Camden National Corporation

Good day and welcome to Camden National Corporation's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. My name is Seb and I will be your operator for today's call. All participants will be in a listen only mode during today's presentation. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you require operator assistance at any time during the call, please press star then zero. I will now turn the call over to Renee Smith, Executive Vice President, Chief Experience and Marketing Officer.

Thank you, Seb. Good afternoon and welcome to Camden National Corporation's conference call for the first quarter of 2024. Joining us this afternoon are members of Camden National Corporation's executive team, Simon Griffith, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mike Archer, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. Please note that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements and actual results could differ materially from what is discussed on today's call. Cautionary language regarding these forward-looking statements is contained in our first quarter 2024 earnings release, which was issued this morning as well as in other reports we file with the SEC. All these materials and public filings are available on our investor relations website at camdennational.bank. Camden National Corporation trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol CAC. In addition, today's presentation includes discussion of non-GAAP financial measures. Any reference to non-GAAP financial measures are intended to provide meaningful insights and are reconciled with GAAP in our earnings release, which is also available on our investor relations website. I'm pleased to introduce Camden National Corporation's host, President and Chief Executive Officer, Simon Griffiths.

Thank you, Renee, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our call today. We sincerely appreciate your time and interest. I will give some comments, and then Mike will dive into our first quarter performance, and then we will open up the call for Q&A. First, I would like to report, as I'm now over 90 days into the role as President and Chief Executive Officer, I continue to be impressed with the depth and experience of the management team and the talented team members executing diligently throughout the organization. Each team member is focused on executing on our strategies, including growing our primary banking relationships and leveraging our position of strength. Earlier this morning, we reported net income of $13.3 million, or $0.91 earnings per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2024. Overall, we are pleased with our quarterly financial results supported by strong capital, asset quality, and liquidity. Our regulatory capital ratios continue to be well in excess of required regulatory levels and steadily grow, as we close the first quarter with a reported tangible common equity ratio of 7.12%, up one basis point since year end. We continue to manage credit rigorously, consistent with our disciplined credit culture, which continues to serve us well. For the first quarter, we reported strong asset quality evidenced by non-performing assets at just 13 basis points of total assets. Our commercial loan portfolio remains well balanced with no meaningful concentration risks. Our credit and special asset teams continue to proactively review our portfolio and have not found any systematic areas of concern. For example, we continue to look at areas such as interest rate risk in the context of rate resets on maturing loans, lease rollover in certain asset classes, and credit score migration amongst other early indicators. This is a testament to our significant due diligence efforts, strong relationships with our borrowers, and in-depth knowledge of the communities that we serve. As our credit team indicates, our commercial customers have depth and character, which continues to fuel our strength. We continue to see moderate loan demand in our communities with our approved pipeline remaining reasonably consistent over the past few quarters. Our teams are developing new customers and relationships in both commercial and consumer categories. Expense control remains a key focus and was evident as non-interest expense for the first quarter of 2024 decreased 2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. During this quarter, we took actions to maintain and manage costs in response to revenue pressure caused by decreasing net interest margin. This month, our wealth management leader, Jennifer, retired after nearly 40 years in the industry. And we welcome Garrett McKnight to the executive team to lead our wealth transformation efforts. Garrett is a former senior managing director at the Northern Trust Company and has more than 20 years of experience leading wealth management teams and serving clients and their families in the areas of investment management, financial planning, and fiduciary services. We're incredibly excited to bolster our wealth management services by adding Gareth's expertise and our recent launch of a new wealth mobile app and client portal to provide our clients with unprecedented access to market intelligence and portfolio insight anytime, anywhere. Our technology advancements also include a new state-of-the-art mobile and online account opening platform scheduled to go live at year-end, allowing customers to open, fund, and use deposit accounts within minutes, whenever and wherever they choose. This is the latest milestone on our successful digital transformation roadmap, further unifying our digital and in-person customer experience and efforts to expand our customer base. In summary, although the financial services industry continues to face economic uncertainty, we are confident in our ability to adapt to the changing landscape and deliver solid returns through the current challenges. We are well positioned to capitalize on exceptional customer relationships and are investing in our future. Our confidence comes from having a clear strategic plan to drive profitable growth and having a talented team focused on executing it. Now, Mike will provide some first quarter highlights.