Renasant Corporation

Renasant Corporation

34.60
EUR
-0.20
(-0.57%)
2.92EPS
12.40P/E
3.33BMarket Cap
Oct 27Next Earn

Q2 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptJuly 29, 2026

Operator

Good day, and welcome to Renasant Corporation's 2026 second quarter earnings conference call and webcast. All participants will be in a listen-only mode for the duration of the call, and should you need any assistance today, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by 0.

After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad.

If you'd like to withdraw a question, please press star then 2. Also, please be aware that today's call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to Kelly Hutcheson, Executive Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Please go ahead.

Kelly Hutcheson

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Renasant Corporation's quarterly webcast and conference call. Participating in the call today are members of Renasant's executive management team.

Before we begin, please note that many of our comments during this call will be forward-looking statements, which involve risk and uncertainty. There are many factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements.

Such factors include, but are not limited to, changes in the mix and cost of our funding sources, interest rate fluctuation, regulatory changes, portfolio performance, and other factors discussed in our recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our recently filed earnings release, which has been posted to our corporate site, www.renasant.com, at the Press Releases link under the News & Market Data tab. We undertake no obligation and we specifically disclaim any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events, or changes to future operating results over time.

In addition, some of the financial measures that we may discuss this morning are non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release.

Now, I will turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Chapman.

Kevin Chapman

Thank you, Kelly, and good morning. Our performance in the second quarter continued at the pace we set in the first quarter.

Operating results across the company were strong as we continue to focus on organic growth as well as disruption in many of our markets. Adjusted earnings per share in the second quarter were 94 cents, up 36% from a year ago.

Adjusted return on average assets was 1.30%, compared to 1.01% in the same period last year. Similarly, adjusted return on average tangible common equity was 16.25% versus 13.50% in the second quarter of 2025.

The efficiency ratio also improved from 67.60% a year ago to 57.90% this quarter. By focusing on increasing core banking relationships and adding talent throughout the company, Renasant is in a great position to capitalize on growth opportunities throughout the back half of the year.

I will now turn the call over to Jim to provide more details on our financial results.

Jim Mabry

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning. Looking at the balance sheet, loans were up $220.9 million on a linked-quarter basis, or 4.7% annualized.

Deposits were down $398.4 million from the first quarter, or 7.2% annualized, primarily due to seasonal outflows of public fund deposits. Reported net interest margin decreased 4 basis points to 3.83%, while adjusted margin remained flat at 3.61%.

Our adjusted total cost of deposits increased by 2 basis points to 1.96%, while our adjusted loan yields decreased 1 basis point to 6.03%. From a capital standpoint, all regulatory capital ratios remain in excess of required minimums to be considered well-capitalized.

We recorded credit loss provision on loans of $3.8 million, comprised of $1.2 million for funded loans and $2.6 million for unfunded commitments. Net charge-offs were $2.8 million, and the ACL as a percentage of total loans declined 2 basis points quarter-over-quarter to 1.54%.

Turning to the income statement, our pre-provision net revenue was $112.4 million. Net interest income was $227.7 million, a decrease of $0.8 million quarter-over-quarter.

Non-interest income was $51.2 million in the second quarter, a linked-quarter increase of $0.9 million. Non-interest expense was $161.5 million for the second quarter, a linked-quarter increase of $6.2 million, mostly driven by deferred compensation accruals tied to market valuations, higher health insurance claims, and annual merit increases.

We look forward to the second half of 2026. I will now turn the call back over to Kevin.

Kevin Chapman

Thank you, Jim. We believe that Renasant is in a great position to continue to improve on its high levels of performance.

We appreciate your interest in Renasant and look forward to discussing our results with you. I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. Again, to ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad.

If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw a question, you may press star then 2.

At this time, we will pause just momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question here will come from Michael Rose with Raymond James.

Please go ahead.

Michael Rose

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions.

Wanted to start on loan growth. Obviously, really good production this quarter.

Can you just talk about the expectations as we think about the back half of the year? Because it looks like if I either include or exclude Republic, you guys were a little short of my expectations and consensus and just want to get a sense for production levels from here, schedule payoffs, and what you would expect out of Republic business as we move forward.

Thanks.

Kevin Chapman

Hey Michael. Good morning, it's Kevin.

If you broke down several of the components of the growth, we were pleased with the uptick in production that we had in Q3. As you noted, that was offset by some headwinds in payoffs.

