HERITAGE FINANCIAL CORP WA

Liquidity refers to the Company’s ability to provide funds at an acceptable cost to meet loan demand and deposit withdrawals, as well as contingency plans to meet unanticipated funding needs or loss of funding sources. These objectives can be met from either our assets or liabilities.

Asset liquidity sources consist of the repayments and maturities of loans, sales of loans, maturities of investment securities and sales of investment securities available for sale. These activities are generally included as investing activities in the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. Net cash used by investing activities was $93.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2023. Net increases in loan balances from both loan originations and purchases used $280.7 million of cash, while investment securities sales and maturities, net of purchases provided $246.2 million in cash.

Liquidity may also be affected by liabilities as a result of changes in deposits and borrowings. These activities are included in financing activities in the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. During the year ended December 31, 2023, financing activities provided $105.3 million of funds resulting primarily from an increase in short-term borrowings of $500.0 million offset partially by declines of $310.3 million in deposits and $46.6 million in securities sold under agreements to repurchase, and $30.8 million in dividend payments. The decline in deposits consisted of a decrease in non-maturity deposits of $710.4 million, offset partially by an increase in certificates of deposit of $385.4 million due primarily to competitive rate pressures and interest rate sensitive clients moving a portion of their non-operating deposits to higher yielding accounts including certificates of deposit. The decrease in total deposits during 2023 was industry wide. No assurance can be given as to future trends; however, historically, we have been able to retain and increase our deposits. We had FRB advances of $500.0 million at December 31, 2023, which were obtained through the Bank Term Funding Program ("BTFP") and mature during 2024 and are discussed in Note 11 of the Consolidated Financial Statements.

At December 31, 2023, we had outstanding loan commitments of $1.27 billion, primarily relating to undisbursed loans in process and unused credit lines as discussed in Note 19 of the Consolidated Financial Statements. Loan commitments represent potential growth in the loan portfolio and lending activities. The current level of commitments is proportionally consistent with our historical experience and does not represent a departure from traditional operations. For the year ended December 31, 2023, we have $21.5 million of purchase obligations under contracts with our key vendors to provide services, mainly information technology related contracts. In addition, for the year ended December 31, 2023, we have $28.2 million of commitments under operating lease agreements.

We maintain sufficient cash and cash equivalents and investment securities to meet short-term liquidity needs and we also actively monitor our long-term liquidity position to ensure the availability of capital resources for contractual obligations, strategic loan growth objectives and to fund operations. Our funding strategy has been to acquire non-maturity deposits from our retail accounts, acquire noninterest bearing demand deposits from our commercial customers and use our borrowing availability to fund growth in assets. We may also acquire brokered deposits when the cost of funds is advantageous compared to other funding sources. Borrowings may be used on a short-term basis to compensate for reductions in other sources of funds (such as deposit inflows at less than projected levels). Borrowings may also be used on a longer-term basis to support expanded lending activities and match the maturity of repricing intervals of assets. While maturities and scheduled amortization of loans are a predictable source of funds, deposit flows and loan prepayments are greatly influenced by the level of interest rates, economic conditions and competition so we adhere to internal management targets assigned to the loan to deposit ratio, liquidity ratio, net short-term non-core funding ratio and non-core liabilities to total assets ratio to ensure an appropriate liquidity position.

We maintain credit facilities with the FHLB, which provide for advances that in the aggregate would equal the lesser of 45% of the Bank’s assets or adjusted qualifying collateral (subject to a sufficient level of ownership of FHLB stock). At December 31, 2023, under these credit facilities based on pledged loan collateral, the Bank had $1.42 billion of available credit capacity. We had no funds borrowed from the FHLB at December 31, 2023 or 2022. In addition, the Bank has access to the FRB Discount Window and BTFP. Under these programs, based on pledged investment collateral, the Bank had available lines of credit of approximately $819.5 million as of December 31, 2023, subject to amount of pledged collateral. We had $500.0 million in borrowings from the FRB's BTFP at December 31, 2023, as discussed previously, and none at December 31, 2022. At December 31, 2023, the Bank also had uncommitted federal funds line of credit agreements with other financial institutions totaling $145.0 million. No balances were outstanding under these agreements as of December 31, 2023 or 2022. Availability of lines is subject to federal funds balances available for loan and continued borrower eligibility. These lines are intended to support short-term liquidity needs and the agreements may restrict consecutive day usage. Management believes it has adequate resources and funding potential to meet our foreseeable liquidity requirements.

The Company pays dividends to our shareholders and the primary source of the Company's liquidity is cash obtained from dividends from the Bank to the Company. We expect to continue our current practice of paying quarterly cash dividends on our common stock subject to our Board of Directors’ discretion to modify or terminate this practice at any time and for any reason without prior notice. Our current quarterly common stock dividend rate is $0.23 per share, as approved by our Board of Directors. We believe this dividend rate per share enables us to balance our multiple objectives of managing and investing in the Bank and returning a substantial portion of our cash to our shareholders. Assuming continued payment during 2024 at this rate of $0.23 per share, our average total dividend paid each quarter would be approximately $8.0 million based on the number of our current outstanding shares (which assumes no increases or decreases in the number of shares).

From time to time, our Board of Directors has authorized stock repurchase plans. In general, stock repurchase plans allow us to proactively manage our capital position and return excess capital to shareholders. Shares purchased under such plans may also provide us with shares of common stock necessary to satisfy obligations related to stock compensation awards. The Company's current stock repurchase program authorizes us to repurchase up to 1,799,054 shares of Company common stock, of which 307,790 shares remained available for future repurchases as of December 31, 2023. The actual timing, number and value of shares repurchased under the stock repurchase program will depend on a number of factors, including constraints specified pursuant to any trading plan that may be adopted in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 of the SEC, price, general business and market conditions, and alternative investment opportunities. See “Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities” contained in Item 5, Part II of this Form 10-K for additional information relating to stock repurchases.

Management believes the capital sources are adequate to meet all reasonably foreseeable short-term and intermediate-term cash requirements.