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We released our results in a press release this morning at approximately 8 o'clock AM Eastern Time, and our presentation speaks to material from that release. The directions that point to the webcast are also contained at the back end of the release. And my comments will begin on Page four, a slide titled Full Year 2018 Performance.

First Merchants earned a record net income of $159.1 million, a 65.6% increase over 2017's total of just over $96 million. Earnings per share totaled $3.22, a 51.9% increase over 2017's (sic) earnings per share of $2.12. Our total assets grew to $9.9 billion; organically 5.5% over 2017's total. Some of our performance measures around the next bullet point line; our return on average assets at 1.64%, spearheaded by a strong fourth quarter, 11.84% return on equity; a 50.21% efficiency ratio, partially drove those earnings levels.

Really nice balanced growth organically both in loans: a 7% growth rate for the year, $471 million in total; 8.1% for the full year and organic deposit growth, $582 million for the year. Lastly, on this page, our tangible book value increased to $19.12 a share, 12.7% over year-end 2017. And then looking at some of our prior discussions with this group and associated with prior acquisitions, the growth in the tangible book value is either consistent with or ahead of levels forecasted at the timing of prior acquisitions relative to earn back performance.

Moving to Page five, a subset of 2018 overall was the fourth quarter, which is fresh information for today, where we have earnings per share in the fourth quarter of $0.85, a 73.5% increase over the fourth quarter of 2017's reported level of $0.49, a really strong fourth (ph) quarter. It equates to $41.7 million of net income, a 71.1% increase over the fourth quarter of 2017's $24.4 million in net income.

Come back to organic growth, where the funding of the company has provided from our marketplace and our clients and winning in the marketplace through an everyday focus on marketplace activity. So in the fourth quarter, organic loan growth of $138 million, or 7.8% annualized really rates similar to what we would have reported in the back half of 2017, and very similar to the first and second quarters of the year, a nice pickup for us, after what was a slower level of growth rate in the third quarters. We are happy to see the resumption of the prior level. And organic deposit growth, which was really strong throughout the year, a 6.4% annualized growth rate, or $121 million. At our earnings highlight call of the third quarter, we would have touched on what was very fresh information then also a fourth quarter highlight in my mind the announced definitive agreement signing with Monroe Bank & Trust, which I'll touch on at the back end of my comments.

But at this point, I'd like to turn the call over to Mark Hardwick to get into our results a little bit more deeply.

Mark K. Hardwick -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

Thanks, Mike. My comments will begin on Slide seven. Total assets on line seven, as Mike mentioned increased $518 million, or 5.5% since year-end 2017. Organic growth and total loans on line two increased $471 million, or 7% since year-end 2017; and our bond portfolio on line one also increased 4.6%, or $72 million during the year, really improving our liquidity position.

The composition of our $7.2 billion loan portfolio on Slide eight, continues to produce very strong loan yields. The loan portfolio yield for the fourth quarter of 2018 totaled 5.41%, up from the first quarter of 2018 total of 4.86%; the second quarter 2018 total of 5.12%; and our third quarter total of 5.25%. The prime rate has increased by 150 basis points over the past seven quarters, and our loan yields, when normalized for fair value accretion, have improved by 89 basis points for a beta of approximately 60%. As the graph on the right illustrates, 68% of our loans are variable, with half repricing daily, demonstrating the asset sensitivity of our bank.

On Slide nine, our $1.6 billion bond portfolio continues to be high performing. Our portfolio yield of 3.54% is marginally higher than the previous three quarters of the year, while the unrealized loss is now just $8 million.

Now on Slide 10, non-maturity deposits on line one, represent 83.5% of total customer deposits. And those non-maturity deposits for 2018 grew by $527 million, or 9.2%. Customer time deposits, on line two, represents the remaining 16.5% of total customer deposits and increased by $190 million, since 2017 or 18.1%. And as I mentioned our liquidity is quite a bit stronger and you can see on lines three and four where we had declines in broker deposits of $135 million and declines in borrowings of $163 million.

