PacWest (PACW) is in a strange place right now, as management actively tries to upgrade and de-risk the loan book, offset major pressure from paydowns and payoffs, and figure out how to profitably grow deposits in an environment of increasing deposit cost pressure. While core earnings per share were basically in line with expectations, spread compression still remains a risk.
I still like the basic business that PacWest is in – niche commercial lending for smaller businesses and financial products for tech and VC firms like the capital call lending that has also