quarter, but the pipeline is strong and we expect a higher number in Q3. Overall, non interest income was 13.8% of total revenue and 0.5% to average assets, slightly lower than the prior quarter, so we will look to improve upon this number in Q3. Let’s look at expenses on page 15. Our total expense base was $12,600,000 and while up from the prior quarter, it was in line with guidance. The efficiency ratio was 51.77% and the lowest since 2021.

In more detail, salaries and benefits rose by 318,000 from the previous quarter due to the additional new hires that Lou mentioned and increased incentive accruals reflecting improved company performance. As stated previously, our incentive programs are aligned with our shareholders and are highly variable. Looking forward, we expect the quarterly expense base to be at this level and perhaps gradually increase throughout the balance of 2025 with consistent improved overall company performance. So with that, let’s turn to capital. The capital ratios remained strong, improved in comparison to the previous quarter and well above regulatory minimums, providing a solid foundation for ongoing growth and strategic initiatives.

The AOCI was a negative $41,800,000 flat compared to the previous quarter, which resulted in a negative $2.8 impact on our tangible book value per share metric. We have $285,000,000 in AFS securities and the majority of this was purchased during the pandemic with historically low interest rates. The yield on these securities is low, below 3%, and hence the large negative mark. We are hopeful that in the coming quarters that this asset can somewhat self correct with improved rates, run off, become a much smaller portion of the balance sheet with continued growth, or we have an opportunity to sell a portion of these securities with acceptable return economics to our shareholders. In short, we are monitoring each option to improve our forward earnings and profitability.

As Lou mentioned, we completed 100,000,000 universal shelf offering, received investment grade debt ratings from Kroll, and are well prepared for a variety of strategic initiatives if and when they present themselves. With that, let me turn it back to Lou for some closing comments.

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, USCB Financial Holdings: Thank you, Rob. U. S. Century Bank’s performance throughout the 2025 consistently met or exceeded management’s budget expectations. Without a doubt, we benefit and are propelled by the resiliency and strength of the Florida market, which continues to attract businesses and residents across the nation, drawn by our favorable client, pro business policies, and absence of state income tax.

The total state GDP reached nearly $1,500,000,000,000 and is projected to grow at 2.5 to 3% for 2025, continuing to outpace the national average. Florida has maintained a lower than average unemployment rate for more than fifty consecutive months, has and added over 113,000 jobs year over year as of January 2025, again outpacing the national growth rates. Clearly, the strength of the market we serve provides the fuel to deliver continued strong profitability metrics, balance sheet growth, and operational efficiency. With that said, I would like to open the floor for Q and A.

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we’ll begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on your touch tone phones. If you are using a speakerphone, we ask that you please pick up the handset prior to pressing the keys to ensure the best sound quality. And our first question today comes from Will Jones from KBW. Please go ahead with your question.

Will Jones, Analyst, KBW: Yeah. Hey, great. Good morning, guys.

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, USCB Financial Holdings: Good morning. Good morning.

Will Jones, Analyst, KBW: Yeah. Hey, Lou and Rob thanks for pointing out the investment grade rating. I think that’s a very important step for you guys. And Lou you mentioned the opportunity this could provide just on the international deposit front. I guess just first question is, is the strategy different trying to gather international deposits as opposed to domestic deposits?

And could you maybe just help us frame or give us just a realistic idea of what this opportunity could be for in terms of the deposit chance here?

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, USCB Financial Holdings: Certainly. The Global Group manages a portfolio of 30 banks that are in The Caribbean Basin And Central America. There are two other banks that are not in that area. There’s a few that are in Ecuador and one that is in Peru. We have segregated these banks into three categories.

Let’s just call them A banks, B banks, and C banks, and we’re really grading them by their deposits with us. So an A bank will have deposits over $10,000,000 on average, a B bank will have deposits maybe from $2,000,000,000 to 10,000,000 And then the C banks have average balances, I think we’re about $1,500,000 So what we’re doing here is upgrading the B banks to A, maintaining and growing the A banks, and then growing the C banks. We started last year probably a more robust travel schedule than we’ve ever had. I think in the last quarter and a half of the year, we literally visited all the banks that are borrowing banks, and we saw deposits grow relatively quickly after that. This is very much a relationship driven strategy, and our executive who runs it has had almost forty years in the business.

He travels with his successor. He knows these banks very well. They know him, and by extension, us. So the plan is really to grow that area with the strategy that I just mentioned. But it just so happens that there’s a number of these countries that have limits on how much they can have out to US banks, and this has been the case for the longest time.

So getting the debt rating and sharing it with them is going to give us the ability to again raise those deposits from Cs to Bs and from B to As, and we’re also looking at possibly three to five new banks in the portfolio for 2026. So we’re focused on that and we will be reaching out to them probably in due time.

Will Jones, Analyst, KBW: That’s great. That’s very helpful to understand. And just in terms of what you see the incremental cost of deposits on some of your international customers as opposed to the incremental cost on your domestic customers? What do you see as the driving difference there?

