Allegiance Bancshares, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Allegiant Bank Shares, Inc. second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference may be recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star then zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to one of your speakers today, Courtney Theriault. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you to all who have joined our call today. This morning's earnings call will be led by Steve Redsoft, CEO of the company, Ray Vitulli, President of the company and CEO of Allegiance Bank, Paul Eggie, Executive Vice President and CFO, Okon Akin, Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of the company and President of Allegiance Bank, and Shanna Kussel, Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Before we begin, I need to remind everyone that some of the remarks made today 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, and such beliefs are subject to change. We disclaim any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, except as may be required by law. Please see the last page of the text in this morning's earnings release, which is available on our website at allegiancebank.com, for additional information about the risk factors associated with forward-looking statements. We also have provided an investor presentation on our website. 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 Retzlaff.

Thank you, Courtney. Welcome, everyone, to our conference call, and we really appreciate your attendance. As was highlighted in our press release this morning, the second quarter resulted in another record for net income for the company of $22.9 million, or $1.12 per diluted share, which is due in part to our outsized PPP success and the continued recognition of the fees associated as we proceed with the PPP forgiveness process. Also, as we continue to closely monitor our core loan relationships and assess economic factors that drive our allowance model, the quarter's earnings also benefited from a release from the allowance for loan losses. We feel great about our tangible book value having increased by 12.7% over the past year, notwithstanding $0.44 per share of dividends and with some share repurchases. Our service model has proven itself through a high level of customer acquisitions, both due to and separate from the PPP effort. It has also been recognized through our recently completed customer survey that Ray will describe where the results place Allegiance at an absolute top-tier level of customer satisfaction. Over the past 12 months, deposits have grown significantly by 15.6%, with the mix of non-interest-bearing deposits ending the second quarter at 36.3%. In addition, through the second quarter, we are continuing to reflect a steady decline in our cost of funds due to our disciplined approach in the current rate environment. Our relationship officers remain focused on growing the bank through competitive loan pricing and terms, extraordinary treasury management services, and are experiencing loan pipelines that are prerequisites to continued high volumes of production. We believe our capital, liquidity, asset quality, steady growing brand loyalty, and strong culture provide an excellent posture from which Allegiance customers and shareholders will continue to build value. As with much of the broader economy, we are glad to see that the Houston-Beaumont region is rebounding well recently, with a few notables, such as higher oil prices, an excellent housing market, and a purchasing manager's index now well into positive territory. While we are clearly pleased to be the largest community bank focused on this region of Texas, we do, however, recognize that other Texas geographies may present favorable market opportunities for a community bank like ours that possesses a proven ability to effectively serve the independent business owner. Finally, Allegiant serves all of our stakeholders, which includes active support of many local community initiatives, including financial support and volunteerism at the Houston Food Bank, the formation and fundraising effort for the new banking program at Texas Southern University, advocacy for and assistance to disadvantaged youth, and affordable housing options for low-income families. These and other initiatives provide compelling evidence of the integral value that our community-minded model is able to deliver. With that, I'll turn it over to Ray for a more detailed review of our operational results, followed by Paul, who will cover our financial results.