2024 has been a year of strong deposit growth – uncommon in the industry today – and with our solid capital position, we are well-prepared to explore lending and asset purchase opportunities as they arise. Our team is hard at work pursuing our goals which include ending the year in the top 5% of the industry for growth and interest rate margin, while also building a valuable fintech in CD Valet.
Here are some highlights from H1 2024:
Record total deposits of $813.8 million, increasing by 9% (18% annualized) during H1 2024
Growth in consumer traffic, financial institution participation, and transaction volumes on CD Valet, reflecting increasing adoption of our online CD marketplace
Successful launch of two Partner Banking collaborations which are now generating new loans
Continued strong investment in growth initiatives
Profitability
Seattle Bancshares’ H1 2024 pre-tax, preprovision, net of charge-offs income (or core earnings) was $870 thousand, down from H1 2023 core earnings of $4.7 million. For H1 2024, net income was $120 thousand, versus $5.1 million in H1 2023. The decrease primarily reflects the impact of our aggressive approach to investing in high-growth opportunities (CD Valet and Partner Banking). The book value of SBI shares stood at $13.22 at the end of H1 2024 vs. $13.12 as of year-end 2023.
Capital
As of June 30, 2024, SBI had a total equity capital of $99.5 million on an asset base of $925.1 million. Seattle Bank’s leverage ratio measured 11.3%, over twice the minimum regulatory requirement of 5% and significantly above the regulatory criteria for being “well capitalized.”
Assets
SBI’s overall asset size has increased during H1 2024 from $856.0 million at year-end 2023 to $925.1 million at the end of June 2024. This reflects our increased cash holdings due to growth in our deposits.
Deposits
Total deposits were $813.8 million at the end of the first half of 2024, up from $745.0 million at year-end 2023. We continue to see steady growth in our CD portfolio, and CD Valet has been a tremendous source of business for Seattle Bank as we gain nationwide visibility and offer state-of-the art digital account opening. We created CD Valet to enable financial institutions like ours to better compete for deposits in the digital marketplace and provide consumers with access to the nation’s broadest set of financial institutions, the best rates, and a seamless way to open their CDs.
We continue our digital banking transformation and are now bringing digital account opening for Individual Retirement Account CDs (IRA CDs) online. While IRAs are a very popular retirement savings tool, many consumers are limited to dated methods to open an IRA at a bank – either in person at a branch or through the mail. Digital account openings for IRAs have existed at brokerage houses for a long time, but they are virtually unheard of in the banking sector. We developed the nation’s first “Online IRA CD” with digital account opening capability and completed the soft launch at the end of August. We anticipate this offering to be well received by Seattle Bank clients and prospective CD Valet partners, as savers can now open an IRA CD and go from start to-funded online, in less than 15 minutes.
As always, please contact me at [email protected] or 206.568.7805 with your questions and comments. We welcome the opportunity to talk with your personal or business banking needs and answer questions you have about Seattle Bank’s financial position and performance.
