M&T Bank Corp (MTB) May 5, 2026 Conference Transcript

We have M&T Bank with us. From the company, we have Daryl Bible, Chief Financial Officer. Daryl, thanks for making it over. Yet again, M&T has been a strong supporter of this event. I've been doing this, I think, 25 years now, and they've come, I think, I want to say the majority of those. Daryl, maybe the best place to start is for maybe some of those that are in the audience, maybe less familiar with M&T, just maybe talk about your approach. To banking, M&T is, I would say, a little bit different than maybe you're just plain vanilla regional bank.

Thanks, Jason, and thanks for having us here again today. We love coming over to Europe, meeting with investors and all that. So M&T Bank is a regional bank. We operate in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. It's 13 states plus the District of Columbia. One of the unique things about M&T Bank is we run a community banking model. It's kind of our differentiating factor. If you think of it, we have six businesses that are verticals that we have, but we also operate horizontally across the 13 states with 27 banking regions. We have 27 regional presidents. Those regional presidents help drive the sales forces and really know the communities that they're in to help us be most effective in those serving customers and communities that we offer there. You know, some of the things, when you look at M&T Bank, you know, in the last couple of decades, going through the Great Recession, you know, we were one of two banks that didn't cut our dividend. We were one of three banks that didn't lose any money during the Great Recession, so we're very conservative, very... We're a consistent type performing company. We generate a lot of capital. We return that capital to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases, you know, and we continue to execute. Probably our strength that I would say most is that our credit underwriting is really strong. When people look at our loans and our loss rates, we really thrive in times of stress because we really underperform from a very low credit loss perspective.

Got it. I guess, um... There's two priorities that you've been talking about for M&T this year, operational excellence and teaming for growth. Maybe just explain why these matter and what traction or progress you're seeing around these priorities early in the year.

Yeah, these are two really great priorities for this company. Let me start with teaming for growth. Teaming for Growth is really taking our community banking model and double down on that, and that we really want to make sure that when we go out and meet with our customers, that we bring the whole bank to our customers. So it's all about deepening wallet share, cross-selling, and all that. You know, since we've had this priority now so far this year, we're starting to see positive signs of that actually having a positive impact on us and on our customers. You know, we're getting a lot more referrals from business banking and commercial to our wealth areas. We're getting a lot of referrals from also business banking and commercial into employment employees at work so we can basically cross-sell retail checking accounts and banking services to the employees of our customers and all that. So it's really a positive thing that's going on in the regions. Our regions are starting to grow because of this, which is really positive, both on lending and deposits side. So, we're off to a really good start. From an operational excellence perspective, you know, think of this as really taking all the operations that we have in the company and trying to simplify and automate those operations as much as possible. So, we're going into our areas and operations and trying to ask our employees, what things can we stop doing? The more we can stop doing, the more we can simplify our operations and get things done simpler, more, less expensive. You know, in the end, as we implement Operation Excellence, we'll have lower FTEs, probably, and lower costs. But it's all about putting together a bank that can basically grow double or triple in size, but be less complex as we kind of grow because we try to simplify how we do things as much as possible.

All right, maybe pivot to the outlook. There's been, I guess, some movement within your guidance, but, you know, during the earning calls in April, you guide. You made some tall, small tweaks to the ranges, which implied mostly lower estimates. Then during the prepare marks, you talked about strong pre-tax, pre-provisioned revenue and earnings in line or possibly exceeding expectations, and then you had some positive commentary on fees in your slides on Monday or Friday. So just maybe kind of tie that all together or some kind of what's your messaging you're trying to get out there?

