Business First Bancshares Powers Through a Strong Second Quarter
Business First Bancshares has just concluded its second quarter 2026 earnings call, and the results are nothing short of impressive. The company's leadership team, consisting of Chairman, CEO Jude Melville, Chief Financial Officer Greg Robertson, Chief Banking Officer Philip Jordan, and President of b1BANK Jerry Vascocu, gathered to discuss their quarterly performance.
The highlight of the quarter was undoubtedly the return to normalized loan production rates, which led to a significant increase in net interest income. The company's team has also been working diligently on the credit front, reducing Non-Performing Loans by approximately 30%, in line with their forecasted progress at the beginning of the quarter.
Another notable achievement was the expansion of margin by eight basis points during the quarter, driven partly by disciplined loan and deposit pricing. Additionally, Business First Bancshares executed a relatively sizable loan sale that is expected to create additional margin opportunity as they redeploy those proceeds into higher earning assets over the next two quarters.
The company's financial services group has also been performing exceptionally well, with revenue running roughly 20% ahead of last year's pace at the halfway mark of the year. They have added a new partner and product, Jeff Fair with American Planning Corp, which provides CFO-type consulting services to community banks within their footprint.
However, there were two areas where Business First Bancshares experienced a slight disappointment. Firstly, deposits declined, albeit with a quarter of the decline being purposeful, reflecting the company's pay-down of higher cost broker deposits. Secondly, expenses ran slightly higher than normal due to upfront marketing spend and elevated legal fees connected to the resolution of a large non-performing credit.
Despite these minor setbacks, the company remains on track for a strong second half of 2026. The team is confident that their current pipeline, particularly in the Houston area, will translate into sustained growth for the remainder of the year.
The successful conversion of their Progressive Bank partnership on August 10th is also expected to contribute positively to the company's performance moving forward.