Still think payoffs are going to continue to be something we have to overcome. As we look at our pipeline, as we look at our efforts, we look at our conversations with customers, production is ramping and is ramping in the fact that our pipeline, if we look at our pipeline today, it's up about 6 to 10% from where it was at the beginning of Q2.

We're seeing where we've guided to that mid-single-digit growth number, we're seeing that fully in scope and fully in range as we get into Q3 and into the back half of the year.

Michael Rose

Very helpful, Kevin. Then maybe one for Jim on expenses.

Expenses were maybe a little bit higher than I think what I was looking for, but any change to the trajectory that you guys had kind of previously talked about? Maybe if you can just balance some of the investments that you guys are making in both people and technology along with other cost-saving opportunities that you guys may have.

Thanks.

Jim Mabry

Sure, good morning, Michael. Yes, we had a couple of one-time or non-recurring items in the expense bucket, and when we look at our core expense run rate, we feel really good with where it is.

Again, of course, we can't, these are obviously the results of the results, but the underlying trends and expenses, we feel is good. I would say our outlook from here is that what we saw in Q1 in terms of expenses probably will moderate downward a little bit in Q3 and sort of be steady for the balance of the year.

That does reflect, as you talked about, investments we're making in people. We continue to make those investments in people, and that the guidance that I'm sharing in terms of that trajectory allows for some of that.

If we're more successful than we think in terms of some of those hires, then that might change a little bit, but I think the core NIE rate will again come down a little bit and then remain steady for the balance of the year.

Michael Rose

Very helpful. I'll step back.

Thanks for taking my questions, guys.

Kevin Chapman

Hey, Michael, I may just add, before you hop off, I may just add to that. Jim talked about the new hires, and we've talked about our activity in new hires that we've had going back to Q3 of last year.

Just to remind you, in Q1, we had 18 new revenue-producing new hires. In Q2, that number was 5.

We added 5. Far in Q3, we've added 7.

We've talked about the opportunities that we've had in the markets to hire talent. We continue to execute on that and will continue to look for opportunities to add and augment to our team.

That's those hires as well as the activity that we're having in our markets from our existing team is showing up in results. Michael, you talked about the loan growth, and we talked about the headwinds from the payoffs.

The production, the activity is offsetting the headwinds. I just give you a data point of what we're seeing so far in Q3.

We've seen elevated payoffs in Q3, but production is outpacing that. Right now we're up net loans about $40 million, and that's on elevated payoffs.

Our teams are continuing to focus on taking market share, serving customers, and that continues to show up in the numbers even as we get into Q3.

Michael Rose

Appreciate all that color, Kevin. Thanks again.

I'll step back.

Operator

Our next question will come from Catherine Mealor with KBW. Please go ahead.

Catherine Mealor

Thanks. Good morning.

Kevin Chapman

Morning, Catherine.

Catherine Mealor

Moving to the other side of the balance sheet, I know some of the outflows in deposits were seasonal this quarter with public funds. Can you give us any update on what you're seeing on your core underlying deposit trends and expectations for deposit growth in the second half of the year?

Jim Mabry

Catherine, this is Jim. Maybe I'll start.

Go ahead, Kevin.

Kevin Chapman

No, Jim, you go ahead.

Jim Mabry

A couple things, and I know Kevin can add some really good color, Catherine, as it relates to some recent trends. Yes, as you noted, seasonal outflows in public funds were really the driver in terms of the change from Q1 to Q2, and as you probably recall from prior quarters with us, we'll start to see that those flows reverse here in the second half, and so as opposed to being a headwind, those inflows will be a tailwind.

Then I guess most importantly, and really probably to the main point of your question, the underlying performance in core deposits, we're very encouraged about. Not only do we expect to see the public fund, trend shift, but I think the underlying trends in core deposits are really strong, and Kevin, you may want to pick up on that.

Kevin Chapman

Catherine, yeah, I think if you go back to this call in Q2 back in April, we shared some of the numbers we had seen at that time about new account openings, and were interested and excited to see how that would play out through the remainder of the quarter. Just kind of refresh you on what we achieved as far as core deposit growth, kind of looking through that public fund noise, just core deposit growth and new account openings that we had in Q2.

New account openings, new customers to the bank did not have an existing account with us, did not have existing dollars with us. We opened up over 10,000 new accounts in Q2, and that equates to roughly 380 million in new deposits.

If you break that down, about half of it was CDs, which means the other half was checking accounts. We believe those accounts, those checking accounts are sticky, core deposits that we didn't go and get because of rate.

