Fidelity Southern Corporation, holding company for Fidelity Bank, reported net income of $12.7 million, or $0.47 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2018, compared with $9.4 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2018, and with $7.9 million or $0.30 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2017. For the year to date ended September 30, 2018, the Company reported net income of $33.9 million, or $1.25 per diluted share, compared with $27.4 million, or $1.03 per diluted share, for the same period in 2017.

Fidelity's Chairman, Jim Miller, said, "The third quarter reflects a number of positive trends with our decision to reduce our indirect auto business. Transitioning to a more commercially focused balance sheet has allowed us to build more customer relationships, help continue our good deposit growth, provide net interest margin growth, and moderate our costs as the banking industry and markets continue to change."

President Palmer Proctor added, "The momentum we started last year has successfully generated over $328 million, or 9%, total loan growth since the end of the third quarter of 2017. This is in spite of very competitive market conditions and accelerated payoffs. We are fully focused on driving shareholder value through our balance sheet transition strategy that will enhance liquidity, drive more commercial bank growth, increase our bond portfolio, and allow us to be more efficient in the back office."

BALANCE SHEET
Total assets decreased by $80.3 million, or 1.6%, during the quarter, to $4.8 billion at September 30, 2018, primarily due to a decrease of $159.3 million in total loans. This decrease was driven by a decrease of $110.5 million in indirect auto loans as Fidelity exited all markets, except for Florida and Georgia, at the end of last quarter. Servicing rights also decreased by $8.7 million, primarily due to the previously announced $1.2 billion sale of mortgage servicing rights ("MSRs") during the quarter.

Offsetting these decreases, investments increased by $60.4 million as the Bank continues to increase its investments available-for-sale portfolio as part of its strategy to reposition the balance sheet to higher yielding assets, and reduce its reliance on "gain on sale" income. Cash balances also increased by $25.1 million for the quarter.

Loans
Total loans, including loans held for sale, decreased during the quarter by $159.3 million, or 3.8%, to $4.1 billion at September 30, 2018. This decrease was driven by a reduction of $110.5 million in indirect loans through normal attrition and $18.6 million in loan sales. As planned, production of indirect auto loans decreased by $96.9 million compared to the previous quarter.

Asset Quality
Asset quality remained strong as nonperforming assets, excluding the guaranteed portion of government loans ("adjusted NPA's") and acquired loans, decreased during the quarter. Adjusted NPA's, a non-GAAP measure, decreased by $3.3 million during the quarter. The decrease was mainly due to the decrease in nonaccrual loans. Credit quality trend performance remains consistent and strong as net charge-offs decreased from 0.17% to 0.09% of average loans for the quarter. Lower charge-offs helped drive the $1.9 million decrease in the provision for loan losses for the quarter.

Fair Value Adjustments
Loan servicing rights decreased by $8.7 million, or 6.9%, during the quarter to $117.0 million at September 30, 2018, compared to $125.7 million at June 30, 2018. MSRs, the primary component of loan servicing rights, contributed the majority of the change, decreasing by 6.9% to $106.9 million at September 30, 2018, primarily due to the sale of MSRs noted above. The current estimated fair market value of MSRs was $111.6 million at September 30, 2018.

At September 30, 2018, fair value adjustments recorded on the balance sheet for loans held for sale, interest rate lock commitments ("IRLCs"), and hedge items were $11.8 million, a $3.0 million, or 20.1% decrease, from June 30, 2018. The gross pipeline of interest rate lock commitments was $65.7 million lower at quarter end, compared to June 30, 2018, due to slower seasonal production.

Deposits
Core deposits grew by $17.7 million during the quarter to $3.1 billion with noninterest bearing demand deposits contributing to nearly all of this growth. Noninterest bearing deposits grew by 1.4% as interest bearing demand, money market, and savings accounts remained flat. This increase was offset by a decrease in time deposits of $37.4 million during the quarter, mainly due to a decrease of $30.6 million in brokered deposits, resulting in a decrease in total deposits of $19.7 million, or 0.5%.

INCOME STATEMENT
Net Income
Net income was $12.7 million, or a $3.4 million increase over the previous quarter, as net interest income increased by $2.3 million and noninterest expense decreased by $3.3 million, primarily due to a $1.7 million decrease in commissions as a 17.7% decrease in mortgage loan production during the quarter drove lower mortgage commissions. A decrease of $1.9 million in the provision for loan losses also contributed to the increase in net income. Offsetting these changes was a decrease in noninterest income of $3.3 million, primarily due to a $5.9 million decrease in mortgage banking income, offset by a $2.8 million increase in other operating income mainly due to a $2.6 million death benefit received from cash surrender value life insurance policies during the quarter.

Net income was $4.8 million higher compared to the same quarter a year ago, primarily due to an increase in net interest income of $5.4 million.