It's fluid. Let me tell you that. You know, we started the year a little soft in some of our lending areas, and we talked about that on the earnings call. That was in CRE and in our consumer book. But since March, what we've seen in the CRE book, really strong demand, you know, strong production. We had over a billion dollars production in March. We had a really strong April as well. CRE is going to grow this year, probably in the next quarter or two. Very, very good, positive momentum. We're really happy to see that. On the consumer portfolio, I would tell you home equity is growing, but the indirect portfolios, auto, boat, and RV, got off to a really slow start because of the weather. I think since March, we're starting to see more activity there. We're starting to grow our indirect portfolios, which is positive for us. For us, that helps us with a net interest margin perspective because those tend to be our higher yielding. assets that we put on the books. You know, one of the reasons we guided down in our NIM during the earnings call was because we weren't booking the higher yielding consumer assets. Those seem to be coming back online, which is positive for us. On the fee side, you know, we've had two really good years in fee growth. This year is looking to have another third year of really strong fee growth. We're getting opportunities to continue to grow our mortgage servicing We're also growing our capital markets functions, growing corporate trusts as well, and Bayview continues to support us and, you know, give us higher distributions because they're performing really well as well, and from that perspective, so fees are on an upswing again, not sure if we'll get double-digit growth, but we'll have really strong growth in fees and exceed our expectations.

All right, maybe you kind of did delve a little bit more into that. I guess just first on lending, I thought on the call you made an interesting comment on the earnings call that, you know, loan pipelines remain strong, but you chose not to chase growth or yield if the transaction doesn't fit your underwriting return standards. Maybe just expand on that or any particular areas you're concerned about.

You know, for us, you know, when we're out, you know, talking, trying to grow and meet our customers' needs and demands, you know, we go through this, and there's obviously a lot of competition in the marketplace. We are very loyal to our customers. You know, if we're going to stretch for anybody, it's going to stretch for people that we've supported over the long period of time and that actually supported us as two through some challenging periods. So, from a pricing and structure perspective, you know, we'll support our customers long-term. If it's a new customer coming in, you know, we're going to try to keep it, you know, more consistent with our normal underwriting standards from what we have. It is very competitive out in the marketplace, but we are getting our fair share, definitely in the CNI space, both in middle market as well as in our specialty businesses.

I guess in middle market, so I could pick up in growth there in the first quarter. Maybe just kind of double click on that. You know, what are the specific drivers there and, you know, can that strength? Yeah.

So if you look at our borrowers today, they tend to be really resilient. And the last year or two, under the new administration, there's been a lot of things changed and thrown out into the marketplace, whether it was tariffs, tax changes and all that. And some of that has been really positive. But they tend to be really resilient, try to figure out how best to operate. There's always a handful of people that maybe can't adjust. But when you look at it, they're going to be really resilient. Net-net overall, I look at it from our portfolio, our portfolio continues to improve from a credit quality perspective, so net-net, our customers are very healthy from that. I would say if you look at middle market, our utilization numbers are higher. People are investing more than they have. We see investments who are leasing businesses that we offer, so people are doing capital investments, so that's positive to see out in the marketplace. So, it's, I think it's good, and our, you know, our Our producers are out there meeting the needs of our customers, and all that seems to be going very well.

And then you mentioned specialty lending businesses. Maybe just delve into that and maybe explain what are some of the key growth drivers there.

Yeah, the majority of our specialty lending businesses really came from peoples and we've right-sized them. So corporate and institutional is really large, corporate lending. You make loans there. Those are usually really high-quality loans. To get your return holders, you have to cross-sell and get your fee income. We've had nice growth in our capital markets area, which is helping, you know, get the returns higher in that space, so we're continuing to drive and have success there. We've been growing out our fund banking, which is part of an NDFI portfolio, but it's a, what we think, a very safe type of loan that we have, capital call lines. That's growing out nicely. We have some franchise lending in that space. We do dealer commercial services, you know, so there's a mixture of businesses. Those have been growing Nicely and very positively for us consistently over the last couple of years.

And then you talked about commercial real estate picking back up in April. The Senior Loan Officer Survey last night talked about banks kind of loosening in CRA. Just maybe just talk about... I guess, is that the pickup, I guess, more function of payoff and paydowns kind of abating, or are you seeing kind of real activity and just maybe kind of where the sources within CRE are seeing the growth?

