SMBK SmartFinancial, Inc.
$50.12
SmartFinancial, Inc. Q3 F2026 Earnings Call Transcript
AI Conference Call Analysis
Sign in or subscribe to read.Operator
Conference Call Operator
Thanks, Erica.
Nate
Investor Relations Moderator
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Smart Financial's third quarter 2026 earnings webcast and conference call. During today's call, we will reference the slides and earnings release available in the investor relations section of our website at smartbank.com. Kelly Carroll, our president and chief executive officer, will begin the call, followed by Ron Gorczynski, our chief financial officer, who will provide additional commentary. We will be available to answer your questions at the conclusion of our call. Our comments today include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are described in our earnings release and SEC filings, which are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise, except as required by law. During today's call, we may reference non-GAAP financial measures related to the company's performance. Reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable gap measures are included in the appendices to the earnings release and investor presentation filed with the SEC on October 19, 2026. And now, I'll turn the call over to Billy Carroll.
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Nate, and good morning, everyone. Great to be with you, and thank you for joining us today and for your interest in SMBK. As usual, I'll open our call with some commentary and then hand it over to Ron to walk through the numbers in greater detail. After our prepared comments, we'll open it up with Ron, Nate, Rhett, Miller, and myself available for Q&A. The third quarter was another outstanding one for our company. We continued to build strong organic momentum, generated record operating revenue, and expanded their return metrics. The foundation we have built over the past several years is producing the results we expected, and our team remains highly focused on disciplined growth and long-term shareholder value. So let me jump right into some of the highlights. First, and as I always say, one of the most important metrics to me, we continue to increase the tangible book value of our company. Tangible book value per share was up, ending the quarter at $28.50. The tangible book value excluding AOCI increased to $30.03. That represents 15% annualized quarter-over-quarter growth excluding AOCI. For the quarter, we posted operating earnings of $18.6 million, or $1.10 for diluted share, and record operating revenue of $57.5 million. We did have a few moving parts that netted out positive to operating earnings this quarter, including a nice tax credit transaction that Ron will discuss in a moment. We again delivered excellent growth on both sides of the balance sheet with 15% annualized organic loan growth and 12% annualized core deposit growth. Our return metrics, though slightly aided this quarter, continue to strengthen. Operating return on average assets increased to 1.20%, and operating return on average tangible common equity increased to 15.1%. Credit quality remains very sound. Non-performing assets were only 25 basis points of total assets, and annualized net charge-offs were six basis points. We did have a slight uptick in delinquencies in our fountain equipment subsidiary as higher diesel prices have strained some transportation business, but overall very manageable as that continues to be a relatively small piece of our overall loan book. And we were thrilled to open our full-service Columbus, Georgia Financial Center during the quarter. This is our first branch in this great state and an important step in building density in that market and supporting the strong start our Columbus team has made. Looking at the first few pages in our deck, you can see the continued progress in revenue, EPS, return metrics, and tangible book value. The consistency of those trends demonstrates the strength of our organic strategy and the operating leverage we are building. A couple of additional high-level comments from me on growth. We added $174 million in loans this quarter, representing 15% annualized. The growth remains broad-based, with strong production across all regions and continued momentum in C&I lending. Our average loan portfolio yield, including fees and accretion, ticked up to 6.08%. Regarding deposits, core deposits increased $163 million or 12% annualized during the quarter. Our focus on both sides of the balance sheet continues to pay off and loan-to-deposit ratios maintain very manageable at 87%. Deposit pricing remains competitive and higher funding costs pressure the margin modestly, but net interest income still increased nicely to $49.4 million as balance sheet growth more than offset that pressure. On expenses, operating non-interest expense was $36.4 million. The quarter included some slightly higher one-time items along with continued investment in our people and franchise. Even with that increase, year-over-year operating revenue growth outpaced operating expense growth. We will maintain discipline around expenses, but we'll also continue making investments that support growth, including revenue-producing talent, technology, and strategic facilities. So all in all, another excellent quarter of continued execution. I'm going to stop there and hand it over to Ron to dive into the details. Ron? Thanks, Billy, and good morning, everyone. I'll start with deposits.
