and our Chief Credit Officer, Mark Fusinato. Before we get started, I'd like to pass the call over to our Chairman, Roberto Arentia, for his remarks. Roberto.

Thank you, Alberto, and a Happy New Year to all. We extend our best wishes for a successful and healthy year ahead. We are delighted and proud to finish the year on a strong note and excited to announce a 20% increase in our quarterly dividend. No doubt a reflection of our strong financial performance and confidence in our ability to continue to deliver top quartile results in key profitability metrics, as Alberto and the team will cover shortly. What our board and team have accomplished over the last few years is remarkable and provides a great platform for the future. Our North Star, the preeminent local commercial bank. The Chicago banking market, including verticals we run out of chicago offers significant opportunities for growth and development with violin well positioned to lead every day it feels we're reminded that we live in an era of radical uncertainty where rules based order is fading and of course we care about the impact and outcomes on our customers majority of which live in a world that is very distant from billionaires Davos and geopolitics in this environment we as the local community and commercial bank become even more relevant to our customers and the people who work with us as you know we believe in people first banking where engaged employees delight our customers enabling violin to produce top quartile returns for our shareholders in december we were named to america's best workplaces for 2026 overall we wrapped up the year with continued low turnover and an engaged workforce of just over a thousand employees work together to deliver value for our customers and community and that's inspiring to me and the rest of the byline team we have at byline identified our common purpose becoming the preeminent local bank we strive to execute consistently with that at all levels all the time and that defines our future so others don't have to do it for us The position of the franchise is enviable as the largest local community bank, the second largest local commercial bank, and the largest most stable platform for quality lenders to bring their books and grow their businesses. We have the balance sheet plus the strategically stable ownership group with all the tools and structure in place that a lender needs to just focus on serving clients and finding new ones this gives us an edge over what most banks dream of and the number one big issue most banks try to solve with deals organic growth we are driving everything toward compounding returns and that means reliable sustainable prudent growth over the long run and you can see that in all our actions with capital and recruiting and in our track record for achieving top tier financial results to summarize why we are excited first the people we have in place from those that have been here for over 40 years to those who joined us over the last five years as a result of merger activity in the market second the results out of that execution have been exquisite. 130 million reasons in the last year to back up this excitement. Third, the quality and simplicity of our strategic plans have kept us focused. We don't strive to be everything to everyone. We are a commercial bank striving for preeminence in that segment. Fourth, our position in the marketplace, as I've described. And finally, our unique shareholder base and their representation in our boardroom this is an incredibly optimistic time for byline company populated by exceptionally kind competent people who care about what we do and how we do our work deferring shape and separate is what we plan to do i truly believe that among the thousands of community banks we are unique in our approach and prospects And with that, I'm happy to return the call to Alberta.

