“Despite long-term rates moving a little bit higher during the quarter, our capital levels are climbing steadily, and we continue to expect our consolidated adjusted Tier 1 leverage ratio to approach our slightly updated operating objective of 6.75% to 7% on a consolidated basis by the end of 2024, at which point it becomes more of a live conversation regarding whether and how we want to do further capital return, our number one priority for capital is always to support business growth.”

In context

“that change from the previous guidance is due to unanticipated onetime items such as the FDIC surcharge and the regulatory accrual, with the remainder coming from the increase in the SEC 31 fee, which is, again, is a pass-through expense and, therefore, P&L neutral. But to use the transitional word again, that annualized view masks the progression in earnings power by the end of the year. We're expecting flattish earnings from Q2 to Q3, but assuming the Fed cuts rates in September as is widely expected, we could see our NIM reach the mid-2.20s in Q4 on its way to approaching 3% by the end of 2025, which we believe will support adjusted earnings per share in the middle of the $0.80 to $0.90 range we outlined at the beginning of the year, with our earnings power building in 2025 and beyond. Despite long-term rates moving a little bit higher during the quarter, our capital levels are climbing steadily, and we continue to expect our consolidated adjusted Tier 1 leverage ratio to approach our slightly updated operating objective of 6.75% to 7% on a consolidated basis by the end of 2024, at which point it becomes more of a live conversation regarding whether and how we want to do further capital return, our number one priority for capital is always to support business growth. Now to the extent that we have capital in excess of what is needed to do that, we have, throughout our history, taking steps to return that to stockholders. That can be through increasing our dividend, which generally rises alongside earnings. That can be by redeeming outstanding preferreds to create additional dry powder for the future, especially preferreds that might be or might become relatively expensive, and that can also be, of course, through stock buybacks, which we do opportunistically. There is one additional consideration right now, which is to the extent that we have outstanding supplemental borrowing, we may choose to utilize some of the liquidity we'd otherwise use for buybacks to reduce some of that bank-level debt. Now doing that reduces our reliance on nonbusiness-as-usu”