So our capital and liquidity are positioned well for the future, and management is pleased with the structure of our balance sheet. Our loan-to-deposit ratio now totals 93%, and our loan-to-asset ratio totaled 73%, while the tangible common equity is nearly 10% at 9.97%.

As I previously mentioned, the mix of our deposits on Slide 11 is a true strength of our company. Fourth quarter deposit costs totaled 104 basis points up from the first quarter of 2018 of 65 basis points; second quarter totaled 81 basis points; and the third quarter totaled 90 basis points. Over the past seven quarters, the Fed funds rate again has increased by 150 basis points, and the cost of our deposits has increased 65 basis points for deposit beta of 43%.

All regulatory capital ratios on Slide 12, are above the regulatory definition of well capitalized and all of our internal targets providing capital strength and flexibility into the future.

The net interest margin on Slide 13, reflects a growing net interest income line driven by both balance sheet growth and margin expansion during the year. 2018 full year net interest margin totaled 4%, down from 2017's total of 4.02%. However, when adjusted for federal tax reform, the margin actually expanded by 11 basis points during the year.

Total non-interest income on Slide 14, reached $76.5 million for the year, an increase of 7.8%. The improvements were aided by a full-year results from two acquisitions that closed in May and July of 2017, and now reflect a full 12 months of fee income.

The same holds true on non-interest expenses, on Slide 15, which totaled $220 million for 2018. And so given the addition of those two acquisitions and the relatively marginal increase in our total expense base, management is really pleased with just a 7% increase year-over-year.

On Slide 16, as Mike mentioned in his opening remarks, net income grew 65.6% during the year, and now total a record $159.1 million. On line nine, EPS totaled $3.22 for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of 52% over 2017. On line 10, the efficiency ratio for the year totaled 50.21%, and improved over 2017 by 4.35 percentage points.

As mentioned in the press release and highlighted on Slide 16 and 17, income tax expense for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2018 came in lower than anticipated by $1.8 million, due to an increase in state tax liability, offset by the release of a valuation allowance on state deferred tax assets. The impact of earnings per share totaled a positive $0.035 for the year of 2018. So, if you remember a year ago DTAs related to federal income tax when rates dropped a year ago from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, we recorded $5.1 million of expense. This year related to state tax adjustments it actually helped those same DTAs on the state tax side actually improved earnings by $1.8 million in 2018.

So on Slide 18, we are very pleased that we could celebrate the company's 125th year anniversary by following a record 2017 with 52% improvement in earnings per share. Thanks again to our many stakeholders who contributed to this success.

On Slide 19, inclusive of M&A dilution and the resulting earn-back metrics, our total compound annual growth rate of tangible book value per share is nearly 10%. And if you look at that, that goes all the way back to 2010, so the results, we're really proud of, and it also includes a 2.5% dividend yield as of this most recent quarter.

So, thanks for your attention and now, John Martin will discuss our loan portfolio composition and related asset quality trends.

John J. Martin -- Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer

All right. Thanks, Mark, and good afternoon. I'm going to begin on Slide 21, provided year-end and quarterly update on the loan portfolio, then review asset quality and the asset quality roll forward, cover the allowance and provisioning and then close with a few remarks on the portfolio.

So turning to Slide 21, the pace of loan growth picked back up in the quarter, growing $138 million, or 7.8% annually. The growth came from commercial and industrial loans combined with commercial owner-occupied real estate on lines one and four, which grew by $71 million and $25 million respectively.

Strong C&I activity, which spilled over from the third quarter along with robust quarterly closings resulted in the combined $96 million of C&I related loan growth. Construction loans were down $123 million on line two, as they moved into the portfolio on line three resulting in CRE non-owner occupied or investment real estate increasing a $104 million. Then rounding out the slide, public finance and other commercial loans on line seven increased by $39 million, while consumer and mortgage added additional $15 million on line two. All combined this led to loan growth of 1.9% for the quarter, and 7% for the full year.

