CrossFirst Bankshares, Inc.

Welcome to Cross First Bank Shares Incorporated's second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode during the presentation. Please note this event is being recorded. Should you need assistance, please signal conference specialists 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 welcome to Cross First Bank Shares second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Before we begin, please be aware this call will include forward-looking statements, including our business plans, future financial performance, and the acquisition of Central, which, as we mentioned on the announcement call, is how we will refer to Farmers & Stockman's Bank. It operates as Central Bank & Trust in Denver and Colorado Springs and Farmers & Stockman's Bank in New Mexico. These comments are based on our current expectations and assumptions and are subject to 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, except as required by law. Statements made on this call should be considered together with the risk factors identified in today's earnings release and our other filings with SEC. We may be referring to adjusted or non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures can be found in our earnings release. These non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be a substitute for or superior to financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. This presentation will include remarks regarding the second quarter financial results from Mike Maddox, President and CEO of Cross First Bank Shares, Ben Klaus, CFO of Cross First Bank Shares, and Randy Rapp, President of Cross First Bank. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, our operator, Jason, will facilitate a Q&A session. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mike Maddox, who will begin on slide four of the presentation. Mike?

Thank you, Heather. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we discuss our second quarter 2022 results. This is an exciting time for our company with the pending acquisition of Central Bank, which was announced in June. I'm pleased to share that we've submitted our regulatory application and are actively planning for an anticipated close in the second half of this year. As we continue to get to know the Central team, it confirms our view that our companies are a great cultural fit, and we expect the combination will deliver enhanced products and services for our clients. As I mentioned during the announcement call, we believe this merger is a great right opportunity for both CrossFirst and Central. We are confident the addition of top-tier talent like Scott Page and his team make this deal a win for CrossFirst and our shareholders. The deal is expected to bring all of Central's market leaders a private banking line of business that is well-established in Denver, low-cost deposits, and an experienced SBA team that we can leverage across our existing markets and a mortgage operation that can create additional fee income opportunities. The ability to provide enhanced technology and expanded products and services paired with our larger balance sheet will deliver added value for our clients and shareholders. This transaction is immediately accretive for our shareholders and will deploy a portion of our capital for growth with an estimated earn back under three years. As you know, talent acquisition and development is a major component of our corporate strategy. We have added 13 new producers this year, including eight in the second quarter. We believe our entrepreneurial culture is a differentiator and helps us attract high caliber talent. Ensuring that we have the right leadership in place is critical to executing on our strategic initiatives. An excellent example of this is the promotion of Randy Rapp as president of Cross First Bank. Randy will oversee sales and business development, technology, infrastructure, operations, along with his oversight of credit and risk management. His promotion also allows me to focus on the company's long-term vision to achieve strategic and sustainable growth, evaluate the challenges of a rapidly evolving banking landscape, and spend more time with our shareholders, customers, and prospects. We hired a new general counsel this past quarter, Amy Abrams. She is responsible for the oversight of Cross First Legal Affairs and corporate governance matters and brings a wealth of experience in public company and securities law matters. We continue to advance our market expansion in Texas with the approval of our regulatory application for our new Preston Center location in the Park Cities area of Dallas. We are happy to announce the hiring of Cody Kaiser to lead our entrance into the Fort Worth market. His deep Fort Worth roots and his team have significant experience with middle to upper middle market companies in the Fort Worth area. We expect to be filing our regulatory application for our Fort Worth location in the near future. As a part of our strategy to add talent to help us scale, we have hired a new operational leader, JC Feaster, who will serve as Chief Operating Officer of the bank. JC has a strong operational background and will be instrumental in continuing to optimize our processes and efficiencies as we expand. Turning to our financial performance, we reported 15.5 million of earnings and our team produced 179 million of loan growth during the quarter, which is an annualized rate of over 16%. We know growth without strong credit is not sustainable. I'm proud of the improvements we've made in our credit quality and the work our team is doing to ensure we closely monitor the impacts of rising rates in a shifting economy. We must manage risk appropriately and take a balanced approach as we build long-term value for our shareholders. We continue to focus on technology and providing an exceptional client experience. The implementation of our new digital platform for clients is on schedule and we expect to go live in the fourth quarter. This will provide a unified digital experience across all channels. Most importantly, we are committed to driving shareholder value. With another quarter of solid earnings, we added to our strong capital position while investing for our future. We have continued our stock buyback initiative as well as invested in technology and talent for future growth. We are well positioned with a great team supporting dynamic markets, and I couldn't be more excited about what we can accomplish the rest of this year and beyond. Our team continues to execute as one team, one bank, with a shared vision of excellence. Now I will hand the call over to Ben to cover financial results in more detail.