Bridgewater Bancshares, Inc.

The Bridgewater Bank shares call will begin in a few minutes. Thank you for your patience. ¦ ¦ ¦ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ . . . . . The Bridgewater Bank Shares call will begin in a few moments. Thank you. . . . . . Good morning, and welcome to the Bridgewater Bancshares 2026 Second Quarter Earnings Call. My name is Nick, and I will be your conference operator today. All participants have been placed in a 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 touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star and 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, Nick, and good morning, everyone. Joining me on today's call are Jerry Bach, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Joe Chybowski, 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 second 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 second 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 June 30, 2026, and we undertake no duty to update the information. We may also disclose non-GAAP financial measures during this call. We believe that 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 second 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 Baack.

Thank you, Justin, and thank you for joining us this morning. I'm thrilled to say that Bridgewater reported another strong quarter. We continue to take market share, saw improved profitability, and built tangible book value. We surpassed the 1% ROA for the first time since early 2023, which was largely driven by continued net interest margin expansion and net interest income growth. We reported a second quarter margin of 3.07%, which exceeds the 3% goal we set at the end of 2026. Most importantly, net interest income continued to grow, up an impressive 21% annualized in the second quarter. We have been very pleased with the overall revenue growth momentum, which helped improve our efficiency ratio. With a strong reputation for being the employer of choice, we added to our talent base. We made several opportunistic hires adding top talent and taking full advantage of the continued market disruption in the Twin Cities. This resulted in some elevated personnel expenses as talent became available earlier than expected. Year to date, we have added 15 key hires from competitor banks that have recently been acquired. These additions, including both production and office talent, will support the future scaling of the bank, strengthen our ability to serve clients, and create long-term Thank you for joining us today. Asset quality was a strength of a quarter once again as we had minimal net charge-offs. We saw a modest uptick in non-performing assets, but have seen stabilization across our watch, special mention, and substandard loans. Katie will provide more thoughts shortly. As a team, we continue to feel good about the overall asset quality of our loan portfolio. We continue to build capital through retained earnings during the second quarter, as our CET1 ratio increased eight basis points to 9.61% and is now 58 basis points year-over-year. During the past quarter, we purchased approximately $700,000 of common stock, taking advantage of a weighted average price of just 1812 per share. As you know, tangible book value has always been the highlight for Bridgewater, and that was the case again in the second quarter as tangible book value increased 17% annualized to $16.61. On slide four, you will note the tangible book value has grown over 50% in the last four and a half years. This remains an important differentiation for us. Before I turn it over to Joe, I want to take a moment to thank our team members for all their efforts. We added a lot of talent this year, and I believe our unique culture is a real asset in the market. It's been exciting to onboard these individuals and welcome them to the BWB team. We have a group that's motivated to serve our clients and keep strengthening Bridgewater's foothold in the market. I am confident that we have the right team in place and grateful for all the efforts of our team members, both new and old. With that, I'll turn it over to Joe.