Old National (NASDAQ:ONB) reported second-quarter financial results on Wednesday. The transcript from the company's second-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

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Access the full call at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/181433839

Summary

Old National Bancorp reported record second-quarter results for 2026, with record adjusted EPS, net income, and efficiency ratio.

The company achieved approximately 20% adjusted return on average tangible common equity and an adjusted ROA of 1.39%.

End-of-period loans increased by $1 billion, or 8% annualized, driven by robust high-quality commercial production, with a commercial pipeline hitting a record $5.6 billion.

Fee income saw broad-based strength, contributing to a more balanced earnings engine less reliant on net interest income.

The company maintained strong operational discipline, achieving a record adjusted efficiency ratio of 45.2%, marking the seventh straight quarter of positive year-over-year operating leverage.

Credit quality remained strong, with a 10% decrease in nonaccruals and stable net charge-offs.

The tangible book value per share increased 14% year-over-year, and the CET1 ratio stood at 11.09%, with $163 million returned to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.

Old National Bancorp raised its loan growth and noninterest income guidance for the full year 2026, expecting loan growth of 6% to 8%.

The company plans to continue share repurchases and maintain a strong capital position, with a focus on organic growth and deepening client relationships.

Management expressed confidence in achieving 15%-plus growth in earnings per share for the full year, supported by strong loan growth, controlled expenses, and stable credit performance.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Jim Ryan for opening remarks. Mr. Ryan, good morning.

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

Earlier today, Old National reported record second quarter results for 2026. In short, this was an exceptional quarter for Old National. We achieved record adjusted EPS along with record net income and a record efficiency ratio. We also generated approximately a 20% adjusted return on average tangible common equity, an adjusted ROA of 1.39% and continue to produce strong profitable growth across our company. These results show what happens when we stay focused on the fundamentals: growing high-quality relationships, maintaining disciplined credit and expense management, investing in talent and technology, and building tangible book value over time. The strength of our franchise was clear throughout the quarter. End-of-period loans increased by $1 billion, or 8% annualized, driven by robust, high-quality commercial production. Commercial production reached $3.5 billion and our period-end commercial pipeline hit a new record of $5.6 billion. We remain actively focused on winning new business where we can develop full relationships, meet our return expectations, and maintain the strong credit profile that has long been a hallmark of Old National.

Fee income was another bright spot. We experienced broad-based strength across all fee businesses. This diversification is intentional. As we grow, we are building a stronger, more balanced earnings engine that is less reliant on net interest income. We also continue to demonstrate strong operational discipline. We delivered record GAAP and adjusted efficiency ratios, with the adjusted ratio at 45.2%, marking our seventh straight quarter of positive year-over-year operating leverage.

We are investing in technology, AI, and process improvements to make Old National more scalable while remaining disciplined with expenses. That balance is key. We are investing for growth while maintaining operational efficiency. Credit quality remains a key strength. Nonaccruals decreased by $50 million, or 10%, from the prior quarter and net charge-offs were consistent with our expectations. We stay diligent and proactive in managing credit. Our loan portfolio is well diversified, our underwriting standards remain rigorous, and we believe our straightforward community banking model positions us well through economic cycles.

Our capital position continues to be strong. Tangible book value per share increased 14% year over year. Our CET1 ratio was 11.09% and we returned 163 million of capital to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. We will continue to approach capital allocation carefully, supporting organic growth, investing in the business, maintaining strong capital levels, and returning capital to shareholders. In summary, this was a record-breaking quarter and another clear example of Old National successfully executing its organic growth strategy.

We delivered strong loan growth, broad-based fee income, record efficiency, solid credit metrics, and returned significant capital back to our shareholders. We do not need to rely on acquisitions to meet our goals. Our focus stays the same: growing organically, deepening client relationships, investing in our people and platform, managing risk carefully, and creating long-term value for our shareholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to John to discuss this quarter's financial results in more detail.

