Allegiance Bancshares, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q4 2020 Allegiance Bank Shares, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today. Courtney Terrio, please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you to all who have joined our call today. This morning's earnings call will be led by Steve Redsloff, CEO of the company, Ray Vitrulli, President of the company and CEO of Allegiance Bank, Paul Ege, Executive Vice President and CFO, Okon Akin, Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of the company and President of Allegiance Bank, and Shanna Cuzzles, Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Before we begin, I need to remind everyone that some of the remarks made today may constitute forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended. We intend all such statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Act. Also note that if we give guidance about future results, that guidance is only a reflection of management's beliefs at the time the statement is made. Management's beliefs relating to predictions, are subject to change and we do not publicly update guidance. Please see the last page of the text in this morning's earnings release for additional information about the risk factors associated with forward-looking statements. If needed, a copy of the earnings release is available on our website at allegiancebank.com or by calling Heather Robert at 281-517-6422 and she will email you a copy. We also have provided an investor presentation on our website at Although it is not being used as a guide for today's comments, it is available for review at this time. At the conclusion of our remarks, we will open the line and allow time for questions. I now turn the call over to our CEO, Steve Redsoff.

Thank you, Courtney. Welcome everyone to our conference call and thank you for your attendance. As we report on our results for the fourth quarter and for the 2020 year, we are buoyed by the heroic effort put forth by our bank team. I differentiate the actions of our staff this past year between that of mere duty and that of genuine dedication. Our purpose of opening doors to success and helping small to medium-sized businesses in our region and understanding the importance of our special role within our community is what drove our team through the late nights and weekends that it took for not only our vastly outside PPP response, but also as we remained in close contact with our customers throughout 2020. In addition to strong operating results during a COVID-impacted 2020, we completed and initiated numerous projects, including opening a new branch in the exciting east side of downtown Houston while we announced the closure of a branch slated to occur in January of this year. We also furthered the implementation of a new loan origination system, adopted CECL, enhanced our cybersecurity, expanded our electronic banking services, including online account opening, improved numerous electronic workflows, implemented additional card controls, introduced factoring as an in-house product, incorporated letters of credit production into our international services group, executed share repurchases, began paying dividends, and this quarter we'll increase that dividend by 20%. Most importantly, we continue to support the community through local organizations such as the Houston Food Bank and many others. And we were recently awarded for the 11th year in a row the distinction of being at best places to work in the region. All of this and more was accomplished with a large number of our staff working from home and or dealing with family challenges resulting from the worldwide pandemic. To say that we are proud of our team and the culture in which we operate is an understatement. During the fourth quarter, $140 million of PPP loans were processed through the forgiveness phase, while core loans increased approximately $40 million, notwithstanding approximately $16 million of loan sales, which Ray will describe in his report. While core loans only slightly increased during 2020, our customers, and consequently the community and the bank, benefited from the $700 million of first-round PPP loans that were booked. Our team is well underway as we've readied ourselves for the opening bell of PPP 2021, and we're transmitting loans to the SBA on day one of the new program. I am pleased with our asset quality position as we were able to reduce non-accrual loans in the fourth quarter, resulting in an improved coverage ratio. We continue to work with customers with payment relief where possible and consider that our reduction in the volume of this activity is an encouraging sign of optimism, broadly speaking. The past two quarters reflected high watermarks for Allegiance in terms of earnings per share, which was driven by both the accelerated PPP fee recognition and and our ability to onboard new lending relationships at an impressive pace. The Houston and Upper Gulf Coast region of Texas continues to be resilient in this cycle, and our bankers are prepared to take it from here. Next, Ray will describe our loan and deposit production results, as well as an outlook on credit, followed by Paul, who will cover our financial results. We will then open the call for questions. Ray?