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Text: We hope everyone is well.
I think earnings for the quarter were right in line with our expectations and impacted by the same influences the past several quarters.
Margin continues to be a headwind, but deposit fees, the strength of our financial services businesses, and credit tailwinds and we saw that this quarter.
The bigger story for us in the quarter was loan growth.
We had growth in every one of our portfolios this quarter ex-PPP and our pipelines and market activity continue to be very strong.
We're encouraged by these trends and have really good momentum right now across all of our credit businesses.
We also increased our securities book in the quarter given the market opportunity and that will be additive to future earnings as well.
I think Joe will provide more detail on that.
The recent strength of our financial services businesses continued in the quarter with revenues up 17% and pre-tax earnings up 22% over 2020.
We also closed on the acquisition of Fringe Benefits Design of Minnesota, a provider of retirement plan administration and consulting services with offices in Minneapolis and South Dakota.
Their performance out of the gate has been exceptional.
So we expect that will be a productive addition to our benefits business.
Our benefits wealth and insurance businesses are all performing extremely well right now in what is a very productive growth, pricing, and M&A environment for those businesses.
On the human capital front, as we previously announced, I'm delighted that Maureen Gillan-Myer has joined us as Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer.
She previously held the same role for HSBC USA and will bring tremendous experience, expertise, and business judgment to Community Bank System and we look forward to her contributions to our continuing human capital efforts.
Lastly, earlier this month, we announced an agreement to acquire a Elmira Savings Bank, a $650 million asset bank with 12 offices across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions of New York State.
It's a very nice franchise with a very good mortgage business that we expect will be $0.15 per share accretive on a full year basis excluding acquisition expenses.
So a very productive low risk transaction.
We have targeted a closing date in Q1 of next year.
Looking ahead, we like our current momentum across the company in all of our businesses.
As Mark noted, the third quarter earnings results were solid with fully diluted GAAP and operating earnings per share of $0.83.
The GAAP earnings results were $0.04 per share or 5.1% higher than the third quarter 2020 GAAP earnings results, but $0.02 per share or 2.4% below the prior year's third quarter on an operating basis.
The decrease in operating earnings per share is driven by decrease in net interest income and higher operating expenses as well as increases in income taxes and fully diluted shares outstanding, offset in part by lower credit-related costs and an increase in non-interest revenues, particularly in the company's non-banking financial services businesses.
Comparatively, the company recorded fully diluted GAAP in operating earnings per share of $0.88 in the linked second quarter of 2021.
The company recorded total revenues of $156.9 million in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of $4.3 million or 2.8% over the prior year's third quarter.
The increase in total revenues between the periods was driven by a $6.9 million or 16.9% increase in financial services revenues, offset in part by a $2.2 million decrease in banking-related non-interest revenues and a $0.4 million or 0.4% decrease in net interest income.
Total revenues were up $5.4 million or 3.5% from the second quarter 2021 results driven by a $0.5 million or 0.5% increase in net interest income, a $1.4 million increase in banking-related non-interest revenues, and a $3.5 million or 8% increase in financial services revenues.
Total non-interest revenues accounted for 41% of the company's total revenues in the third quarter.
Although net interest income was down only slightly from the same quarter last year, the results were achieved in a significantly lower net interest margin outcome.
The company's tax equivalent net interest margin for the third quarter of 2021 was 2.74% as compared to 3.12% one year prior, a 38 basis point decrease between the periods.
Comparatively, the company's tax equivalent net interest margin for the second quarter 2021 was 2.79% or 5 basis points higher than the third quarter.
Net interest margin results continue to be negatively impacted by the low interest rate environment and the abundance of low yield cash equivalents being maintained on the company's balance sheet.
The tax equivalent yield on earning assets was 2.83% in the third quarter of 2021 as compared to 2.89% in the linked second quarter and 3.28% one year prior.
During the third quarter, the company recognized $4.3 million of PPP-related interest income including $3.7 million of net deferred loan fees.
This compares to $3 million of PPP-related interest income recognized in the same quarter last year and $3.9 million in the linked second quarter of 2021.
On a year-to-date basis, the company has recognized $15.1 million of PPP-related net interest income.
The company's total cost of deposits remained low however, averaging 9 basis points during the third quarter of 2021.
Employee benefit services revenues for the third quarter of 2021 were $29.9 million, $4.8 million or 18.9% higher than the third quarter of 2020.
The improvement in revenues was driven by increases in employee benefit trust and custodial fees as well as incremental revenues from the acquisition of Fringe Benefits Design of Minnesota during the quarter.
Wealth management revenues for the third quarter 2021 were$8.3 million, up from $6.9 million in the third quarter of 2020.
The $1.4 million or 20.8% increase in wealth management revenues was primarily driven by increases in investment management and trust services revenues.
Insurance services revenues of $9.2 million were up $0.6 million or 7.6% over the prior year's third quarter driven by organic growth factors and the third quarter, acquisition of a Boston-based specialty lines insurance practice.
Banking non-interest revenues decreased $2.2 million or 11.5% from $19.1 million in the third quarter of 2020 to $16.9 million in the third quarter of 2021.
This was driven by a $3.5 million decrease in mortgage banking income offset in part by $1.3 million or 8.3% increase in deposit service and other banking fees.
On a linked quarter basis, financial services revenues were up $3.5 million or 8%, reflective of the organic and acquisition-related momentum in these businesses and banking non-interest revenues were up $1.4 million or 8.7% [Phonetic].
During the third quarter of 2021, the company recorded a net benefit in the provision for credit losses of $0.9 million.
This compares to a $1.9 million provision for credit losses recorded in the prior year third quarter.
The company's net loan charge-offs were only 7 basis points annualized in both periods.