John

Thanks. As Jim mentioned and as summarized on slide 4, we delivered a record quarter driven by strong organic loan growth, disciplined expense management, stable credit performance and increased capital return. Beginning on slide 5, we reported GAAP 2Q earnings per share of $0.65, excluding $12.1 million in merger-related expenses and a $13.2 million valuation gain on the settlement of the Bremer pension plan. Adjusted earnings per share were also $0.65.

Results were driven by better-than-expected loan growth and strong fee income along with well-controlled expenses. Credit remains stable with 22 basis points of non-PCD charge-offs. Our profitability profile, as measured by return on assets and on tangible common equity, remained top decile versus our peers. Capital finished the quarter with CET1 over 11%, and we grew tangible book value per share 11% annualized from the prior quarter and 14% year over year.

We delivered this growth even as we absorbed Bremer one-time charges, generated better-than-expected balance sheet growth in the first half of the year, and returned capital. Specifically, during the second quarter we returned a total of $163 million to shareholders in the form of increased cash dividends and share repurchases. On slide 6 you can see our quarterly balance sheet trends underscoring continued strength in our liquidity and capital positions.

Our loan-to-deposit ratio increased modestly to 91% and the CET1 ratio remains above 11%. Again, we compounded tangible book value per share year over year despite the impact of the Bremer merger charges over the past year and the increased pace of capital return. We repurchased $107 million, or 4.4 million shares, during the current quarter and 10.5 million shares over the last year. With dividends and repurchases, our combined payout ratio was 65% of 2Q net income to common.

As we've stated in the last several quarters, the best investment we can make today continues to be in ourselves. On slide 7 we show trends in earning assets. Total loans grew 8.3% annualized from last quarter, led by balanced growth in both our CRE and our C&I portfolios. Production was also diversified across our commercial book and predominantly floating rate. The next few quarters should be supported by a record-high pipeline of $5.6 billion, up 17% from a year ago.

The investment portfolio grew modestly, with purchases coming on at higher yields. We expect approximately $2.3 billion in cash flow over the next 12 months. Today, new money yields are running about 100 basis points above back-book yields on securities. Strong loan growth, ongoing repricing across both loans and securities, and continued deposit pricing discipline support net interest income growth over the course of 2026. On the NIM, I would point out that 2Q margin was impacted 2 basis points by the full-quarter effect of our sub-debt issuance in late January and lower SOFR rates during the quarter, without which margin would have been up slightly.

Moving to slide 8, we show trends in deposits. Total deposits increased 3.4% annualized, primarily driven by commercial and public fund growth, partly offset by seasonal tax outflows in retail deposits. Noninterest-bearing deposits remained 23% of total deposits, consistent with the prior quarter, and like our loan pipelines, deposit pipelines remain very healthy. We were able to decrease total deposit costs by 1 basis point and lowered interest-bearing deposits a similar 1 basis point linked quarter, all while remaining on offense with respect to client acquisition in a competitive deposit environment.

Overall, our deposit pricing strategy continues to perform as we expected. Slide 9 shows our quarterly income statement trends. As I mentioned earlier, adjusted earnings per share were a record $0.65 for the quarter, and our profitability remains peer-leading. Moving on to slide 10, we present details of our net interest income and margin, both of which reflect my prior comments around the full-quarter impact of our sub-debt issuance and lower SOFR rates in the quarter.

We anticipate growth in NII dollars to be supported by strong asset generation, stable funding costs and fixed asset repricing. Also, the combination of our higher floating-rate production and earning asset remix opportunities positions us well. Slide 11 shows trends in adjusted noninterest income, which was $140 million for the quarter. Exceeding our guidance, we saw better-than-expected performance within all our fee businesses. The other income line was elevated this quarter by approximately $10 million due to market value adjustments, higher BOLI income and an asset recovery.

While these items are core, we would expect this line to run-rate closer to 1Q levels for the balance of the year. Continuing to slide 12, adjusted noninterest expense was $360 million for the quarter. Run-rate expenses remain well controlled, driving positive operating leverage both quarter over quarter and year over year, while delivering a record-low 45% efficiency ratio. On slide 13 we present our credit trends. Total net charge-offs were 26 basis points, or 22 basis points excluding charge-offs on PCD loans.