All right. Let's turn to Slide 22. Asset quality remained solid for the quarter. On line one, non-accrual loans were up $5.7 million. and to provide a little color here behind the increase, there was a local skilled nursing home developer in the Central Indiana region, they had a national presence experienced some problems that resulted in our having to move roughly $8 million project to non-accrual.

In contrast, though moving down the slide to other real estate owned or ORE, it declined $6.7 million in the quarter, with $6.3 million coming from the sale of one property. This was our long-term multiyear resolution that was resolved in the quarter.

Moving on, renegotiated loans were flat on line three, while 90-day delinquent loans increased as a result of two matured consumer loans that were subsequently moved to perm after the end of the quarter. They were consumer construction loans. So in total, NPAs and 90-day delinquent were mostly unchanged, up $1 million with classified assets on line seven declining $1 million. Then finishing out the slide, specific reserves increased $1.5 million, mostly resulting from a $1.4 million specific reserve for the developer situation I just described.

Turning to Slide 23, which reconciles the migration of non-performing assets. We started the quarter in the far right column titled 2018 with $41 million in NPAs and 90-day delinquencies. For the year, we added $24 million of new non-accrual loans resolved $18.2 million of the same on line three with only $600,000 of new ORE on line four, and $8 million of gross charge-offs on line five. This netted to a $2.6 million decrease in non-accruals on line six, then dropping down to line eight, you can see the effect of the sale of the $6.3 million property, I mentioned a minute ago, in the $8.2 million annual reduction. So at the pieces above, we net on line 13 to an annual reduction of $9.7 million with total NPAs and 90-day delinquent loans to $31.3 million on line 14, or roughly a 24% decline in non-performing assets.

Moving then to Slide 24, which highlights the allowance and fair value summary. Despite the net $500,000 recovery position for the quarter, we had provision expense of $1.4 million as shown on line three. The provision expense along with the charge-offs was driven by new loan growth of $138 million as the migration of loans from the purchase to non-purchased portfolio. This left the allowance coverage unchanged at 1.11% of total loans, down 2 basis points to 1.26% of non-purchased loans.

Dropping down to fair value adjustments on line eight, which decreased $3.9 million from $33.9 million to $30 million. Also during the quarter, there was one relationship that had an individual credit mark that resulted in accretion of $1 million that was refinanced outside the bank. While positive for asset quality and income this contributed to the slight reduction in fair value adjustments, resulting a 2 basis point decline in fair value adjustments to FDA's and purchased loans.

Then summarizing on Slide 25, I would just say really good loan growth with a balanced mix of new originations across the portfolio. Asset quality remains healthy and stable. 2018 looks to be at or near the bottom of the cycle, leaving us well positioned with good asset quality, well reserved and good asset quality metrics. We finished the year with $500,000 in recoveries with net charge-offs for the year of only $1.7 million on a $7.2 billion loan portfolio. With an allowance that represents 1.11% coverage of total loans and 1.26% coverage of non-purchased loans. So good place to be.

That finishes my comments and I'll turn the call back over to Mike Rechin.

Michael C. Rechin -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, John. I'm going to move to Page 27, Slide 27, give us a refresher look at some pro forma information we compiled and shared at the announcement of the Monroe Bank & Trust opportunity and the associated map that shows our retail configuration. So you wind up with the company post closing and our work is proceeding as planned with the targeted late first quarter closing. For what would be on a combined basis and $11.1 billion balance sheet; $7.8 million in loans; $8.7 billion in deposits.

