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Old National Bancorp (ONB 1.93%)
Q4Â 2019 Earnings Call
Jan 21, 2020, 8:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Welcome to the Old National Bancorp Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded and has been made accessible to the public in accordance with the SEC's Regulation FD. Corresponding presentation slides can be found on the Investor Relations page at oldnational.com and will be archived there for 12 months.
Before turning the call over, management would like to remind everyone that as noted on slide 2, certain states on -- certain statements on today's call may be forward-looking in nature and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed. The Company's risk factors are fully disclosed and discussed within SEC's filings. In addition, certain slides contain non-GAAP measures, which management believes provides more appropriate comparisons. These non-GAAP measures are intended to assist investors understanding of performance trends, reconciliations for these numbers are contained in the appendix of the presentation.
I'd now like to turn the call over to Jim Ryan for opening remarks. Mr. Ryan?
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Dorothy. Good morning, everyone. Old National announced several strategic actions today, including a new strategic plan. The consolidation of 31% or 16% of our branches across our footprint, and two capital actions, including raising our dividend and authorizing a new share repurchase program. As I've mentioned on prior calls, we spent the last year internally focused and have challenged our executive team to think about ways we can better serve our clients, our team members, our communities and importantly our shareholders. This new strategic plan is called the ONB Way. I'll share more details later in my remarks, but some of the initial charges related to implementation are included in our fourth quarter earnings.
Starting with slide 3, our fourth quarter net income was $49.2 million including $8.4 million in charges from the ONB Way as well as merger charges. Adjusted net income was higher at $55.2 million. As we review our results, you'll see that our core margin was stable despite the Fed fund rate cut in September and October and a challenging yield curve. Credit quality remained strong. We recorded $1.3 million in provision on net charge-offs of $3.6 million. The higher net charge-offs were primarily result of a single credit that was previously reserved for prior quarters.
Non-accrual loans declined nicely in the quarter and year-over-year. As I've said in prior quarters, while our credit quality is strong, we're not immune from losses. We are still watching a small number of credits, but I'm not losing sleep over credit today. We saw a record commercial production for the quarter and strong core deposit growth. Importantly, we also effectively managed our cost of total deposits lower by 9 basis points to 43 basis points and we posted strong year-over-year operating leverage and efficiency ratio improvements.
Next, on slide 4, full year net income was $238 million including $17.4 million in charges for the ONB Way and merger charges. Adjusted net income was almost 24% higher year-over-year. Like the quarter we saw a record commercial production for the year and our pipeline was a record-setting $2.2 billion at year end. We also produced a record $1.4 billion in mortgage loans, of which approximately 60% was sold in the secondary market. We posted strong year-over-year adjusted operating leverage improvements of 636 basis points and adjusted efficiency ratio improvements of 369 basis points. Adjusted return on average assets was 1.25% and adjusted return on tangible common equity was 15.7%. On the capital front, we repurchased 6 million shares during the year at an average price of $16.58.
Moving to slide 5. Despite the repurchases, tangible book value per share grew by 15% year-over-year and tangible common equity to assets stood in a strong 9.09% at year end. As I said in the beginning of the call, we announced two capital actions including a 7.7% increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.14 per share, which represents an approximately 3% dividend yield. We also announced a new share repurchase program of 7 million shares, which we expect to be opportunistic about over the next year.
A quick update on M&A. Our strategy hasn't changed. We remain an active looker and a selective buyer. We are patient and continue to wait for the perfect pitch while remaining focused on execution. Given the importance of the ONB Way, the hurdle will be even higher as we work on achieving our milestones and completing our initiatives. Next, Brendon is going to walk you through this quarter's details.
Brendon B. Falconer -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Jim. Turning to the quarter on slide 6. Our GAAP earnings per share was $0.29 and our adjusted earnings per share was $0.32. Adjusted earnings per share excludes $8.2 million in ONB Way related charges, $250,000 in merger related charges as well as $400,000 in debt securities gains.
Moving to slide 7. Our quarterly adjusted pre-tax pre-provision net revenue was 10% higher [Technical Issues] and up notable 23% for the full year. This result was driven by increased scale from our recent Minnesota partnership, our strong low cost deposit base and a continued focus on expense management. We also improved operating leverage by strong 636 basis points year-over-year.
