Blue Foundry Bancorp (BLFY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Blue Foundry Bancorp (NASDAQ:BLFY) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 24, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

James Nesci - President and Chief Executive Officer
Kelly Pecoraro - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Justin Crowley - Piper Sandler
Chris O’Connell - KBW

Operator

Hello, everyone, and welcome. My name is Drew, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Blue Foundry Bancorp Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2023 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers remarks there will be a question-and-session. [Operator Instructions].

I will now turn the call over to your host, Jim Nesci. Please go ahead.

James Nesci

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and happy New Year to everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter earnings call. I'm joined by our Chief Financial Officer, Kelly Pecoraro, who will share the company's financial results in greater detail after my opening remarks.

2023 was a challenging year, especially for financial institutions. We navigated bank failures, a slowing economy and the impact of rate hikes at historic speed. When we entered the year, economists predicted a mild recession, but 2023 showcased economic resilience despite higher interest rates. Higher rates caused a flight of deposits out of depository institutions across the United States. Our markets were not excluded from this trend. While this was tough to circumvent throughout the year, our fourth quarter proved to be a promising step in the right direction. Deposits did decline $8 million during the quarter, but this was largely driven by a $7 million reduction in cash collateral tied to our swap program and a $5 million reduction in the wholesale deposits.

Deposits within our resell network increased modestly, 1.3% on an annualized basis during the quarter. In 2024, we are