Columbia Banking System, Inc.

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Columbia Banking System's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentations, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question at that time, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to introduce Jackie Bolin, Investor Relations Director for Columbia, to begin the conference call.

Thank you, Valerie. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us as we review our first quarter 2023 results, which we released shortly after the market closed today. The earnings released in corresponding presentation, which we will refer to during our remarks this afternoon, are available on our website at ColumbiaBankingSystem.com. With me this morning are Clint Stein, President and CEO of Columbia Banking System, Chris Meriwell and Tori Nixon, the presidents of Umpqua Bank, Ron Farnsworth, Chief Financial Officer, and Frank Namdar, Chief Credit Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will take your questions. During today's call, we will make forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties and are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of federal securities law. For a list of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations, please refer to slide two of our earnings presentation, as well as the disclosures contained within our SEC filings. We will also reference non-GAAP financial measures alongside our discussion of GAAP results. We encourage you to review the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations provided in our earnings release and throughout the earnings presentation. I will now turn the call over to Clint.

Thank you, Jackie. Good afternoon, everyone. It was an extraordinary first quarter for Columbia. We closed our merger with Umpqua Holdings Corporation on February 28th, reinforcing Umpqua Bank's position as the largest bank headquartered in the Northwest. and creating one of the largest banking franchises headquartered in the West. At $54 billion in assets, our broader scale and additional products and services enable us to meet the needs of our customer base in expanded ways. Over the past 18 months, our organization has attracted top talent in new and existing markets. These leaders and teams, alongside our seasoned longtime bankers, continue to win new business and expand existing relationships. This activity has thrived despite the ongoing preparation for the integration of Columbia and Umpqua. I'm very proud of what our team accomplished during the first quarter. In addition to closing the merger, we also completed two branch divestiture projects and successfully converted our core systems. Careful planning and the dedication of our exceptionally talented team enabled us to achieve these accomplishments. I want to thank our associates for their commitment and diligence throughout this busy period. It has enabled us to remain on track to realize our targeted cost savings by the end of the third quarter. In addition to the heightened activity surrounding the merger, our associates were also engaged with customers throughout the industry events that unfolded in March. We were uniquely positioned during this period given our robust customer engagement surrounding the core systems conversion. Our teams were able to expand conversations already taking place to discuss Columbia's diversified business model, granular deposit base, and tailored solutions for those looking to add products like our insured cash sweep service. With a historic first quarter for our company, our customers, associates, and communities are already benefiting from enhancements provided by the merger. We remain committed to supporting communities throughout our eight-state footprint as evidenced by our five-year, $8 billion Community Benefits Agreement. This agreement supports community development, expanded home ownership, and small business formation. In that light, I'm pleased to announce we contributed $20 million to the Umpqua Bank Charitable Foundation in March. With the merger closed, our shareholders will quickly begin to realize the expected benefits of our strengthened operations and improved financial performance, along with significant capital accretion. And now I'll turn the call over to you, Ron.