Next page, a little bit more on Monroe, Page 28, kind of gets to the strategic fit of the company in a vibrant marketplace with dominant hometown deposit market share and overall, an exceedingly attractive low cost deposit base with a just under 70% loan to deposit rate, which is a great fit for our company and allows that portion of what will be First Merchants to exercise their commercial activity with the funding that they bring to the company. Overall, really just a nice profile for us, we like the strategic fit, we like the cultural fit with the senior management of that company, that will look to begin their careers as part of First Merchants and as we prepare for the integration work just ahead of us. As I might have mentioned earlier, we look forward to a close here before the end of the first quarter.

Moving on to Slide 29, and looking forward, kind of our game plan remains similar to that in the past, that's a straightforward grow market share in markets that you're comfortable with in our core banking business. The second line talks about optimizing our retail and commercial deposit strategies. I'm particularly proud of the management of our funding costs through a commitment on all lines of business to take advantage of serving all of our clients needs to include deposit needs.

In 2019, we are going to increase our investment in the payment space, both in the debit card and credit card space, which we look forward to as we cross $10 billion, both organically and then to a greater extent through the addition of Monroe, as I mentioned earlier. The integration well and planning at this point. We look to be in the middle of the third quarter and all of our targets so far on track. Last bullet point, before we get to questions, would just be, I think a gratifying recognition by a national organization like Forbes Magazine, ranking First Merchants second in this year's addition of America's Best Banks up from the prior year's number four rating. And we're proud with the competitiveness and the consistency that the company's demonstrated and really think that the criteria that they use that are appropriate, which includes earnings growth, capital strength, asset quality and efficiency ratios. So it's a great reaffirmation for our team that we're headed in the right direction.

At this point. Andrew, I'm done with my remarks and if there's any questions, our team is prepared to take them.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Kevin Reevey of D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Kevin Reevey -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Good afternoon.

Michael C. Rechin -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good afternoon to you, Kevin.

Kevin Reevey -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

So congratulations on a great quarter and on your anniversary.

Michael C. Rechin -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Appreciate the feedback.

Kevin Reevey -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

First question relates to the margin, if you could walk us through how you're thinking about the margin in 2019, MBT they bring a lower cost of funding to the mix. They have a low loan to deposit ratio, At the same time in 2019, it looks -- you're going to pick up some PAA from them and then there's some PAA rolling off from your prior deals. So how should we think about the NIM in 2019?

Mark K. Hardwick -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

Well, I think, maybe a little discussion about the fourth quarter is important before we go into the remainder of the year. We had about $97 million of excess public money on average for the quarter and those dollars are typically our higher priced deposits, and because it's all related to tax receipts, property tax income in the state of Indiana increases the county deposits pretty aggressively. So it muted our net interest margin for the quarter by about 3.5 basis points. So a little stronger net interest margin at the core level than what we reported. So I feel like we've continued to see marginal increases as rates have gone up.

At this point, we're kind of anticipating no further increases for the remainder of 2019, which puts us in a little bit more of a defensive mode than where we have been over the last couple of years. So, if rates stabilize, we'll continue to see some pressure on the depository side of the balance sheet, as we have some lag effect of deposit rates. And we should be able to continue to see some nice continued reinvestment rates that are strong in the bond portfolio. But our forecast for the year is generally a flat net interest margin, year-over-year and one that I think we're going to have to work diligently to make happen.

Kevin Reevey -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Okay. And Mike is it flat on a GAAP basis as well as on a core basis?

Mark K. Hardwick -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, I mean, I think, we're expecting about $11 million of fair value absent Monroe, and that's modestly down from what we have this year. But as we build in Monroe, we think that we're going to end up with some additional fair value accretion and a really strong net interest income to bring into our company. Their deposit costs are really low. We have the ability to reprice their investment portfolio. And so we think net-net, it's -- that we should be able to maintain our current levels.

Kevin Reevey -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

And then moving along to the loan portfolio, how should we think about loan growth organically in 2019, and kind of the year you anticipate will drive that growth?