I'd say it's a combination. We've had some heavy payoffs and paydowns over the last year or two. That seems to be abating a fair amount. We've also had some good demand in the CRE though very competitive in that space. I would say the majority of the CRE that we're putting on the books is more multifamily and industrial. Some of it is in construction lending, but we feel really good. We do also lend in some other areas within commercial real estate, but those are probably the primary areas where we're seeing most of the growth. From a pricing perspective, it's competitive, but we still think we get our returns in the long run there. When you think of our commercial real estate business, though, everybody thinks of the old M&T, where the only way we made money and CRE was putting on the balance sheet. Well, I'm here to tell you today, we do as much off-balance sheet production as on-balance sheet production, and we generate a lot of fees in that base as we sell loans. We originate sell loans to the agencies, to life insurance companies, and all that. And some of our customers really want more longer term permanent financing, so it's their need that we're filling, and it's for us getting more capital turnover, get higher returns. So our business is actually growing much more now than it has in the past. It's just most of it, or at least half of it, doesn't go on the balance sheet anymore.

Good point, good point. And you talked about a pickup in consumer lending in April after They're slow starts of the year. I don't know, oil is now, you know, over 100. Employment numbers have been good, but, you know, there's kind of always trepidation. Just maybe just talk about the overall health of the consumer and just your thoughts around that.

You know, we talked about this on the earnings call, but what we're seeing is the K-shaped economy is continuing to widen out. It's widening out in that the higher-end consumer is actually getting stronger, you know, with the stock market performance and their investments that they have are out there, and, you know, they're the ones really driving a lot of the large discretionary spending that exists out in the marketplace, and they're alive in their spending, and you can actually see that. On the lower end of the consumer, we don't see deterioration. We see that they're kind of in the same place that they were maybe last year or in the same place this year. Still struggling, but still making it. The amount of money they're spending is consistent with what they were spending a year ago. So even with higher gas prices or whatever, they're still making it and getting through that. You saw the employment numbers last week, relatively good employment numbers, pretty strong consumer spending. numbers going out there. It's kind of amazing how well the US economy is holding up and performing really well right now.

And then maybe just shift to the other side of the balance sheet. You know, deposit growth has been good. I guess we're seeing, you know, a pickup in. in loan growth throughout the industry. The Fed's on hold, it appears. Let me just talk about the ability to grow deposits from here. Do deposit costs begin to level off and just how you're thinking about the competitive landscape?

So I kind of go back to when rates were rising, you know, our deposit beta was in the mid-50s. And I tell our folks, and so far it's true, when rates have been coming down, you know, Guess what? Our deposit base is in the mid-50s. So we think we can stay in the mid-50s. As it comes down more, if they were to cut rates, not saying they are going to cut rates, we would end up getting pinched at some point because the consumer portfolios, the retail portfolios, can't reprice down. Once you go down maybe another 50, 75 more basis points, they get floored out from that perspective. So from a pricing perspective, I feel that we're doing relatively well there. From a growth perspective, our customer deposit growth is strong. It is funding our balance sheet loan growth. The only difference that we have is the mix. Our non-interest-bearing deposits aren't growing as much as we thought they would be growing, and that's because we thought rates would be declining this year, and they aren't declining. The rates are staying up higher, so the growth in DDA, so that's causing an unfavorable mixed change from funding. But when you look at our customer deposits, interest-bearing, we're growing, and we're getting a good share of the wallet from those customers, which is a good way to grow the balance chain.

Got it. I guess tying that together a bit, just on NIM, on the first quarter earners' call, you've chosen to be a bit cautious, I thought, with your NIM expectations. Maybe just talk to some of the puts and takes there.

You know, I think we're just cautious from a lending perspective, making sure that we can get the higher yielding consumer asset growth is really valuable for us from a margin perspective. You know, trying to get, you know, more free funds from DDA has been challenging. That's probably putting some pressure out there. CRE coming on strong should help alleviate some of that because we get higher yields in our CRE portfolio. So net net overall, I think our margin will come down some, but it's coming from the number one position. So if we come down a little bit, I think we're okay with that. It's really all about serving our customers and our communities and doing the right thing for the long term for serving what their needs are.

