Expenses at U.S. banks are on the rise as they attempt to confront a labor supply shortage by raising wages.
On third-quarter earnings calls, U.S. bank management teams discussed the impacts of wage inflation and what they are doing to mitigate the strain on expenses.
Camden, Maine-based Camden National Corp. raised its minimum wage to $17 an hour from $15 an hour and increased all other employees' salaries by 3% in October. The change came after the company began facing "a very challenging job market" due to other companies raising wages and employee burnout from the pandemic, President and CEO Gregory Dufour said on the company's third-quarter earnings call.
"I mean, [with] McDonald's, Walmart, et cetera, offering anywhere $17, $20 an hour, it makes us less competitive," he said. "In the past, we could compete by a good starting wage, good benefits, upward mobility. But what we were finding is a lot of those folks really needed to focus more on the short-term, call it, pay increase. So we saw that."
To offset the increase in employees' salaries, Camden National will suspend its profit-sharing contribution to employees' 401(k) accounts in 2022.
Richmond, Va.-based Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp.'s expenses increased by $3.3 million during the third quarter, mostly driven by a $2.8 million increase in salary and benefits in order to "maintain competitiveness in the current labor environment," President and CEO John Asbury said on the company's third-quarter earnings call. "The reality is that wages have gone up, period, for [entry-level, customer-facing] types of roles," he added.
Since increasing wages, the company has found it easier to recruit for open roles and attrition has declined, he said.
Columbus, Ga.-based Synovus Financial Corp. also saw increased wage pressure for its entry-level roles, President and CEO Kevin Blair said on the company's third-quarter earnings call. Synovus' salaries and other personnel expenses were up 3% year over year during the third quarter.
In addition to raising wages for existing employees, U.S. banks also reported increased salary expectations as they look to hire new employees.
"The new hires coming in at a level higher, we are forced to somewhere along the line make an adjustment for all the staff," Li Yu, chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Preferred Bank said on the company's third-quarter earnings call.
Preferred Bank's salary and benefits expense totaled $10.9 million for the quarter, up $1.8 million from the third quarter of 2020.
Fellow Los Angeles-based Hope Bancorp Inc. also reported an increase in noninterest expenses, partly related to wage increases in order to keep employees, according to the investor presentation. Compensation stood at $47.0 million for the quarter, up from $42.3 million in the linked quarter and $40.7 million in the year-ago period.
"We have a little bit higher salary expenses due to the retention of the employees for what's going on with hiring environment," CFO Alex Ko said on the company's third-quarter earnings call. "But … I would expect salary and benefit expense will be decreasing compared to Q3."
But executives at other banks are not as optimistic that they can manage expenses through wage inflation.
"There's no secret in terms of what's going on out there in the quest to maintain a workforce. Wage inflation is significant in the Chicago marketplace," CFO Bradley Adams said on the third-quarter earnings call for Aurora, Ill.-based Old Second Bancorp Inc. "I don't know that we'll be as successful as holding the cost down as we were in 2021."
Old Second's salaries and employee benefits expense was up 3% year over year.
Mitigating factors
Some U.S. banks are searching for ways to offset wage inflation.
Cincinnati-based First Financial Bancorp. is focused on head count as it experiences wage inflation for both entry-level roles and jobs related to technology, President and CEO Archie Brown Jr. said on the company's third-quarter earnings call. The company's salaries and employee benefits expense was down 3.2% year over year and its full-time employee count declined by 15 quarter over quarter.
"Our view is keep working on head count reductions, but the trade-off is going to be higher wages for the folks that are here," Brown Jr. said.
Executives from both Gulfport, Miss.-based Hancock Whitney Corp. and Houston-based Prosperity Bancshares Inc. discussed how technology may help mitigate wage pressure on their respective third-quarter earnings calls.
Hancock Whitney's personnel expense was down 3% quarter over quarter and the company expects to "harvest additional efficiencies," partly through technology deployment, to offset wage inflation, President and CEO John Hairston said on the company's earnings call.
Prosperity's salaries and benefits expense stood at $78.4 million for the third quarter, up 3.7% from $75.6 million in the linked quarter. The company hopes replacing manual work with automated technology will help to reduce some expenses related to inflationary pressures, Prosperity CFO Asylbek Osmonov said on the company's earnings call.
Synovus hopes its benefits outside of compensation will keep employee attrition down.
"There's more to a job than just what you earn. And so we're trying to make sure that we drive better levels of engagement through development, career development, to make sure that we're offering perks outside of wages," Blair said.