Slide 8 shows the trend in outstanding loans. As Jim referenced, our commercial loan production of $681 million was the largest in our Company's history. We ended the quarter with a record $2.2 billion pipeline and good momentum heading into 2020. Persistently high levels of prepayments that held commercial outstandings flat despite our third consecutive quarter of record production. As expected, September and October rate cuts, improved [Phonetic] loan portfolio yields excluding accretion down 14 basis points in the fourth quarter. Production yields in the fourth quarter were 3.76%, which reflects the lower long-term rate environment that we will -- that we expect will continue to put pressure on asset yields.
Moving to slide 9, both period end and average deposits increased during the quarter. Our total cost of deposits declined 9 basis points quarter-over-quarter to a very low 43 basis points. We are pleased with the results of our deposit pricing strategy that resulted in a meaningful reduction in deposit costs, while simultaneously growing our core deposit base. With a little over $1 billion in deposits indexed to Fed funds and proactive management of our exception price book, we are confident in our ability to manage deposit costs lower in response to any future Fed action.
Slide 10 shows our fourth quarter earning asset mix and quarter-over-quarter change in loan mix. Although our efforts have been impacted somewhat by prepayments, we remain focused on remixing the loan portfolio toward more productive commercial and commercial real estate loans and out of indirect and other loans. The investment portfolio yield was down 8 basis points quarter-over-quarter to 2.74% which was equalled to the fourth quarter yield on new purchases.
Next on slide 11, you'll see the detailed changes in our fourth quarter net interest income and corresponding margin. We are pleased with the performance of our margin given the challenges of the interest rate environment. Net interest margin excluding accretion was better than expected at 3.25% compared to 3.26% last quarter. The anticipated decline in earning asset yields, which were down 14 basis points was nearly offset by reductions in our funding costs. Active repricing of our deposit book and strong non-interest bearing deposit growth helped mitigate the negative impact on asset yields that resulted from the recent Fed rate cuts. Our ongoing work to reposition the balance sheet to a more neutral interest rate risk position, along with continued thoughtful and disciplined approach to deposit pricing should allow us to defend our margin well against a stubbornly flat yield curve.
Slide 12 shows trends in adjusted non-interest income. Our fourth quarter non-interest income decreased $6 million following a strong third quarter performance that included record capital markets revenue and $1.7 million in annual vendor incentives. The quarter-over-quarter change with the result of a seasonal decline in mortgage banking revenue and return to trend line of our capital markets revenue. Also included on the slide is a summary of our mortgage activity for the quarter, which included a record $468 million in production. Low interest rates continue to support strong refi activity which accounted for 54% of our production.
Next, slide 13 shows the trend in adjusted non-interest expenses, which reflects our ongoing focus on expense management. We did experience an uptick in adjusted expenses in Q4, driven by additional incentive compensation accruals related to record loan production and our full year earnings performance. Our adjusted efficiency ratio for the full year is a record low 57.87% and represents a 369 basis point improvement over 2018. Expense discipline is an important part of our culture and despite the revenue headwinds impacting the industry, we remain committed to generating positive operating leverage.
Slide 14 has our credit metrics. Credit conditions remain benign as we experienced positive migration during the quarter and both non-performing and underperforming loans fell to new cycle lows. We recorded $1.3 million in provision expense during the fourth quarter, while posting net charge-offs of $3.6 million. The increase in net charge-offs was driven by a single credit that had been fully reserved for in prior quarters. Our higher level of non-performing loans relative to peers reflects our practice of identifying credit challenges early. We believe early recognition of underperforming credits and active engagement with borrowers ultimately leads to lower credit losses as demonstrated by our below average charge-offs.
Slide 15 demonstrates our strong reserve coverage and low risk balance sheet. With 56 basis points of reserves against organic loans and 322 basis points in loan marked against the acquired loans, we believe that we have adequate reserve coverage. Before we turn away from credit, we want to provide you with an update on our transition to CECL. Our estimated increase to the allowance remains unchanged at $35 million to $45 million. A large portion of the increase is related to the establishment of an allowance for $2.3 billion of acquired loans with relatively modest increases in reserves on the remaining legacy book.
