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REGIONS FINANCIAL CORPÂ (RF 0.74%)
Q1Â 2019 Earnings Conference Call
April 18, 2019, 12:00 p.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning and welcome to the Regions Financial Corporation's Quarterly Earnings Call. My name is Shelby, and I'll be your operator for today's call. I would like to remind everyone that all participants' phone lines have been placed on listen-only. At the end of the call, there will be a question-and-answer session.
(Operator Instructions). I will now turn the call over to Dana Nolan to begin.
Dana W. Nolan -- Executive Vice President-Head of Investor Relations
Thank you, Shelby. Welcome to Regions' First Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. John Turner will provide highlights of our financial performance and David Turner will take you through an overview of the quarter. A copy of the slide presentation, as well as our earnings release and earnings supplement are available under the Investor Relations section of regions.com.
Our forward-looking statements disclosure and non-GAAP reconciliations are included in the appendix of today's presentation and within our SEC filings. These cover our presentation materials, prepared comments, as well as the question and answer segment of today's call.
With that, I will now turn the call over to John.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Dana, and thank you all for joining our call today. Let me begin by saying we are pleased with our first quarter results. The momentum we experienced in the fourth quarter has continued into 2019. We reported earnings from continuing operations of $378 million, delivering solid year-over-year revenue growth, broad-based loan growth and stable, but normalizing asset quality, all while reducing expenses and generating positive operating leverage.
Lines (ph)Â grew somewhat faster than we anticipated in the quarter, driven in part by increased line utilization by our business customers. We intentionally funded a portion of this incremental loan growth with commercial and corporate treasury deposits and while this was more economical than wholesale borrowings, deposit costs were impacted during the quarter.
We expect loan growth will moderate through the remainder of the year, providing opportunities to optimize our deposit mix. With respect to the economy, we feel good about the health of the consumer and businesses. I've traveled across our footprint in the last few weeks to markets including Tampa, West Palm Beach, Atlanta, Nashville Houston, Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina and Mobile, Alabama.
I've met with clients of varying sizes and industries and customer sentiment remains positive. Many customers experienced record revenues in 2018 and are expecting even better results in 2019. In general, our clients do not expect a recession in the near-term and neither do we. That being said, we remain focused on building a balance sheet that will position us for a consistent and sustainable performance through all phases of the economic cycle.
The outlook for the interest rate environment continues to evolve. Clearly, lower rates and the shape of the yield curve, makes near-term revenue growth more challenging for the industry.
However, as we did over the last four or five years, we will make the necessary changes and adapt to the evolving market conditions. In the meantime, we'll continue to focus on the things we can control, providing customers with the quality financial products and services they need, maintaining appropriate risk adjusted returns, prudently managing our interest rate sensitivity profile and effectively controlling expenses, while continuing to make investments in technology and talent.
Again, we are pleased with our financial results this quarter. Our focus on continuous improvement remains key to our ability to generate consistent and sustainable long-term performance.
With that, I'll now turn the call over to David.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, John. Let's begin on Slide 3 with average loans and deposits. Adjusted average loans increased 2% over the prior quarter driven by a broad-based growth in the business lending portfolio and relatively stable balances across the consumer lending portfolio.
Once again, all three areas within our Corporate Banking Group experienced broad-based loan growth across industries and geographic markets. Adjusted average business loan growth was led by a 4% increase in adjusted commercial and industrial loans where growth was driven by our diversified specialized lending and REIT lending portfolios.
Average investor real estate loans grew 8% in the first quarter, while average owner-occupied commercial real estate loans declined 4%. Both were impacted by a reclassification of approximately $345 million of senior assisted living balances from owner-occupied commercial real estate to investor real estate at the end of last year.
Excluding the impact of this reclassification, average investor real estate loans increased approximately 3% driven by growth in term real estate lending which is consistent with our strategic initiative to achieve better balance between term and construction lending.
As John noted, a 160 basis point increase in line utilization also significantly contributed to this quarter's loan growth. With respect to consumer, adjusted average loans remained relatively stable as growth in the indirect other consumer and credit card portfolios was offset by decline in home equity lending. Average mortgage loans remained relatively stable.
However, the sale of $167 million of affordable housing residential mortgage loans, late in the first quarter will impact second quarter average balances. Despite solid growth this quarter, we continue to expect full year 2019 adjusted average loan growth in the low single digits. And with respect to deposits, we continue to execute a deliberate strategy focusing on growing low-cost consumer and relationship based wealth and business services deposits.
Total average deposits increased 1% during the quarter, reflecting 1% growth in consumer and 2% growth in corporate, partially offset by declines in wealth and other.
Importantly, our bankers continue to grow new consumer checking accounts and consumer households as well as corporate deposit accounts and total wealth relationships. Let's take a closer look at the composition of our deposit base. To protect our deposit advantage, we continue to execute strategies to ensure we are effectively serving our customers.
