BayFirst Financial Corp.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Bay First Financial Corp's third quarter 2023 conference call and webcast. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Friday, October 27, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tony Leo. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Joelle. I have with me today our President Tom Zernick, Chief Operating Officer Robin Oliver, and CFO Scott McKim. I'll be retiring as CEO on December 31st, and while I remain a director of the company, I'll be turning the helm over to Tom Zernick as CEO, together with the strong executive team we've built here at BayFirst. Over the past 10 years, we've taken BayFirst from a small community bank with a mere $69 million in assets to one of the premier banking institutions in the Tampa Bay region, with more than $1.1 billion in total assets. At the same time, we've become one of the nation's largest SBA lenders. I'd like to thank all of our shareholders for their support over the years, as well as our superb board of directors, executive team, and most importantly, what I believe is the finest team of bankers in the industry. Going forward, I'm confident the institution will be in the best of hands with this team under Tom's leadership. At this time, I'd like to turn the meeting over to Bay First President Tom Zernick.

Thank you, Tony. And before I share an overview of the company's Q3 performance, I would like to thank Tony for his endless pursuit of building the Bank of Tampa Bay. Tony's entrepreneurial spirit fueled the amazing growth and success of Bay First over the last 10 years. All of us look forward to having Tony chair our weekly Director's Credit and Loan Committee, serve as a valued board member, and act as special counsel to the executive team on all things strategies. Tony, we're very lucky to be able to continue to benefit from and enjoy your wisdom and experience. The culture that Tony has nurtured over the decade will forever be the secret special sauce of BayFirst. Tony's accomplishments are too numerous to mention, but I wanted to share some of my favorites. Tony created a quarterly CEO council that hosts a small team of employees from all over the company to serve as a focus group for BayFirst's strategic initiatives. A kids club that teaches financial literacy to our youth. A trendsetters club that rewards our clients 50 or better. Technology that allows clients to open a retail checking account and complete a consumer or residential loan application from their cell phone. The recent launch of Power, the industry's most advanced commercial loan operating system. Leading credit bench, a first SBA platform to a nationwide top three lender status and units. Meeting clients on their terms to create an unmatched banking experience was something Tony fought for. BayFirst's award-winning carbon neutral certification of all of our banking centers. The list goes on. Tony, thank you for inviting me to the family in January of 2016. It's truly been a remarkable journey. Our executive team will continue to embrace each of the strategic pillars you built BayFirst around over the years. We plan to focus on calculated growth of our retail banking centers in one of the nation's strongest demographic markets. We will always do what is best for our team members, clients, shareholders, and other key stakeholders. Now for some company highlights on Q3 performance. I would like to start my comments by telling all of you we are confident that our stock price is not reflective of the intrinsic value of our company. We have spent the year expanding the franchise value of what we believe is the greatest community bank in the Tampa Bay market. Now 10 banking centers strong, we look forward to continued earnings improvement and strong balance sheet management. During Q3, we produced net income of $1.9 million. This represents a 171% increase over Q1, earnings of $700,000, and a 39% increase over Q2, earnings of $1.4 million. Our Q3 ROA was 0.71, and ROE improved to 8.46. Our Q3 earnings of $1.9 million came despite compression in our net interest margin of 82 basis points quarter over quarter. The NIM reduction is materially a result of a CD campaign that raised deposits at a 6% cost. These CD dollars fueled continued loan demand in our BOLT SBA programs. Bolt loans recognize a 13.25% yield and adjust with prime quarterly. Management decided not to fund the Bolt growth with brokered deposits. Our Q3 asset quality metrics continue to show higher delinquencies and non-performing levels, but the key asset quality ratios remain acceptable. Management is closely monitoring our loan portfolio with heightened attention. Robin will provide additional details on asset quality during her remarks. Let me now share some production highlights from around Bay First. Our retail banking centers continue to build real franchise value as we were successful in growing checking account deposits $70 million from the start of the year. More importantly, this represents over 1,750 net new checking accounts. This is a 21.6% increase. On the savings account side, we grew an impressive 31.8% in net new savings accounts. On a combined basis, we're up an impressive 24.1% year-to-date in net new checking and savings accounts. On the lending side of the bank, BayFirst continues to enjoy minimal commercial loan exposure in the CRE space, with only 5.8% of our loans held for investments. Total loan production in Q3 was $197 million, of which $155 million came from our government-guaranteed lending platform credit bench. $85 million of our record credit bench production during Q3 came from our Bolt product. Bolt loans are capped at $150,000 and carry an 85% SBA guarantee. Bolt loans are priced at prime plus $475,000, adjusting quarterly. Loans held for investment grew $42 million during Q3, helping to better improve our earning assets. Lastly, BayFirst introduced a best-in-class consumer digital account opening platform during Q3. We opened 179 accounts, totaling $7.1 million during the first 30 days. We also launched bank-to-bank ACH transfer capability, again, keeping us relevant on the digital banking front. Now I'll pass the microphone to Scott McKim, our CFO, to provide an overview of our financial performance.