Allegiance Bancshares, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q1 2022 Allegiance Bank Shares, Inc. 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 the session, you will 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, EVP and Chief Accounting Officer of Allegiance Bank. 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 Retzlaff, CEO of the company, Ray Vitrulli, President of the company and CEO of Allegiance Bank, Paul Egge, Executive Vice President and CFO, Okon Akin, Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of the company and President of Allegiance Bank, and Shanna Cussell, 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, or 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 Redloff.

Thank you, Courtney. And good morning, everyone who is participating with us on today's call. We thank you for your time and interest. Now, a hallmark for Allegiance Bank has always been our ability to develop and maintain extraordinary customer relationships, most particularly as we serve the business owners in our region. It has been integrated into our organizational DNA since our inception and has led to quality, granular, organic growth consistency over an extended timeframe. The level of new loan originations in the first quarter of 2022 set a new record for our team, and also resulted in a record level of core loan growth of $130 million after excluding the impact of our PPP loans, which are declining due to the forgiveness process. The 12.8% annualized core loan growth rate was accompanied by continued organic deposit growth of $115 million during the quarter. Overall, we continue to feel very good about our core banking activities and are very appreciative of the unwavering great effort being delivered by our entire team. The affirmation from customer and employee engagement surveys provide added confirmation of a broad appreciation for our culture and sense of purpose as we serve both our direct customers but are also increasingly active in the local community. In addition, earnings were strong. We are very pleased with the manageability of our asset quality and our capital and liquidity positions to provide a solid foundation to support continued organic growth. Ray and Paul will provide added color on the details for the quarter. I will add that it was great to see the positive economic activity and growing demand for our services. All the while we were breaking production records, we have been making excellent progress as we prepare for our merger with Community Bank of Texas. The multitude of decisions and collaborative evaluations has led to a step-by-step but steadily increasing coming together of the two very talented banking teams. Technology, organizational staffing and design, operational consolidations, process changes, the alignment of policies, controls, risk management, and governance are all being created for the coming combined company. Most importantly, the alignment and coming together as one team is gaining powerful momentum every working day. Given evidence such as the recent high level of population growth into the Houston MSA, having gained 69,000 in the past year, which is second in the nation, We are more excited than ever about the prospects for our merged entities. 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.