These strategies facilitate growth and interest bearing checking, money market and time deposits at the end of last year, which contributed to total average deposit growth this quarter. Increasing deposit rates combined with overall deposit growth and portfolio remixing drove an increase in total deposit costs this quarter to 46 basis points.
Despite the increase, we remain well positioned relative to peers, further illustrating the significant funding advantage provided by our deposit base. Our cumulative interest bearing deposit beta increased to 25% this quarter. Assuming no additional rate increases from the Federal Reserve, we expect a through-the-cycle deposit beta in the low 30% range.
Retail deposits include consumer and private wealth deposits. Our cumulative retail interest bearing deposit beta increased to 10% this quarter, while our cumulative consumer deposit beta remained low at just 6%.
As previously noted, a portion of this quarter's loan growth was funded with commercial deposits contributing to additional pressure on overall deposit costs. However, we remain committed to our long-term return targets and we will continue to optimize both sides of the balance sheet. So let's look at how this impacted our results.
Net interest income decreased 1% over the prior quarter and net interest margin decreased 2 basis points to 3.53%. Both net interest income and margin benefited from higher market interest rates, offset by higher funding costs including the impact from our January parent company debt issuance.
Net interest income also benefited from higher average loan balances, but was negatively impacted by two fewer days in the quarter. Net interest margin however benefited from fewer days, but was negatively impacted by average commercial loan growth. In the current interest rate environment, growth in net interest income and margin will be driven by balance sheet growth and business mix.
With respect to net interest margin, rates consistent with the current yield curve and moderate balance sheet growth is expected to generate a relatively stable to modestly lower full year margin implying moderate margin compression for the rest of 2019.
With that said, we continue to expect full year adjusted revenue growth of 2% to 4%. With respect to fee revenue, adjusted non-interest income increased 4% this quarter compared to the fourth quarter of last year. Significant asset valuation declines in the fourth quarter associated with market volatility improved in the first quarter.
Favorable market value adjustments on total employee benefit assets increased $19 million, while also contributing to an $11 million increase in bank-owned life insurance income. The increase in bank-owned life insurance also included additional claims income compared to the prior quarter.
As we look forward, we are taking actions to reduce future volatility associated with certain of these assets. Service charges and card and ATM fees declined 5% and 2% respectively, reflecting seasonality and fewer days in the quarter. Capital markets income decreased 16% attributable to lower loan syndication income and fees generated from the placement of permanent financing for real estate customers, partially offset by an increase in merger and acquisition advisory services and higher revenues associated with debt underwriting.
As you know, capital markets income can be volatile for quarter to quarter. However, we do expect an increase in the second quarter. Mortgage production and sales revenue increased compared to the prior quarter. However, total mortgage income decreased 10% primarily due to lower hedging and valuation adjustments on residential mortgage servicing rights.
Other non-interest income includes an $8 million gain associated with the sale of $167 million of affordable housing residential mortgage loans late in the first quarter. In addition, fourth quarter other non-interest income included a net $3 million decline in the values of certain equity investments and a $5 million loss associated with impairment or disposal of lease assets. Let's move on to expenses, which we believe were well controlled in the quarter.
On adjusted basis, non-interest expense increased 1% compared to the fourth quarter primarily due to a 2% increase in salaries and benefits, reflecting higher payroll taxes as well as an increase in expense associated with Visa Class B shares sold in the prior year. Partially offsetting these increases, occupancy expense decreased 5% primarily due to fourth quarter storm-related charges associated with Hurricane Michael. Furniture and equipment expense decreased 7% primarily due to a benefit in property taxes recorded during the quarter and professional fees decreased 26% driven primarily by a reduction in consulting fees.
The adjusted efficiency ratio was 58.3% and the effective tax rate was approximately 21%. For the full year, we continue to expect relatively stable adjusted expenses and an effective tax rate between 20% and 22%.
Well, let's shift to asset quality. In line with our expectations, asset quality remained stable, while continuing to normalize this quarter. Net charge-offs improved 8 basis points to 0.38% of average loans. Including the impact of loan growth, the provision for loan losses exceeded net charge-offs resulting in an allowance equal to 1.01% of total loans and 163% of total non-accrual loans.
Total delinquent loans decreased $102 million as loans 30 to 89 days days past due decreased $106 million, while loans 90 days or more past due increased modestly. Total non-performing loans excluding loans held for sale increased 2 basis points to 0.62% of loans outstanding. Business services criticized and troubled debt restructured loans increased $197 million and $27 million, respectively. These results include the recently concluded Shared National Credit exam. While overall asset quality remains within our stated risk appetite, volatility in certain credit metrics can be expected.
We continue to expect full year net charge-offs in the 40 basis points to 50 basis point range. Let me give you some brief comments related to capital and liquidity. During the quarter, the Company repurchased 12.2 million shares of common stock for a total of $190 million through open market purchases and declared $142 million in dividends to common shareholders.
We continue to execute our 2018 capital plan, and as you know, we're not required to participate in the 2019 CCAR process. However, we were required to provide our updated planned capital actions to the Federal Reserve in early April. These planned capital actions which remained subject to approval by our Board of Directors, provide a path for us to achieve our targeted 9.5% common equity Tier 1 ratio this year.