We got it due to the relationship. That's also commercial accounts as well as consumer accounts.

As we look at that activity into Q3, that activity hasn't slowed down. Just through July, we've opened up over 2,000 net new accounts, and that represents 86 million in new fundings.

Some of these accounts, we don't think all the money has moved into yet. We think that those accounts are still being funded, activity and reassigning deposits or bill pay, all of that activity is still going on, and we expect to continue to see deposits build into some of these accounts as we get into Q3 and Q4.

Catherine Mealor

Great. Then how about the rate on new deposit growth?

I'd assume because we saw a couple basis points increase in deposit costs this quarter, these are especially maybe the CD piece is coming on with a little bit of a higher rate. Curious maybe where that ended the quarter, and maybe the public funds might kind of mess that up before looking at an exit run rate, but curious what you're thinking about deposit cost increases over the next couple quarters.

Kevin Chapman

Catherine, our—

Jim Mabry

Go ahead, Kevin.

Kevin Chapman

Our deposits are coming in at market rates. We're not we don't have a special out there.

We're not paying above average to get them. I think the weighted average rate of those new accounts are going to be in the high 2s and low 3s.

Catherine Mealor

That's great. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question will come from Matt Olney with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Matt Olney

Thanks, good morning. Appreciate you taking my question.

Want to go back to the loan growth discussion and the loan production sounds great. Any more color on loan pricing competition?

I think when we talked in April, you highlighted just increasing pressure back then, curious any update since that April timeframe. Thanks.

Kevin Chapman

Jim, you want to talk about new and renewed?

Jim Mabry

Sure. The, as you recall, and you were talking about April, the pressures that were present then are still there.

It is very competitive on both sides, and on the loan side, I think in terms of new and renewed, we're generally looking in the low 6s, Matt, and so, there's certainly a lot of competitive pressures there and it varies by region and we're seeing it in certain markets, maybe not so much in others. The same thing on the deposit side.

You saw our costs inched up a bit on deposits and we do have some tailwinds that will help us in terms of NIM, but yes, those pressures remain as they were back in April.

Matt Olney

Okay. Appreciate that, Jim.

Then, I guess, as a follow-up, just thinking more about interest rate sensitivity, if the Fed funds were to move up this week or in September, would love to know kind of what your thoughts are as far as the balance sheet and overall impact to higher Fed funds. Thanks.

Jim Mabry

I would say that, as it relates to the profitability side of that and margin, we don't in our outlook, we're not budgeting or planning on any cut or increase as we sit here today, and generally I would say that, a few base, 25 basis points here, that's not going to make a big difference in our outlook in terms of the profitability impact. I would say that's generally be true on the balance sheet in terms of dollars, absent a meaningful change, a more meaningful change in rates, I don't see it having a major impact on the balance sheet or the income statement.

Matt Olney

Okay. Thanks, guys.

Kevin Chapman

Thanks, Matt.

Operator

Our next question will come from Dave Bishop with Hovde Group. Please go ahead.

Dave Bishop

Hey, good morning, gentlemen.

Jim Mabry

Morning, Dave. Just hey,

Dave Bishop

since Matt sort of opened the door in terms of the NIM discussion, just curious, is the bias for stability still here or, maybe as you can mention maybe some tailwinds on the deposit side, do you see a little bit of a bias up? Just curious how you're thinking about the margin.

Jim Mabry

Sure. As we sort of discussed in answer to Matt's question, our outlook is that generally it's going to be fairly stable for the second half.

We've got, certainly deposit pricing pressures, but on the, I'd say, on the asset side, we've got a couple things, working for us. As you probably noted, most of our loan growth in the quarter came at the very end of the quarter, there's a significant difference between average balances and period-end balances.

For us, that'll be a nice tailwind going into Q3. The other thing is we've got roughly a billion and a quarter dollars in loans that mature over the next 12 months, and the rate on that's about 4.95%, so that'll be a another tailwind that'll will benefit and help offset deposit pricing pressures.

Then lastly, not as significant, but still meaningful, we've got $50 million to $60 million a month rolling off the securities book, and that's, coming off at, the low 3s, Dave, and coming back on the upper 4s or close to 5%. We feel good about the outlook of a stable margin, a core stable margin here in the back half.

Dave Bishop

Great, appreciate that color. Then maybe Kevin or Jim, you talked about the paydowns and the payoff headwinds continuing.

