Bankwell Financial Group, Inc.

and thank you for standing by and welcome to the Bankwell Financial Group first quarter 2025 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during that time, press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, press star followed by the number one. I will now hand today's call over to Courtney Cicchetti, Chief Financial Officer. You may begin. Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to BankWell's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. To access the call over the internet and review the presentation materials that we will reference on the call, please visit our website at investor.mybankwell.com and go to the events and presentations tab for supporting materials. Our first quarter earnings release is also available on our website. Our remarks today may contain forward-looking statements and may refer to non-GAAP financial measures. All participants should refer to our SEC filings, including those found on Forms 8K, 10Q, and 10K, for a complete discussion of forward-looking statements and any factors that could cause actual results to differ from those statements. Thank you. And now I will turn the call over to Chris Grisecki, BankWell's Chief Executive Officer.

Thanks, Courtney. Welcome, and thanks to everyone for joining BankWell's first quarter earnings call. This morning, I'm joined by Courtney Cicchetti, our Chief Financial Officer, and Matt McNeil, our President and Chief Banking Officer. We appreciate your interest in our performance and this opportunity to discuss our results with you. On today's call, we'll provide updates about our financial and operating performance for the first quarter. Our financial results for the quarter include GAAP fully diluted earnings per share of 87 cents, which were up 135% relative to the fourth quarter and 81% versus the first quarter of 2024. Earnings benefited from a lower, more normalized provision expense, an expanding net interest margin, an increased contribution from SBA gain on sale, and some modest share buyback activity. We were pleased with the progress made this quarter on several strategic initiatives, which we've been discussing with shareholders since the third quarter of 24. In late January, we successfully disposed of two previously identified non-performing credits. an $8.3M Oreo asset, which was sold at book value, and a $27.1M multifamily loan, which was sold at par. Collectively, these dispositions drove non-performing assets as a percentage of total assets 105 basis points lower sequentially, finishing the quarter at 83 basis points. Further details regarding NPAs can be found on slide 11 of our investor presentation. Regarding loan growth, elevated payoff activity of $200 million offset strong origination activity of $130 million funded during the first quarter, resulting in a modest reduction in net balances versus year-end 24. SBA originations grew during the first quarter to $10 million, and gain on sale margins were just over 10%. We remain optimistic about SBA gain on sale activity accelerating throughout 2025. Commercial loan pipelines, including SBA activity, continue to be active, And despite a slower first quarter, we still expect low single-digit loan growth for the full year. On the liability side of the balance sheet, we had another positive quarter paying down broker deposits, which declined $81 million relative to the fourth quarter, while core deposits grew $43 million, including $28 million of growth in non-interest-bearing deposits. Over the last 12 months, we've now reduced broker deposits by $207 million, while growing core deposits by $244 million. Our balance sheet remains liability sensitive with additional margin expansion expected in 2025 as maturing term deposits reprice to lower current rates. Now, to discuss our financial results in greater detail, I'll turn it back to Courtney.