At quarter end, the loan to deposit ratio remained unchanged at 88% and the Company continued to be fully compliant with the liquidity coverage ratio rule.
Our full year 2019 expectations provided at Investor Day remained unchanged and are summarized on this slide for your reference. So in summary, we are pleased with our first quarter financial results, despite market uncertainties we are focused on things we can control. We have a solid strategic plan and are committed to achieving our 2019 and long-term targets.
With that, we are happy to take your questions, but do ask that you limit them to one primary and one follow-up question. We will now open the line for your questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. (Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from Ken Usdin of Jefferies.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Ken.
Ken Usdin -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Hey, good morning guys. Thanks. David, just on your comments about the outlook for the changing rate environment and the potential pressures that brings forth, you know, can you talk through where that manifest itself the most, is it the investment portfolio, is it loan spreads -- and if you could go back a little bit further into that ability to kind of remix those deposits as you move through the year? Thanks.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Sure, Ken. So, yeah, we've looked at the rate environment clearly changed since going into the year, not anything different than we've experienced before as we showed you in Investor Day we had three-year outlook, rates were lower than we thought and we adapted and overcame that, we'll do it again this time. As we think about rates from a reinvestment standpoint, we still have a front book, back book benefit, it's not as much as it was originally, but we still benefit from that. You know, this particular quarter, we had a couple of things that impacted us, we had a loan growth that was a little stronger than we had anticipated with 160 basis point increase in line utilization.
We had to fund that and we chose to fund that with higher cost deposits versus going to the wholesale market. So if you look at deposit betas that, that caused our deposit betas (ph)Â to be up. Our overall funding beta was kind of in line with the -- with peers. But we thought that was the right thing to do, the loans that we put on were a little thinner spread, which put a little pressure on our margin. The margin actually was impacted by our parent company debt issuance we had in the first quarter as well as a reclassification of purchasing card assets that don't carry any interest carry.
Those two things were 2 basis points of margin in the quarter. So as we look forward, what we need to do is continue to remix the balance sheet, both on the loan side and the deposit side, as we seek to optimize both levels to get our net interest income, where we want it to be and the resulting margin. I will go ahead and answer the question, because it's probably coming up that our margin expectation for the year, we believe to be commensurate with what we had last year in the 3.50 range give or take 1 point or two. So that's kind of how we see the rates and our expectations for the year.
Ken Usdin -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Got it, OK. And then one follow-up on the loans, you've reiterated that with the good start to the loan growth -- the adjusted loan growth, can you give us an idea of just the summary of the non-core -- you know, the combination of the auto stuff and then the new loans you sold and what you expect that would be on the full year. Thanks, David.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. So we are still guiding on the adjusted loans that carves out the run-off portfolios to be in the low single digits. You'll see some of the remixing there, a little bit of that growth that you saw on the first quarter were companies that have access to the capital markets that chose to come to the bank market, because it's cheaper. We expect that to change over time and so you should expect some run-off there and we'll refill that still to get our low single digit -- low-single digit growth.
The auto book continues to run down, we'll be in the $700 million to $800 million range on those run-off portfolios.
Ken Usdin -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Got it. Thanks, David.
Operator
Your next question comes from John Pancari of Evercore.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, John.
John Pancari -- Evercore -- Analyst
Good morning. Just on that point -- on the deposit and margin commentary there, given the loan growth you saw on the quarter, you said it came in a little bit better, why did you make the decision to fund that growth with higher cost funding versus deposits?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
No, what we've said was we chose to have fund that with higher cost deposits versus wholesale funding, because the deposit growth was cheaper than what funding was, what I was trying to address, is the deposit beta was negatively impacted because of that decision, if you look at our total funding beta, our total funding beta was fairly consistent with peers. So it's just a mix of what we chose to fund that growth with versus what somebody else might have done.
John Pancari -- Evercore -- Analyst
Okay, thank you. You know, I misunderstood that, just wanted to get clarity on that. Okay. And then separately around the loan growth expectation for the year and that you expected to slow from here, can you just talk about some of the give and takes about what you think will drive to the net moderation off of this level versus any incremental strengthening on the commercial side, for example?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. So, as John mentioned in his comments, we feel good about -- our customers feel good about the economy and they're continuing to borrow, we had -- and that increase we saw part of that in this first quarter again were -- customers we believe have access, we know have access to the capital markets that chose to use their bank lines of credit to give them more flexibility in terms of timing on -- when they would go to the capital market system.
It's just a matter of time before that happens, so we're going to see those loans run out the bank as we continue to grow consistent with our expectations at the beginning of the year. So when you get net-net to the end of the year we think net loan growth is still on that single -- low-single digits.
John Pancari -- Evercore -- Analyst
Okay. Thanks, David. And one last thing on credit. Can you just give us little bit of color around the drivers of the higher classified and special mentioned loans and, I guess your thought around the longer-term loan loss reserve level here? I know it stands around 1.01%, want to get your thoughts on where that could trend to?