During the third quarter of 2021, economic forecasts were more favorable than the third quarter 2020 economic forecast driven by the post-vaccine economic recovery, which in combination with elevated real estate and vehicle loan collateral values drove down the expected life of loan losses.
On a September 2021 year-to-date basis, the company recorded net charge-offs of $1.1 million or 2 basis points annualized.
The company recorded $100.4 million in total operating expenses in the third quarter 2021 as compared to $97 million of total operating expenses in the third quarter of 2020, an increase of $3.4 million or 3.6% between the periods.
Operating expenses exclusive of litigation and acquisition-related expenses increased $7.2 million or 7.7% between the comparable quarters, $5.6 million of which was driven by an increase in salaries and employee benefits due to acquisition-related staffing increases, merit and incentive-related employee wage increases, higher payroll taxes, and higher employee benefit-related expenses.
Other expenses were up $0.9 million or 8.7% due to the general increase in the level of business activities.
Data processing and communication expenses were also up $0.9 million or 7.2% due to the company's implementation of new customer-facing digital technologies and back office systems between the comparable periods.
Occupancy and equipment expense decreased slightly due primarily to branch consolidation activities between the periods.
In comparison, the company recorded $93.5 million of total operating expenses in the second quarter of 2021.
The effective tax rate for the third quarter of 2021 was 21.1% up from 20.3% in the third quarter 2020.
The increase in the effective tax rate was primarily attributable to an increase in certain state income taxes that were enacted in the second quarter of 2021.
The balance sheet crested the $15 billion total asset threshold during the third quarter due to the continued inflows of deposits, which increased $384.8 million or 3.1% from the end of the second quarter.
The company's low yielding cash and cash equivalents remained elevated totaling $2.32 billion at the end of the quarter despite the company purchasing $536.9 million of investment securities during the quarter.
Ending loans at September 30, 2021 were $7.28 billion, $38.4 million or 0.5% higher than the second quarter 2021 ending loans of $7.24 billion and $176.1 million or 2.4% lower than one year prior.
Excluding PPP activity, ending loans increased $154.1 million or 2.2% in the third quarter.
This increase was driven by growth in all five loan portfolio segments: consumer mortgages, consumer indirect loans, consumer direct loans, home equity, and business lending excluding PPP.
As of September 30th, 2021, the company's business lending portfolio included 1,386 PPP loans with a total balance of $165.4 million.
This compares to 2,571 PPP loans with a total balance of $284.8 million at June 30th, 2021.
The company expects to recognize its remaining net deferred PPP fees totaling $6.3 million over the next few quarters.
The company's capital ratios remained strong in the second quarter.
The company's net tangible equity [Phonetic] to net tangible assets ratio was 8.59% at September 30th, 2021.
This was down from 9.92% a year earlier and 9.02% at the end of the second quarter.
The company's Tier 1 leverage ratio was 9.22% at September 30th, 2021, which is nearly 2 times the well capitalized regulatory standard of 5%.
The company has an abundance of liquidity.
The combination of the company's cash and cash equivalents, borrowing availability at the Federal Reserve Bank, borrowing capacity at the Federal Home Loan Bank and unpledged available for sale investment securities portfolio provided the company with over $6.18 billion of immediately available sources of liquidity at the end of the third quarter.
At September 30th, 2021, the company's allowance for credit losses totaled $49.5 million or 0.68% of total loans outstanding.
This compares to $51.8 million or 0.71% of total loans outstanding at the end of the second quarter of 2021 and $65 million or 0.87% of total loans outstanding at September 30th, 2020.
The decrease in the allowance for credit losses is reflective of an improving economic outlook, very low levels of net charge-offs, and a decrease in specific reserves on impaired loans.
Non-performing loans decreased in the third quarter to $67.8 million or 0.93% of loans outstanding, down from $70.2 million was 0.97% of loans outstanding at the end of the linked second quarter of 2021, but up from $32.2 million or 0.43% of loans at the end of the third quarter of 2020 due primarily to the reclassification of certain hotel loans under extended forbearance from accrual to non-accrual status between the periods.
Loans 30 to 89 days delinquent totaled 0.35% of loans outstanding at September 30th, 2021.
This compares to 0.36% one year prior and 0.25% at the end of the linked second quarter.
Management believes the low levels of delinquent loans and charge-offs has been supported by extraordinary federal and state government financial assistance provided to consumers throughout the pandemic.
During the third quarter of 2021, the company increased its quarterly cash dividend a $0.01 or 2.4% to $0.43 per share on its common stock.
This increase marked the company's 29th consecutive year of dividend increases.
Looking forward, we remain focused on new loans generation and will continue to monitor market conditions to seek the right opportunities to deploy our excess liquidity.
Our loan pipelines are robust and asset quality remains very strong.
We also expect net interest margin pressures to persist to remain well below our pre-pandemic levels but also believe our abundance of cash equivalents represents a significant future earnings opportunity.
We're also fortunate and pleased to have strong non-banking businesses that have supported and diversified our streams of non-interest revenue.
And lastly, to echo Mark's comments, we are pleased and excited to be partnering with Elmira Savings Bank.
Elmira has been serving its communities for 150 years and will enhance our presence in five counties in New York's Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions.
At June 30th, 2021, Elmira had total assets of $648.7 million, total deposits of $551.2 million and net loans of $465.3 million.
We expect to complete the acquisition in the first quarter of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions including approval by the shareholders of Elmira Savings Bank and required regulatory approvals.

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community bank system q3 revenue up 2.8% to $156.9 mln.
q3 revenue rose 2.8 percent to $156.9 million.
qtrly earnings per share $0.83 per share.

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