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
During the quarter, our non-broker deposits grew 163 million driven by continued new account growth and strong relationship expansion. The weighted average cost of new deposit production increased 43 base points to 3.33% for the quarter and was 3.36% for September. Non-interest-bearing deposits were essentially unchanged at $920 million, representing approximately 70% of total deposits. Interest-bearing deposit costs increased nine basis points to 2.71%, while total deposit costs increased 11 basis points to 2.26%. Loan balances increased 174 million, with growth diversified across all loan categories and geographies. New loan production carried a weighted average yield of 6.37% for the quarter and was 6.78% for September. Our growth on both sides of the balance sheet reflects the consistent execution of our relation-based strategy. Our bank has remained focused on pairing quality loan growth with broader client relationships, operating accounts, and core deposits. Turning to margin, net interest income increased 1.3 million to 49.4 million, and net interest margin was 3.45% in line with our stated guidance. Looking ahead, we expect continued improvement in asset yields to support modest margin expansion over time. However, near-term deposit cost pressure is expected to continue to offset some of that benefit. As such, for the fourth quarter, we currently expect net interest margin to remain around current levels in the 3.45% range. Our provision for credit losses declined to 687,000 from 1.5 million in the prior quarter. This included approximately $1.1 million of provision, partially offset by a $371,000 release from our unfunded commitments liability. The provision also benefited from a $1.7 million net release of a loan-specific reserve driven by a loan payoff. Overall, the allowance for credit losses increased slightly to $45.6 million, and our allowance to loans ratio declined to 94 basis points. We believe the allowance is appropriate for the portfolio and current environment. Operating non-interest income was $8.1 million, up $245,000 from the prior quarter, led by service charges and mortgage banking income. Together, with higher net interest income, drove operating revenue to $57.5 million, reflecting continued momentum across the company. Operating non-insurance expense totaled $36.4 million, up $2.4 million from the prior quarter. Approximately $1 million of this increase was attributable to sale losses and valuation write-downs on repossessed equipment and our equipment finance subsidiary. Salary benefit expenses also increased, primarily due to higher production-related variable compensation. Professional service expense included approximately $300,000 of consulting and placement costs associated with our tax credit purchase. Adjusting for the equipment finance and tax credit expenses, our non-insurance expenses were in line with our stated guidance. Our operating efficiency ratio increased to approximately 63% from 60% in the prior quarter. Although the ratio was elevated this quarter due to the aforementioned items, We expect to generate positive operating leverage over time as our recent investments contribute more meaningfully to revenue. We will continue making targeted investments in our expanding markets while maintaining discipline across the broader expense base. For the fourth quarter, we expect operating noninterest income of approximately $7.5 million and operating noninterest expense of $35 to $35.5 million. Salary and benefit expenses are expected to range from $21 to $21.5 million, reflecting production-related incentive compensation and additional hiring. Incentive compensation accruals will vary with performance. Turning to taxes, income tax expense was $1.9 million compared with $4.2 million in the prior quarter. During the quarter, we purchased $36 million of transferable energy tax credits at a discount to face resulting in a $2.6 million income tax benefit. Looking ahead, we may consider similar transactions from time to time as part of our tax planning. Our effective tax rate going forward will be in the range of 19.5 to 20.5%. I'll wrap up with capital. Our tangible common equity ratio was 7.8% compared with 8% in the second quarter. The decline in the tangible common equity ratio was primarily attributable to changes in ALCI as rising interest rates reduced the fair value of our bond portfolio during the quarter. In contrast, our estimated common equity Tier 1 ratio increased to 9.8% and our estimated total risk-based capital ratio was 12.6% at quarter end. Our capital position remains solid and provides flexibility to support organic growth, maintain balance sheet strength, and continue building long-term shareholder value. With that said, I'll turn it back over to Billy.
