Wintrust Financial Corp at Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Great start to the discussion. Dave, following the election from November, seems to be a lot of optimism in the air. What are you hearing from your commercial clients and are you seeing any changes in their behavior?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Sure. You've recently reiterated your loan guidance of mid to high single digits, or couple months into the quarter, any thoughts on loan growth as we're looking out for the rest of the year? I know on your call back in January talked about a little bit more competition. Are you seeing such in -- are you seeing an increasing in the competition?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : And then how does the premium finance side of the portfolio factor into that? Will that be in that same range? What's going on in that business? I know it's been a pretty hard market for the Premium Finance, is that still holding up? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 03, 2025 / 3:25PM, WTFC.OQ - Wintrust Financial Corp at Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Sure, right. As we're thinking about competition, are you seeing any participation or an increase in participation from non-bank lenders at this point?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Got it. What's going on in the commercial real estate market within the Chicago MSA?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Sure. Okay. Overall credit trends still seem to be normalizing, how are you thinking about the long term net charge off rate for Wintrust and how does that impact the spreads that you're willing to underwrite at?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Yeah. We talked a little bit about commercial real estate and offer specifically. We talked about the premium finance business. Are there any other segments out there that you think carry higher risk than what the street may be thinking or are there any segments that regulators are focusing on in their discussions with you?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Got it. Great. Staying with the balance sheet on the deposit side of the equation. How is competition right now, does it remain rational?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Sure. What about the bail or the mix of deposits? How do you see that shifting throughout 2025?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Got it. Let's shift to the net interest margin. You've talked about a roughly 350 -- 3.50% NIM. It's where you've been kind of maintaining that outlook here, probably a stable NIM throughout the year. What are your assumptions underneath that -- to get to that stable NIM throughout the year?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Sure. And as a growth-oriented bank, like you said earlier, loan growth was over 10% last year on your new business, your new deposits, new loans, what type of spread is coming in on that growth?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Gotcha. Let's talk about operating expenses. On your call, you talked about another year mid-single-digit growth. Can you just clarify that your outlook for expenses in 2025?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : So now you mentioned the entry into Western Michigan with Macatawa, that deal's been closed now for a few months. How is that thing progressing?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Got it. And maybe I should ask this first, given the level of interest that we have from investors right now in M&A, but on the M&A side, we're expecting a wave to come through, at least some people are. How do you see Wintrust playing in M&A over the coming couple of years?

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Do you see any holes in your own footprint or any geographies that you really would like to get to? And then the flip side, any geographies that you just have no interest in.

Question: David Long - Raymond James - Analyst : Got it. Excellent. Well, Dave, thank you very much for the discussion today. Those of you that are interested, we're going to continue the discussion downstairs in room Cordova 5. Thank you very much.