Barbara I. Godin -- Deputy Chief Risk Officer and Chief Credit Officer
Certainly John, it's Barb Godin, relative to criticizing classified in terms of those numbers, that's attributable to really two or three credits that moved over. And given the lows that we're on, it's simply starting to slowly normalize also recall that our results include the results of the recently completed Shared National Credit survey, our credit exam. So that's all encompassing. We don't see any trends in there that we're looking at, that concern us at all at this point, and in terms of our loan loss reserve, we're sitting at 1.01%. We think that area of 1%, 1.01% is probably the right number. As we look forward as well, until we get to CECL (ph)Â next year.
John Pancari -- Evercore -- Analyst
Got it. Thank you, Barb.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
John, I would just reiterate that I think we still feel very good about our credit books as Barb said, we're really better than ten year loans in terms of criticized, classified, non-performing loans, and so from time to time, we're going to see a little movement up or down, I think in those metrics in this particular quarter, as Barb mentioned, we had one or two credits that impacted both criticized loans and non-performing loans. And so, given the low base were coming off, I think you're going to see some back and forth there over the coming quarters as credit begins to normalize a bit, but we feel, still very good about our credit quality.
John Pancari -- Evercore -- Analyst
Okay, got it, thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from Betsy Graseck of Morgan Stanley.
Betsy Graseck -- Morgan Stanley & Co. -- Analyst
Hi, good morning.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, Betsy.
Betsy Graseck -- Morgan Stanley & Co. -- Analyst
Good morning. Hi, I just had a question on your capital target, I know you mentioned that with the expectation that you have for buybacks this coming year, you should be able to get to 9.5% target CET1. I'm just wondering, if given the proposal that fed has for NPR, it's outstanding out there for banks of your size, would you be at all rethinking the target CET1 at any point or is that something that you think you need to have as high as 9.5% going forward?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Betsy, we had mentioned at Investor Day that mathematically our capital that we think we need based on the risk profile that we have would lead one to a common equity Tier 1 of 9% and we said to our -- to those attending and listened that we've added another 50 basis points of cushion on that, we believe that, that capital level one provides the proper capital we need to have, plus a little bit while allowing us to get to our return expectations that we also laid out.
So that -- those targets were not derived based on supervisory input or the CCAR mechanism. So I don't see that changing at all, as you know, we have to get through the second quarter, which is based on last year's submission and then the third quarter will start, we're not under CECL, but it will start our capital plan and that's why we have confidence. We will get to our 9.5% by then and we'll have, we'll be able to toggle between loan growth and share buybacks as we seek to manage the capital at that level.
Betsy Graseck -- Morgan Stanley & Co. -- Analyst
Okay, just it seems -- very there is a lot of cushion in there, so I'm wondering maybe it reflects the view that you feel your portfolio might be a little more risky than peers or you're just super conservative?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Well, as I mentioned, our math based on our risk profile would lead you to nine. We choose to have an extra 50 basis points in there, which we think gives us flexibility, especially as you think about where we are in a 10-year run and if the economy were turned down, we have the ability to perhaps take advantage of some opportunities that might come our way to invest in the assets they could give us growth. So it's -- we think an appropriate amount of cushion because in that way, it's down from our return objectives and gives us that flexibility. So that's why we do it.
Betsy Graseck -- Morgan Stanley & Co. -- Analyst
Yeah, I got it. Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from Erika Najarian of Bank of America.
Erika Najarian -- Bank of America Merrill Lync -- Analyst
Hi, good morning.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, Erika.
Erika Najarian -- Bank of America Merrill Lync -- Analyst
Good morning. I wanted to follow up on the comments on capital actions. So if we filled in the template that the Fed distributed or getting to about a max pre-approved capital action of about $2.15 billion for 3Q '19 to 2Q '20 and I'm wondering if that's a ballpark with how your team calculated the template?
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, I think again the way we want you to get there is by looking at our target of common equity Tier 1 of 9.5%. We think that the toggle, we have to think through on buyback is what's loan growth going to look like. Now, we've said, we want to pay out a dividend in the 35% to 45% of a range, that uses a piece of it of earnings and then the rest of it is either going to be used for loan growth or it's going for the most part or we going to buy shares back. So trying to now stipulate exactly what that buyback is going to be, is one, we don't think it's necessary as much because we're giving you what the end result is going to be. So you have to come up with your expectation of what our loan growth is going be, you know to help to get your buyback number.
Erika Najarian -- Bank of America Merrill Lync -- Analyst
I meant all-in, OK, and just taking a step back, you unveiled a mid-term efficiency ratio of 55% or below, during your Investor Day and of course the curve dynamics have gotten less friendly since. I'm wondering as we think through the next few years, is there that much expense leverage left to be able to get you to this target of less than 55% by 2021 with this type of curve backdrop or are we underestimating some of the investments that you're making that could boost revenue beyond rates beyond '19?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Erika, I would say it's a combination of both. First of all, we are committed to 55% efficiency ratio by the end of 2021 and we believe we have appropriate levers, both in terms of revenue growth from investments we're making and opportunities to reduce expenses to be reinvested in additional initiatives that will help to generate revenue growth to get to the 55% efficiency ratio we are absolutely committed to get there.