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Ron. As you can tell from Ron's comments, we continue to execute successfully in the leveraging phase of our company's growth. Our outlook remains centered on the strategy that has brought us here, getting deeper in our markets, growing share, expanding high value relationships, recruiting great bankers, and leveraging the infrastructure and capabilities we have built. Our pipelines remain solid, and we continue to see opportunities across our footprint. The higher rate forecast does present some added challenges as we look ahead, but I'm going to continue to stick to our high single digits plus growth guidance, even though we bettered that in recent quarters. Talent acquisition remains a high priority. Market disruption across the Southeast continues to create opportunities for us to add experienced revenue producers who fit our culture. We have added some strong bankers in several markets this year. and our ability to recruit maintains one of our company's key competitive advantages. We had several very nice recruiting wins this quarter and have several other great talent members in the pipeline currently. Again, Columbus, Georgia is a good example of our strategy in action as we opened our full service financial center during the quarter, right in the heart of Columbus's main business district. We're very bullish about the opportunity to build meaningful relationships and market share there. To summarize, we're positioned very well. We are executing, posting record operating revenue this quarter. We are producing, posting double-digit organic growth on both sides of the balance sheet. We're managing risk as credit remains very sound, and we are winning on talent as we continue to add outstanding new team members. I also want to close with a huge shout-out to Ferra Associates, as our company was recently named to Great Place to Works list of top 50 mid-sized companies in the country and we also rank number 11 nationally in the financial institutions category. This is another great statement on the culture that this team is creating. Our future is bright and I appreciate the work of our smart financial and smart bank team and the efforts of all of our associates. I'm extremely proud of what we're building here at SMBK. I'll stop there and we'll open it up for questions.
Operator
Conference Call Operator
We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question press star 1 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 Will Jones with KBW. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Will Jones
KBW Analyst
Yeah, hey, great. Good morning, guys. Hey, Will. Hey, another really strong quarter of growth, both sides of the balance sheet, loans and deposits. I know last quarter we spoke about some and many more. Thank you.
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
So I think we're still looking for a good growth quarter for fourth, and we're out of our seasonality trend, our historical trending for that.
Will Jones
KBW Analyst
Yeah, got it. Okay. And then I think, Ron, I heard you say the new deposits in the quarter were 330. Did I hear that right? Correct. 3.33 for the quarter, yes.
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
Okay. Okay.
Will Jones
KBW Analyst
And as we just kind of model out and think about deposit betas moving forward, could you just maybe walk us through where you would level set expectations there? You know, and here that margin may be more stable over the near term as, you know, some of your repricing on the asset side is offset by deposit costs. Is that how we should, you know, kind of think about, you know, additional incremental hikes from here? I know the forward curve, you know, would imply maybe a few more hikes coming into 2027. You know, is kind of a stable margin where you would, you know, kind of peg margin performance as we think about additional hikes in the future?
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, first, we're about, since the new rate, since the rates hiked again, we're probably running around 70% beta at this point of time. You know, we're really so neutral. We're really not going to be affected by rate hikes or rate decreases at this point. A lot of our expansion, our modest expansion throughout 2027 is really due to our repricing book. We will see incremental lift going through 2027. So as far as rate hikes, we should be fairly neutral throughout each rate hike, which, by the way, our guidance does include a rate hike in December.
Will Jones
KBW Analyst
Yeah, okay. And then just fair to say, I know we talked about a $1 EPS target. By the end of this year, it feels like things are still kind of turning in that direction if we normalize some of the expenses from this quarter. Is that kind of a fair comment? Is that the way that you guys are kind of doing the business?
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, well, I think you're spot on. Yeah, you really, you shake out kind of the ebbs and flows this quarter. It's really a solid quarter. We still feel very good about our ability to kind of hit that four by four challenge that we stated publicly hitting that dollar run rate. We're still on that trajectory and feel really good about our ability, not just hit that, but our ability to continue to move EPS higher as we look into next year. Again, we've talked about it a lot. I mean, our focus on just continuing to grow EPS and The next question comes from the line of Russell Gunther with Stephens.
Operator
Conference Call Operator
Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Russell Gunther
Stephens Analyst
Hey, good morning, guys. I wanted to start on the loan growth side of things. Good morning, Billy. Another enviable organic growth quarter and guide. Maybe a more intermediate question on my end. As you guys think about potential Fed rate hikes and the absolute level of interest rates, Is there a threshold where you would expect to see some pipeline fallout that would put that kind of high single, low double-digit growth profile at risk?
