Eagle Bancorp, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Eagle Bank Corp, Inc. Third Quarter 2024 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 need to press star-1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star-1-1 again. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I would like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Eric Newell, Chief Financial Officer of Eagle Bank Corp, Inc. Please go ahead.

Good morning. This is Eric Newell, Chief Financial Officer of Eagle Bank Corp. Before we begin the presentation, I would like to remind everyone that some of the comments made during this call are forward-looking statements. We cannot make any promises about future performance and caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Our Form 10-K for the 2023 fiscal year and current reports on Form 8-K include the earnings presentation slides including the earnings presentation slides, identify risk factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements made this morning, which speak only as today. 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. With me today is our president and CEO, Susan Reel, our retiring chief credit officer, Jan Williams, and our incoming chief credit officer, Kevin Gagin. I would now like to turn it over to Susan.

Thank you, Eric. Good morning, everyone. Throughout 2024, we've taken foundational steps that will better position us to achieve our strategic objectives. In the quarters to come, our focus is on growing the bank, proactively managing our asset quality, improving our net income and profitability, and diversifying both our loan and deposit books. We've positioned the senior team over the last year to provide the leadership needed to support our goals. With the latest addition of Evelyn Lee joining as the chief lending officer for our commercial line of business, I am confident we have the necessary leaders in place to succeed in our strategic goals. I am excited about Evelyn's leadership and the over 25 years of experience she brings to Eagle Bank. Our work this year will be fundamental to future growth in loans and deposits, and I am confident in our strategy and approach. We repaid our 70 million maturing subordinated debt at the start of September. Subsequently, we raised 77.7 million of unsecured senior debt, replacing the capital that matured earlier in the month. The raise demonstrates the confidence investors have in our vision and in the future of our company. The issuance received full participation from executive management and the board, collectively investing $3.9 million, or about 5% of the total issuance. At the same time, we announced a recalibrated dividend strategy, positioning our dividend payout ratio to better support the company's future growth plans. This will also contribute to our goal of reducing our CRE concentration ratio. Our actions this year have reduced uncertainties about equals, which better positions us for the future. We've taken steps to address our balance sheet and capital. We have built our reserves for credit losses and substantially enhanced our income-producing CRE disclosures. The senior leadership team has undergone a notable change, and I am confident will provide the leadership needed for the execution of our strategy. Our digital channel momentum showed results during the quarter. We've designed our digital strategy to be a flexible tool to reduce the use of wholesale funding as our relationship-based deposit strategies take hold. which takes time. As I mentioned earlier, another step our team has taken this year is to enhance our income-producing CRE disclosure and give users of our financial statements more details about our loan book. Before turning it over to Jan to talk more about our enhanced disclosure, I want to welcome Kevin Gagan to the team. Kevin joined EGLE in early September. Kevin and Jan have been working very closely together to ensure a seamless transition as Jan approaches her announced retirement. Jan's contributions over the last 20 years have been fundamental to the strong success we've seen with our asset quality over the life of Eagle Bank, and I am excited for her to spend more time with her family and on achieving her personal goals as she enters her next chapter. With that, I will turn things over to Jean.