CrossFirst Bankshares, Inc.

Hello, welcome to the third quarter 2021 earnings conference call for CrossFirst Bank Shares. All participants will be in listen-only mode during the presentation. Please note, this event is being recorded. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. I would now like to turn the call over to Heather Worley, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for the Cross First Bank Shares third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. I'm Heather Worley, Director of Investor Relations. Before we begin, please be aware this call will include forward-looking statements that are based on our current expectations of future results or events. Forward-looking statements are subject to both known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. Our forward-looking statements are as of the date of this call, and we do not assume any obligation to update or revise them. Statements made on this call should be considered together with the cautionary statements and other information contained in today's earnings release, our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, and in subsequent filings with the SEC. Our speakers for the call today are Mike Maddox, President and CEO, Ben Klaus, CFO, and Randy Rapp, Chief Risk and Chief Credit Officer. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, our operator, Sonny, will facilitate a question and answer session. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike Maddox.

Thank you for the introduction, Heather, and welcome to the team. We're excited to have you here with us. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. We've had another great quarter with $21 million of earnings. Our results this quarter included the release of $10 million of reserves from continued significant improvement in credit quality, partially offset by an asset impairment, both of which Ben and Randy will talk through in more detail. Based on our continued strong core earnings and the sustained credit improvement, our Board approved a new share buyback authorization of up to $30 million. This allows us to deploy accumulated capital while also enhancing our earnings per share and our return on equity without any significant execution risk. Before we get into more details about the third quarter results, I would like to take a moment to highlight a few strategic differentiators about our company as well as the progress we have made in several key areas. As many of you know, Cross First Bank was founded as a private company in 2007 and became a publicly traded company in August of 2019. The company has grown substantially over the past 14 years to become a $5-plus billion bank. The blueprint for our success is built on our vision to be the most trusted bank in each of our markets by staying true to our core values, character, confidence, commitment, and connections. We differentiate ourselves from our competitors by remaining steadfast to those values as one team, one bank, with a shared vision to provide extraordinary service to our clients. These core values have been paramount to our achievements. We made it through the challenges of the pandemic by reinforcing our commitment to our employees, shareholders, and the communities we serve. Again, I want to thank all of our employees for their extraordinary efforts during these challenging times. To illustrate our efforts, I am pleased to announce the publication of our first annual Cross First Impact Report. This report highlights the meaningful difference the company is making in the lives of our clients, shareholders, and employees in the communities where we work and live. It also serves as a roadmap for where we want to go as a company as we continue to deliver on our extraordinary service promise. Our strategic plan and objectives for 2022 and beyond include these tenets of continued growth through attracting and retaining the best talent, leveraging our strong capital position, and continuing to serve our clients and communities. I am confident in our ability to execute because of our people, our strong history of organic growth, the attractive markets in which we operate, and our culture of success. We were recently recognized by the Kansas City Business Journal as one of the best places to work out of hundreds of nominees. This is a true reflection of our highly engaged team who are committed to our company's vision, purpose, and promise. We recently completed our annual employee engagement survey with record results. Over 94% of our team members responded to the survey, and the number of our engaged employees increased by nearly 20%. This metric demonstrates that we have a highly engaged team committed to serving our clients and executing on our plan. Talent acquisition remains a key component of our strategic plan. We believe the differentiated culture we offer provides us a platform to attract top talent in our markets that will drive our future growth. Most recently, this strategy included the hiring of our new Chief Technology Officer, our new chief financial officer, and other additional key leadership positions. We remain optimistic about our recent expansion efforts into Frisco, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona. We have been successful in adding talent in Phoenix as we recently have hired four strong, experienced producers. We are pleased with the activity the team has already generated and the pipeline they are building. Investing in the right technology for our clients and organization is a top priority for CrossFirst. Our efforts to enhance our digital presence that drive future growth progress this quarter. We are dedicated to enhancing both client-facing and internal digital platforms to drive automation, strengthen our processes, and improve efficiency. These investments in our technology capabilities will expand our digital banking features and functionality to better serve our clients. We continue to evaluate potential partnerships to further our technology suite of products and digital offerings to our clients. The economy continues to improve, and the recent Beige Book report from the Federal Reserve noted moderate to strong economic growth in the markets we serve with labor shortages remaining to be the primary obstacle to increased activity or expansion plans. While companies are hopeful that the expiration of the federal supplemental unemployment benefits will provide some relief, many have increased their investments in labor-saving automation strategies in response to this issue. The Kansas City and Dallas Fed reports both show moderate and robust growth in manufacturing. we are monitoring labor shortages and supply chain challenges. Their survey indicated that capital expenditure levels would be similar to last year or higher than pre-pandemic levels, which should provide future growth opportunities in the markets we serve. Real estate in the high-growth Arizona and Texas markets, particularly in construction, remains exceptionally strong, despite large construction backlogs due to labor and supply shortages. which are limiting sales and escalating costs. We continue to see strong demand and opportunities in multifamily and in the industrial development space. Overall, loan pricing remains competitive for high-quality credits. This is likely a result of the amount of liquidity in the market. We are firmly committed to growth without compromising our credit standards, and we continue to expect credit improvement across all of our markets. We are well capitalized, and I am excited for the future as we look to grow organically in our existing markets, hire experienced bankers in key growth markets, and add new business lines and products. We are confident in our ability to win on talent, which will drive our growth trajectory. And now I'll hand the call over to our CFO, Ben Klaus, who will start on slide eight. Ben?