Got it. And then we touched on it a little bit earlier, but, you know, in a slide deck Friday, you kind of guided up fee income. You know, on the first quarter call, you said high end expectations. On the deck, you said kind of above expectations. You kind of riled off a lot of drivers before. Are there kind of one or two things that are kind of this last leg up, or is it kind of just a little bit of everything?

I would say it's mortgage, capital markets, and Bayview. I don't know what your take is from analysts, but some analysts don't view Bayview as a consistent revenue stream for us. I'm here to tell you we've had it for two decades. They are very consistent in being very profitable, very consistent in giving us a portion of those distributions that they make from that perspective. And what we're seeing is that Bayview is growing and being even more strong, and that's benefiting us as well. So, you know, we really value the relationship with them and really look forward to working with them in the future and all that.

Got it. And then, on the expense front, um, I mean... You kind of gave me just at the start of the year, you pointed to the upper end on the earnings call. You kind of stuck with that despite the fact that kind of this little bit of step up in fee income. Let me just talk about kind of the puts and takes on the expense side and just how you manage around that.

So as we grow our mortgage servicing business, we have to hire people and continue to grow there. So some of the cost increase is driven by the revenue increase that we did on the other end side there. That's really driving it. I feel pretty good that we're going to stay within the ranges that we originally came up with, just on the higher end of it. We'll see how it plays out. We may come back down at some point, but right now, I just see us staying more at the higher end, and it's really not any one thing. It's just a lot of littles that are really right there that are driving it up a little bit, but we'll stay within the original range.

And then credit quality has been... Spectacular. Our nanocrolls are the best since 07. It's remarkable and criticized assets, I think, have come down for multiple quarters in a row.

Nine quarters in a row. Yeah, and we are projecting the rest of the year for it to still go down. So this is really positive for us. That's good.

And then, I guess, despite that, you're one of the few banks to actually, regionals, to build reserves this quarter. I know. Would you maybe talk to kind of what drove that, anything we should be kind of maybe keeping it closer on for M&T or the industry overall?

It's the conservative nature of our company. It's our culture. Moody's came out with a scenario for the Iran conflict. We modeled that scenario. It was version 6, I think, scenario, and we used that as an overlay for our allowance. That drove our allowance up. Our provision, if we didn't use the overlay, would have came in close to what net charge-offs are. So it's a $30 to $40 million adjustment is what we made from that perspective. I'm not sure if any other of our peers did that, and we might be alone on that base. It's just our conservative nature. That obviously gets re-looked again when we come again this quarter and all that, and we'll see what we do from that perspective.

I mean, if there are one or two portfolios that keep you up at night, anything in particular, I guess, with... You know, elevated oil prices, does, you know, transportation or trucking or anything come to mind?

You know, we've looked at all the areas that we thought we could have stress because of petroleum, whether it's trucking, transportation, some of the supply areas, and we just don't have a major concentration in any of those areas. We have a couple one-off companies that might be struggling, but net-net overall, we're still forecasting our criticized book to actually get better, not worse from that perspective. You know, any one portfolio. The portfolios that we have started to ring in and really manage more centrally are the ones that we're more concerned about. So like leverage lending, you know, PE-backed companies now that were purchased, you know, those are ones that we were, BDCs are one we're taking a lot of attention on. Lender finance loans would be another category. So those are the ones, we don't have huge exposures in those areas, but those are the ones that we're probably managing the closest from a risk perspective.

I guess on that, I guess you and other banks gave additional details on NDFI portfolios in the quarter. How do you think investors should think about the risk in that portfolio, maybe more specifically on how stresses in private credit could lead to credit risk for M&T or just other banks more generally?