Great. Thank you, Roberto. This morning, I'll walk you through the highlights for the full year, as well as the quarter. Tom will follow with the details on the financials, and I'll come back and wrap up before we open it up for questions. As always, you can find the deck for this morning's call on the IR section of our website. Please refer to the disclaimer at the front. So, turning to our full-year results on slide four, Byline delivered strong results for both the fourth quarter and full year of 2025. Before I get into the numbers, I want to thank our team. The results we're sharing today are a direct reflection of their dedication to customers and the effort they put in throughout the course of the year. A year ago, I said we had excellent momentum and felt confident in our ability to profitably grow the business and deliver value for shareholders i'm pleased to report we did exactly that the operating environment evolved differently than we anticipated interest rates remained elevated longer than expected macroeconomic uncertainty increased and regulatory and policy changes came faster than in the past against that backdrop we stayed focused on what matters serving customers executing our strategy and achieving several important milestones. First, we closed our transaction with First Security, converted systems, and completed the integration all within a single quarter. Second, we upgraded important customer-facing technology platforms. And third, we continued our preparation to cross the $10 billion asset threshold in 2026. We also grew relationships, sustained profitability, built capital, returned $42 million back to stockholders and grew tangible book value per share by approximately 17%. Overall, 2025 was a productive year in which we continued advancing our strategy to become the preeminent commercial bank in Chicago. For the year, net income was $130.1 million, or $2.89 per diluted share, on revenue of $446 million, up 9.7% year-on-year. Profitability was strong with pre-tax preparation ROA of 219 basis points, ROA of 136 basis points, and ROTC of 13.5%. Year-on-year loan growth came in at 8.9% and deposits grew 2.5%. Capital ratios increased throughout the year and ended strong, with TCE at 11.3 percent, demonstrating strength and financial stability. Lastly, we maintained positive operating leverage, notwithstanding the rate environment towards the end of the year and our continued investment, turning to the fourth quarter on slide five. Results for the fourth quarter were also strong. Net income was $34.5 million, or 76 cents per diluted share on revenue of 117 million. Profitability and returns remain solid. Pre-tax preparation and income was 56.6 million. Pre-tax preparation ROA was 232 basis points. ROA was 141 basis points. And again, ROTCE notwithstanding a higher capital base was 13%. Revenue was up 1.1% from the prior quarter and 12 percent year on year driven by higher net interest income from a balance sheet standpoint loans grew three percent length quarter deposits declined to 7.65 billion due largely to balance sheet management at the end of the year origination activity was consistent with prior quarters at 323 million with growth coming primarily from our commercial and leasing businesses On the liability side, non-interest-bearing deposits were essentially flat at 24% of total deposits, and deposit costs came down 19 basis points to below 2% for the quarter. Tom will provide you with additional detail on deposit costs, the margin, as well as our rate outlook. Expenses remained well-managed and came in at $60.4 million. Our efficiency ratio was 50.3%, and our cost-to-asset ratio was 2.47% as of quarter-end. Asset quality remains stable. Credit costs for the quarter were $9.7 million, driven by net charge-ups of $6.7 million, down on a quarter-over-quarter basis and a reserve build of $3 million. Our allowance now stands at 1.45% of total loans, up three basis points from last quarter, and NPLs increased to 95 basis points. Turning to capital, our capital levels remain strong across the board, and that strength gives us real flexibility in how we allocate resources. We put that flexibility to work this quarter by repurchasing approximately 346,000 shares. Looking ahead, our board authorized a new repurchase program that allows us to buy back up to 5% of outstanding shares, And the board also approved the 20% increase in our quarterly dividend, which will be paid this quarter. I'll now turn it over to Tom to walk you through the financials in more detail.

