Columbia Banking System, Inc.

Hello, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Columbia Banking System second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask the question during this session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. At this time, I would like to introduce Jackie Boland, Investor Relations Director for Columbia, to begin the conference.

Thank you, Tawanda. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us as we review our second quarter 2023 results, which we released shortly after the market closed today. The earnings release and corresponding presentation, which we will refer to during our remarks this afternoon, are available on our website at ColumbiaBankingSystem.com. With me this afternoon 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'll 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 filing. We will also reference non-GAAP financial measures alongside our discussion of GAAP results. We encourage you to review the gap to non-gap 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 another productive quarter for Columbia. Verger integration activity remains a heightened priority, but we are nearing its completion as milestones continue to be achieved on or ahead of schedule. I'm pleased to report we have already surpassed 100 million in cost synergies. We remain on track to meet our original target over the next two months, and additional opportunities beyond $135 million have already been identified. We're four months out from the systems conversion that took place in March, and our teams are benefiting from unified systems, products, and services. They have the necessary tools and support to win new business and expand existing relationships as we use our scale to drive revenue synergies across both legacy customer bases. Our enhanced footprint provides new opportunities to deploy successful businesses into new markets, which supports our strategy to drive balanced growth. However, the current environment is not without its challenges. Our balance sheet is not immune to quantitative actions affecting industry deposit balances and contributing to the modest remix of our deposit base. Our talented associates service-driven operating model and expansion in newer markets provide us with opportunities and resources to retain our favorable placement within the industry. As I look at our footprint throughout eight western states, I'm excited by our prospects to grow our business in each of these markets. I'll now turn the call over to Ron.