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, that's a really good question, Russell. Yeah, obviously, as rates edge up, and quite frankly, we're talking about that a lot with our division and regional leadership. We're talking about pipelines and thinking about 27 and starting to lay out our forecasts and And right now, even with kind of the current rate environment, pipelines still feel pretty good. Now, I do agree. I think if you're going to see another two to three pipes, could that have some impact as we look into 27? Absolutely. I think the macro is the macro. And so we've got to deal with that just like everybody else. What I will say is that, you know, I call it the hustle factor that our guys and gals have across our board of just getting out and bringing in new relationships. I don't think that will slow down. So it might slow a little bit of just what I call just maybe some of the new projects that are going on that we see, but I still think we have got a great shot at continuing to bring in new relationships, new deposit counts, and new funded debt as we hopefully move things from other entities.
Russell Gunther
Stephens Analyst
Got it. Very helpful. Thank you, Billy. And then, you know, always have that great slide in the deck that flushes out your back book repricing opportunity. Ron, you mentioned the reinvestment rates on the loan side. Could you just share where you're reinvesting on the investment securities front? And then on the other side, it would be helpful to get a sense for just kind of where spot and the period deposit rates ended the quarter.
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
At this point, we're buying bonds, so for plus 85, so in the five plus range. Again, a lot of our, we're just kind of just keeping our balance of our investments pretty stable over time. And the spot deposit pricing, our CDs were today around 410 for seven-month CDs. Our 13-month CDs are 415. and our money markets are in the 360 to 370 range at this point. We try to target 95% of Fed funds.
Russell Gunther
Stephens Analyst
Okay. Fantastic. Thank you. And then just last one for me, if you don't mind, you know, I appreciate the near-term expense outlook, but how are you guys thinking about a core expense growth rate on a more intermediate-term basis? as you guys balance franchise investment and talent and tech with the goal of delivering positive operating leverage.
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, great question. And again, we're having these exact same conversations, Russell, as we're kind of going through our 27th forecasting. Again, you used the word. It is balance. We're continuing to grow, continuing to add team members. and many more. probably not prepared to really lay out. I know we're perking through forecast right now, probably not ready to give 27 guidance. But I mean, percentage-wise, you got a range that you could maybe share?
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
You know, for both of these, I think we're going to be in a five to six growth range going off of a fourth quarter's run rate. But again, we will be providing continuous leverage and sustainability in our workforce and our franchise. We benefited from keeping our expenses to a tight band, but our franchise is growing, so we will have incremental growth in our non-interest expenses.
Russell Gunther
Stephens Analyst
Yep, understood. I appreciate your thoughts, guys. Thanks for taking my question.
Miller Welburn
Chairman of the Board
Thank you, Russell.
Operator
Conference Call Operator
The next question comes from the line of Stephen Scooten with Piper Sandler. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Stephen Scooten
Piper Sandler Analyst
Hey, good morning, everyone. Ron, I appreciate the information you gave there on CD and money market costs there. Can you talk a little bit about maybe what you're seeing all in kind of blended rates come in at on the deposit side and kind of how you're seeing spreads overall and any sort of directional trends there, whether you're seeing spreads compressed, given competition or what have you?
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, we've always, you know, you know, the last couple of quarters, we were probably on our side of the house, kind of quiet, getting the phone calls of pricing. Yeah, the pricing competition is real. You know, we're coming into the $335 range, all in. That's kind of what we expect. I don't know how much incrementally higher we're going to go at this point, but, you know, that's to be determined. The market is real, and we're getting more calls every day for exception pricing, so.
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
That's about as best I could tell you at this point. But I'll add too, Stephen, you know, I think the team's also doing a really nice job on the asset side. You know, we're sitting down and really looking at, you know, watching that and kind of fighting for every basis point on the asset side. You know, Lone Grove's competitive too, but, you know, we've been able to continue to to eke out pretty nice incremental rates on our loan growth as well. So while you have a little more deposit funding than we'd like to see, we're doing a nice job balancing it with the growth that we're getting.
