Columbia Banking System, Inc.

Hello and welcome to Columbia Banking System's second quarter 2026 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 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. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jackie Bohlen, Investor Relations Director, to begin the call. You may begin.

Thank you. 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 Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, Clint Stein.

Thank you, Jackie. Good afternoon, everyone. Our second quarter results once again underscore the same core priorities we have previously outlined, delivering consistent, repeatable results, reshaping the balance sheet to improve long-term profitability, and returning excess capital to shareholders. Quarter reflects disciplined execution across the company despite a dynamic operating environment. Our bankers generated solid commercial loan production and net growth supported by healthy business activity and the continued addition of experienced talent. While commercial loan growth offset intentional runoff in the transactional book, total loans declined during the second quarter due to elevated CRE payoff activity driven in part by competitive pricing pressure. I've stated many times that Columbia does not chase growth for the sake of growth. We are seeing pricing and structures in the market that we believe are irrational and we will not meet them. We will compete aggressively for high-quality relationships that meet our return objectives, but we will not destroy shareholder value by sacrificing long-term returns to simply add loan tolls. The same discipline applies to deposits. Our team continues to protect the quality of our industry-leading core deposit franchise by demonstrating the value Corbia brings to customer relationships beyond price. Our deposit campaigns, which Chris will review in greater detail, helped offset seasonal outflows in April related to tax payments. Importantly, across the organization, we maintained our pricing discipline in an increasingly competitive environment, resulting in a decline in deposit costs from the prior quarter. Our discipline also extends to expense management. I'm pleased to report that we exceeded the cost-saving target we laid out last year when we announced the PAC Premier acquisition. In addition, we were materially under the merger-related deal cost estimate we disclosed at announcement of the transaction. I want to thank our integration team one last time for their flawless execution on this acquisition. With the PAC Premier integration now complete, we are continuing to identify targeted efficiency opportunities across the company. These small adjustments help fund continued franchise investment, including the addition of new locations and talent. The operating environment is not without its challenges, though, but I'm as optimistic as ever for our future. We operate with a fortress balance sheet today. It takes discipline, but we believe the repositioning actions we are taking will continue to make our balance sheet structurally stronger and improve the quality and consistency of our earnings profile over time. This long-term improvement is enhanced by our growing stream of quality fee income. Our balance sheet optimization work also contributes to our capital return objectives. Given our current capital position and bullish forward outlook, we returned over $300 million to shareholders during the quarter through our regular dividend and repurchase of our outstanding common shares. We continue to believe the best investment we can make at this time is in the stock of our own company. I'll now turn the call over to Ivan.