Criticized and classified loans declined $109 million this quarter, while nonaccrual loans decreased to 91 basis points of total loans, marking several quarters of improving performance driven by active portfolio management. The second quarter's allowance for credit losses to total loans, including the reserve for unfunded commitments, was 121 basis points, down 1 basis point from the prior quarter, primarily driven by charge-offs on PCD loans and improved credit quality.

Our qualitative reserves continue to incorporate a 100% weighting on the Moody's S2 scenario with additional qualitative factors to capture global economic uncertainty. Slide 14 presents key credit metrics relative to peers. We have continued to experience a lower conversion rate of NPLs to NCOs as compared to our peers, which is driven by our approach to client selection on the front end and credit workouts on the back end. We remain comfortable around the credit outlook.

On slide 15 you can see our strong capital position at the end of the quarter. Tangible book value per share was up 11% annualized linked quarter and 14% year over year. Regulatory ratios and TCE remained stable linked quarter with strong earnings absorbed by quarterly loan growth and continued share repurchases. As previously mentioned, we repurchased $107 million of common stock during the second quarter, and we have $277 million remaining under our program.

We continue to believe we would see approximately 100 basis points of capital benefit under the proposed Basel III capital rule changes. These changes, if finalized, would obviously increase capital flexibility. Slide 16 includes our outlook for the full year 2026. While our overall expectations remain largely unchanged, we have increased our loan growth and noninterest income guidance from the prior outlook provided. We believe our year-to-date results and current pipeline support full-year loan growth of 6% to 8%.

Our NII guidance is unchanged but updated for the impact of our sub-debt issuance. The exact path of NIM and NII in the back half of the year will obviously be dependent on growth dynamics, the shape of the yield curve, the absolute level of rates in the middle of the curve and the competitive deposit landscape. Our base case outlook assumes no Fed rate actions this year and a stable five-year Treasury. Given our strong loan growth outlook, our ability to effectively manage our funding costs, ongoing fixed asset repricing and earning asset remix opportunities, we believe our balance sheet is well positioned and we see more opportunities than challenges in the back half of the year. We have increased our noninterest income guidance to reflect 2Q's outperformance and expect our core fee businesses to continue to perform well. Our outlook for expenses, credit and tax rates are all unchanged. In addition, we expect to fully utilize the remaining buyback authorization opportunistically over the course of the current plan period, which runs through the end of February 2027. In aggregate, you'll note that we continue to expect full-year results that yield 15%-plus growth in earnings per share and again feature positive operating leverage with peer-leading profitability, good growth in fees, controlled expenses and normalized credit. To close, our first-half performance underscores the strength of our franchise, the consistency of our execution and the durability of our business model. Organic loan growth remains strong, pipelines are at record levels and credit performance continues to be stable. Our fee businesses are performing well, and our continued focus on efficiency and profitability gives us the flexibility to invest in the franchise while returning capital to shareholders.

As Jim said at the top of the call, Old National enters the second half of 2026 with strong momentum and increased conviction in our ability to execute. With those comments, I'd like to open the call for your questions.

OPERATOR

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press Star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Brendan Nosel from Hovde Group.

Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Brendan Nosel, Analyst at Hovde Group

Hey, good morning everybody. Hope you're doing well.

John

Good morning.

Brendan Nosel, Analyst at Hovde Group

Just starting off here, maybe on capital. Really strong organic loan growth not only this quarter, but expected for the full year; you know, plans to use the full buyback authorization. Is the overarching message on capital today that you like your current levels and more or less want to tread water here?

John

Yeah, I think you've got that right. We feel really comfortable with where we are. Obviously we've got strong capital ratios, plenty of capital to support organic growth, and continue to lean into return of capital to shareholders. So that's sort of plan A: organic and capital return. I think that still allows us to grow tangible book value per share at a nice clip as well given the high earnings rate.