Stephen Scooten
Piper Sandler Analyst
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the growth is a huge tailwind there. And I think that the average yield is, what, 608 currently? And I'm not sure if you noted this or if it's in the slide deck, apologies, I missed it, but new loan yields are coming on around where, Olin?
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
September was 678. So for the quarter was 637. So we are getting some nice lift from the rate increase.
Stephen Scooten
Piper Sandler Analyst
Yeah, that's fantastic. Okay, great. Appreciate that. And I think, you know, Billy, you mentioned the $1 run rate and your progression there. Do you guys have or do you think you'll maybe be putting out some longer-term profitability targets from here? You guys have made just obviously tremendous strides over the last couple years. Just kind of curious where you think you can continue to head from here. What's possible for the franchise?
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, yeah, Stephen, we will. I think, you know, we're spending a lot of time. We've worked through our executive teams planning meetings over the last few weeks and We've got board strategy coming up here in a couple of weeks. We're laying out the forecast. As you all know, we're pretty transparent. We've demonstrated our ability to challenge ourselves internally and execute on that. That's worked pretty well. We're working through what that next challenge is going to be for our group. But we will. We'll be sharing that at the appropriate time. But again, I remain so excited about what we're seeing in this company, the energy. Again, I mentioned recruitment. I mean, we're adding some great bankers to this platform just strategically, just strategically and in some key markets. I love our ability to continue executing. And so, yeah, we'll be laying out. We've got Nate's kind of our marketing guy when it comes to kind of crafting the mantras for the challenges. So we're trying to figure out exactly what we want to lay out for 27, but stay tuned.
Miller Welburn
Chairman of the Board
And I do think the whole team's up for the challenge. I mean, they push us and we push them. It's a good mix of driving for hire.
Stephen Scooten
Piper Sandler Analyst
Yeah, it seems like you have a group that likes a challenge, so that's fantastic. I guess last thing for me, and I think I kind of asked you this last quarter as well, but M&A possibilities, I mean, does any of this change, you continue to have a strength from a pricing power perspective? You're now in Columbus. I mean, do you think about, you know, maybe changing direction at all or putting that back on the table in any way, shape, or form, given maybe a desire to get more scale and density in newer markets?
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
I think our focus continues to be 1A on what we've done. This organic strategy and just adding great regional bankers is really where we want to focus. We're watching what's going on in the world. There are opportunities out there. Again, I've said it before and I'll reiterate it. I think it would have to be and so forth. And so that was something that was really unique that made us better and not just bigger if we were ever to look at something. Because again, we kind of got this thing built to where we can punch up. And we've got, when you look at our products and our services and our ability to compete against the larger regional banks, we can do that now at Six Bill. I think for us, it would have to be really unique for us to consider it. But we're always keeping our eye open with what's happening. But organic continues to be one A. Yeah, I think it's intriguing to look at.
Miller Welburn
Chairman of the Board
Obviously, always fun to run the numbers. But man, we are pretty darn focused on what we're doing now. And I echo what Billy said. It would have to be super, super attractive for us to deviate from the current strategy. Yep, makes sense.
Stephen Scooten
Piper Sandler Analyst
Continues to be a great answer there. Keep it up, guys. Appreciate the time.
Operator
Conference Call Operator
The next question comes from the line of Brett Rabattin with Stone X Group. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Brett Rabattin
StoneX Group Analyst
Hey, guys. Good morning. If I heard the guidance correct, the guidance for 4Q fee income was $7.5 million. One, is that the right number? And then two, it's a little softer than 3Q. If so, any thoughts on the fourth quarter level of fee income?
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, Brett. Yeah, fourth quarter, we're projecting $7.5 million, and it is softer. It's really the mortgage, our mortgage unit, the seasonality of it. You know, could we do better? Maybe. Okay. And any thoughts on the third quarter strength, you know, versus what I've seen from some other banks, you know, when mortgage has been tough given rates?
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
I'm sorry, Brett, was that mortgage? Is that what you were mortgage specific?