NDFI is a new term out there for a lot of lending that's been out there for several decades, like mortgage warehouse lending. Mortgage warehouse lending is a really safe business as long as you have good operational control. We perfect your collateral. We're big in that space. We're going to stay in that space. We've never had a loss in that space. You know, we've grown our fund banking book, capital call lines. I think that's relatively safe as well. We don't do nav lending in that space, so we think we're pretty good there. The other is how large is we lend to REITs, you know, some public, some private REITs. You know, we've had a lot of success there. So those three right there are two-thirds of our NDFIs, and we view those on the lower end from the risk spectrum from that perspective. I think the ones that we focus on are the BDC one, and that's really more about their liability structure, how much risk they have from a funding perspective, as well as the lender finance business that we have. Just those are the ones that we view might have more risk there that we're watching more closely. Got it.

And I guess, you know, CET1, after active share repurchase in the first quarter, I guess 10.3, you've kind of pointed to a range of 10 to 10.5. So kind of within that, sounds like loan growth is getting a little bit better. How do we think about share repurchase for the rest of the year?

You know, as long as the economy stays strong, we'll be towards the lower end of our capital range. If we see a lot of things happen that are more risk-oriented or things, but we aren't seeing that right now, so we're on the path of being closer to 10, and we are at a 10.5 from that perspective. I think, you know, we'll buy a fair amount of shares this quarter, not as much as last quarter, but, you know, probably a little, you know, more than what you might expect.

Got it. And then, obviously, the capital proposals came out late March. You know, let me just talk about the puts and takes between the ERBA model, the standardized approaches model, you know, the pros, I guess, and cons of each in terms of how it, you know, plays into M&T.

You know, the whole approach with the new Basel III is really a highlight to how we lend. We're a very conservative lender. We're a collateral lender. You know, we have really low LTVs. So, you know, from that perspective, you know, we feel really good, and we're being rewarded with that, with this new proposal. So if we just adopt the standardized, we think it's about 90 basis point increase in our CET1 ratio. If we go with the expanded version, that could be up to 20 basis points more just because of our high LTVs that we have, low LTVs that we have from that perspective. So I think all good from that front, really positive with the change that they have there Everyone really shows the strong underwriting that we have.

Does it, do you think, change how you operate or just?

Well, we have to get it approved first. Right. When do we think that is? Hopefully, the sooner the better. Hopefully, this year. But it really comes down to the governor is really the rating agencies. It's not the regulators. It's really how they interpret the new risk-weighted asset calculations. You know, if they keep their methodology as is, you know, that will allow us to use more capital and lower our targets down. Some more of our tangible will actually come down further than where it is today from that perspective. But more to come on that. We have to get it passed and then see how they adopt it from a methodology perspective. My hope is that we'll be able to leverage this up some as we move forward into next year.

I think you've talked about a 17% ROTC for next year, but that was before. These rules. I know. So then, I guess, how do we think about, you know, with these rules, how would you think about the incremental returns? Does it lend more? Does it buy back stock? Do returns go up, all the above?

Returns, good, could go up, but we could actually spend more money and invest more in our companies and our business as well. So there's a lot to think about from that, and we'll have more to talk about probably later this year as we know when Basel III gets employed. And we talked to the rating agencies a little bit more, but. It's either going to be neutral or better. It's not going to be worse from this perspective.

I guess one use of capital is acquisitions. M&T has been a very, I would say, good acquirer over the years. You've bought a lot of institutions and made them better and accretive to both sets of shareholders. Despite an improved regulatory tone, you guys have been noticeably quiet. I know. Why is that?

You know, we are very... Consistent. We want to continue to grow in the markets that we serve and get density in those markets, so we have a specific number of candidates that we're, you know, talking to that are in that book, and, you know, at some point, maybe one of those might want to sell and do it at a reasonable price that makes sense for both sets of shareholders and in the long term. So we're very patient. We think things will happen when it happens and we're just going to do what we do and just continue to run a real profitable company, buy back a ton of stock, pay a huge dividend and continue to perform really well until then. But it will happen when it happens.

Now, those listed candidates, are they in your footprint, extended footprint?

All in footprint. All in footprint. Yeah, they're, well, we're a lot different than other banks. You know, we are not chasing growth. We want to get more scale and density in the markets we serve. We think that's a better way for us to serve our customers and our communities, and that's really the strategy that we're staying with. And we think it's a good long-term strategy, both from a profitability perspective and from knowing your customers, your clients, from a credit perspective. We just think it's a better way to run the company. Maybe over time you inch out a little bit, But for the most part, we're going to stay in the northeast mid-Atlantic area.

