Brookline Bancorp, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to Brookline Bancorp Inc's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Brookline Bancorp's attorney, Dario Hernandez. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Lydia, and good afternoon, everybody. Yesterday, we issued our earnings release and presentation, which is available on the Investors Relations page on our website, brooklynbankcorp.com, and has been filed with the SEC. This afternoon's call will be hosted by Paul A. Perl and Carl Carlson. This call may contain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, and business of Brookland Bancorp. Please refer to page two of our earnings presentation for our forward-looking statement disclaimer Also, please refer to our other filings of 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. I'm pleased to introduce Brookline Bancorp's Chairman and CEO, Paul Perl.

Thanks, Dario, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for today's earnings call. We had solid core operating results for the first quarter with operating earnings of $20 million or 22 cents per share. On a gap basis, which includes merger charges of $971,000, net income was $19.1 million, resulting in earnings per share of 21 cents. The contraction in our loan portfolio of $136.6 million is intentional as we reduce commercial real estate exposures while maintaining our focus on important customer relationships. We also experienced some planned runoff in our specialty vehicle portfolio following our exit from that business last year, while we continue to increase our participation in the general CNI markets. Customer deposits increased $113.8 million, and our margin increased 10 basis points during the quarter. In January, we expected market rates to gradually return to normal. However, as you all know, the opposite has occurred as uncertainty has become the theme of the day, and markets have become even more volatile. Even with that, we expect to see our net interest margin continue to improve throughout 2025. In December, we announced the planned merger with Berkshire Hills Bancorp, and I'm delighted to tell you it is moving along very nicely. I will now turn you over to Carl, who will review the company's first quarter. Carl?