Thank you, Alberto, and good morning, everyone. Starting with our loans on slide six. Total loans increased $3.3 million annually and stood at $7.5 billion at year end. Origination activity was solid, which was up 22% compared to the prior quarter. payoff activity increased 156 million dollars from Q3 and stood at 361 million dollars and line utilization inched up to 60 percent for the quarter our loan pipelines remain strong and we expect loan growth to continue in the mid single digits for 2026. turning to slide seven total deposits were 7.6 billion dollars for the quarter down 2.3 percent from the prior quarter primarily due to managing the balance sheet to stay below the 10 billion dollar year-end and q4 seasonality outflows we saw a nice decline in deposit costs for the quarter and continue to see the benefit from disciplined deposit pricing which drove deposit costs lower by 19 basis points turning a slide please we had record high net interest income of 101 million dollars in q4 up 1.4% from the prior quarter, primarily due to loan growth, lower rates paid on deposits, and lower interest expense related to the sub-debt payoff, partially offset by lower yields on loans and securities. This was the third consecutive quarter of NII growth and reflects a 10.7% increase for the full year. The net interest margin grew to 4.35%, up 8 basis points link quarter, and on a year-over-year basis, NIM expanded 25 basis points. The improvement in the margin was driven by a decrease in the cost of interest-bearing liabilities, which declined by 29 basis points. Our outlook for net interest income is based on the forward curve, which currently assumes 50 basis point decline in the Fed funds rate for 2026. This implies a net interest income range of $99 to $100 million for the first quarter. We continue to remain focused on growing and sustaining our net interest income by growing the balance sheet and reducing our asset sensitivity. Turning to slide nine, non-interest income was $15.7 million, essentially flat from the prior quarter. Gain on sale of loans was $5.4 million, down $1.6 million in the quarter, reflecting lower premiums and mix of loans sold. swap income was up nicely for the quarter as we continue to focus on growing other fee income categories our gain on sale forecast for 2026 is on average 5.5 million dollars per quarter with lower q1 expectations due to typical seasonality turning to slide 10 expenses came in at 60 million dollars essentially flat from the prior quarter the modest decrease reflected lower loan related and data processing expenses partially offset by higher incentive compensation for 2026 we expect our quarterly notice expense to trend between 58 and 60 million dollars during the slide 11 our allowance for credit losses increased three percent to 109 million dollars representing 1.45 percent of total loans up three basis points from the prior quarter We recorded $9.7 million in provision for credit losses in Q4, compared to $5.3 million in Q3. Net charge-offs decreased $6.7 million, compared to $7.1 million in the previous quarter. NPAs to total assets increased to 77 basis points in Q4, from 69 basis points in Q3. The increase was partially driven by a lower balance sheet at year end. Moving on to capital on slide 12. This quarter kept a year of meaningful progress in growing our capital position. For the quarter, CET1 came in at a strong 12.33%, up 18 basis points linked quarter, and up 63 basis points year over year. Additionally, the TCE to TA ratio stood at 11.29%, up 168 basis points from last quarter. In closing, we remain focused on long-term stockholder value by growing tangible book value per share, EPS, and increasing our return on tangible common equity. With that, Alberto, back to you. Thank you, Tom. Before we open the call

for questions, let me touch on our priorities heading into 2026. First, we remain on track and expect to cross the $10 billion asset threshold this year, and we're well prepared for that milestone we're monitoring the regulatory environment closely particularly potential changes to asset thresholds but we're not slowing down in anticipation of what might happen we will continue to move forward second our focus remains on organic growth last april we launched a commercial payments business and the progress so far has been excellent we've onboarded six customers and have several more in the pipeline for this year we've also added approximately 70 million dollars in liability balances and have seen a corresponding increase in ach volumes both transactions as well as dollars we entered 2026 with good pipelines and remain well positioned to continue gaining share across all our commercial businesses third credit discipline remains a priority the way we maintain that discipline is by staying close to our portfolio monitoring it and identifying and addressing issues quickly as they emerge as we move into 2026 we're excited about where we stand we've built a strong team we're generating real operating leverage our competitive position is solid and we're able to capitalize on opportunities when they come In short, we like where we're positioned. Before we turn to questions, I want to thank our employees for everything they do for our company and our customers on a daily basis. And with that, Carly, we can open the call up for questions.

Thank you very much. We'd now like to open the lines for the Q&A. If you'd like to raise a question, please signal now by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. And if you'd like to remove yourself from the line of questioning, star followed by two. As a reminder to raise a question, star followed by one. Our first question is from Nathan Race from Piper Simon. Your line is not open. Hey, guys.

Good morning. Good morning. Maybe just to zoom out for a second, Alberto, you know, you guys posted a really strong year in 2025. You know, pre-tax, pre-provision income was a 13% year-over-year. So just curious, as you look at the company broadly, you know, which areas or which verticals are you most excited about to just continue to scale up, and where are you seeing opportunities become? more efficient whether it's in the technology front where you guys have been proactively