And what about on the non-bank front? I know you've been acquiring subservicing we talked a little bit about earlier. Is there more to do there? And, you know, other areas of focus?

Yeah, we've definitely continued to buy more subservicing out there, and that's a good business for us. We do lift out sales teams, you know, like in wealth teams and business banking and all that. So we do it on the edges. It's not really noticeable. As far as actually buying companies, it's hard to buy a company that doesn't operate now in a bank because they're coming from an unregulated entity. A lot of those don't really end up performing really well long-term, so you're really important to bring people into the company that kind of know expectations, know how things work and all that, rather than try to educate them from, you know, going from a non-regulatory environment to a heavily regulatory environment from that perspective. Got it.

We've got 10 minutes left. I'm not sure if there's any questions from the audience. Maybe just wait for the mic. It's right behind you.

Maybe just talk about AI in the context of maybe as an opportunity on the cost side, and I would love some examples as to how you're using it or how you're planning on using it, and then maybe also the potential for disruption and how that impacts the... The business in terms of credit quality going forward, all of that as well.

Yeah, so from an AI perspective, we have three broad strategies that we're using AI for in the company today. First and foremost, our company has about 20,000, 22,000 employees. We don't give AI to our branch people right now, so we have 17,000 licenses that basically everybody has in the company. We are encouraging everybody. We have training programs in place, but with those 17,000 licenses, we are asking our folks to learn how to use it, make their lives easier, better, trying to be more productive, try to, you know, use all that to just be better at what they do today from that perspective. Second thing that we're doing is that we have, obviously, thousands of vendors in our company. A lot of those vendors have AI solutions, looking at those AI solutions that they offer and seeing what makes sense for us. One great example that we've done and what we've adopted is in our call centers, we have a vendor called Genesis. Genesis. Genesis came to us and said, you know, we will actually take the notes of your calls automatically with AI so your agents don't have to do that. So that was a 25 percent increase in productivity immediately from that perspective. So we're obviously all attuned to vendor related AI solutions, trying to get more efficient, more productive. The last way we're looking at AI is we're creating a workshop. And it's really, the way I would think about it is we have a lot of people that know how to remake operations areas, and we're doing that now throughout the company such that people can come in and automate using AI or whatever to make them more efficient and all that. So it's not just a one-off thing. It's actually a large process of how that works, and we're starting to do that and all. That said, to answer your question, I think long term, you know, you could have a lot of increase in productivity efficiency that will drive down, but if you go back to the 1800s, and if you remember when people used to use steam and they basically went to coal, that basically dropped the cost tremendously, and what that did is that lowered the cost for transportation and trains and all that stuff. So the reason I say that is, is if AI can become more productive, lower the cost, potentially, that creates a lot more demand in some services and products. So you could actually still have the same amount or even more people because there's more demand coming in for that service because it's at a lower cost forever. I think there's a lot to come, you know, it could go either way from that perspective. But, you know, your first thought is it's more productive, more efficient. But if everybody starts buying that product or service because it's cheaper, that creates the demand that maybe has more people. So I don't really know which direction it's going to go from that perspective. I just know it's a good tool. It's going to make us more productive and efficient, and we'll see how it plays out from an FTE headcount perspective.

Maybe a second one for me, if you don't? Sure. Just on stablecoins, it seems like we're a bit closer to the Clarity Act being passed. What are your thoughts around disruption to the corporate banking side of things, particularly in terms of maybe increasing deposit costs as you're having to compete with some of these? What are your thoughts?