Michael C. Rechin -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Kevin, this is Mike. John, might have an add-on thought to mine. I'm looking at some of the material that our Chief Banking Officer provides on pipeline and I referenced in my earlier remarks that we kind of had three quarters out of four that really we're at the high end and what we think of as annualized range, as you know we've used the term mid-single digit, mid-to-high single-digit levels. We wound up at 7% for the year. We are kind of forecasting the same. Now at some point we're going to -- through the majority of the year have Monroe as part of the company, and I know that they're going to bring their own momentum in dollars, but I still feel like the pipeline suggested that 7% to 8% range looks very achievable. And so as we sit here today, finishing out November, December for 2018 staring here early into the first parts of first quarter of 2019. feel good about the ability not only to provide that on the loan side, but to fund it with our core deposits as well.

Kevin Reevey -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Great. Thank you very much.

Michael C. Rechin -- President and Chief Executive Officer

You're welcome. Thank you, Kevin.

Operator

The next question comes from Nathan Race of Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead.

Nathan Race -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst

Hey, guys. Good afternoon.

Kevin Reevey -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Good afternoon, Nat.

Nathan Race -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst

Just wanted to touch on capital. I know you guys want to keep some excess capital on board for some cash in terms of potential acquisitions down the road, but kind of just give more capital levels accretive to over the course of 2018, it seems like you guys will still have plenty. So just any updated thoughts on perhaps a buyback or any updated thoughts on kind of where the payout ratio could go? Just given kind of the profitability outlook of the company.

Mark K. Hardwick -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

This is Mark, again. I think our dividend expectations should be -- the increase should be in line with what we've done historically. And then obviously our balance sheet we're continuing to have kind of mid-to-single digit, mid-to-high single-digit growth rate, which requires about one-third of our earnings. So it really comes down to cash and acquisitions and whether or not we do anything with buybacks. The acquisition that we have in front of us, there are couple of PE firms that are part of this acquisition. And we're continuing to have dialog to see how much -- how long they intend to stay in the stock and we're also having some discussions at Board level about the logic of buyback. So, no decisions at this point, but something that we'll continue to keep the market a price to as we move forward.

Nathan Race -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst

Got it. That's helpful. And then maybe just turning to credit. John, I'd just be interested to hear some additional color on the non-accrual loan that you guys had in Indiana that was tied to -- I think you said it was a skilled labor facility or something like that. So just any additional color on kind of what happened there, if it was more kind of just an operational issue, or if you're seeing anything within that space specifically that's causing some credit issues there I suppose.

John J. Martin -- Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer

Yeah. That comment, I was probably talking pretty fast was actually skilled nursing. And I think the issues that befell this particular operator were specific to that operator. While the space itself continues to perform and it has its own dynamics, what we saw in this particular borrower was specific to it.

Nathan Race -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst

Okay, got it. And then I'd just be curious to get an update on kind of where your guys private equity sponsor finance portfolio stands in terms of both leverage loans and just that portfolio specifically?

John J. Martin -- Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer

Yeah. Just a second here. So the leveraged loan portfolio sits at -- quantitatively sits at about $310 million, while the sponsor finance businesses like $250 million plus or minus.

Nathan Race -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst

And John, well I got you. Just any kind of general thoughts on what you're seeing within those two portfolios?

John J. Martin -- Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer

You know what, for the most part they performed -- well, they performed very well. I know and have been reading a lot of the media and a lot of the -- some of the larger banks and the issues that they've been having. We really haven't seen that through the portfolio thus far. So we normally at the lower end of the leverage spectrum. So it's not like we're leveraging at six times or to the hilt, we're generally thinking a little bit more conservative as we grow the book.

Nathan Race -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst

Understood. I appreciate the color guys. And congrats on an impressive 2018.

Michael C. Rechin -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you very much.

Operator

The next question comes from Damon DelMonte of KBW. Please go ahead.