Brendan Nosel, Analyst at Hovde Group

Perfect. Maybe turning to the NII outlook and kind of the changes in the complexion of how you get to the number you put out. Kind of feels like it implies there's a fair bit of margin expansion in the back half of the year, just given the balance sheet growth you're now expecting. Kind of walk us through the puts and takes if that is indeed the right interpretation of kind of how you get there.

John

Yeah, I think you're reading that one right as well. There's a lot of puts and takes, but candidly we see more opportunities than challenges heading into the back half of this year. And there's really—we tried to spell some of those out in prepared remarks, but just to underscore them. So strong organic growth in the first half, which sets us up with higher average earning assets than we had expected. Still got a great opportunity on fixed asset repricing—that's 100 basis points on securities, 60 basis points on loans.

The SOFR headwind that we saw in the second quarter is not likely to repeat and in fact could become a tailwind later this year. And then we believe we've got meaningful earning asset remix opportunities in front of us. And then just a reminder, we do pick up an extra day in both the third quarter and the fourth quarter, and so that'll be helpful too. So when you add all that up, we think NIM and NII should be improving in the back half of this year, all else equal.

Brendan Nosel, Analyst at Hovde Group

Fantastic. Thanks, John.

OPERATOR

Your next question comes from the line of Janet Lee with TD Cowen. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Janet Lee, Analyst at TD Cowen

Morning. On the other income side: I mean, obviously a very strong performance on the fee line outside of the other income that will normalize back to the first-quarter level. Should we expect other core fee line items to grow off from here? What is driving such strong growth in those line items?

John

Yeah, I feel really good about our core fee businesses; they are performing really well and we continue to expect them to do well into the back half of this year. Wealth management has been terrific. Investments has been good. Obviously that's an area that we've been investing in over the last several years and we're starting to see the fruits of that. The mortgage business was very solid for us in the second quarter. Pipeline there is down a little bit, but we continue to be maybe a little bit more enthusiastic than the average bank on the mortgage side.

And part of that is really just the team that we picked up down in the Nashville market, which has been really additive to what was already a good mortgage. And then cap markets has been strong. And that sort of follows pipeline and production. And with pipelines where they are, we're reasonably, you know, bullish on our ability to continue to grow that line too.

Janet Lee, Analyst at TD Cowen

Thank you. And just to make sure that I'm understanding this correctly, your expectation for NIM expansion in the second half of 2026, do you largely expect your deposit cost to stay relatively stable from the 2.23 percent that you reported in the second quarter? Could you maybe comment on the spot rate and what you're seeing in terms of the new deposits that are coming in on the rate front? Thank you.

John

Yeah, for sure. So look, the deposit environment continues to be competitive. We have said that it's been competitive for the last three, four years. I mean, I don't view it as any more competitive than it has been. Spot rate was pretty much right on top of where we were on the quarter. And I'm sure you noticed we pulled down total cost a basis point. So we believe that we're demonstrating that we can keep our funding costs pretty stable even while staying on offense with respect to new client acquisitions.

So certainly very pleased with how the deposit strategy has performed and all signs point to continued success there in the back half of.

OPERATOR

Your next question comes from Brandon Rudd with Stephens Inc. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Brandon Rudd, Analyst at Stephens Inc.

Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. My first one just on the NII guide. Thanks for your comments on the NIM. Just on the earning-asset side, should we anticipate the earning assets track with loan growth, or should we think of that as kind of lagging a bit as some securities and cash are remixed to fund loans?

John

I think that's right. That's part of what we're trying to say by earning-asset remix opportunities. I think we've got some, inside of loans, probably some optimization to do and then also a little bit of earning-asset optimization around the liquidity book. So I think earning assets would probably lag slightly what we're able to do in terms of asset generation on the loan side.

Brandon Rudd, Analyst at Stephens Inc.

Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. And then with your ability to maintain deposit costs inclusive of new growth, and loan yields coming on in the high 5% range, does that kind of imply that the incremental growth you're bringing on the balance sheet is actually still accretive to the overall margin?