Brett Rabattin
StoneX Group Analyst
Yeah, just the mortgage banking line item was stronger in 3Q than 2Q and 1Q. And it just seems like others have had some pretty tough comps in 3Q, just given rates. So I was just curious what the strength was related to 3Q.
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I'll do that. And then Ron or Brett, y'all, I mean, any... to chime in. But yeah, overall, I think a lot of it has just been our mortgage group has really had just an overall really good year. We've continued to add some really good mortgage bankers over the course, especially early in the year. Those folks have kind of ramped up and have kind of gained momentum. Even in an environment, we were actually talking with one of our mortgage team members We've been really pleased with what we've been able to accomplish this year on mortgage. I think a lot of it is just number one team's very focused and sales side's doing a great job there. And then probably number two is just, you know, we've been able to do it with some really good new mortgage banker additions this year. I don't know, Rhett, Ron, any additional color on that from you guys?
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
No, you're spot on. I mean, our volume, you know, we have been putting more originators out on the field, so our volume has increased. So we've just, you know, it's It's been working for us.
Miller Welburn
Chairman of the Board
The production side has, to your point, Billy, the new hires has been a key driver. And I think that team's ability to just continue to process activity very efficiently is also, it helps with the new producer. We're able to get deals turned around quickly, get responses back, and end business.
Brett Rabattin
StoneX Group Analyst
Okay. That's super helpful. And then the other question I had was just around slide 14. If you could just refresh my memory on, you've got nearly half a billion of fixed-rate loans yielding slightly under 5% that mature by the end of next year, and a little over $100 billion of adjustable-rate loans at a similar rate. I assume those are all fixed-rate commercial real estate type properties. Do those loans, do you think, reprice to a higher level, or do you think that those Those loans end up repricing someplace else with another institution. Just any thoughts on that slide 14, those loans that are repricing over the next year?
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
I'll start. What we have seen for our renewals and repricing, one, we're getting about 100, 110 basis points over the original rate. For the renewal side, we are keeping around 80-85% of those in-house. So we're very successful in keeping those. Nice retention and a lot better rates than what we've had. So, you know, it's been something we've been working at for a while and quarter over quarter. So we don't see why that would defer or change going forward either. Yeah.
Brett Rabattin
StoneX Group Analyst
Okay. If I could ask one last quick one just around demand. I've had folks asking about maybe demand being quelled by higher rates, and you guys obviously have an origination rate in September close to 7%. Have you guys seen any of that where higher rates might be starting to slow demand a little bit, or is it just not a factor at this point?
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
You know, we're watching it. We're watching it, Brett. I know we talk about pipelines a lot, you know, just trying to project growth over the near term as good as you can project off the pipelines. But we've usually been pretty accurate around that. We're not seeing it slowed yet. You know, I think, you know, if you do get a couple of more rate increases in there, could you see some slowdown as we look into 27? Absolutely. Again, I'll kind of go back to my comment that I made earlier. It is not slowing our team's calling efforts down and our prospecting efforts. And so even though you might get a little bit of softness maybe in and some new projects, I think our ability to move clients over and to move deals over remains pretty good. I don't read anything that you would add to that.
Miller Welburn
Chairman of the Board
I think you're spot on, Billy. I would say what we're seeing in opportunities, I don't think, is really slow when you combine our calling efforts and our new team members and additions we've had across the footprint. We're still seeing a very steady pipeline.
Steve Moss
Raymond James Analyst
Okay. Great.
Miller Welburn
Chairman of the Board
Great job, guys.
Steve Moss
Raymond James Analyst
Thanks for having me.
Operator
Conference Call Operator
The next question comes from the line of Steve Moss with Raymond James. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Steve Moss
Raymond James Analyst
Good morning, guys. Maybe just start on the equipment finance. Hey, Billy. On the equipment finance here, just with Fountain. I think I heard you, Billy, talk about, you know, some challenges within that portfolio regarding higher diesel. Just kind of curious, you know, how large is that portfolio and any call you can give there?