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Yes. So, Will, I’ll take that one. So, on our global banking front, we probably have $268,000,000 in deposits as of quarter end. The cost of those deposits are cheaper than the overall funding costs. They’re at 1.74%.

So certainly, these are banking institutions and they want a relationship with a US based correspondent bank and we price them fairly low and they’re below our overall cost of deposits.

Will Jones, Analyst, KBW: Yeah. Well, it seems like a very attractive opportunity for you guys then. Rob, while I’ve got you, just a quick one on the margin. I know just looking back to my notes last quarter, feels like rate cuts are beneficial to you guys just in terms of your rate sensitivity. Though I say that every quarter it feels like we continue to outperform margin expectations and the margin was up fairly significantly again this quarter.

Do you still see the same NIM upside if we do get cuts later in the year? Or have you really kind of recognized some of the benefit to margin earlier in the front half of the year and rate cuts will just more or less help you maintain stability as we look into the second half?

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Yes, on the deposit book, we’re looking at that constantly for opportunities. Sometimes we will bring in a new client, we will give them a good rate, we are looking for a relationship, looking for their operating account. And if that doesn’t materialize, we’ll look to cut that rate until that happens. But on average, we had $1,200,000,000 in money markets. So if rates do get cut on the front end of the curve by the Fed, we’d be looking to that money market book to reduce rates.

And I think we’ve been managing that pretty prudently in a flat rate environment and certainly with that size of a money market book, we’ll have opportunities to cut with the Fed cut and that would help our margins. So in a rate cut environment, we’re looking at a liability sensitive balance sheet and our margin should improve and that’s what we’ve modeled out.

Will Jones, Analyst, KBW: Okay, that’s great. Thanks for all the color this morning and really nice quarter guys.

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Thank you, Will.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Freddie Strickland from Hovde Group. Please go ahead with your question.

Freddie Strickland, Analyst, Hovde Group: Hey, good morning, Lew Rob and Bill. Just want to talk about loan pipeline mix today. What do you have going on in the next, let’s say, six months or so? And if we get rate cuts, how does that change?

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, USCB Financial Holdings: Actually, Bill, Rob and I attend the pipeline meeting with the lenders every week. So it’s 52 times a year we’re sitting in there, we’re asking questions, we’re seeing what’s coming in the pipeline. We had two really solid months closing June and July, I think it was like $150,000,000 in closings. The pipeline usually during the third quarter because of the summer months historically always dips a little, but we’re projecting what we have in credit and what has already been closed in July, we feel very comfortable that we’re going to hit the numbers again. So we have the dry powder going into the fourth quarter and we have the volume in place to deliver the third.

It’s balanced as we have mentioned. We have business coming in from numerous business verticals, whether it be the yacht loans, the association banking on the HOA side, and then on the commercial side, I think it’s pretty balanced with multifamily and warehouse and very select retail. So it continues to be more of the same, and we also believe we’re going to have a very strong year end on the SBA side, especially with the seven As, the pipeline there looks really good. We believe that we’re going to double our SBA seven A volume from what it was last year.

Freddie Strickland, Analyst, Hovde Group: Got you. Thanks for that. You actually beat me to my next question, which was kind of on the gain on sale. Obviously, stepped down a little bit from the first, second quarter. It sounds like given the SBA pipeline, maybe we could see that come back up in the back half of the year?

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, USCB Financial Holdings: We believe so.

Freddie Strickland, Analyst, Hovde Group: Perfect. And just one more for me. Great to see the DDAs rise during the quarter. Can you talk a little bit about what some of the biggest drivers were there? It sounds like we can maybe see that continue given some of your prepared remarks.

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Yeah, maybe I’ll touch on that one. Certainly, our desire is to have all of our clients view us as their main bank. And so all of our team is incentivized on gathering deposits, but specifically DDA. So we have a lot of initiatives and we made some new hires this year that are focused only on deposits. I think our loans have had a very strong trajectory in growing at double digits and the deposit and our funding base and making sure that’s low cost core deposits is really what we need to focus on and will be helpful for us in the back half of this year and next year.

But certainly, I think no matter how many banks you talk to, they’re always looking for low cost deposits and solid relationships. So we’re out there on the street every day fighting with everyone else in town. So we’ll see if we can get our share.

Freddie Strickland, Analyst, Hovde Group: Great. Thanks for that, Rob. Thanks for taking my questions, guys. I’ll step back.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Michael Rose from Raymond James. Please go ahead with your question.

Michael Rose, Analyst, Raymond James: Hey, good morning guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just two quick ones for me. Just back to the international deposit gathering strategy. Just wanted to better appreciate what the size of that book is and maybe what it could grow to as a percentage of deposits.

I think as analysts, we’re always a little bit skeptical, probably wrongly so. When you see foreign deposits, there’s another bank within your market that has a pretty high concentration and isn’t necessarily viewed as kind of the greatest thing. I’m certainly fine with it. But is there any sort of limiters as what you would want that to grow versus the domestic deposits? Certainly understand why you’re doing it part of the strategy and everything, but just wanted to better appreciate what the limiters could be.