The relatively wide range reflects the uncertainty of future macro economic forecast, but assuming economic conditions remained stable, we would expect to be in the bottom half of this range. Slide 16 provides some key takeaways from our fourth quarter performance. We are pleased with our results driven by good execution against our strategic objectives. We successfully defended our core margin, which showed only a 1 basis point decline from prior quarter. Commercial loan activity remained strong with three consecutive quarters of record production and a record pipeline heading into 2020. The 636 basis point year-over-year improvement in adjusted operating leverage and the 369 basis point improvement in our adjusted efficiency ratio demonstrates the benefits of our increased scale and continued focus on expense management.
Slide 17 includes thoughts on fourth quarter starting point and our outlook for 2020. We expect commercial loan production to remain strong based on both the size and quality of our pipeline. We expect core net interest margin to be under some pressure from the shape of the yield curve. As the slide suggests fees and expenses should follow normal seasonal patterns and we remain very focused on continuing to drive positive operating leverage.
Our full year 2020 tax rate is expected to be approximately 18.5% on an FTE basis and 14.5% on a GAAP basis. The effective tax rate includes an estimated $15 million in tax credits primarily related to historic tax credit projects expected to be completed this year. These projects are anticipated to generate an estimated $13 million in tax credit amortization which will flow through the operating expenses. Please include the $13 million in operating expenses in your model along with the reduced effective tax rate. The after-tax benefit of these projects is estimated to be approximately $2 million in 2020. As a reminder, the tax credit amortization is recognized through expenses in the quarter -- in the quarter that corresponds with the placed in service date while the tax benefit is spread over the full year through the tax line.
I will now turn the call back over to Jim Ryan to share some additional details on our ONB Way strategic plan.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Brendon. Turning to slide 18. I want to share some details on the ONB Way. In May, we started with a performance improvement diagnostic to define our go-forward strategy and identified revenue and efficiency opportunities across the bank. In August 2019, we set out to build a Bankable Plan was -- that was to deliver three key objectives.
First, transform Old National to a leading commercially oriented regional bank with a distinctive client-centric value proposition delivered through our client segment focused organization. Secondly, lay the foundation to be a top-performing independent bank by streamlining our operating model and strengthening our risk and credit processes to provide a seamless client experience. Thirdly, improve our operating leverage, invest in our operational IT infrastructure to meet our clients where they are and ensure that we're keeping pace with technology and client digital expectation through a balanced portfolio of revenue and cost initiatives to help us deliver top quartile performance.
We have now entered the implementation phase to capture the value identify the design phase. We have over 800 milestones with 60 total initiatives. We anticipate the execution lasting one to two years. We communicated the impacts for the ONB Way, changes to our team members last week, including the 31 branch consolidations. We plan to also hold an Investor Day on May 13th in Indianapolis to provide more details and share updates on our progress.
Moving to slide 19, let me share our vision for the ONB Way. We will be a leading commercially oriented regional bank with a distinctive of client-centric value proposition based on strong relationships, a streamline operating model, an exceptional work environment that empowers our team members to deliver their best.
Moving to slide 20, let me share some key organizational structure changes for the ONB Way. Historically, Old National has been organized by a geography. That model served us well for 185 years, but as we've grown through partnerships and our clients have become more diverse, we saw the need to move from a generalist to more specialist relationship management approach to better serve our client needs. As a result we're moving to three main client segmentations. The first is a commercial segment, which includes segments based on clients' revenue size and approved treasury management offering and some dedicated units for specialized lending and select industry verticals.
This segment is being led by one of our most successful commercial leaders, Dennis Heishman who started our Louisville, Kentucky office more than 10 years ago. Dennis will lead this segment from Louisville. A key new higher reporting to Dennis is Malinda Anthony, who recently joined us from Wells Fargo to lead our treasury management team. She leads the TM team from Indianapolis.
