Eagle Bancorp, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Eagle Bancorp third quarter 2022 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 a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Chief Financial Officer Charles Levingston. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Lisa. Good morning. This is Charles Levingston, Chief Financial Officer of Eagle Bancorp. Before we begin the presentation, I would like to remind everyone that some of the comments made during this call may be considered forward-looking statements. While our loan growth and performance over this past quarter have been positive, we cannot make any promises about future performance and it is our policy not to establish with the markets any formal guidance with respect to our earnings. None of the forward-looking statements made during this call should be interpreted as our providing formal guidance. Our Form 10-K for the 2021 fiscal year and current reports on Form 8-K identify certain risk factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements made this morning. Eagle Bancorp does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or developments unless required by law. This morning's commentary will include non-GAAP information. The earnings release, which is posted in the investor relations section of our website and filed with the SEC, contains reconciliations of this information to the most directly comparable GAAP information. Our periodic reports are available from Eagle online at our website or on the SEC's website. This morning, Susan Riel, the President and CEO of Eagle Bancorp, will start us off with a high-level overview. Then, Jan Williams, our Chief Credit Officer, will discuss her thoughts on the local economy, loans, reserves, and credit quality matters. Then I'll return to discuss our financials in more detail. At the end, all three of us will be available to take questions. I would now like to turn it over to our President and CEO, Susan Riel. Thank you, Charles.

Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report the bank had another successful quarter. In the third quarter, we had our best quarter of loan growth this year, and credit quality metrics remained steady and strong. Loans increased by $150 million from the prior quarter end. This was the fourth consecutive quarterly increase. This quarter's loan growth was primarily driven by our CRE team. which had another solid quarter. At the same time, NPAs were nine basis points on assets at quarter end. And we had another net recovery for the quarter, a little slower this time at $57,000. Credit risk management has been a hallmark of Eagle since our founding, and it will continue to be a focus going forward. Additionally, our CRE and CNI pipeline are moving credits through as our lending teams continue to be active and successful in their calling efforts. And beyond our pipeline, unfunded commitments were $2.4 billion at quarter end, up $87 million from the prior quarter end. As more opportunities arise, our total risk-based capital of 15.59% gives us ample room to grow the loan portfolio. Our equity of more than $1.2 billion gives us a lending limit large enough to close on significant commercial projects. Additionally, during difficult economic times, it is our ability to understand risk, work with our clients, and structure deals appropriately that gives us an advantage over our competitors. Our clients know that we are more committed to the business community in the Washington, D.C. market than larger banks located outside of our market. This commitment also extends to the people in the communities in which we operate. Over the years, we have had and continue to have success in providing much needed financing for affordable housing. For example, earlier this month, we announced financing for a $42 million project This was a land transaction with Howard University to bring a mixed-use development to the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. And for our shareholders, we remain focused on increasing value and returning cash through dividends. At the end of the quarter, our board declared a dividend of 45 cents per share, which returned approximately $14.4 million to our shareholders. This dividend equates to an annualized yield of 3.8% based on last night's closing stock price of $46.78 per share. Before turning it over to Jan, I'd like to say that our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council continues to make progress. This quarter, we awarded five scholarships to Eagle Bank teammates as part of our scholarship program. and in addition to our two employee resource groups, the Women's Group and the Black Employees Network, we have two other groups in the planning stages. We believe participation in these groups will be personally and professionally rewarding and we give the employees participating in these groups our full support. Now, Dan Williams, our Chief Credit Officer, will give us some insight into the market, loans and credit quality.