Just curious if you can sort of ring-fence maybe what vintages those are coming from, and from a snake through the tunnel perspective, do you think you're in the seventh, eighth, ninth inning or still sort of midway through? Just curious how you sort of view the paydown pipeline.

Jim Mabry

Kevin?

Kevin Chapman

Yeah. Dave, just what we're seeing in scheduled paydowns or what's been communicated to us, it's largely coming in some commercial real estate, some asset classes that there's been an above average payoff in some multifamily and some office space.

It's also largely coming from the sale of the assets or, in some cases, the sale of the business. As we get into Q3, we've seen some early payoffs in our C&I book, and it's really sale of the underlying business.

It's not as if we're losing any of these loans to competition. We're just our borrowers are making decisions to sell collateral, to liquidate collateral.

As they look at redeploying that liquidity, we expect to get first shot at any future opportunity. Largely, this is coming in the commercial the payoffs are coming in commercial real estate, and we somewhat anticipated this as rates kind of bottomed out in Q1 that we thought we'd see some elevated payoffs.

As the 10-year has increased, we think some of those pressures on the payoffs of commercial real estate subside a little bit in the short run, or long run depending on where the on the 10-year goes. We are expecting some easing on the payoffs, but again, it can be very lumpy at the same time as our customers make decisions about the underlying collateral.

As far as the throughout the book, we're not seeing outside of it being commercial real estate, we're not seeing it being concentrated in a certain market, or it's run off from it's not run off from the first book, it's really just broad-based, and we're seeing it more mainly in the in the asset class of commercial real estate.

Dave Bishop

Got it. One final question.

Kevin, you noted the strong deposit account openings. Just curious if any of that you can point to coming from some of the merger disruption that's been undergoing within your footprint.

Thanks.

Kevin Chapman

It's a handful of things, but market disruption is one of those main underliers. Dave, we've had a focus on deposits going back to 2023 that we wanted to continue to maintain a moderate loan-to-deposit ratio in that mid-80% range.

We've had a heightened focus on deposits, and then market opportunity allowed the market disruption just allowed us to lean into that focus. Look, our teams, just look at the numbers, our teams responded to the opportunity in the market, and we don't think that opportunity is abating at the moment.

We still think there's a lot of disruption and a lot of opportunity, and again, we may have mentioned this in the past, but we think it is we think the fact that we're stable, we're not doing a major merger, we're not going through a transformational integration, we're not reorg-ing the company, all of those play well to where we can just be stable and focus on client needs. Our teams know who their credit partner is, they know who to go to, they know they've got good support in the back office, and that they will show well in front of a customer that has uncertainty or may be unhappy where they currently are.

Dave Bishop

Perfect. Appreciate the color.

Kevin Chapman

Thank you, Dave.

Operator

Our next question will come from Janet Lee with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Janet Lee

Morning. Not to be too nitpicky on the public fund seasonal outflows, when we look at [unclear] in the third quarter, should we expect any of those to come back to the bank in the third quarter or the fourth quarter?

I get that you're getting a good traction on the core deposit growth side, but just wanted to see how your forecast pans out in the second half of '26.

Jim Mabry

Janet, this is Jim. Good morning.

I think our sense is that if you look at deposit growth in the second half, it's going to be, we on both sides, we sort of target, whether it's loans or deposits, that mid-single-digit growth rate number, through the cycle, through the periods, and that outlook really hasn't changed. Our expectation is that you're going to see, good deposit growth in the second half, and public funds will be relatively stable if not, some inflows there.

Janet Lee

Those public fund deposits, can you give us what the cost there is relative to your average cost of deposits at 1.96%?

Jim Mabry

It would be somewhat higher, probably roughly 100 basis points higher, Janet.

Janet Lee

Oh, okay. Can you share with us the spot cost of deposits at the end of June?

Jim Mabry

The

Janet Lee

if I

Jim Mabry

total cost of deposits end of June was 1.96%.

Janet Lee

Oh, the same as the average for the quarter.

Jim Mabry

That's correct. Okay.

Janet Lee

Lastly, how should we think about Could you give us a refresh on the Basel III proposal impact to your CET1, and is CET1 [unclear] target beyond 2026?

Jim Mabry

Our expectation is it'll reduce risk-weighted assets somewhere around a in the, $1 billion to $1.3 billion, and that's call it 55 to 65 basis points positive impact to CET1. I think we've we're one, we haven't at this point, budgeted that in or projected that in, even though that that seems like that's where things are going.