investing or in any other areas yeah thanks for the question nate so uh i touched on it a little bit in the in the remarks there so certainly we we continue to be excited with um you know our commercial payments team um you know it's a team that we launched last april um we're being very deliberate in how we approach that market, but we have a great team. We've added people there, and we're starting to see the benefit of not only having a pipeline, but onboarding customers, growing deposits, growing transaction volumes, and correspondingly, ultimately, fees that come along with that. So we're certainly excited about that, but we're also excited, given our position in Chicago and the current competitive dynamics about our ability to continue to gain share in the commercial banking space here. As you know, we are today the largest community bank in the market. Tomorrow when we go over $10 billion, we will be between $10 billion and probably $70 or $75 billion. We will be the largest local commercial bank in the market. So we like where we are and we like the opportunities that we have across really all of our businesses

got it that's really helpful color thanks for that um changing gears to capital you know you guys are continuing to build um at pretty strong clips just given the profitability profile and i noticed you know in the last couple earnings decks you know the eight to nine percent tt target has been absent so you know curious if there's anything to read into then just in terms of how you're thinking about capital returns to shareholders and what that implies in terms of the M&A environment these days, or if you're just looking to maybe operate with higher capital levels going forward versus the previous targets? Yeah, I think if you think about it in terms of

we always talk a bit about always wanting to have some degree of flexibility comes with it, you know so we do carry a bit more capital to allow for that i think our experience has been that that has served us well it has allowed us to move very very quickly and really without any hesitation or delay when opportunities you know come up in the market and we like that that being said i think this past quarter i think you also saw the the comments related to the increase in dividends um you know to the degree that we have excess capital um we will uh re and we have no immediate use for it we will find ways to return that capital back to shareholders as you know um this past quarter we were active we were repurchasing shares we thought we repurchased chairs at attractive prices and also uh over time and i think you've heard the comments you know we want to have a sustainable um you know and growing dividend over time and i think our board um you know took action in that regards with the dividend increase that that we just announced so hopefully that's indications of um you know the capital priorities we obviously want to have capital take advantage of to grow the balance sheet grow organically support the growth of the business. Two, have a sustainable dividend. Three, have enough flexibility to pursue M&A when and if those opportunities surface. And then lastly, we have the buyback program in place. As you know, we also announced an authorization to buy back up to 5% of shares outstanding. So we think the combination of that gives us enough flexibility to do what we need to do in terms of growing the business, but also at the same time return capital back to shareholders if we have no use for that capital. Okay, that's very helpful. If I could just sneak

one more in for Tom, I think you mentioned your comments that you're looking to reduce the asset sensitivity of the balance sheet going forward. Just curious if you could shed some more light on that and kind of how you think that positions the margin going forward in light of potentially additional Fed cuts this year.

Sure. Thanks, Nate. You know, the margin has been growing. We're happy with that. We like the idea that NII is growing. We continue to, you know, kind of try to, you know, we are issuing some CDs, but also we have some flexibility to do some more interest-bearing accounts. So just because of the mix of our bank, we really want to have some more floating rate liabilities. and i think we're we're set up well for that it will take time to get there but again the discipline pricing we've had going on over the last year here you know related to deposits has really helped to kind of lift the margin and you know the goal is to kind of try and keep it stable but again you know year end was um you know we had a lot of activity in the fourth quarter and we had some securities that you know we sold just to keep the you know the bank under 10 billion dollars that was a really important you know effort for us and so you know we'll it's likely we'll be buying those securities back here in the in the first quarter so obviously those transactions are a little bit tighter margin trades let's just think about that's why we focus on nii so stable i would say today when growing that interest income yeah and it also to add to

what Tom said, Nate, it also, again, just the common theme today seems to be flexibility. But with our margin, it gives us ample flexibility from a competitive standpoint. I mean, we're not in a situation like other institutions are, where they're trying to get their margin back up to a level that they need to get it to from a base profitability standpoint. I think with our margin today it certainly gives us a lot of flexibility competitively that that we can use when appropriate

yep makes sense i appreciate all the color guys thank you

thank you very much our next question comes from damon del monte from kbw amen your line's not open

hey good morning everyone hope you're all doing well today um just looking for a little bit of color on the great looking for a little color on the the loan growth outlook i know you mentioned mid single digit growth but you know can you just kind of remind us what areas of uh your lending platform offer the best uh best opportunities kind of across which which segments can drive that

