CBTX, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the CBTX first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this time, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Justin Long, General Counsel of Community Bank of Texas. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning. I'm Justin Long, General Counsel of CBTX, and our management team would like to welcome you to the CBTX Inc. earnings call for the first quarter of 2022. We appreciate you joining us. Yesterday, we issued our earnings press release. a copy of which is available on our website, along with a slide presentation that we will refer to during this presentation. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that during this presentation, we may make forward-looking statements regarding future events, our financial performance, our business prospects. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ is available in our earnings release and in the risk factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and our other filings with the SEC, which can all be accessed on our investor relations website at ir.cbtxinc.com. Any forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this call, and we assume no obligation to update any such statements. You should also be aware that during this call, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial information. A reconciliation of these financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in our earnings release and investor presentation. I'm joined this morning by Robert R. Franklin, Jr., our Chairman, President, and CEO, Ted Pygott, our Chief Financial Officer, Joe West, our Chief Credit Officer, and Joseph McMullen, our Control. At the end of their remarks, we will open the call to questions. With that, I'll turn it over to our Chairman, President, and CEO, Bob Franklin.

Thank you, Justin. Welcome to the earnings call for CBTX, Inc. for the first quarter of 2022. We are pleased to present our first quarter results for 2022. The first quarter continued the positive momentum generated in the fourth quarter of 21 as we left our regulatory overhang behind. Our core loan growth continued at a lower rate than the fourth quarter in a return to our more normalized mid to high single digit growth. Our deposits remained strong in a quarter that has historically seen some runoff after year end as we approach the tax season. Our local economy continues to gain strength and our pipeline is continuing to build. We are in a rising interest rate environment and with an asset sensitive balance sheet We believe this provides us with opportunity. However, a rising interest rate environment also signals the need to be cautious and maintain discipline. We will continue to monitor the Federal Reserve and its impact on interest rates. Rising interest rates will also mean pressure on cash flows and real estate valuations. But our markets are strong and look to be able to withstand the pressures of rising rates as well as other demands of the moment, COVID-19, geopolitical pressures, inflation and supply chain issues. We feel fully prepared to navigate these challenges as we look forward to our new partnership with the great folks at Allegiance Bank. We've been working closely with Allegiance Bank preparing to integrate our teams while we press forward to gain approval from our regulators and shareholders. Our shareholders meeting The vote is set for May 24th, and we have been encouraged by the shareholder feedback as we move towards our vote. We believe that this merger is one that will build shareholder value for years to come. We are excited as we look to the remainder of 2022. We feel that we are prepared for the economic challenges that may lay ahead and are determined in our efforts for the successful merger of equals with Allegiance Bank. Now I'll turn the meeting over to Ted Paget, our Chief Financial Officer.