ConnectOne Bancorp, Inc.

After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Siya Vansia, Chief Brand and Innovation Officer. Siya, please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to today's conference call to review Connect One's results for the second quarter of 2026 and to update you on recent developments. On today's conference call will be Frank Sorrentino, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Bill Burns, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to caution you that we may make forward-looking statements during today's conference calls that are subject to risks and uncertainties, factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations are detailed in our SEC filings. The forward-looking statements included in this conference call are only made as of the date of this call, and the company is not obligated to publicly update or revise them. In addition, certain terms used in this call are non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliations of which are provided in the company's earnings release and accompanying tables or schedules, which have been filed today on Form 8K with the SEC and may also be accessed through the company's website. I will now turn the call over to Frank Sorrentino. Frank, please go ahead.

Thank you, Siya, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report that our operating performance continued to accelerate this quarter, building on the momentum we established since closing our Long Island acquisition a little over a year ago. Our results demonstrate the execution of our strategy, highlighted by strong revenue and earnings, healthy deposit and loan growth, continued margin expansion and accelerating financial returns. At Connect One Bank, everything starts with a relentless focus on our clients, how we engage them, how we deepen those relationships, and how we make every interaction count. That client-centric approach continues to differentiate us and remains the foundation of our success. Core deposit growth remains a top priority for our team while also driving disciplined, relationship-led growth and others across our loan portfolio. That focus continues to show up in our numbers. We're also seeing a similar trajectory in non-interest income led by SBA and Beaufly with our residential build-out gaining momentum. That's a direct result of the team, infrastructure and the go-to-market plan that we've built over the past year and we expect that momentum to continue. Turning to efficiency, By leveraging agentic tools and optimizing our systems, we're continuously modernizing how we operate. For example, through our recent partnership with Encino, we're deploying digital agents and business intelligence into our loan platform, reducing time spent on some manual processes by over 50%. This capacity is enabling our team to spend more time serving clients, deepening relationships, and driving revenue growth. This is an ongoing effort, and it's core to how we intend to keep Connect One among the most efficient banks in the country while maintaining our high-touch client focus. On capital, we remain disciplined stewards. We continue to generate capital supporting operational flexibility for organic growth, improving our CRE concentration over time as our earnings profile accelerates further, return excess capital to shareholders through both dividends and buybacks. Bill will give us a little more detail on that in a moment. In terms of credit, we made meaningful progress resolving the rent-stabilized relationship we flagged last quarter. We brought a portion of that exposure current, and where a charge-off was warranted, we took it, supported by reserves that we had proactively built well in advance. Bill will walk through this in a little more detail, but I see this as our credit discipline working as intended. We have a long track record of being proactive on situational credits, Looking ahead, we remain attentive to the broader economic environment, including the Fed's path on rates and the pace of economic activity. While external conditions may evolve, our priorities remain unchanged. The strength of our franchise and the dedication of our team position us well for the remainder of 26 and beyond. And with that, Bill will now walk us through some of the quarter's financial performance in a little bit more detail. Bill, take it over.