Equity Bancshares, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the second quarter 2023 Equity Bank Shares Inc. 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'll 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 that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Chris Navratil.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Equity Bankshare's conference call, which will include a discussion and presentation of our second quarter 2023 results. Presentation slides to accompany our call are available via PDF for download at investor.equitybank.com by clicking the presentation tab. You may also click the event icon for today's call posted at investor.equitybank.com to view the webcast player. If you are viewing this call on our webcast player, please note that slides will not automatically advance. Please reference slide two, including important information regarding forward-looking statements. From time to time, we may make forward-looking statements within today's call, and actual results may vary. Following the presentation, we will allow time for questions and further discussion. Thank you all for joining us. With that, I'd like to turn it over to our chairman and CEO, Brad Elliott.

Good morning, and thank you for your interest in equity bank shares. I'm pleased to introduce Rick Sims, our new president who joined us in May. Rick has a strong banking background with 30 years of experience. He's been a leader in the industry on technology delivery in regional bank operating structures. We are confident he will help us drive efficiency in our delivery channels. You will hear more from him later in the call. Let's look back at the second quarter. Our balance sheet strength, strong capital, high levels of liquidity, and interest rate risk management all have contributed to stability in a dynamic and challenging operating environment. With Rick joining the team, it's a perfect time to reassess our operating and strategic stance. I am proud of the Equity Bank team and their commitment to delivering products and services to our customers. One of our values is entrepreneurship. Evaluating how we do things and finding better ways to respond to our customers reflects on our entrepreneurial approach. As a team, we've been focusing on the drivers of value creation. We know creating shareholder value starts with generating and delivering value to our customers. To deliver customer value, our employees have to be engaged and developed. These elements complete a solid three-legged stool of customers, shareholders, and employees. Adapting to changing environment and delivering to our customers the products and services they need is crucial for equities long-term growth, sustainability, and competitive advantage. Value creation is directly linked to customer satisfaction and loyalty. We must understand and meet the needs and expectations of our customers to differentiate ourselves from our competition. Being there for our customers through good and bad times builds trust. Through those relationships, our customers become advocates for Equity Bank and assure future business growth. Our entire executive management team is working to build a culture and environment that fosters the behaviors necessary to deliver a superior customer experience. Also joining me today is Eric Newell, our CFO, and Chief Credit Officer John Creech. I'll let Eric walk you through our financial results.