John

In terms of new versus runoff, we would see—our expectation would be that the asset churn that we've seen in the last, call it, two, three quarters, improves somewhat from here. And part of that was we were working out of some classified, criticized that had pretty high coupons on the loan side. So I think that headwind abates, and we've got some earning-asset remix opportunity that is margin accretive. But in terms of absolute dollars of incremental new coming on funded with incremental new, probably neutral-ish.

I think the better opportunity for us is the remix.

OPERATOR

Your next question is from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Daniel Tamayo, Analyst at Raymond James

Good morning everyone. Maybe just starting on the loan growth side—you know, it's been a nice year and you guys are taking the guidance up. I'm just curious: are you starting to make larger loans within the middle market space and C&I? It seems like the plan is to start to do that, to shift into some larger loans as you get larger. But just curious how much of that's already happening, how much of a difference it's making, and how much of a difference it can make in your growth plans going forward.

Timothy Burke, President & Chief Operating Officer

Morning, Daniel, this is Tim. Yeah, we are starting to see that come to fruition in second-quarter production, and certainly as we look at the pipelines in Q3 and beyond, we are seeing those skew larger, specifically in our growth markets where the opportunities tend to be larger to begin with. So that is a focus of ours, and we continue to see pipelines grow in that regard. But we continue to do a lot of really granular, core C&I middle market to lower middle market business that's driving production and driving our pipelines forward.

So it's a good mix of leaning into the opportunities that come to us in our smaller core markets as well as larger expansion markets.

John

Thanks for that, Tim. The average C&I loan in the bank is still under a million bucks. So that'll give you a sense of—there are a lot of small tickets that are running through Old National, a little bit different than most $75 billion banks.

Daniel Tamayo, Analyst at Raymond James

Maybe on the funding of that—this incremental loan growth in the guide—do you think it will be more expensive, at least on the margin, from that mid to mid-to-high? Do you think it could impact the margin as we move to the back half of the year into '27?

Timothy Burke, President & Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, I would say when you look at what's driving the pipelines, it's core C&I business, and we feel really bullish about the investments we're making in that business and the growth we're seeing in the pipelines. Half of all the loan production we had in Q2 was from C&I. We continue to see those pipelines grow and, as you know, with those types of relationships, we're getting the whole relationship. So you're seeing deposit pipelines grow in line with that C&I loan pipeline growing.

So we see that as a continual opportunity for us to drive good deposit growth.

Daniel Tamayo, Analyst at Raymond James

Okay, that's great. Thanks for the color, guys. I'll step back. Appreciate it. Thanks.

OPERATOR

Your next question is from Chris McGrathy with KBW. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Chris McGrathy, Analyst at KBW

Great, good morning. Good morning, everybody. On loan spreads, some of your peers have talked about growth coming at perhaps a little bit tighter spreads. Are you seeing any evidence of that in your markets?

John

Our spreads have been pretty consistent the last couple of quarters. Obviously, first quarter's production was skewed, remember, decidedly investment grade and floating rate, and that had a little bit of an impact. But the last couple quarters we've been pretty steady in terms of kind of core, balanced commercial activity—down a little bit from where it was a year ago, but pretty steady over the last couple quarters.

Chris McGrathy, Analyst at KBW

And then on the other side, John, obviously you've got legacy markets and newer markets. Any notable pricing differences on deposits within those markets? And then maybe stack-rank where Old National prices relative to some of your peers.

John

Yeah, we're—look, we're competitive. We're not the top of the market in most of the markets that we operate in, but we are absolutely competitive in every market that we're in today. We are, in some of our newer markets where we don't have back book to cannibalize, running some specials that are—I think we would describe them as a little bit steamy—where we're trying to be a pain in the neck for somebody else that has a bigger presence in some of those markets.

But I think Southeast for us—Nashville is probably an example—where things are a little bit hotter. But most of the rest of our markets have been stable and competitive.

Chris McGrathy, Analyst at KBW

And Jim, I don't want to leave you out. You mentioned, I think in your prepared remarks, the 65% total payout in the quarter. Anything magical about that range? I mean, you're being consistent with the buyback, but anything magic about payout ratios?