really i mean commercial uh i would still say that uh damon uh real estate i think it's going to be a function of you know transaction activity uh you know it's it's not to say that that there are not transactions happening but you know certainly since rates started going up in 2022 i think transaction activity relative to what it was before has been you know somewhat muted um you know with rates coming down is that gonna gonna change are we gonna see uh some of that obviously if that picks up then probably what we would tell you at some point is that we probably move the move that guidance up but at this point i think that that kind of mid single digit range is is

solid um and then tom with regards to the your commentary on the uh nii for next quarter is typically first quarter like a seasonally low quarter for you guys and then you'll see like a steady build as they go through the the rest of the year or do you think that um it no there's

not really much yeah in the first quarter damon it's you're right it's you know obviously there's fewer days in the quarter so that's one drag um you know loan fees etc that go through the margin are a little bit lower during that during the first quarter but um generally speaking you know again, stable to grow in throughout the year. Got it. Okay. Yeah. I would also have to add to

that, Damon. I think always, you know, we've gotten some rate cuts here, you know, towards the end of the year, last year. Naturally, we're asset sensitive. So notwithstanding the fact that our margin expanded, but just putting that aside for a second, you know, if we're asset sensitive, if we see rate cuts, you know, there's a transition period, right? We have to catch up, you know, probably, you know, on a gradual kind of declining rate scenario. We have to catch up, you know, it usually takes us about a quarter to catch up and be able to kind of reprice and reset. So just keep that in mind as you think about the rate environment going forward.

And, Damon, one more thing. One more thing, Damon, just to point out is, remember, with the Fed cuts in the fourth quarter, the SBA loans reset January 1. So, when you see guidance a little bit lower than what we actually reported for the fourth quarter, some of that is, you know, driven by the fact that we have loans resetting here January 1st.

Got it. Okay, great. And then with regards to credit and kind of your outlook for net charge-offs for the upcoming year, as you kind of think about provisioning, you know, I think last year you had around close to 40 basis points of net charge-offs, which was down a little bit from 24. You know, based on what you're seeing in your portfolio, do you feel like you're kind of going to be in that near 40 basis point range again?

i think in the in the i think damon our guidance has been pretty consistent on that like 30 to 40 basis points somewhere in there um you know it might be you know towards the high end of that range it might be towards the low end of that range but somewhere in that in that kind of 30 to 40 basis points range at this point got it okay great um that's all that i had for now thanks so

much for taking my questions. You bet. Thank you very much. As a reminder to raise a question followed by one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Brennan Mosel from

Hovd Group. Brennan, your line's not open. Hey, good morning, everybody. Hope you're all doing well. Likewise. Good to hear from you. Yeah, maybe just to start off here on kind of the underlying pieces of the loan growth outlook, just thinking between origination activity and payoffs. I think origination grew up 17% for this year to $1.3 billion or so. So how do you think about the underlying case of origination that are getting you to that mid-single-digit net growth outlook for 2020?

I think I would point you to that page in the deck that shows the kind of the trend of originations and payoffs um you know it's slide you know it's page six of the deck where it talks about portfolio trends you know and i i know throughout the year we we get questions sometimes in terms of well your your loan growth is exceeding you know kind of the targets you know and and probably the answer that that you hear us give is we we have a pretty good handle in terms of what we're seeing from an origination standpoint we think we know the activity that's going to pay off but obviously that's that's that at times the timing of it and and it also can be a little bit harder to predict and i think the the past quarter you know fourth quarter certainly you saw you know payoffs catch up a bit um so i would point you to that chart and you know kind of that mid single digit range and the categories that that i highlighted which is primarily our our kind of commercial banking categories is really where we're gonna uh you know expect to see growth and just the the nuance quarter on quarter is going to be really that payoff number and our ability to to actually be be as accurate as we can be with that um so hopefully that that

answers here yeah yeah that's that's helpful um switching gears here to net interest income a bit more of a conceptual question like you folks have been outperforming your quarterly nai guide pretty consistently for the past i would say two years or so um despite you know the the short uh short term part of the curve coming down and your asset sensitivity um is there a point at which you just gain a little more comfort with how your balance sheet is responding to this environment to get a little more bullish with the NAI outlooks that you're giving? That's a good question. I mean,