Erika Najarian -- Bank of America Merrill Lync -- Analyst
Okay, got it. Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from Matt O'Connor of Deutsche Bank.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, Matt.
Matthew Derek O'Connor -- Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. -- Analyst
Hi. I'm wondering where the market rates have to go to flatten out the NIM, you know, obviously you're guiding to flattish NIM on a full year basis, but trickling down from the 1Q level and just conceptually and I realize the 10-year is not the only rate that matters, but what's kind of the breakeven point on the 10-year where it does fly now at this kind of 3.53 as this trickle down?
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, if you just think about the 10-year just on reinvestment in the securities book, so we're coming off a 2.70-ish range reinvesting in the 2.90% to 3% range, so we're getting some lift just reinvesting those cash flows over the near-term. You know, it's really not the curve dynamics as much that drives versus the mix of what we put on both on the right and the left side of the balance sheet.
So I think you could have, you could be where rates are, the curve can look where it is now, and depending on what your choices are would depend on where the continue to grow NII resulting margin or whether it stays flat. We're looking to optimize our balance sheet for not only NIM, but net interest income growth, return, credit risk management, all that has to work together and again we've laid out our three year expectations and our one year expectation and we intend to hit all of that.
So, there are lot of moving parts that you have to deal with, and it's -- that's a hard one to explain.
Matthew Derek O'Connor -- Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. -- Analyst
Okay, no, I understand. It's just -- I think what's changed versus a few months ago is the rate environment versus, I think your strategy though and obviously rates they move round and were up 20 bps off the bottom and maybe two months from now will be 20 bps higher and you're not sort of...
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, Matt, I'd add, our expectation were that rates were going to go down at some point, which is why we began our hedging program over a year ago. As we've mentioned, we are about 70%, we're about 75% through our hedging program right now with the -- and we did that in large part with forward starting swaps to begin in 2020.
As we expected, GDP has declined to 2.5% in '19, 2% in '20 and 1% in '21 and that the probability of rate cuts would increase in '20 and '21 and we want to be protected there, what you've seen of late is a reversal from the Fed and it puts more pressure on not getting not only not getting an increase this year, but how some probability of a cut this year, which we don't think will happen by the way, and so that's really where we are more exposed is if they were cut right now.
Again, we'll take that risk because we don't believe that'll happen.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
And the other -- I'll just add -- Mike just if I might on balance sheet optimization is we've indicated, we think that loan growth will begin to moderate a bit, at the same time, our core deposit base continues to grow very consistently. Consumer demand deposits grew over 4% last year. They're growing for the seventh year in a row point to point up about 7%. We see growth in consumer savings, consumer checking continues to grow and so that's a more consistent, deliberate increase in deposits that will occur over time and if that catches up with loan growth, which will be moderating, we have an opportunity to also optimize our deposit base and we think that will accrue to our benefit.
Matthew Derek O'Connor -- Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. -- Analyst
Okay. Yes, I guess the optimization in the mix that you're talking about, I thought would have been beneficial to NIM.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Yes.
Matthew Derek O'Connor -- Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. -- Analyst
Okay. But the combination of that and where we are on rates still causes to trickle down a little bit.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, I think you could have some noise in the interim again where we're at 3.53, we said we'd be at 3.50 for the year, give or take a point or two and it's going to be dependent on how well we optimize and -- you know the ten years moved quite rapidly, it's gone from 3.50 to almost 3.60, we're down a little bit this morning. So if we continue to -- the 10-year continues to move up a little bit, then the reinvestment helps us to increase net interest income and helps us from a margin standpoint.
Matthew Derek O'Connor -- Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. -- Analyst
Got it. And if you don't mind, I just want to squeeze in the line utilization increase of 160 basis point, was that concentrated in like a handful of credit and if not, I guess what makes you think it's going to decline so much to meaningfully slow the loan growth that was so good this quarter. Thank you.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, Matt, I'll ask Ronnie Smith, who heads our corporate bank to answer the question. Ronnie?
Ronald G. Smith -- Head of Corporate Banking Group, Senior Executive Vice President
Yeah, Matt, it was very broad based. It was not in a handful of clients and really focused in on most of our higher-quality clients that I think David mentioned earlier that have access to other markets and we are anticipating that we'll see changes with those advance rates as we go forward, but very broad based across industries and within geographies as well.
Matthew Derek O'Connor -- Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. -- Analyst
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from Jennifer Demba of SunTrust.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Jennifer.
Jennifer Demba -- SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. -- Analyst
Thank you. Hi, good morning. Question on credit, Barb. Two questions, first of all, I assume you're running parallel right now, I'm wondering if you have any preliminary estimates on what the day one impact will be for CECL. My second question is on your criticized leveraged loans that slide was very helpful in the deck. Is there any industry concentration within those criticized leverage credits? That's it.
