Columbia Banking System, Inc.

Hello, and welcome to Columbia Banking System second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask the question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automatic message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jackie Boland, Investor Relations Director, to begin the call. You may begin.

Thank you, Shawanda. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us as we review our second quarter results. The earnings released 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.

Thank you, Jackie. Good afternoon, everyone. Our second quarter operating results are up 14% from the year-ago quarter. Our improved performance is a product of our focus on profitability, balance sheet optimization, and the impact of our operational efficiency initiative we executed during the first half of 2024. The results of the initiative and ensuing organizational focus on stable recurring performance is evident in our results over the past six quarters. Specific to the current quarter, our net interest margin expanded, we had a meaningful increase in our core fee income, continued our disciplined approach to expenses, and our credit metrics remain healthy. Our loan portfolio was up slightly at quarter end, and I'm pleased with its ongoing remix. Commercial loan growth offset intentional runoff in transactional real estate loans. Collaboration across teams and departments, the cornerstone of our business bank of choice strategy, enabled us to win business and attract new relationships. We continue to prioritize profitability and credit quality over growth for growth's sake. Deposit balances declined during the second quarter due to anticipated seasonal activity such as tax payments and owner distributions. Customers also continue to use their own cash to make investments in their businesses or pay down debt. While this serves as a headwind to both loan and deposit growth, it speaks to the quality of our customers. Columbia has always been a through-the-cycle lender to top business operators within their industries. Macroeconomic uncertainty around tariffs is causing companies to pivot in a manner best suited for their business. For some, this creates opportunities for growth and market share gain. For others, it drives a conservative outlook that has the limited need to borrow and has elongated our pipelines. Our disciplined approach and deep relationships continue to serve us well. Columbia is positioned to not only navigate the current environment, but to capitalize on strategic opportunities, including our upcoming acquisition of Pacific Premier. Integration planning remains on track, as both companies hosted their individual special shareholders meeting earlier this week, and we received overwhelming approval for the transaction. Since the announcement in April, I have said many times that Pacific Premier is the most seasoned counterparty we have ever worked with. PAC Premier's prior M&A experience contributes to the continued excitement we see from their employees who will join our team. They're raring to go and patiently waiting to become part of Columbia. The M&A experience of Steve, Eddie, and the entire PAC Premier organization has us well positioned for a smooth and timely closing, which we believe could come as early as September 1st. Although integrating Pacific Premier is our highest priority, Its impact on our overall current operations is minimal. Approximately 100 or roughly 2% of Columbia's 4,700 associates are focused on integration activities. The remaining 98% are running and growing our company. We continue to plan for the future by strategically expanding and adjusting our footprint. Investment and improvement in our tech stack remains a priority as we are constantly anticipating our needs one three, five, and in some cases, 10 years into the future. For instance, we are not losing ground on AI. Today we have 83 different platforms and solutions that use a form of AI that ranges from basic to powerful. We have one group focused on running our current AI solutions and implementation of successful use cases that can improve operational effectiveness and employee efficiency. And another group that focuses on FinTech partnerships and longer term emerging opportunities. For example, we are evaluating the legislative changes and proposals surrounding Stablecoin. We are studying and monitoring developments, so we're ready to make informed decisions when it's time to act. We continue to enhance our embedded banking capabilities to make banking easier for our customers and attract new business. Our embedded banking capabilities will get supercharged by Pacific Premier's existing solutions. What PAC Premier brings to the tech stack is so impressive that we recently announced internally that the PAC Premier Chief Information Officer will remain as the CIO of Columbia. Tom and I have already had strategic technology discussions that span well beyond our anticipated systems conversion in early 26. Over the past year, we have discussed the reinvestment of a portion of the 2024 expense initiative reductions into growing our density in Southern California. Considering the market density PAC Premier provides us, We are shifting this investment to the intermountain states, specifically Utah and Colorado, as we look to build a meaningful presence organically in these markets. We often say people are Columbia's greatest asset. We continue to put action behind this statement with investment in our people as we develop the next generation of leadership of our company. We have an expanded internship program and added to our robust in-house educational offerings. We are sending a record number of people to banking school this year, and we expanded our executive leadership talent with the addition of Judy Geim, who joined Columbia in June as our CHRO. Judy brings over 20 years of comprehensive human resource leadership experience for publicly traded companies. She has also overseen the workforce and cultural integration of multiple newly combined companies. In eight short weeks, Judy has already advanced our human capital management activities and we're thrilled to have her on the team. And as previously announced, we are unifying our brand under the Columbia name. Effective July 1st, Umpqua Bank changed its legal name to Columbia Bank, and we will begin doing business publicly under the Columbia Bank name and brand beginning September 1st. Our simplified family of brands ensures clarity as we deepen our presence throughout the West. It's a busy and exciting time at Columbia, and I want to thank our associates for their hard work and contribution to another period of solid performance with our second quarter results. I am as enthusiastic as I have ever been in my 20 years with Columbia about our future as we continue to serve our customers and communities in support of generating long-term shareholder value. I'll now turn the call over to Ron.