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

No, I think we're just obviously trying to balance all the tension, which is how do we continue to build tangible book value at the same time, you know, invest in our business, invest in the organic growth that we have, and return the leftover back to our shareholders. And I think we kind of threaded that needle this quarter and plan to kind of thread the needle for the rest of the year. Obviously, as John said, depending on what happens with Basel, that could give us even more flexibility going forward.

But we do have, as you know, a very high earnings rate. And so we have to return capital back to our shareholders because even after all those other things that we're investing in, we'll have excess.

Chris McGrathy, Analyst at KBW

And that Basel III that you mentioned, Jim, is it just more of the same, greater magnitude, or is it perhaps you open up—maybe look at the dividend more closely? How does the Basel III really play into the thoughts?

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

Well, it obviously gives us a lot more flexibility on capital return, and I do think we'll continue to look at the dividend. But we do like the flexibility that the buyback program gives us.

Chris McGrathy, Analyst at KBW

Great, thank you.

OPERATOR

Your next question is from Timur Braziler from UBS. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Timur Braziler, Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities

Good morning. Hi, good morning. Another one on fee income. Appreciate the strong quarter and the fact that it'll be stepping down a little bit here in the back end of the year. Maybe looking out a little bit further ahead, just a trajectory as you're thinking about fees. Is this closer to like high single digit growth rate, double digit growth rate? How are you thinking of longer term just in terms of momentum on the income side?

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

Yeah, I think on a blended basis, it's probably a mid to high single digit line item in terms of growth for us in aggregate. When you peel that back though, I think there are pieces of that business that'll continue to grow double digit. Right. I think we would all be, you know, we're really enthusiastic about what we see going on on the wealth side of things. And again, that's an area that we've invested pretty heavily in over the last couple of years.

And I think that we're starting to realize some real good momentum in that business. And then the cap markets line as we continue to build additional capability and sophistication, go up cap a little bit in terms of our C&I client base, I think there's tremendous opportunity in that line item for us as we look forward a couple years.

Timur Braziler, Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities

Okay. And then as a follow up. You called out some changes to the executive leadership structure within this quarter's earnings and the creation of an operating group. I guess what was some of the rationale behind these actions? I know you call out enterprise strategy alignments and growth opportunities, other critical initiatives, but was there any driving force in creating or making some of these leadership changes? And I guess what's ultimately, what are you ultimately trying to accomplish here?

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

You know, the leadership changes we announced were more a reflection of the growth of our organization, you know, the growth of our markets. We've had some succession, you know, we've gone through, I would say generational succession in our commercial business. And so we put some new leaders in place and wanted to recognize, you know, their contributions and their leadership for the organization. And then the operating group was more recognition of kind of informally how we operate today and more closely aligned to my direct reports.

So, you know, really, the day to day organization, how it's led is really unchanged with just adding a couple new folks that have assumed new positions here recently. So no, no big changes there.

Timur Braziler, Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities

Great, thank you.

OPERATOR

Your next question comes from David Chiavarini with Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

David Chiavarini, Analyst at Jefferies

Hi, thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to ask about the noninterest-bearing deposit mix. How should we think about that going forward? You mentioned about decent pipelines for deposits overall. Can you talk about the NIB mix?

Timothy Burke, President & Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, look, certainly we would hope, you know, 23% of total deposits, it's stable. You know, there's a little bit inner-quarter sort of seasonal factors at play in 2Q if you're looking at kind of point-to-point balances. But clearly, you know, we want to grow households in the community bank, we want to grow primacy and operating accounts in the commercial bank. And I think if we can take care of that, we should be able to grow noninterest-bearing and operating accounts at a pace that's in line with our overall deposit growth.

David Chiavarini, Analyst at Jefferies

Thank you for that. And then in terms of rate sensitivity, no Fed actions are assumed in the guide. If we do get a hike, can you talk about, you know, the impact that could have on Old National?