The second segment is community banking that will provide products and services tailored to each market serving personal and small business clients through a full range of distribution channels to meet clients where they are. This segment is being led by Todd Clark, who was the President of United Bank & Trust and was most recently our CIO. Todd will lead this segment from Michigan.
We're creating a new wealth group for the third segment that combines our existing wealth management trust businesses, our investment group and our private banking teams for a simplified private banker led approach with an emphasis on financial planning. This new wealth segment will be led by Chady AlAhmar who will join Old National later this month from US Bank. He will be leading this segment from Minneapolis. I also want to note that Daryl Moore will continue to lead our credit risk functions and continue to partner with our new segment leaders.
Our main support areas including risk management, operations, finance and IT functions will align with these client segments. This approach will align complexity with the amount of risk taken in each of our segments, leading to an overall better client experience, improved cycle times and enhance efficiencies. We also announced today, the hiring of Paul Kilroy to be our new CIO, joining for us from Huntington Bank; and Scott Fecteau, the leader, operations, who most recently worked at Accenture. Please refer
To our press release for more information about these key hires.
On slide 21, we provided some insights into the major initiatives of the ONB Way. The expense savings will generate near-term benefits, but I'm more excited about the potential for the longer term revenue enhancements. It will take most of 2020 to implement the revenue initiatives. So we will not see any benefits this year. We have initiatives in all three client segments. We expect required investments in technology and talent to generate the anticipated revenue enhancements and will provide more details as the initiatives, more fully materialize.
Moving to slide 22, we outline the timing of the real estate, severance, professional -- and professional one-time charges related to the expense savings initiatives. The expense savings represent net of any ongoing investments required to implement. We expect total charges of $53 million, which we've already taken $11 million of 2019, mostly related to professional fees. The remaining $42 million we expect to take this year with the bulk coming in the first quarter. Not including any benefits from the revenue initiatives, the charges are earned back in approximately 1.5 years.
By the end of 2020, we should be on a run rate of $36 million annually. But we expect the 2021 impact to bet $40 million plus as we implement additional longer-term opportunities in 2021 that are dependent on technology deployments. Thank you for allowing us extra time this quarter to provide the ONB Way strategy update and the whole team is available to take some questions. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Scott Siefers with Piper Sandler.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Mr. Siefers.
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Good morning, guys. How is everything going?
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Fantastic.
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Good, good. I just want to make sure I understand the expense opportunities on slide 22. And Jim, I think you said this, but I just want to make sure I'm crystal clear. All the -- if we look at the walk to $5 million, $7 million, $9 million throughout 2020 and then the $40 million in full year 2021 benefits, those are all expenses, which are net of revenue opportunities. Right. So that's all, in other words, anticipated to drop to the bottom line. Is that the right way of looking at it?
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. They're all expense savings opportunities which include any required investment to achieve those expense saving opportunities. We haven't included any revenue synergies this year, are primarily concerned [Phonetic] to be de minimis this year, but we expect the impact really start achieving that 2021.
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Okay, all right, perfect. So, all right. That's good news. And then maybe just separate question on sort of run rate stuff, so the margin on a core basis came in better than I would have thought this quarter. I know you mentioned in your prepared remarks or Brendon did the shape of the yield curve being the fact that that would cause further compression. But I guess I'm just saying, given that the compression wasn't as bad as feared in the fourth quarter, what the main puts and takes would really be as you look out going forward.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. I mean, to give you a high level reason what Brendon commented where I don't get exactly right. I mean given the shape of the yield curve, loan yields are continuing to be under little bit of pressure here. We will continue to look for ways to offset that through deposit side, but as our deposit costs have come so low. It's just -- it's going to be hard to keep up with the changes in the yield curve. And those are really the puts and takes, it's just how much the yield curve continues to change and evolve and how much pressure that puts on continuing loan yields.
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Okay.
Brendon B. Falconer -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
I mean, Scott, the only thing I might add to that, just a reminder, we still have a number of CDs that will be maturing over the next year. Almost 75% of our CDs mature in one year, about a third of those mature in Q1. So there is some leverage there. We still have an exception, a fixed exception price book that we can push on. So we have some leverage on the funding side that will continue to go after. But it's really around new production yields relative to our portfolio yields that will continue to put pressure.