I think Alberto touched on it with the loan payoffs. I mean, you know, I think loan payoffs were probably lower overall for the year than expected. So, you know, we benefited from some related to that. You know, we continue to hear that payoffs will probably be a little bit higher. So I think that's where we probably provide some caution. But generally speaking, I think we've a really good job on deposit pricing we still are growing so we need to grow more deposits and we just had some you know call the fourth quarter noise because of the 10 billion dollars but we continue to focus on deposit you know growing core deposits first and foremost and then sprinkling in some other deposits to help support the balance sheet but um look we're continuing to grow nii i think it's grown meaningfully i think we've done well on the on the rates down scenarios that have happened that we've been able to you know have stable and growing nii i think you know at some point you've run out of room there to continue to um drop deposit costs in a meaningful way and i think you still have to be mindful of the competition and the other banks that are growing so i think i i think our numbers are still really strong still and i think you know we're really proud of the results we've had but um it really is a function of loan growth and low cost deposits and we have seasonality that happens and we you know a lot of our deposits that we saw leave in the fourth quarter we've already seen a recovery on some of that so you know we will benefit from that as well and i think then furthermore we'll just you know see how the payment scheme does and then the benefits we get from that will you know probably give us you know a chance to say guidance

could be better yeah i i would add those are a couple thoughts just to to add a just a another you know a bit more on the deposit pricing thing um you know that we've been outperforming our own internal you know uh models as it pertains to it so you're you know probably a question that you have in your mind is well what are you guys doing why is why is that and i think i i touched on that a quarter or a couple of quarters ago that look i think analytically we're we're getting a little bit better um in being able to segment our portfolio more granularly um and therefore be able to make more precise pricing decisions in different pockets or segments of the portfolio So I think we're getting, you know, better at that operationally, and that's resulted in some of the, call it the, even against internal, you know, internally what we expect, some of the outperformance. So there's some of that that you're seeing, you know, come into play, and I think you saw it in terms of how quickly we've been able to reprice liabilities here with, you know, in the fourth quarter, you know, with a changing environment. But that said, ultimately, we will exhaust that, and that ultimately will have limits, meaning it'll catch up. But that's just something to keep in mind, and that it hasn't been just how confident are you to provide higher guidance. We've actually been kind of performing better than what we thought internally we could do, And that's been obviously a positive overall. So just keep that in the back of your mind.

Yeah, no, that's super helpful. I'm going to see one more in here. Just on the SBA business, I mean, the gains on sale have been compressing for a couple of years now. Is there a point at which, like, the risk-adjusted return that you're getting for the overall business, including, you know, lending plus gains, just isn't up to where you want it to be? and like how far are we from from that point today i still think brendan we're pretty far from that

and i would also point you when you look at the compression in the gain on sale uh margin a lot of that has to do with the mix um i mean as you can see on the on the chart on page nine where anytime that you have a higher proportion of loans that are longer tenor uh long so like 25 year term versus 10. That mix between 10 and 25 drives that. And certainly to the degree that you have other types of government guaranteed loans, like a USDA loan here or there, that also impacts the gain on sale margin. But to answer your question on the big picture side of it, I think you would have to see materially, you know, much more compression for it to get to a point where you start to rethink whether on a risk-adjusted basis this is still attractive.

That's helpful, Alberto. All right. Well, congrats on the quarter, and thanks for taking my questions. You bet.

Thank you very much. As a reminder to raise a question, we'll be staff followed by one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Terry McEvoy from Stevens. Terry, your line is now open.