As to how we think about our, sort of capital position going forward with with that, I don't it doesn't change how we look at sort of underlying capital goals. As we've been we we we like CET1 to be in the low 11s, and I don't I don't think that will change.

I don't think our outlook on that will change because of this change in in the regs. What implications that's got for capital deployment, we'll we'll see, but I don't think it's going to change the way we think about our capital base and where we want it to be relative to the balance sheet.

Janet Lee

Got it. That's it.

Thank you.

Operator

Again, if you have a question or a follow-up, you may press star then 1 to join the queue. Our next question here will come from Stephen Scouten with Piper Sandler.

Please go ahead.

Stephen Scouten

Thanks, good morning. Maybe one follow-up first on just the expense trajectory.

I think, Jim, you said it could potentially go down a little bit into the third quarter. Is that some of the slight jump there in other non-interest earning expense driving some of that?

What was embedded within that increase quarter-over-quarter there in that line item?

Jim Mabry

Good morning, Stephen. There are a couple things.

Merit, which certainly we contemplated, was part of that increase. There was an increase associated with deferred comp expense, and we don't expect that to be part of the second half, so that'll be a benefit.

Then health and life, we are self-insured, and sometimes those claims will be higher than normal, and they were a little higher in Q2 than we anticipated. That's why our outlook for the second half is for moderately lower expenses, and still baking in, as Kevin's talked about, opportunistic hiring.

Stephen Scouten

Okay. Great.

Then, yeah, on that opportunistic hiring front, I think last quarter, Kevin, you had said, look, there are some markets maybe where we don't feel like we could even have enough people. Any updates on geographically where you would look to add people, and given all the dislocation kind of in your markets and even around your markets, would you look at moving towards Texas at all for LPOs or otherwise to take advantage of that disruption there?

Kevin Chapman

Stephen, our primary focus is mainly building out in our existing footprint. As it relates to a new market, that's all going to be facts and circumstances.

There are a couple of markets where we have a presence. We may have a single location, and it's a large market, and we need to build the infrastructure or continue our path or accelerate our path towards more relevance in some of those markets.

I think that that's going to be our focus primarily before we go open up a new market, maybe in specifically in the case Texas. There's a lot that we would need to learn about Texas.

Great market, great state, economically is outperforming any metric that you can throw at it. Also, I think looking at what it would take to be relevant in some of the markets in Texas, we would have to have significant scale to be relevant in a place like a Dallas or a Houston or a San Antonio.

I think that that, as it relates to Texas being a primary focus, I would say that's not the case at the moment. We're going to focus more on our existing market and been building out more scale, more infrastructure in our existing markets.

I'll also say not apologizing for our markets as well. The Southeast and the markets that we operate in, those are very high performing, high inbound migration, high median household income, high economic growth potential.

We feel like we've got ample opportunity in our existing footprint before we go launch and try to go to another market. Again, I think in some of those cases, we'd have to go there in a substantial way to be able to be relevant in some of those markets.

Stephen Scouten

That makes sense. Appreciate that color.

Then maybe just lastly for me, curious if you could touch on just lending competition from the standpoint of what you're seeing in terms of aggressiveness come from competitors around either rate, structure, or both. Kind of if there's a bigger tension point on one or the other, and if any of what you're seeing competitors do gives you maybe trepidation about the ability to hit the growth targets if things just get further down the risk curve than you'd want to be.

Jim Mabry

Kevin, you or David?

David Meredith

Hey, Stephen, this is David. We're seeing those pressures come across a variety of elements.

We've talked about, and Jim's talked about this morning, the pricing pressures, and those continue quarter-over-quarter. We're seeing other elements of pressure within our structure from the competition.

It could be anything from level of guarantor support on a transaction, proceeds that we would loan, covenants. It comes in various forms from a competitive sector, which is not normal as we progress through a competitive environment.

It's going to go rate, then it's going to go terms, and so we're starting to see that on terms. To your point about is that going to impact loan growth, we're going to continue to be disciplined just like we always have on our opportunities.

If it's customers that we know, markets that we know well, we have good institutional knowledge both on the frontline with the lenders as well as the credit side, the management side, we're going to lean into opportunities with well-known customers to protect those relationships, particularly where we've got deposits at risk and so forth. We're going to protect those relationships.

If it's a new customer, something that we may not be as comfortable with, we may pull back and say we're going to continue to remain disciplined in our terms. It all comes back to that disciplined underwriting.

