Eagle Bancorp, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Eagle Bancorp fourth quarter and year-end 2023 Earnings Commerce 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 hand the conference over to your speaker today, Eric Newell, Chief Financial Officer of Eagle Bancorp. Please go ahead.

Good morning. This is Eric Newell, Chief Financial Officer of Eagle Bancorp. Before we begin the presentation, I would like to remind everyone that some of the comments made during the call are forward-looking statements. We cannot make any promises about future performance. Our Form 10-K for the 2022 fiscal year and 10-Q for September 30, 2023, and current reports on Form 8-K, including the accompanying earnings presentation slides, 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 financial information. The earnings release, which is posted in the investor relations section of our website and files with the SEC, contains reconciliations of this information to the most directly comparable GAAP information. Our periodic reports are available from the company online at our website or on the SEC's website. I would now like to turn it over to our president and CEO, Susan Riehl.

Thank you, Eric, and good morning, everyone. This last year presented many challenges through which Eagle Bank team persevered. I'm excited about the resiliency of our company in light of those challenges. We quickly reacted to uncertainties that crept into the banking sector in the first quarter through the failures from large banks. We were able to lean into our relationships first culture and focus on and respond to what our customers needed from us in that moment of uncertainty. While we experienced the large deposit outflow in the early part of 2023, I am thrilled that we reported total deposits at December 31 that were higher than the year ago period. I am proud of the Eagle Bank team and the strong and trusted relationships they have with our customers, our communities, and with each other. I am confident that we will be able to leverage those characteristics as we work to achieve our strategic initiatives in 2024. I touched on those initiatives in our third quarter call, but it is worth highlighting we have been and will remain focused on our deposit portfolio. Our goal in 2024 is to have a higher quality deposit portfolio with enhanced diversification. Successfully enhancing our deposit portfolio quality and growing deposits will allow us to reduce wholesale funding and enhance flexibility for pricing in dynamic interest rate environments. During the year, we will work on enhancing our capabilities to leverage our branch network and better instill sales behaviors, building and improving our treasury management capabilities, services, and products, and introducing a digital channel, primarily for deposit gathering efforts in and outside our footprint. We are working to grow our CNI portfolio. relative to total loans. We have evaluated areas of opportunity to grow our team, ensure those teams are compensated on the appropriate incentive plans, and grow and deepen relationships which can set us up for future years of portfolio growth. Finally, asset quality will remain an important part for us in 2024. Our history shows that Eagle Bank has recognized asset quality pressures earlier than our peers. We've taken a conservative and proactive approach by reassessing internal credit ratings for credits exhibiting weaknesses in primary cash flows where those cash flows are our primary force of repayment. This increased our classified assets in the fourth quarter. Jan will speak in more detail about the actions we took in the fourth quarter. which in part drove a higher provision for credit losses and impacted our net income. I am confident that our credit team will work with our borrowers to maximize collateral value while at the same time seeking to improve the credit posture of Eagle Bank through principal pay downs or enhancements on recourse and guarantors. Our team aligned with those workouts and surveillance efforts have up to 50 years of experience with CRE and have seen many deep downturns. Our strong capital level positions us well in the face of economic uncertainty, and we have proven over the years to be good stewards of our capital through strong capital management. I am excited about the prospects of Eagle Bank and the team. A lot of progress has been accomplished over the last six months. The senior staff is working closely with the entire Eagle Bank team to position ourselves for sustainable growth with improved and consistent profitability for years to come. While this upcoming year may throw us some curveballs, we will respond appropriately. Importantly, I am confident that we've identified the actions needed to be accomplished in 2024 to set us up for continued success. With that, I'll hand it over to Sam.