Hi, thanks. Good morning, everyone. Maybe just circling back to the commercial payments team, are these clients or customers, are they fintech companies? And if so, could you talk about the due diligence you're doing there? Are they more traditional payments to your commercial customers? And Alberto, what may be some median term goals and objectives that we can kind of track over the next couple years to track the progress yeah i yeah good question good morning

terry um so i i think on that commercial payments business i i would say so far um think of like you know so i'll give you an example so payroll processing companies so not necessarily kind of like a small commercial customer but um you know a payroll processor that that provides payroll services and as part of those services is the ability to originate um you know and process uh payroll payments for their their client base and we would be for example the the banking institution behind that providing the infrastructure to allow that to happen so that's an example i would tell you some of the clients that we've onboarded have been in that particular vertical But we also want to look for opportunities beyond that, you know, in terms of you mentioned fintech companies that would need to have a payment element to their business. In other words, it could be something along the lines of, you know, embedded finance or a company that's, you know, trying to embed payments, you know, into their product offering to their end clients. So that's certainly something that that we could entertain. We could entertain that with just traditional access to the payment rails. But also we could do it through, you know, supporting their issuing of cards or their acquiring of card transactions. So that's just a flavor of the capabilities, you know, of the team that we have and the business that they're they're going after. And as far as metrics going forward, I think we'll keep you up to date. Certainly, we're off to a good start. I would tell you it's been deliberate. We hired that team. You know, we launched the business in April of last year. The team came on board fully a year earlier. So this has not been a quick, you know, build. it's let's make sure that we have processes procedures policies um and the infrastructure to properly be in the business um and and support you know the clients that that we want to do business with um the last thing i would say uh is also think about it as uh not really a shotgun approach we're not trying to onboard you know 10 or 15 customers a year we're trying to onboard three or four and the onboarding process for the reasons that that you are thinking of is six to nine months and that's just to make sure that from a you know compliance process procedures policies you know we are comfortable supporting the banking needs of those customers so hopefully that that gives you some color on on that business yeah that's great thank you um and then maybe just

one quick last one did the government shutdown impact the sba business in q4 and it didn't look like it from a revenue standpoint and did anything get pushed out into the first quarter i know tom said q1 is is going to be down a bit but we're just wondering there it's always that it always

has a little bit of an impact theory but i think we would just tell you it was it's immaterial

perfect thanks for taking my questions have a great weekend you bet likewise thank you very

much our next question comes from brian martin from jenny montgomery scott brian your lines now

open hey good morning guys brian morning brian say just one on yeah i think i'm not sure who mentioned it but uh maybe when whoever was talking about the swap income um just talked about maybe a bit more focus on fee income this year you've already touched on the sba uh i guess just kind of wondering you know the run rate we're at today around 16 million and kind of is that a good sustainable level and then it grows from there given kind of focus there and maybe where the focus is to maybe improve that run rate as you look into 26. i think it's a good level um you

know, do we want to see that absolute number, you know, go up? The answer is yes. I think a couple of areas, you know, Tom mentioned swaps and derivatives and things of that sort, you know, so we want to continue to do as much as we can there. Obviously, that's a bit of a rate-sensitive dynamic, but we certainly want to continue to offer, you know, those products and services and take advantage of situations where we can do that. Second would be, you know, I touched on the commercial payments business. Well, the side effect of that is fee income, treasury management fees, and the like. So certainly that's one area that we want to see grow. Our wealth management business, which is a small part of our, you know, business today, but, you know, we grew nicely this year. We're, you know, getting closer and closer to be able to eclipse the billion dollars in assets under management, which is a milestone given the size of that business today. So, hopefully, over time, that business gets to contribute a bit more. And then you obviously have the gain-on-sale business from our SBA, you know, government-guaranteed lending business.