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
All right. Perfect. Thank you guys very much.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Scott.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Chris McGratty with KBW.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Chris.
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
Hey, good morning, everybody. Thanks for the question. Jim, I want to go back to the efficiency program, just to make sure I understand it. I think in your remarks you multiple times talked about operating leverage and you talked about the efficiency improvement, the Bank has made over the last couple of years. If I'm thinking kind of in terms of efficiency ratio, you've been in the high 50s, 58%, somewhere 58% to 60%. Assuming the Fed doesn't move, just kind of rates, kind of the equalizer here, how do we think about this program in the context of efficiency? Is this the program to try to maintain efficiency at these levels or drive the efficiency ratio lower?
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think it's all about the context, right, in which, how much revenue pressure we have from lower margins, from additional Fed rate actions. Right. I mean, regardless of what the economic environment or interest rate environment was going to be this year, we were going to accomplish this program for so many reasons. Right. It's the right program to do. It's the right evolution of our Company at this time. On top of that, it just happens to be a more challenging interest rate environment for the industry. And so, for us, I hope ultimately will lead to operating improvements and efficiency ratio improvements, but I really can't predict what's going to happen with interest rates this year.
And the shape of the yield curve continues to be frustrating. All those things I think will help offset any impacts from a challenging rate environment. But long term, the whole idea is to drive further operating improvements and efficiency ratio improvements.
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay. Maybe accurate color...
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
And that's before the revenue -- I'm sorry, that's before the revenue impacts. Again, I am more excited about, what those potential revenue impacts look like for us starting in 2021.
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
Great. If I could just add one more, Jim.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah.
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
You guys have historically kept expense growth at or below inflation, trying to attack it from a different angle. The $40 million that you're talking about for 2021 is, I'm just trying to help, was that kind of a ballpark for a run rate of dollars, because I think it's a big wildcard. Is the expectation that your core expenses would be down in 2021 relative to '20 as you kind of hit full steam? Or is this a way to come back some of the inflationary technology investments and stuff like that? I was trying to get a ballpark of where the expense growth rate would be?
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think we've done a pretty good job. I'd like to say, keeping expenses below inflation, we'll continue to do that. Obviously we'll benefit in 2021 versus 2020 in terms of additional expense savings dollars. We don't think you guys have the expenses too far off in the model. When you adjust for the ONB Way, you adjust for the tax credit amortization that Brendon talked about. Feel like, the expenses, you guys have the consensus, it makes sense to us. But again, I would also point out that, and we'll provide further updates in May, but these revenue initiatives do require new people, some additional technology. And so there'll be some expenses related to that, but on a net basis, it should all improve, the bottom line and improve the operating leverage of the Company.
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay. So that expense that you're referring to in consensus, so if I look at consensus, 2021 expenses, you're saying, with this announcement you feel good about that or with this announcement, you should be better than the consensus number?
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
I'm saying, in 2020 the expense number seem to be on the right trajectory of where we think minus those adjustments we just talked about. And our goal is to, again, further drive improved operating leverage and so we'll continue to watch expenses. And year-over-year from 2021 to 2020, our expenses should be better.
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
Got it. That's helpful. Thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Terry McEvoy with Stephens.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Terry.
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
Hi, good morning. Sorry, I'd have to start with a CECL question, but I'm going to -- as you transition the $2.3 billion of acquired loans from, call it a PCI world to a PCD world. There should be an impact to net interest income. And I'm just not sure if you've yet quantified what that impact would be. And if so, kind of discuss maybe your high level thoughts on CECL, and thanks for the reserve disclosure, but more so on the NII impact.
Brendon B. Falconer -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. Terry, this is Brendon. We don't have a lot of accretive impact related to that movement. It's a relatively small bucket, the marks on those shouldn't have a huge material impact to our ongoing run rate around it, around accretion. We've calculated that, and it's relatively -- relatively small. I think other institutions might have a slightly larger impact on us around that number.
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
Okay. And then the reserves on acquired loans, that percentage, I'm guessing is higher than the core portfolio. So my question is, as we move forward, and the acquired loans continue to come down, should the reserve ratio to total loans, should that come down as well?