Barbara I. Godin -- Deputy Chief Risk Officer and Chief Credit Officer
First question on CECL is yes, we are in the midst of doing a lot of work running parallel, making sure our models are operating the way they need to, et cetera. We'll probably disclose something in the second quarter, but we're not quite ready to do that yet on the CECL front, relative to the leverage loans, et cetera, there's nothing that sticks out in terms of anything that's an anomaly. So pretty good book.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, and just for clarification, I think in our second quarter release, probably we'll provide some information on third quarter -- third quarter release, day one impact. So we -- we're still ways off.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, it will be in the -- it will be in the third quarter, we'll release something. We want to run parallel for a couple of quarters and see what it looks like.
Jennifer Demba -- SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. -- Analyst
Great, thank you so much.
Operator
Your next question comes from Marty Mosby of Vining Sparks.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, Marty.
Marty Mosby -- Vining Sparks -- Analyst
David, I wanted to -- Hey, good morning, talk to you a little bit about NII versus net interest margin. When you had a little bit of extra loan growth this quarter and then you went out and funded it, I mean you literally could have funded it through the securities portfolio, which would have increased your net interest margin just by substituting higher rate assets, loans being investment securities.
So I think the temporary nature of what you did or thought your loan growth is going to have and the sense (ph) of a run-up, that's going to come back down, you just went out and funded it which incrementally caused some pressure on your net interest margin, and then if you look at NII, it's still growing relatively nice year-over-year, but you have the day count in the first quarter.
So it just seems like to me the margin this quarter was exacerbated just given all (ph) in the incremental funding of the balance sheet.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Yes, Marty. So the NIM to us is the result of all things that we do, and you're exactly right, we put on, if we want to be fixated our NIM we could have done different things, I do want to make sure if I caught the fact that our NIM was impacted one basis point by our parent company issuance and then we had the reclassification of our purchasing card into loans, which is a non-interest bearing asset. So that weighed us down another point. So we could have kept the margins relatively stable with 3.55, but we were able to keep NII level notwithstanding two days, which cost us $10 million in the quarter.
So we thought it was pretty good, again, we'll optimize the balance sheet and those loans that we did put certain of those loans we put on had thinner spreads too, they'll run out to the capital markets. We will get a capital markets fee when that happens. We'll remix the balance sheet and we will be off to the races. So we're not overly fixated on the margin.
Marty Mosby -- Vining Sparks -- Analyst
That's what I thought. And then when you thought -- you talked about deposit betas, and you said that through the cycle of the cumulative beta right now are up 25% and you said, by the time we're done, we're going to be at 30%. Now that would just in general assume that you had further rate hikes that they were going to push deposit rates up, but if we kind of stabilize here and rates don't go up anymore, let's just assume that they don't wouldn't the deposit pricing maybe with a little bit of a tell (ph), increase in the second quarter begin to kind of flatten out?
So I just want to make sure we're being consistent with that. How much of the excess you expected in deposit pricing going forward?
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, so what our history tells us is that it takes about 12 months in change after the last Fed hike for deposit rates to stop moving, so that's a piece of this that you'll just even -- if we don't get another increase, you'll see that continuing to come through. Mix has a big deal to do with it too, so as we continue to grow low-cost core checking accounts and interest rate accounts, that's helpful.
But our commercial customers want to -- they're trying to take their excess cash and get the best yield that they can. If rates start moving that will abate too. So moving up into the 30s, we can argue, we're in the 30s, we might end up. The point is, we're going to continue to see some costs. Some funding cost increase is continuing to come through, that we need to deal with and we have a little bit of a headwind on reinvestment on the left side of the balance sheet and then the optimization is really what will carry the day for us.
Marty Mosby -- Vining Sparks -- Analyst
And then I guess the thing that I would suggest or highlight is that this deposit beta market has not been like any historical period we've seen in the past. It's been a lot different and is actually reacted much better than what we've seen in the past. So, why shouldn't we expect that maybe we could see this thing slowdown or actually begin to flatten out a lot quicker, given that the deposit betas have been better than what we've seen in the past cycles?
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, you're certainly correct this is different. Betas last time were in the 60 range and now we're talking in the 30 range and part of that is because of how slow this recovery has been and the pace of those increases. Also coming off historic lows, and so I think all that matters and there is a chance that things flatten out quicker than we have anticipated.
If that happens, then we are going to be better off than we think, and we'd much rather give you a number that we can hit, versus trying to promise something that we'll struggle achieving.
Marty Mosby -- Vining Sparks -- Analyst
And then just last question, the swaps next year, is there any net increase in earnings from the spread lock-in if rates were flat given the fixed rate that you locked in. Is there a-- there should be a little bit of a positive spread. So I was just curious if there is some upcoming income that you're going to get out of those swaps once they actually hit the forward dates and when does that actually happen? Thanks.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. So the forward dates are in '20 and you're right, we would have some positive carry there, but we also entered into some interest rate floors where you have to pay a premium and you amortize the premium. So the amortization unfortunately offsets the swap benefit. So again if rates didn't move from here, we kind of push there. So you won't see any real positive carry.
