Bridgewater Bancshares, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Bridgewater Bank Share's 2026 first quarter earnings call. My name is Danielle and I will be your conference operator today. All participants have been placed in listen-only mode. After Bridgewater's opening remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note that today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to introduce Justin Horstman, Vice President of Investor Relations, to begin the conference call. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Danielle, and good morning, everyone. Joining me on today's call are Jerry Bach, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Joe Schabowski, President and Chief Financial Officer, Nick Place, Chief Banking Officer, and Katie Morrell, Chief Credit Officer. In just a few moments, we will provide an overview of our 2026 first quarter financial results. We will be referencing a slide presentation that is available on the investor relations section of Bridgewater's website, investors.bridgewaterbankmn.com. Following our opening remarks, we will open the call for questions. During today's presentation, we may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. We caution that such statements are predictions and that actual results may differ materially. Please see the forward-looking statement disclosure in the slide presentation and our 2026 first quarter earnings release for more information about risks and uncertainties which may affect us. The information we will provide today is as of and for the quarter ended March 31st, 2026, and we undertake no duty to update the information. We may also disclose non-GAAP financial measures during this call. We believe certain non-GAAP financial measures, in addition to the related GAAP measures, provide meaningful information to investors to help them understand the company's operating performance and trends and to facilitate comparisons with the performance of our peers. We caution that these disclosures should not be viewed as a substitute for operating results determined in accordance with GAAP. Please see our slide presentation and 2026 first quarter earnings release for reconciliations of non-GAAP disclosures to the comparable GAAP measures. I would now like to turn the call over to Bridgewater's chairman and CEO, Jerry Bach.

Thank you, Justin, and thank you for joining us this morning. Bridgewater is off to a strong start in 2026 with several positive developments during the quarter, positioning us well for the rest of the year. First and foremost, I would like to point out our net interest margin expansion. While we mentioned last quarter that we expected to reach a 3% margin by the end of 2026, WE NEARLY GOT THERE IN THE FIRST QUARTER AS MARGIN EXPANDED TO 2.99%. DEPOSIT COSTS DECLINED AND LOANS REPRICED HIGHER, HELPING US GET THERE QUICKER THAN ANTICIPATED. WE EXPECT TO SEE SLOW ADDITIONAL MARGIN EXPANSION OVER THE COMING QUARTERS. BECAUSE OF THE STRONG NET INTEREST MARGIN, WE WERE ABLE TO CONTINUE GROWING NET INTEREST INCOME. THIS HAPPENED EVEN WHILE OUR BALANCE SHEET SHRUNK DURING THE QUARTER DUE TO SOME STRATEGIC SALES OF SECURITIES. These security sales were part of several opportunistic actions taken in the first quarter to enhance our balance sheet efficiency, resulting in both a substantial gain and positioning us for improved profitability moving forward. I want to be clear that this was not the standard balance sheet repositioning many other banks have done recently that involved selling securities at a large loss to increase future margin, but rather a calculated tactic Joe and our Treasury team recognized as interest rates moved in our favor. In response to this shift, they executed on an opportunity to improve forward profitability while taking an immediate gain. Joe will provide more details on this in a minute. I'm pleased to report we continued to take market share in the first quarter as the loan portfolio grew 5.5% annualized, with much of the growth continuing to come from our commitment to our affordable housing vertical. Core deposit momentum also continued as balances increased 3.2% annualized while the overall deposit mix continued to improve. Asset quality remained positive in the first quarter as net charge-offs and non-performing assets both declined nicely. We continue to feel good about the overall asset quality of our loan portfolio resulting from the strong credit culture we pride ourselves on. In addition, we saw a nice uptick in our capital ratios as CET1 increased 36 basis points to 9.53%. Turning to slide four, tangible book value growth continues to be a staple of the Bridgewater story. And that was no different in the first quarter as tangible book value increased 9.9% annualized to $15.93 per share. This is an important differentiator for Bridgewater. We're proud of our ability to create aid and sustain shareholder value through tangible book value growth and how consistent this trajectory has been over the past decade. Before I pass it over to Joe, I also wanted to share that we successfully expanded our footprint to the east. In February, we opened our de novo branch in Lake Elmo. There's a growing area in the Twin Cities, and we are thrilled with the opportunities it presents to Bridgewater Bank. With that, I'll turn it over to Joe.