Thanks.

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Yeah. Hey, Michael, it’s Rob. I’ll take this first, just some numbers out there. So we have about $268,000,000 our global correspondent banking group. And as Lou mentioned, these are all foreign banks, but they’re looking for a US correspondent, which we have over 30 of them here.

The cost of those deposits are rather low compared to our overall cost, so we think it’s a great funding source. We’ve been in this business for multiple years and at $268,000,000 it’s probably, what, a little over 10% of our total deposit book. We don’t have necessarily caps on that, but I don’t think it’s ever been above 15% in the entire time I’ve been here for the last five years. So we’d look to grow it in tandem with our balance sheet. I think we could get it a little bit bigger, but I don’t think it will be anything that would remain outsized of our funding base.

I don’t know, Lou, anything else?

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, USCB Financial Holdings: I agree. The potential is there actually in the last board we were talking about the potential to do it, because it truly is there. We’ve been growing it since the recap. Ten years ago, it was one tenth of what it is now. Obviously the bank was in a different situation back then, but we’re dealing with countries that will have the entire bank network in one of these countries may be seven to 10 banks.

So the banks are in very good shape. When we analyze them, it’s not only the country risk, it’s the bank risk. And because of the relationships that we have with the executive teams, we just believe that it has tremendous potential. We keep it at a certain level because we don’t want it to have an outsized concentration, but the potential to do that and the fees that come with it, especially on the wire, very significant. Another thing that we’ve been doing over time is that we’ve been reaching out to the executives of these banks, and dozens of them have accounts here with us.

As you know, it’s very common for well heeled Central and South Americans to maintain a second home in Florida. So we tap into that opportunity, and they’ve responded. We like the business, we know the business, we handle it very conservatively, and we’ve never had an issue on any of our subsequent safety and soundness examinations over the last fifteen years.

Michael Rose, Analyst, Raymond James: That’s a great overview, really, really appreciate it. I assume the beta on those deposits is fairly low as well as the stickiness being pretty high. Is that a fair kind of assumption?

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, USCB Financial Holdings: Very fair. Very fair.

Michael Rose, Analyst, Raymond James: Perfect. All right. And then maybe just separately, we’ve seen a lot of M and A announced both in Florida and kind of more broadly, one last night among some regional banks. How does that factor into maybe your hiring plans? I know dislocations are always opportunities for talent additions.

And then just separately, just given the multiple and where you’re trading on tangible, probably could open up some opportunities for you to actually look to acquire maybe some smaller banks in and around your markets. Is that something you guys are thinking about? Thanks.

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, USCB Financial Holdings: Well, Rob and I are we pretty much know every CEO in the Miami Dade MSA. I think part of our job is to keep close tabs and good relationships with them and we’re always planting seeds when we have these discussions. Those possibilities are definitely there. In the past, when there have been merger situations here in the local market, we have taken advantage of that. We took advantage of that with Apollo.

We took advantage of that with Professional. And if anything else happens, we’ll move accordingly. We’re always going to be opportunistic when those opportunities present themselves.

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Then maybe on the multiple, Michael, I mean, I don’t know, we’re trading right around 150 a tangible book, but probably on earnings maybe a little bit lower than peers. Leave that to you guys. But certainly, our job is to run the bank and put up good numbers. And I think we’ve done that consistently. We’re very positive about the outlook for the balance of this year and next year as well.

So we’ll leave that to you guys on the multiples.

Michael Rose, Analyst, Raymond James: Perfect. And maybe just one final one for me, just going back to loan growth. Obviously, really nice growth this quarter above kind of the outlook you guys had laid out. Doesn’t sound to me based on the prior questions that there’s really any slowing here. So it’s kind of a more of a mid teens growth rate more we should expect here at least for the next couple of quarters just based on pipelines and previous commentary?

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Yeah, I mean, Lou mentioned that the summer is a little slow, but we do have a solid pipeline. I’d probably say just more conservatively, Michael, maybe on the lower teens. I mean, on page nine of our presentation, past few quarters we’ve originated new loans, 182 in Q1, then 187 this quarter, but we really haven’t been below 150,000,000 for the past five quarters. I would anticipate between 150,000,000 to $180,000,000 for the next couple of quarters as well. So that could lead to low double digits, but could we reach the upper end of that?

Yes, perhaps.

Michael Rose, Analyst, Raymond James: Perfect. I’ll step back. Thanks for taking my questions.

Rob Anderson, CFO, USCB Financial Holdings: Thanks, Michael.

Conference Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we’ll be ending today’s question and answer session. I’d like to turn the floor back over to management for any closing remarks.

Luis de la Aguilera, CEO, USCB Financial Holdings: Well, on behalf of the entire management team and our Board of Directors, want to thank you for your interest and time. We’re excited about our growth trajectory and the strength of the franchise, and we look forward to updating you on our progress in the next quarter. So thank you and have a great day.

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we’ll conclude today’s conference call and presentation. We do thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

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