Timothy Burke, President & Chief Operating Officer

Sure, yeah, it's, look, we're still, we're still relatively neutral in terms of our positioning. If the forward curve played out exactly as the forward curve sits today, I think we'd get that hike at the very end of the year, kind of late October. It would be a de minimis impact to 2026, but probably a modest helper because we'd have—presumably SOFR would start to run in front of that rate and that would help out on the adjustable-rate piece of the loan book and we'd be able to hold back some of the funding cost increase, we believe.

David Chiavarini, Analyst at Jefferies

Very helpful. Thank you.

OPERATOR

Your next question is from Ben Gerlinger with Citibank. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Ben Gerlinger, Analyst at Citi

Hey, good morning.

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

Good morning.

Ben Gerlinger, Analyst at Citi

Just getting worried you hadn't heard from me yet. Cover 44 companies. Guys, you got to give me a break. In terms of the NIM, like it's clear that it's marching higher and there's an opportunity for loan growth. It seems like the costs are pretty well managed in addition to growing them, which is good. So, like there's an average earning asset mix opportunity like you implied. When you think about just like the longer term margin—and it's not like a guide for 2026 or even 2027—but like just because we're in the first time in a normal curve, all else equal, in like, I don't know, 20 years.

You think this is like a 3.65–3.7 NIM type company? How do you just think holistically when you think through the future of the NIM?

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

You know, it's a good question. And it's sort of like the long-term structural margin of a bank. To your point, it's like the first time in a long time that we've had a pretty normal looking curve, or more normal anyway than what we've operated with for five years, ten years maybe. I don't know. It's been a long time and I feel like, you know, you're probably in the right zip code. When we think about it, again, we tried to give you the puts and takes.

Definitely seeing more opportunities in the back half of this year than there are challenges. And so I think, you know, where we are plus some is probably the right place to think about a long-term structural margin for a company like Old National in a normal environment.

Ben Gerlinger, Analyst at Citi

Gotcha. And then you said your best acquisition is yourself, which I agree. Share purchase here should be priority as it sounds like it is. Why not get more aggressive considering your CET1 continues to go up even with the buybacks you have, and Basel is going to give you a little bit more in a year and a half?

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

Yeah, we bring it in every February. We'll talk about it again with the board early part of next year. I think for now we're going to stay the course. And look, it's a double digit risk-free rate of return for every share that Mike and I can put away. And we like that. That's not a return that's available to us anywhere else in the bank today.

Timothy Burke, President & Chief Operating Officer

Ben, I would just add it's a balance between obviously having enough organic growth, which we do, balancing that investment, but also I'm sensitive to having strong capital ratios, maintaining those strong capital ratios because while maybe people are more comfortable with them being lower today, that's not always the case. And then obviously we want to grow tangible book value. So I feel like we're striking the right balance for today. Now, if Basel does get finalized, then obviously there's an opportunity to look at that.

We want to make sure we remain a competitive dividend and probably have some opportunities down the road to look at that dividend a little bit closer. So I hear you, but I think we're striking the right balance for today and when tomorrow comes, we'll definitely take a look at it.

Ben Gerlinger, Analyst at Citi

Yes. Thanks, guys.

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

Thanks, Ben.

OPERATOR

Your next question is from Jared Shaw with Barclays. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Jared Shaw, Analyst at Barclays

Thanks. Good morning. You know, we've hit a lot of stuff this morning, but I guess, you know, just looking at the floating rate loans that you called out, you know, was it like 90% production over the last few quarters? Has pricing on those loans changed as sort of the broader market expectations for rates have grown?

Timothy Burke, President & Chief Operating Officer

Not materially, at least not for us in where we are kind of playing. I think again, we saw this a little bit in the first quarter: bigger stuff that's closer to investment grade, there's probably some compression there, but this quarter's production was more balanced and sort of traditional for us.

Jared Shaw, Analyst at Barclays

Okay. And then thanks for the color on the back book pricing on the loans and securities. But when we look at loan yields and asset yields sort of underpinning the NII guide, what's your expectations on loan yields and asset yields for the rest of the year?