Damon DelMonte -- KBW -- Analyst

Hey, good afternoon guys. How's it going today?

Michael C. Rechin -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good. Thank you, Damon.

Damon DelMonte -- KBW -- Analyst

Great. So the first question, just wanted to talk a little bit about expenses. First on this quarter, it looked like the other non-interest expense item -- line item was up almost $1.5 million from last quarter. Mark was there anything there that's kind of one-time, or we should be excluding going forward?

Mark K. Hardwick -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

We had a few items that this year in the fourth quarter that were extraordinary. On incentive compensation for the year was about $600,000 higher than what would be a normal run rate based on our performance. About $300,000 of that was expensed in the fourth quarter. We had a little over $180,000 of expense that shows up in other related to a name change. If you recall, we bought Lafayette Bank and Trust, all the way back in 2001, and we continue to run that market as a DBA, and we made those changes in the fourth quarter, wrote-off some of the signage expense and all the expenses to change the name in that marketplace. So that was a one-time event.

And then we had about $250,000 of M&A related costs that are primarily a number of different things, but legal, it would probably lead the way of that $250,000 travel, et cetera. There are lot of expenses related to the merger that we had in the fourth quarter that totaled $250,000. So about $0.75 million of one-time items in the fourth quarter of 2018. We're anticipating that we return back to more normalized levels in 2019. And absent Monroe, we kind of were at bout $225,000 million plan level for all of 2019.

Damon DelMonte -- KBW -- Analyst

Okay, great. That's helpful. Thank you. And then with regards to the loan growth opportunity that you're seeing in 2019. Can you talk a little bit about the construction portfolio. Just wondering what the demand and appetite is for that type of borrower. Wondering if it still remains strong, or if you're seeing a bit of a pullback?

John J. Martin -- Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer

Yeah, this is John. We are seeing a little bit of a pullback. I didn't include it on this earnings slide, but from last quarter, I showed $1.2 million (ph) in commitments. And we're down about another $115 million in the fourth quarter. So it is seeing a little bit of a pullback.

Damon DelMonte -- KBW -- Analyst

Okay. And then is that indicative of a slowing trend in the economy you think, or maybe just something to do with tariffs or any idea what's...?

John J. Martin -- Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer

Yeah. So given where we are with our construction portfolio, we've taken, what I'd consider, a more conservative or disciplined approach for the next incremental opportunity. So, it's us as much as it is anything.

Damon DelMonte -- KBW -- Analyst

Got it. Okay. That's great. And then I guess the last question, Mark, on the tax rate. You still good at around 16.5% on a normalized basis?

Mark K. Hardwick -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

It's probably, on a go-forward basis, more like 17%, and some of that is related to the state income tax expense on a go-forward basis. We have a number of strategies that we've deployed and we've kind of outgrown some of our tax strategies relative to state income tax.

Damon DelMonte -- KBW -- Analyst

Got it. Okay. That's all I had. Thanks a lot, and congrats on a nice quarter.

Michael C. Rechin -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Damon. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Michael Rechin for any closing remarks.

Michael C. Rechin -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Andrew. Very brief appreciation for all the folks that listened in to track the progress of First Merchants to include those that provided the questions. We move into 2019 excited about our core business, excited about the teammates, the clients and the momentum that we feel is going to come out of Monroe Bank & Trust. Culturally, the leadership of that company have spent hours and hours outside of what I would call integration work matching cadence with our company. It feels very good to us at this point. So, we look forward to their contribution knowing that some of the heavy lifting is yet in front of us. But with our experience in having companies join us look optimistically about what the economy has for us throughout the Midwest to include that new market. Look forward to talking to you in a couple of months when our first quarter is completed. Thank you.

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Duration: 41 minutes

Call participants:

Michael C. Rechin -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Mark K. Hardwick -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

John J. Martin -- Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer

Kevin Reevey -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Nathan Race -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst

Damon DelMonte -- KBW -- Analyst

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