Brendon B. Falconer -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
So, if you take the 2.3 [Phonetic] which -- you're right, Terry, it does have a higher mix of commercial. So the general impact for CECL might be a slightly higher reserve, but that is -- that is embedded in that $35 million to $45 million range that we provided. We take that and add it to our current reserve that should give you a pretty good idea of what the reserve level will be going forward. And then it all depends provisioning will all depend on sort of the mix of our production heading. And Terry, production will be a little higher, mortgage will be a little lower.
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
And then a question for Jim. If I think about what Bob did at Old National, moved from a community bank to a super community bank. Today we're talking about moving from that super community bank to a regional bank. I guess, what were some of the risks that you discussed internally as it relates to what this could mean to the commercial bank and the community bank as well given that there are very strong deposit base that comes through the community bank.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, let me first start with, at our heart, we are a community bank. We continue to be involved in our communities. We think we're better at it than most banks are in terms of how we continue to support our communities and how we continue to serve our clients. So that really doesn't change regardless of the ONB Way. Having said that, as we get bigger and our clients are more diverse and we're more spread farther apart, we recognize the need that our platform maybe wasn't scalable as it was under that more geography-centric structure. It was hard for Jim [Phonetic] to tack on another region with another CEO, it's a more presence on top of that. That become more challenging for us.
And so we think this new structure, we've broken the Company up into three primary segments, they are phased off with clients and then support that with our operations and IT and finance functions. All makes a lot of sense to us. We think this is pretty typical of banks our size when they get to this point, where they have to think about the evolution of its structure. I'm also really excited about some of the talent, we're able to bring to the organization. When we're out telling our story, whether it's to individual relationship managers and markets or whether it's to senior leaders in our Company, people are pretty excited about the story here at Old National and they see this is the place they're being successful.
And I think this organizational structure helps us support that. And then we're also obviously able to generate savings that we're reinvesting back in ourselves in better technology to make the organization more efficient efficient, but also improve our client offering. So I think this is just a natural evolution for where Old National has been over to 185 years, but I also think that makes a platform, more scalable for us going forward.
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
That's great. Thanks, everyone.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Good question, Terry.
Operator
You have a follow-up question from the line of Scott Siefers with Piper Sandler.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Siefers.
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Hey, thanks for taking the follow-up. Just want to drill down into the expense base in the fourth quarter of '19 for a bit. Came in a little higher than I had anticipated, and you guys called out the incentive comp, for example. What, how much of that ends up indeed being transitory, in other words comes kind of immediately back down and how much is just sort of a -- if at all, is higher sort of structural level for...
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Sure, Brendon walk you through the changes.
Brendon B. Falconer -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes, Scott. Most of that $4 million would walk right back down in the first quarter. What you'll see though is, then we'll be adding in payroll taxes and then merit in the second quarter. As Jim mentioned early, we feel pretty good around the consensus estimate excluding the ONB Way initiatives that are out there for the full year 2020. If you back off the $22 million, we expect in 2020 related to ONB Way, and then adjust for the $13 million in tax credit amortization. I guess you feel pretty good view of how we are looking at expenses this year.
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Okay, perfect. And then just on the tax credit amortization. I could be mistaken, right, I thought we're sort of stepping back from that business in the next year, it will be much bigger. What are sort of the dynamics around that?
Brendon B. Falconer -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. We had a -- we're not stepping back from that business. But there is a certain type of federal historic tax credit that's a one-year deal that creates this kind of volatility that we're talking about today. We have a handful of credits that were originated some time ago that we'll be running through this year. This is the last of these tax credits. They are no longer available to be done going forward. So this is -- this is the last of that.
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Okay.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Scott, these projects that we're working on for -- there is a long runway for these projects. And these projects we're the last of those projects, and quite frankly the last of the one-year that were even eligible to be done, so we hope through this fund structures, we talked about before will create less volatility that fund continues to get bigger, but these are the lapse of those kind of one-year deals that unfortunately we just have to push through with this accounting.