That's going to continue to drive our positive credit metrics. It's a balance.

We're seeing the competition and we're just going to choose when we lean in and when we don't lean in.

Stephen Scouten

Got it. Very helpful.

Thanks so much for all the color today.

Kevin Chapman

Hey, Stephen, Kevin, I'll just add one last thing. To your point about the competition, do we think it causes us to relook at our guidance?

Short answer is no. In fact, our guidance is based off the competition.

We firmly believe that we are and should be a mid-single-digit grower. That factors in what it takes to be competitive in our markets.

There is competition all around us for good loan growth. We can be competitive in that.

At some point, though, when it comes to rate, there has to be a question, are we getting the proper returns off the use of that capital? It may look good on the balance sheet that we're showing growth, but long term, it may take us off track from our profitability goals.

As we look at a mid-single digit, we think that allows us to get the proper returns at the proper rate with the proper underwriting. It doesn't put pressure on our funding costs, allows us to keep margin stable.

All of that is baked into the math and the calculus behind being a single-digit grower long term. If we press on that, then it can cause we may have to change our outlook, maybe not on balance sheet growth, but on margin compression or on profitability, which at this time, we don't feel any need to do that.

We think we can grow single-digit and hit all of our goals as it relates to increasing and improving profitability, maintaining a stable margin, not outgrowing our funding. All of that is why we come with the basis of the mid-single-digit growth.

Stephen Scouten

Great. Thanks for that, Kevin.

Appreciate it.

Operator

Our next question is a follow-up from Matt Olney with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Matt Olney

Hey, thanks, guys. Just a few follow-ups here.

On the fee side, haven't heard you guys talk much about the fees this morning. Looks a little bit softer than expectations.

I think we typically have a kind of a nice seasonal pull-through in 2Q. Anything to call out there in 2Q or the outlook in the near term?

Jim Mabry

Matt, this is Jim. I think a couple of things.

If you break down the fee income, we had really good SBA numbers in the first half. I do think, they were really strong numbers, they'll probably moderate some in the second half, so that'll be a headwind.

Capital markets has been soft in the first half, and I think we've talked about it in our Q1 call. They were on clip for a record quarter in Q1, and then things sort of dropped off the cliff with the hostilities in the Middle East, but we're we feel really good about capital markets in the second half, and hopefully that'll sort of rebound to historic levels.

Mortgage continues to be weak. We don't see anything improving there, and it could be a little bit weaker than what we saw in Q2.

Wealth is very steady and growing, and it's an area, too, that I would cite as a beneficiary of some dislocation that we're experiencing in our market. All in all, I would say that Q2 run rate is probably pretty close to what we'll do in the second half, plus or minus a little bit, but that's probably a good jumping off point for what we see in the second half.

Matt Olney

Okay. All right.

Appreciate that, Jim. Then, I guess, going back to the expense discussion, I hear your point around the 2Q levels being a little bit elevated due to some of those items that you called out were unusual, a little heavy than what we typically see.

I just want to make sure I understand the expectations for the third quarter. I think I heard you say it was going to be lower than what we saw in 2Q.

Is there any more you can give us beyond that? Is there a range?

Asking just because it's a pretty big range from what we saw in the first quarter versus what we saw in the second quarter. Thanks.

Jim Mabry

Sure, it is, and I would say this, Matt, I don't know I do feel good about the 160 I think it was $161.5 million coming down in Q3. I think the reason I would hedge a little bit on how far it comes down somewhat depends upon the success we have in this opportunistic hiring.

We've got some of that baked in. Then some of a couple of the items in Q2, health and life is just a really difficult thing to project.

That was over $1 million in Q2, more than what it was in Q1. It's a little tough to project, but we're hopeful and optimistic that it'll come down and then stabilize for what we see in Q3 will be a good indicator of what we see should see for Q4.

I know it's not probably giving you the specificity you want, but I think we were angling towards roughly a 160 number internally for Q2 when we ended Q1, and I think absent some of these items we've called out, we'd have been right on the mark there.

Matt Olney

Okay. Understood.

Several moving parts there, definitely get the view there. Thank you, guys.

Kevin Chapman

Thank you, Matt.

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Kevin Chapman for any closing remarks.

Kevin Chapman

Thank you, Joe, and thank you to all of those that have joined us this morning. We appreciate your interest in Renasant and look forward to meeting with you throughout the quarter.

Thank you.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect your lines.