Brookline Bancorp, Inc.

Hello and welcome to the Brookline Bancorp third quarter 2021 earnings call. My name is Emma and I'll be your operator today. All participants are currently in listen-only mode and this call is being recorded. If you would like to ask a question at the end of the presentation, simply press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. And for operator assistance, press star followed by zero. It is now my pleasure to hand over to Marissa Martin, General Counsel, to begin. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Emma, and good afternoon, everyone. Yesterday we issued our earnings release and presentation, which is available on the Investor Relations page of our website, brooklinebankcorps.com, and has been filed with the SEC. This afternoon's call will be hosted by Paul A. Peralt and Carl M. Carlson. This call may contain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, and business of Brookline Bancorp. Please refer to page 2 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 a comparison and reconciliation to GAAP earnings, please see our earnings release. If you can join us on page three of the earnings presentation, I'm pleased to introduce Brookline Bancorp's chairman and CEO, Paul Peralt.

Thanks, Marisa, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for today's earnings call. I'm pleased to report we had another quarter of solid earnings of $28.8 million, or 37 cents per share, as our core loan portfolio grew. Our margins slightly expanded, and asset quality and the economic environment continued to improve. The loan modifications under the CARES Act dropped to $56 million, We recorded a $3.1 million release of our reserves and now have reserve coverage ratio of 151 basis points on non-PPP loans. In Q3, $187 million of PPP loans were satisfied as our core loan portfolio grew about $100 million or 1.5% from Q2. Our power points continue to be very strong, trends continue to be positive, and we remain optimistic as we go into the final quarter of this year and into next year. I'm also pleased to report that the Board approved a 4.2% increase in our quarterly dividend to 12.5 cents per share. This was the second increase this year in our dividend. As previously announced, we have recently created a new affiliate of Brookline Bangkok called Clarendon Private. Clarendon Private is a boutique investment and wealth management firm led by Mark White. They are working closely with Brookline Bank and Bankward Island to deliver comprehensive investment advisory and private banking services to individuals, families, endowments, and foundations. I will now turn you over to Carl, who will review the company's third quarter results.