Timothy Burke, President & Chief Operating Officer

I think they improve on a little bit of remix. And, again, I think, you know, the—I don't want to say goofiness—but the idiosyncratic nature of what happened with SOFR in the second quarter is unlikely to repeat and in fact could become a little bit of a tailwind in third quarter and fourth quarter.

OPERATOR

Your next question is from John Arfstrom with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

Morning, John. John, you there? John, can you hear us, Joel? I think we may have lost John.

OPERATOR

Yes, it seems that way. Just one moment. John, if you're on the other end, can you just unmute your line locally?

John Arfstrom, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets

Can you hear me?

OPERATOR

Hi there, John. Yes, there you go.

UNKNOWN Analyst

Okay. All right. Sorry about that. Yeah, kind of dramatic there. The biggest drama I thought on the call was going to be Uber placed keepers in the pole position. I mean, my God, I thought. Go ahead. Yeah, just a couple questions. Follow-ups, John, maybe for you on the commercial deposit trends, the growth in the quarter. You guys flagged public funds and business checking. How material was the business checking growth?

John

Really good quarter. And I think we see sustained momentum in both the pipelines. And, you know, Tim brings with him some increased rigor in that sector that I think is going to start to pay dividends also. And so I feel really good about our outlook there. And public funds, that was the other piece of the strength in the quarter. And again, as you know, that's a little bit seasonal for us. So 2Q–3Q is pretty good and we expect 3Q to be even a little bit better than 2Q on that piece of the business and then, you know, seasonally softer in 4Q and 1Q there.

But yeah, I feel good about our ability to continue to grow deposits. And it's back to our CNI strategy of really leaning into the full relationship that a CNI strategy brings. And we continue to see the production and pipelines grow and we feel bullish about that going forward. Yeah.

UNKNOWN Analyst

Okay, good. And maybe Jim or Tim. Jim, you talked about diversifying the C businesses. What are you working on there? And do you guys have what you need for the commercial businesses, particularly as maybe the average loan size trends up?

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

Obviously, you know, we've been on a path ever since I became CEO to really spend time building out our treasury management business. And I still feel like we have a number of innings to go there, and we're working really diligently on continuing to build that. And so I just see—I'm long-term bullish on our ability to continue to do that. And, you know, we've grown—as you know, we've grown dramatically. So our clients have changed a little bit, particularly they've gotten bigger in places like Chicago and Minneapolis, and the demands are different than our historical, you know, kind of core legacy markets.

So that's an area we'll continue to invest in. I am a big believer in the wealth management business, and so we'll continue to invest in there. I think we've got great opportunities to continue to grow there. And then the mortgage business—you know, I think that's a core business of ours. It's a footprint business. And while it can be seasonal, obviously, we're just a long-term believer that that's a good complement to our wealth management business, good complement to our community banking business.

So, you know, there's nothing that we're looking at—if we just had this new fee income business, we'd be better. It doesn't mean we won't continue to augment those existing businesses and look for new opportunities to add services and products in there. But, yeah, we've got to find ways to grow our fee income businesses and try to find more balance in our NII versus fees long term. And so it's nothing particularly sexy about it, but just getting up every day and grinding on it and getting better.

Timothy Burke, President & Chief Operating Officer

And I would just add on the capital markets side, there's some opportunities, as John mentioned earlier, that we're looking at to develop new fee products that we think will augment our ability to continue to go up market. But as Jim said in the past, we feel very confident about the product set that we have today and being able to service all the clients and prospects that we're looking at.

UNKNOWN Analyst

Okay. All right, thanks guys. Appreciate it. Thanks John.

OPERATOR

There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back to Jim Ryan for closing remarks.

Jim Ryan, Chairman & CEO

Thanks, Joel. Really appreciate everybody's support today. The team will be available all day long for any follow-ups and questions. Thanks and have a great day.

OPERATOR

This concludes Old National's call. Once again, a replay along with the presentation slides will be available for 12 months on the investor relations page of Old National's website, old national.com. If anyone has additional questions, please contact Lynelle Dirkholes at 812-464-1366. Thank you for your participation in today's conference.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.