Brookline Bancorp, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Brookline Bank Corp first quarter 2021 earnings call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Marissa Martin, Associate General Counsel. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Betsy, and good afternoon, everyone. Yesterday we issued our earnings release and presentation, which is available on the Investor Relations page of our website, Brookline Bancorp, and has been filed with the SEC. This afternoon's call will be hosted by Brookline Bancorp's executive team, Paul A. Peralt and Carl M. Carlson. Before we begin, please note this presentation is being done from several different locations, so if there's a delay or technical problem, we appreciate your patience and understanding. This call may also contain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, and business of Brookline Bancorp. Please refer to page two of our earnings presentation for our forward-looking statement disclaimer. Also, please refer to our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. which contain risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Any references made during this presentation to non-GAAP measures are only made to assist you in understanding Brookline Bancorp's results and performance trends and should not be relied on as financial measures of actual results or future predictions. For comparison and reconciliation to GAAP earnings, please see our earnings release. If you could join us on page three of the earnings presentation, I'm pleased to introduce Brooklyn Bancorp's president and CEO, Paul Peralta.

Thanks, Marissa, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for today's earnings call. With COVID-19 case numbers trending down in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and vaccine numbers increasing, we remain quite optimistic for the future. Our branch locations are all fully open with employees providing all services to our customers, while for the most part, our non-branch employees continue to work from home. We are following the guidance in both Boston and Providence for employees who would like to return to the office one or two times per week, and that is an evolving picture here over the next couple of months. Turning to our earnings, I am pleased to report we had a solid quarter of earnings of $26.5 million. or 34 cents per share as our credit quality remains stable and our net interest margin actually improved. We continue to work with a small segment of our customers who are still facing financial challenges related to the shutdowns and require some additional loan payment deferrals to get to the other side. As of March 31, there were loans of $126 million with modifications under the CARES Act. The company recorded a negative provision for credit losses of $2.1 million, and our reserve for loan losses declined four basis points to 165 basis points on outstanding non-PPP loans. In Q1, we experienced another quarter of significant lending activity as our bankers worked with our customers on the latest round of PPP loans. We facilitated $133 million of loan forgiveness payments during the first quarter, and an additional $240 million of PPP loans were made. Outside of PPP, prepayments continue to offset growing loan demand. We continue to see improving trends and pipelines continue to grow. I'm also pleased to report the Board approved a 4.3% increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.12 per share. I will now turn you over to Carl, who will review the company's first quarter. Carl? Thank you, Paul.