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Yeah. Okay that makes sense. Thank you. And then just in terms of how the impacts will flow through, throughout 2020, is that going to be kind of evenly through the year or will there be lumpiness?
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Good question. A bulk of that actually comes in the first half of the year. Again, but again these are historic deals. So you have to get certificates of occupancy and things like that. And so those things could, there could be some timing question from 2Q to 3Q, but I think a bulk of that stuff to happen in the first half of the year, but again those tax -- the tax rate effect is a full year tax rate effect, but a bulk of the expense is actually come through when they get placed into service, and we think that's going to be in the first half of the year with a little bit tailing in the third and fourth quarter.
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Okay, perfect. Thank you guys very much.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Good question, Scott. Thanks.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Swanson with Hovde Group.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Hi, Kevin. Good morning.
Kevin Swanson -- Hovde Group -- Analyst
Hi, guys. Good morning. I appreciate the comments on M&A, but just curious on your thoughts around some of the larger community bank and regionals teaming up through MOEs and kind of the transaction has been generally more accepted.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. I think there is a little bit of a mixed track record here on some of those transactions and we continue to look at all forms of M&A, as you would expect us to do. And for us, plan A, if we continue to do the types of deals we've done, which is to continue to expand our footprint, build, scale and existing footprint, try and drive efficiencies out of that scale, that would be plan A, but as you would imagine, our Board looks at all types of transactions and we'll continue to look at those opportunities as they evolve. But as I said earlier, I mean those transact -- any transaction has a higher hurdle today given our focus on needing to achieve the initiatives and milestones embedded within the ONB Way.
Kevin Swanson -- Hovde Group -- Analyst
Most of my other questions are answered, but maybe just one more. It looked like in end-of-period basis, indirect increased a little bit this quarter, is that just a timing issue, or is there a change in the thought on that portfolio?
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes. No change in thought, it's just -- that portfolio ebbs and flows, and sometimes you have more run down than others. It just happened to be a little bit higher production on a tax basis [Phonetic].
Kevin Swanson -- Hovde Group -- Analyst
Okay, great, thanks guys.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks.
Operator
You have a follow-up question from the line of Chris McGratty with KBW.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Yes, sir.
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
Yeah. Thanks, Jim. Just making sure I'm clear on the expenses. Slide 22, where you give the one-time charges for '20 and also the benefit, the recurring benefit, Brendon, was your comment that you're comfortable with 2020 consensus. I think you said, excluding the am and the implementation charges or is it including the -- what it looks like $20 million [Phonetic], a little over $20 million of benefit.
Brendon B. Falconer -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
We're comfortable with the consensus kind of on a stand-alone basis. And then you can add in the impact on slide 22 plus the tax credit amortization. Is that clear?
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay. So comfortable with consensus. But then if you hit the $1 million, $5 million, $7 million, $9 million per quarter, we would need to reduce expenses by that amount. Is that what you're saying?
Brendon B. Falconer -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. You take that expense line and then you can subtract the consensus estimates. And then you can subtract the full year $22 million benefit from ONB Way.
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay. So, you're comfortable with where it was prior to the announcement to help us out.
Brendon B. Falconer -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. Exactly.
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
Okay, that's great. All right, thank you.
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Chris.
Operator
There are no further questions at this time. Are there any closing remarks?
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, everybody for the support. We appreciate the extra time you spent with us this morning. As usual Lynell and Brendon and Jim and Daryl, everybody is here for follow-up questions. Thank you so much.
Operator
This concludes Old National's call. Once again a replay along with the presentation slides will be available for 12 months on the Investor Relations page of Old National's website oldnational.com. A replay of the call will also be available by 1 (855) 859-2056. Conference ID code, 5278346. This replay will be available through February 4. If anyone has additional questions please contact Lynell Walton at (812) 464-1366. Thank you for your participation in today's conference call.
Duration: 35 minutes
Call participants:
James C. Ryan -- Chief Executive Officer
Brendon B. Falconer -- Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Scott Siefers -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Chris McGratty -- KBW -- Analyst
Terry McEvoy -- Stephens -- Analyst
Kevin Swanson -- Hovde Group -- Analyst