Marty Mosby -- Vining Sparks -- Analyst
Thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from Stephen Scouten of Sandler O'Neill.
Stephen Scouten -- Sandler O'Neill -- Analyst
Hey, good morning everyone.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Stephen Scouten -- Sandler O'Neill -- Analyst
I'm curious, just digging down in the NIM a little bit further, obviously Investor Day, you laid out this range of 3.40 to 3.70 and by the commentary from you, David, that -- we might get to 3.50 for the year implies that the NIM will move into high 3.40s by year-end.
So, can you talk to me a little bit about how that lower end, even on a zero policy range scenario would only get down to 3.40 and maybe what's -- what dynamics have changed since, you know, 2016 when we were at 3.15, 3.16 that sort of range?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, so part of which -- what we want to do is try to frame up the range at Investor Day like we did, and what's changed since then was the near-term risk before our forward starting swaps began in 2020. So even if you saw a dip in '19, we actually start recovering that in '20 when our derivatives kick in. So that's the piece that gives us confidence that we're still within the range that we told you back then.
If we received a rate cut in '19, that would -- we'd have a different ballgame, we'd be telling you something different. We just don't think the probability is very high than that happens. So, anyway, that's...
Stephen Scouten -- Sandler O'Neill -- Analyst
Yeah, that's a perfect answer. Thank you. And the swaps are really what prevents you from getting down into those levels we saw back in '16, even if we were to revert back to a similar rate environment?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
That's exactly right.
Stephen Scouten -- Sandler O'Neill -- Analyst
Okay. And then just lastly on the security's book, is there any chance that you guys look to reduce that as a percentage of average earning assets to fund some of the growth or is that kind of 22% range, where you'd like to stay?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
I think there, we have a little bit in there that's helping part of our hedging program right now that works against us again on our margin. It's not a tremendously large number. We kind of like where we are from that standpoint, I think what you should expect over time is a remixing of our security's book, kind of -- today, we still have treasuries and Ginnie Maes in there that we used for LCR purposes. And to the extent that, that changes, then maybe we can put those, working a little more effectively for us into mortgage backs.
So, you'll see us do that from time to time, as a matter of fact, you saw us take security loss as this quarter to pair off with the gain that we had on selling the affordable mortgage loans. So that we could get better carry going forward and we'll pay for that in less than a year. So, those are the kinds of things you should expect us to do over time.
Stephen Scouten -- Sandler O'Neill -- Analyst
Perfect. Thanks so much.
Operator
Your next question comes from Saul Martinez of UBS.
Saul Martinez -- UBS -- Analyst
Hey guys. A quick -- I just wanted to follow up on the line of questioning on the deposit betas and I actually would just want to make sure I understand the math kind, what you guys are saying. So, the 25% -- the 25% through the cycle Beta thus far basically implies that your deposit costs have moved up in the neighborhood of about 55 basis points given where the Fed funds is at right now. If I assume no further hikes and you get to the low 30s, that implies an additional 15 basis points to 20 basis points of deposit cost pressure over the next 12 months. Is my math more or less, right? Is that what you're kind of baking into that assumption?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I think you're close -- just probably closer to 10, but we're at 46 basis points of costs, one of the lowest. So, when you start looking at beta and percentages, you get, you can get some odd numbers, but we feel -- we feel like, again, back to, I think as Marty asked a question if we miss it, we're going to outperform what we're telling you.
Saul Martinez -- UBS -- Analyst
Got it. It's closer. I'm sorry, it's closer to 10 basis points is what you're kind of baking in, in terms of incremental deposit cost pressure without any further hikes?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
That's right.
Saul Martinez -- UBS -- Analyst
Is that on total deposit or interest bearing?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Those are really more interest bearing.
Saul Martinez -- UBS -- Analyst
Interest bearing. Okay. Want to make sure I got that math. And then I guess on the -- just a broader question, the 2% to 4% revenue guidance, I know you've talked about NIMs and NIMs sort of stabilizing at 3% to 5% for the full year -- or being at 3% to 5% for the full year, but the 2% to 4% revenue growth, how do we think about that in terms of NII growth versus fee growth?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
We've kind of put those together, Saul this time, because there -- obviously, there's challenges in terms of managing earning assets in the mix and all that. So, we put that together with NIR, we're still convicted that will be within 2% to 4%. Right now, there is more pressure on the NII component of that, but not enough that would cause us to not meet that, that goal that we had.
Saul Martinez -- UBS -- Analyst
Okay. Right. Fair enough, thanks.
Operator
Your final question comes from Gerard Cassidy of RBC.
Gerard Cassidy -- RBC -- Analyst
Good afternoon. How are you David and John?