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I'll give it just a little high level with Rhett. Maybe you could walk through specifics on portfolio balances. Yeah, overall, yeah, my comments were, you know, we saw a little bit of delinquency creep in that book. A lot of that's just Some of these smaller mom and pop transports, you know, just a little bit of strain there. You know, we've been able to kind of navigate that pretty well internally. So, you know, with diesel prices up, you know, you might say we might have a little bit more delinquency. But overall, we think it continues to be very manageable as it's a small piece of the book. Any portfolio specifics?
Miller Welburn
Chairman of the Board
I'll just say it's about $145 million or so is the entire book space.
Steve Moss
Raymond James Analyst
Okay, great. Appreciate that color there. And then just on, you know, thinking about NII growth here going forward, you know, given the 70% deposit beta, you know, sounds like you'll have another good quarter of loan growth. So, you know, obviously like a mid-teens type year for you guys. You know, for NII in the upcoming quarter, if the margin is only 345, is that like a 2% type NII number for you guys here?
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
We were probably a little better than that this quarter. I think we probably hadn't looked at it from a percentage standpoint. We probably calculated pretty quick. But I think we were a little better than that this last quarter. But that's probably in the right range. Ron, you got a quick math on that?
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
We're probably looking at the NIL change about pretty closer to 3% for Q4.
Steve Moss
Raymond James Analyst
Okay, so maybe a little bit, so maybe a little bit similar to the current quarter for the fourth quarter here.
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, yeah, a little, probably a little, maybe a touch higher, but yes, yes, sir.
Steve Moss
Raymond James Analyst
Awesome, thanks, Ron. Okay, and just in terms of, you know, you guys have, you know, managed down your securities and liquidity a bit, kind of seems like we're hitting the floor here. I'm just curious, are you guys willing to run it a bit lower to fund loan growth or have we hit the floor? That's what I'm trying to say. Ask.
Ron Gorczynski
Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I still think we have a little bit. Probably we could probably go $80 million less, but we're getting near our floor at this point. So we've got a little bit more ammo, but we just keep reinvesting in the portfolio.
Steve Moss
Raymond James Analyst
Okay. Great. Well, nice quarter, and that's all my questions. Appreciate all the call here, guys. Thank you very much.
Miller Welburn
Chairman of the Board
Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Steve.
Operator
Conference Call Operator
The next question comes from the line of Christopher Adamo with Breen Capital. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Christopher Adamo
Breen Capital Analyst
Hey, guys. This is Chris Adamo on for Chris Maranac. I got a quick one for you. You're on the credit front. So I guess what would you guys, could you provide any color, I guess, into the CRA loss rate for the quarter? And also, I guess, how do you kind of see that going forward and impacting future provision and overall reserve levels going forward as well? Thanks.
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
I guess just make sure I had to clarify the right question, Chris. You're saying loss levels? Is that what I guess just had to, how do we view loss levels Going forward, is that correct?
Christopher Adamo
Breen Capital Analyst
Yeah, yeah, yep, that's correct.
Billy Carroll
President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I'll just, yeah, I'll make a high level comment and then let Rhett jump in. Yeah, overall, you know, we, you still feel really good about, you know, about the credit book. Again, when you look at, you know, what little we had in the way of losses so far this year, most of that has been our equipment finance sub-related, which is usually typical. We'll have a little bit more than that just because we get the yield for it. But I don't anticipate anything unusual going forward, Rhett. Anything on your side as far as just kind of expected thoughts around credit in the next couple of quarters?
Miller Welburn
Chairman of the Board
Not really. I would say absolutely for purposes of the outlook. I mean, I think it's totally to your point. Our strain is in that equipment portfolio and wouldn't anticipate to see any significant changes there as far as larger additional losses. I mean, we'll work through that book as we go through this cycle in that transportation space, but don't anticipate it having any significant impact. I mean, we feel like our allowances position very well. There are no further questions at this time.
Christopher Adamo
Breen Capital Analyst
I will now turn the call back to Miller Welburn, Chairman of the Board, for closing remarks.
Miller Welburn
Chairman of the Board
We really appreciate y'all joining us today. Thank you for your interest in what we're building here at the bank and for our team. And I hope y'all each have a great day. Talk to you soon. Thanks.
Operator
Conference Call Operator
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.