Fulton Financial's CEO Discusses Q1 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

In the release, you saw that we had a significant increase in linked quarter noninterest income, mainly due to continued strong mortgage activity and related sales gains. Our Investment, Management and Trust Services area also contributed to our growth in other income. Thanks to our very stable core deposit base and loyal customers, we remain highly liquid. We are aggressively working to deploy deposits back into our communities to creditworthy borrowers. However, while overall credit demand has been steady, it cannot be characterized as robust. The decline in our deposit balances this quarter was confined to our more costly municipal and time deposits, contributing to the net interest margin expansion I touched on earlier.

Another factor pertaining to our margin expansion this quarter was the deceleration in the pace of premium amortization on mortgage-backed securities, although that overall level still remains elevated. We experienced good first quarter commercial and personal household account growth as a result of sector-specific marketing and promotional efforts. We just concluded a new personal checking account promotion campaign, and we will be carefully monitoring the retention and expansion of those new relationships in coming quarters. We believe our expanded base of low-cost deposits is one of our key strategic resources.

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