Interest Income
Interest income of $46.9 million was higher by $2.1 million, compared to the prior quarter, primarily driven by an increase of 25 basis points in the yield on total loans. Interest income on loans for the quarter included a $1.1 million interest recovery from one nonaccrual commercial loan, which contributed 11 basis points to this increase. Although average loans decreased by $111.7 million for the quarter, $98.7 million of this was due to a decrease in lower yielding indirect loans, which were partially replaced in the portfolio mix with higher yielding commercial and SBA loans. An increase in average investment securities of $26.4 million also contributed to higher interest income. The yield on total average interest-bearing assets increased 23 basis points from the previous quarter.

As compared to the same period in the prior year, interest income increased by $7.8 million as average loans increased by $384.6 million and the yield on total average interest-bearing assets increased by 43 basis points, as market interest rates increased year over year.

Interest Expense
Interest expense of $8.1 million decreased slightly by $143,000, or 1.7%, for the quarter as average FHLB borrowings decreased by $226.1 million.

As compared to the same period in the prior year, interest expense increased by $2.4 million. Rising market rates paid on money market deposits and CD's drove the increase, as well as increased volume and rates for short term borrowings.

Net Interest Margin
The net interest margin was 3.45% for the quarter compared to 3.22% in the previous quarter, an increase of 23 basis points. Adjusting the net interest margin for the $1.1 million interest recovery, the net interest margin percentage was 3.36% for the quarter. Loan coupon yields, excluding fees, SBA discount accretion, and accretable yields, increased faster than deposit and borrowing costs during the quarter.

The yield on total interest-bearing liabilities increased by only 2 basis points while the yield on average earning assets increased by 23 basis points from 3.95% to 4.18%. The previously mentioned interest recovery of $1.1 million contributed 11 basis points to this increase. Average loans decreased by $111.7 million, of which $98.7 million was a decrease in lower yielding indirect auto loans. Higher yielding commercial and SBA loans increased by $40.8 million as the Bank's strategy to reposition its balance sheet continues to occur.

Average interest-bearing liabilities decreased by $172.9 million, as average borrowings decreased by $226.1 million during the quarter since average deposit growth of $53.2 million helped to fund loan production.

As compared to the same period a year ago, the net interest margin for the quarter increased by 25 basis points to 3.45% from 3.20%, primarily due to a 43 basis point increase in the yield on total average interest-earning assets of $4.5 billion, offset by an increase of 27 basis points in the yield on total average interest-bearing liabilities of $3.1 billion. Average earning assets increased by $307.0 million, primarily due to an increase in average loans over the year. Average interest-bearing liabilities increased by $136.1 million, primarily driven by an increase in average borrowings of $148.2 million, offset by a decrease in average interest-bearing deposits of $12.3 million.

Noninterest Income
On a linked-quarter basis, noninterest income decreased by $3.3 million, or 9.0%, largely due to a net decrease in income from mortgage banking activities of $5.9 million, or 20.0%. Gross mortgage revenue decreased by $4.5 million and the mortgage MSR valuation impairment resulted in a decrease in related income of $1.3 million. Mortgage production also decreased during the quarter by $160.7 million.  Offsetting this decrease, other noninterest income increased by $2.8 million, primarily due to the $2.6 million death benefit received from life insurance policies during the quarter.

Compared to the same period a year ago, noninterest income for the quarter of $33.7 million was flat.

Noninterest Expense
On a linked-quarter basis, total noninterest expense decreased by $3.3 million, or 5.6%, due to a decrease in commissions expense of $1.7 million from lower mortgage loan originations and a net decrease in all other noninterest expenses of $1.5 million. These were primarily due to projects related to debit card and ATM fraud loss, outside service fees, utilities, and other liabilities, offset by increased incentives related to the balance sheet strategies implemented earlier in the year.

Compared to the second quarter of 2017, noninterest expense of $55.6 million increased by $2.7 million, or 5.2%. Salaries and employee benefits expense increased by $2.5 million, or 9.4%, due primarily to an increase in headcount of 63 in the mortgage and retail delivery and branches.

Income Taxes
 On a linked-quarter basis, income tax expense increased by $801,000, primarily due to the increase in pre-tax income for the quarter.

Compared to the third quarter of 2017, income tax expense decreased by $1.1 million as the effective tax rate decreased from 37.9% to 22.6% primarily as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted on December 22, 2017, which included, among other things, a reduction in the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% from the beginning of the tax year 2018 going forward.

OTHER NEWS
On August 30, 2018, the Bank sold MSRs relating to certain single family mortgage loans serviced for the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac"), with an aggregate unpaid principal balance of approximately $1.2 billion, effective as of August 31, 2018 ("Sale Date"). Approximately $13.9 million in deposit balances representing custodial funds and advances related to the MSRs were transferred to the buyer by the Bank after the Sale Date. The sale represented approximately 12% of the Bank's total single family mortgage servicing portfolio as of August 31, 2018.

This was the first sale of MSRs executed by the Bank as part of the Company's capital management strategy. The Bank anticipates executing other MSRs sales from time to time in the future as part of its ordinary course of business.