Yeah, there's definitely a risk. Obviously, stablecoin and tokenized other assets or whatever can definitely hurt the liquidity of the banking system. That's a possibility from that perspective. And from M&T's perspective, we are now members of two groups of banks. One is the Cary Network. We're one of five or six banks in there, and one is sponsored by FIS. So, you know, we're putting... Ownership into these networks. They're going to build out tokenized deposits. They're going to look at collateralization. They're going to have other products and services that will be offered out there. We're just trying to be competitive with how things are changing and making sure that we aren't left in the dust as things continue to move from that perspective. We know there's going to be a lot of changes, but if it does impact liquidity, we have to make sure that we have the tools and the products and services This is to basically recapture that liquidity back into our balance sheet from that perspective. So that's really one of the main drivers that we're trying to do.

Thank you. Obviously, very well run. Company, high teens, ROTCE, as you've set out, share repurchase is the main means of returning cash, given valuations approaching two times tangible book. Is there any reset at any point in favor of dividends, or are we just stuck in a sort of capped dividend payout ratio as far as U.S. regional banks are concerned? Or can M&T break away, perhaps, under the new Fed? It seems as if it's a bit stretched, in my opinion, perhaps not yours.

You know, we pay a reasonable dividend. I mean, our payout ratio is in the mid-30s, mid-to-low-30s. You know, typically our board approves dividends, you know, every year, you know, and it's something that, you know, we're very proud of, having continuous dividends that we pay. It's really tied to our earnings stream. As our earnings go up, our dividends increase so that we're really consistent from a payout ratio perspective. You know, one of the reasons why we were one of two banks during the Great Recession that didn't cut our dividend is because we've really cherished our dividend and we protect our dividend. So we don't want to get over our skis too much, but we also don't want to be lagged behind. So we're trying to find the right balance and medium to give a good return. to our shareholders in the form of dividends. And then we, what we can't do as much there, then we pay more in share repurchase. Last year, we bought 9% of our stock. This year, we'll probably buy back 6% or 7% of our stock. So we're buying back a fair amount of our stock as well. So you're getting a lot of distribution back from an investor perspective.

Any other questions? I guess, Daryl, we talked about, you know, changes on the capital front, but I guess what other changes from either regulatory or supervisory standpoint, you know, have we seen over the last year or two that have been beneficial and maybe looking out, you know, what else are we still waiting for?

You know, I would say one of the biggest things that Governor Bowman has implemented is the focus on really managing the real risks of the company and letting some of the, what I would say, Good morning, everyone. Less risks, you know, maybe not be so addressed. You know, if you maybe missed some documentation or maybe some of the things aren't totally completed or whatever, you know, those aren't the big things that you really need to be concerned about. I mean, the real risks are cyber risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, you know, interest rate risk, you know, making sure you have strong capital. Those five things are really where the Fed's really focused on and really concerned from that perspective. You know, the things that we used to get, I would say, more Mickey Mouse type of comments and all that were more documentation errors or incompletions and all that, and that would take a lot of time to fix and just really wasn't worth the effort to actually make that happen. So I think the focus on the real risk has been a huge change. The other thing, the candor with the regulators, with the bank management and our board is Really, you know, consistent dialogue back and forth of what they see, what they expect, and all that. So, the dialogue is, you know, very good from that perspective, and with partners like that, you can actually get a lot of things done, get them done efficiently, and run a really strong company because of that, rather than trying to guess what they're trying to tell you, and they don't really tell you what they really want from that perspective. So, we like the candor, we like the transparency that they're giving us now.

Got it. We have about two minutes left. Any last questions from the audience? Otherwise, I'll ask the final one. I guess we have a big bank on this side of the pond buying a bank in your footprint. I guess does that create opportunity either for customers or employees and just, you know, how do you think about that?

Yeah, you know, M&T has a playbook, and it's not picking on any one bank or whatever, but when somebody buys a bank within our footprint, we go to our playbook, and we basically, you know, want to take advantage of if there's any, you know, things that happen in the integration periods or people don't like the change of how things are done and all that. So, you know, we're basically using our playbook and we're going to do as much as we can to try to lift out employees and customers that make sense for us to be part of us and to basically come and be part of M&T from that perspective and we'll see how that plays out. So we want to welcome our new owners and, you know, kind of discreet and well and see what we can take from their businesses and all that.

Great. On that note, please join me in thanking Dower for his time today.