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Hi, Gerard.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hi, Gerard.
Gerard Cassidy -- RBC -- Analyst
Can you guys give us a little further color on the portfolio of the breakout that you showed on leverage loans and then the Shared National Credits? Are you comfortable with these levels or we're talking a year from now are these numbers going to be much different than they are today?
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
No, I don't think so, Gerard, and I'd let maybe Barb speak as well, but I think we've established some internal limits, just as we have concentration limits for lots of other aspects of the way we manage risk in our portfolio and we're at a level with respect to leverage lending that we're comfortable with. We expect to continue to manage to about the level that we're at.
I think the most risky exposure we've talked about before in the portfolio has been loans to sponsor own companies, we've brought that down from kind of the mid-30% to somewhere in the 26%, 27% range as I'd recall, and we'll continue to work on that to ensure that the leverage exposure that we do have is to customers that we have full relationships with, that it's in industries that we know well is distributed across a variety of different industries.
So, we don't have any real concentrated exposure by industry sector either, and I think we do feel comfortable with it, but I'll let Barb respond to that question as well.
Barbara I. Godin -- Deputy Chief Risk Officer and Chief Credit Officer
I think you've done a great job responding, John.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Barbara I. Godin -- Deputy Chief Risk Officer and Chief Credit Officer
The only thing I have to add is just as you said, these are to our best quality CNI customers that we do leverage lending to in particular. So, we are very comfortable with them. We look at them on a regular basis. We look at the book on a monthly basis and we recycle, if we see something that either is not carrying its weight or that we feel that is probably a good opportunity for us to move out of, we take immediate action on it. So again, I'm feeling very good with that book.
Gerard Cassidy -- RBC -- Analyst
I'm just curious, Barb, do you recall during the last downturn what the non-NPL percentage was for leverage loans for regions, or we could dig it up, but if you don't?
Barbara I. Godin -- Deputy Chief Risk Officer and Chief Credit Officer
Yeah, we'll have to dig it out. I don't have it off the top of my head.
Saul Martinez -- UBS -- Analyst
Okay. I'm not expecting that. Okay. I'm not expecting that to be the same this time. But I was just curious and maybe, coming back to you, John. At Investor Day, you talked about the expansion into some priority markets in St. Louis, I believe, Atlanta, Orlando, Houston, can you share with us how that is progressing and how do we, as outsiders, determine whether you're being successful in those markets?
John Pancari -- Evercore -- Analyst
Well, we think it's progressing well. We have about 40 de-novo branches that have, that are now open and operating I guess for less than a year, largely across those markets. We continue to reposition our retail franchise as an example in St. Louis as we shift that franchise and we shared this with you at Investor Day, I think we now have access to 10% more households, more wealth, more businesses. The same would be true as we think about the expansion in Atlanta.
I think we now have access to more than 1 million, more or nearly 1 million more customer households, businesses and wealth. And so those opportunities continue to be available to us. The year-over-year checking growth, about 15% of our growth is attributable to de novos. And so, and we'll continue to look for ways to provide you all with some information like a percentage of growth attributable to de novos as an example. That'll give you some sense of how we're doing.
I think, again, core to our strategy is looking for ways to continue to grow our core customer base. So, as we're growing, consumer checking accounts, as we're growing debit cards usage, as we're growing credit cards on the consumer side, as we're growing small business accounts and small business deposit balances, those should be indicators to you that, that our expansion strategy is gaining some traction.
We're recruiting talent in those markets and feel good about the teams we continue to build, and all-in-all, I think, we'll -- we're going to continue to on the path to execute that strategy.
Gerard Cassidy -- RBC -- Analyst
Very good. Thank you.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Let me -- this is David. I just want to clean up one thing. So, I think it was Saul you had asked a question about the impact of beta going into the 30 or -- and we said more like 10 points on and I said, interest bearing that's a total, it shouldn't be total. So, I want to clean that up.
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Okay. I think that's all the questions we had today. Really appreciate your time. Appreciate your interest in Regions and thank you very much. Have a good day.
Operator
This conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
Duration: 55 minutes
Call participants:
Dana W. Nolan -- Executive Vice President-Head of Investor Relations
John M. Turner, Jr. -- President and Chief Executive Officer
David J. Turner, Jr. -- Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Ken Usdin -- Jefferies -- Analyst
John Pancari -- Evercore -- Analyst
Barbara I. Godin -- Deputy Chief Risk Officer and Chief Credit Officer
Betsy Graseck -- Morgan Stanley & Co. -- Analyst
Erika Najarian -- Bank of America Merrill Lync -- Analyst
Matthew Derek O'Connor -- Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. -- Analyst
Ronald G. Smith -- Head of Corporate Banking Group, Senior Executive Vice President
Jennifer Demba -- SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. -- Analyst
Marty Mosby -- Vining Sparks -- Analyst
Stephen Scouten -- Sandler O'Neill -- Analyst
Saul Martinez -- UBS -- Analyst
Gerard Cassidy -- RBC -- Analyst
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