Columbia Banking System, Inc.

After the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. If you would like to remove yourself from the queue, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to introduce Jacqueline Boland, Investor Relations Director, to begin the conference. Please go ahead.

JACQUELINE BOLAND Thank you, Lisa. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us as we review our fourth quarter results. The earnings release and corresponding presentation are available on our website at ColumbiaBankingSystem.com. 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 the disclosures contained within our SEC filings. We will also reference non-GAAP financial measures, and I encourage you to review the non-GAAP reconciliations provided in our earnings materials. I will now hand the call over to Columbia's President and CEO, Clint Stein.

Thanks, Jackie. Good afternoon, everyone. Our fourth quarter results round out a year of financial and organizational performance improvement. Our optimized expense base, fine-tuned pricing strategies, and targeted franchise investments showcase our commitment to continued progress toward regaining long-term top quartile performance. Our normalized core expense base, which Ron will discuss in his remarks, is down 8% from the fourth quarter of 2023 because of organizational initiatives undertaken in early 2024. While our net interest margin is down 14 basis points from the year-ago quarter, It has increased 12 basis points since its low point in the first quarter. The favorable change reflects balance sheet mix improvement and proactive pricing actions ahead of and following interest rate actions by the Fed. We have also closely aligned our loan growth priorities around our business bank of choice strategy, which focuses on balanced growth in relationship-driven loans, deposits, and core fee income products as we allow transactional balances to exit our balance sheet. These actions combined to an 8% increase in pre-provision net revenue and a 29% increase in net income on an operating basis in the fourth quarter relative to the fourth quarter of 2023. I want to thank our associates for their hard work and dedication during our first full year as a combined organization. Their accomplishments contribute to the building momentum that supports my enthusiasm for the future. We continue to seek out ways to grow our customer base throughout our eight-state Western footprint. We currently have five branches slated to open in 2025 as we redeploy the savings achieved through four net consolidations in 2024 and other offsetting cost reductions. We're also continuing to bring talented bankers into the organization. Our investments in technology are ongoing, and we place customer satisfaction at the core of these initiatives. We look to innovation to help enhance processes that drive operational efficiency, because as we fine tune our ability to be the easiest bank to do business within, it supports our efforts to be the easiest bank for customers to do business with. Key investments in 2024 include the introduction of a new streamlined business online banking platform. Banking is not one size fits all, and we noticed a gap in usage between our small business and commercial customers. Our proactive development of the new platform highlights our focus on technology that enhances the customer experience. Plan 2025 investments include the expansion of our real-time payments offerings, the introduction of new digital solutions, and further development of data analytic tools to drive sustainable core fee income higher as we offer needed solutions to our customers. I want to take a moment to address the wildfires that have devastated parts of Los Angeles. Our hearts go out to those affected by the fires and we are keeping the entire community in our thoughts. We have few businesses and associates impacted directly by the damage, but the response from our teams across the organization has been inspiring. I am proud of the volunteerism, financial contributions, and overall empathy I have witnessed over the past few weeks. We are a company that cares for its communities, customers, and associates, and the call to action is a stark reminder of the strong culture that binds us together. We're pleased with our accomplishments in 2024, but the slate wiped clean 23 days ago. Across the organization, we remain focused on driving balanced growth with new and existing customers as we add to our franchise value through relationship banking. I'm proud of the consistency we have reported to you over the past year, and our actions are focused on long-term, repeatable results. I'll now turn the call over to Ron.