That's helpful. And I guess maybe one for Tom, just given some of the noise I think you talked about, Tom, at year end with kind of managing the balance sheet to the $10 billion level, can you help us with maybe a guidepost on the average earning assets in 1Q, just given end of period, fourth quarter was a bit lower than the average for the quarter. But knowing your commentary about, you know, kind of buying back some here in the first quarter, kind of a landing spot or just kind of a range, I think, about the earning asset base for 1Q?

I think kind of in that $150 to $200 million, Brian. I mean, we had, you know, in the fourth quarter, we had a number of payoffs. The payoffs kind of came early in the quarter, and the loan growth came towards the end of the quarter. So, you know, I think that plus the fact that we had about $100 million in securities, you know, that we had cleaned up with a portfolio a little bit. So I would call it $150 million to $200 million in more earning assets, but still below $10 billion, you know, in total assets for the first quarter.

Yeah, so the average in the fourth quarter was $9.2 million, but the period end was closer to, you know, call it $9 million maybe. So, maybe it's a $9.2 billion level is kind of a decent way to think about 1Q as a landing spot, you know, broadly.

I think so. That sounds about right.

I appreciate that. Yeah, okay.

I appreciate that. And just, no, I was going to say, Brian, just, you know, I commented on it and Tom commented on it as well. And just to be clear, you know, towards the end of the year, we just wanted to make sure and we had, you know, levers to pull. We just wanted to simply make sure that we were not going to be over $10 billion. So that is the comments related to really balance sheet management were really attributed to that. We just wanted to make sure that as of that snapshot of 1231, we were not going to be over $10 billion. So we achieved that. We don't have that constraint going forward. So to Tom's point, I think you will not really see any type of, you know, management activity to try to keep us below a certain level in terms of.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that, Alberto. That's kind of what I figured. i just want to make sure i have the right starting point given all the noise in there that you know like you said was just a management function so thank you for that uh that commentary um maybe just one or two others here just on the on the uh credit quality front any changes in the any material changes i'm assuming no in the criticized or classified levels from third to fourth quarter when we see the filings come out no material changes just absent flows

You know, we're going to be, I mean, you certainly, you know, know us, we're going to be, you know, quick to, you know, if we see something, we're going to be very, very quick to downgrade, even if it means to downgrade something to criticize. And we certainly have a view anytime we do that. We have a plan. Where is the credit? Where's the trajectory of the credit likely headed in, you know, a short period of time? Is this temporary? Do we expect this to be ultimately to correct itself? Are they, is the borrower taking the right corrective actions? In which case you will see us, you know, we'll see that credit migrate back. If not, if we don't have confidence in that, then, you know, we look to move the credit quickly. So, but no, I would tell you it's just ebbs and flows.

And the last one for me was just, I know Tom talked about the NII dollars, but just in terms of the margin percentage, I guess, would it make sense that there's, you know, given the outlook for rates this year, you know, with, you know, maybe potentially two costs out there, but really less noise than last year from a rate perspective that maybe the core margin, when you think about it, XC accretion, there's a little bit more stability in that margin this year. You know, I'm not sure what's based into the guidance in terms of NII, but just thinking about it intuitively that we don't see much rate movement. You know, maybe that core margin is a bit more stable or steady, you know, as we move throughout the year, or is that

not, you know, I think it's going to be stable. Brian, you know, I hate to talk about margin, but it's going to be stable. I mean, it has grown. I don't know that you can expect it to continue to grow, but I think we'll take the margin we have, and if we can maintain it throughout the year, I think we'd be pretty satisfied with that.

Yep. I apologize for asking the question, Tom. I know it's just a bigger picture question with the rain environment, so I appreciate the color, and I thank you for the questions,

and congrats on a great year. Yeah, thank you, Brian. We appreciate it.

Thanks Brian. Happy New Year. Thank you very much. We currently have no further questions so I'd like to hand back to Alberto Paraschini for any further remarks. Great Carly. So to

everyone on the call, thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your interest in byline and we look forward to talking to you again next quarter. Thank you very much. As we conclude today's

call. We'd like to thank everyone for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.