Banking noninterest revenues, comprised of deposit service fees, mortgage banking and other banking services revenues, increased $1.9 million, or 10.6%, as compared to the prior year’s second quarter, and increased $3.7 million, or 10.9%, between the comparable YTD periods. The growth between both periods was primarily due to increases in mortgage banking revenues that reflected higher sales volumes of secondary market eligible residential mortgage loans. Financial services business revenues, comprised of employee benefit services, insurance services and wealth management services revenues, increased $5.8 million, or 12.1%, as compared to the prior year’s second quarter and increased $8.7 million, or 8.9%, compared to the prior YTD period, reflecting revenue growth in all three segments between both periods.
Noninterest expenses increased $6.0 million, or 5.3%, between the second quarter of 2023 and the second quarter of 2024 and increased $10.0 million, or 4.4%, between June YTD 2023 and June YTD 2024. The increases were primarily driven by salaries and employee benefits that increased $5.4 million, or 8.0%, and $7.0 million, or 5.0%, for the second quarter and YTD periods of 2024, respectively, as compared to the corresponding periods of 2023, reflective of merit and market-related increases in employee wages and acquisitions between the periods, partially offset by the impact of the previously announced retail customer service workforce optimization plan and a decrease in employee retirement-related severance expense. The remaining net increase in noninterest expenses were mainly due to higher data processing and communications expenses reflective of the Company’s continued investment in customer-facing and back-office technologies including investments in additional technology to enhance its cybersecurity infrastructure combined with an increase in other expenses driven by increases in insurance expenses and a decrease in the net periodic pension benefit credit due to lower non-service related components.
The Company’s deposit base and liquidity position continues to be strong, as the Company had total immediately available liquidity sources of $4.44 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2024, more than double its estimated uninsured deposits, net of collateralized and intercompany deposits. Estimated insured deposits, net of collateralized and intercompany deposits, represent greater than 80% of total deposits at the end of the second quarter. The Company’s deposit base is well diversified across customer segments, which as of June 30, 2024 was comprised of approximately 61% consumer, 26% business and 13% municipal, and broadly dispersed, illustrated by an average deposit balance per account that was under $20,000. Since the Federal Reserve began raising the federal funds rate in March 2022 in an effort to combat inflation, the cycle-to-date deposit beta (change in the Company’s cost of funds as a proportion of the change in the federal funds rate) for the Company is 22% and the cycle-to-date total funding beta is 24% of the cumulative 525 basis point increase in the federal funds rate. The lower betas are reflective of a comparatively high proportion of non-interest bearing deposits, representing approximately 28% of total ending second quarter deposits, and the composition and stability of the customer base. In addition, more than 66% of the Company’s total deposits were in noninterest checking, interest checking and savings accounts at the end of the second quarter. The Company did not utilize brokered or wholesale deposits.
Net Income and Profitability
As shown in Table 1, net income for the second quarter and June YTD of $47.9 million and $88.8 million, respectively, decreased $0.4 million, or 0.8%, as compared to the second quarter of 2023 and increased $34.7 million, or 64.2%, compared to June YTD 2023. Earnings per share of $0.91 for the second quarter was $0.02 higher than the second quarter of 2023, while earnings per share for the first six months of 2024 of $1.67 was $0.67 higher than the first six months of 2023. The decrease in net income for the quarter was the result of increases in noninterest expenses, the provision for credit losses and income taxes, partially offset by increases in net interest income and noninterest revenues, while the increase in earnings per share for the quarter was the result of a decrease in fully diluted shares outstanding, which more than offset the slight decline in net income. The increase in net income and earnings per share for the YTD period as compared to the prior year was the result of an increase in noninterest revenues, primarily due to the realized loss on the sales of investment securities that was recognized in the first quarter of 2023 as part of a balance sheet repositioning, as well as an increase in all other noninterest revenues and a decrease in fully diluted shares outstanding, partially offset by an increase in noninterest expenses, income taxes and the provision for credit losses, as well as a decrease in net interest income. Operating net income, a non-GAAP measure, of $50.5 million and $94.3 million for the second quarter and June YTD 2024, respectively, decreased $1.5 million, or 2.9%, as compared to the second quarter of 2023 and decreased $7.4 million, or 7.3%, compared to June YTD 2023. Operating earnings per share, a non-GAAP measure, of $0.95 for the second quarter was down $0.01 compared to the second quarter of 2023, while operating earnings per share of $1.77 for the first six months of 2024 was down $0.11 compared to the first six months of 2023. See Table 14 for Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures.