Equity Bancshares, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q4 2023 Equity Bank Shares, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. At this time, our 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 hands 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, Brian Katzke, Director of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today for Equity Bankshare's fourth quarter earnings call. Before we begin, let me remind you that today's call is being recorded and is available via webcast at investor.equitybank.com, along with our earnings release and presentation materials. Today's presentation contains forward-looking statements which are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. 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 the call over to Chairman and CEO, Brad Elliott.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Equity Bank Shares Earnings Call. We are excited today to take you through our fourth quarter results, including beating consensus earnings, a repositioning of our bond portfolio, and our announced merger with Rockhold Bancorp, the parent company of Bank of Kirksville. Joining me today are Rick Sims, our bank president, Chris Navratil, our CFO, and Krzysztof Szlukowski, our chief credit officer. Let's look back at the fourth quarter. Entering the quarter, our balance sheet strength, including high levels of capital, robust loan loss reserves, and available liquidity, positioned the bank to take advantage of the current environment to build for the future. We announced a merger with the Bank of Kirksville, which combines like-minded organizations while expanding our footprint in Missouri. We are excited to report that we received approval from the Federal Reserve Bank this week and anticipate a closing in February. Different than with past transactions, we will not convert the core systems until May of this year due to scheduling conflicts with the different core and electronic providers. Also during the quarter, We repositioned $450 million in our investment portfolio, significantly improving our earnings while not impacting tangible equity. In fact, tangible book value expanded during the quarter and year over year, as you will see in our slide deck. These transactions reflect our team's focus on value creation. Our employee base is engaged and motivated to drive exceptional outcomes which provide value to our customers, employees, and shareholders. I'm incredibly proud of all we accomplished this quarter and throughout 2023. It was a year of challenges and change, and as we reflect at December 31, equity is better positioned for the future than ever before. I have never been more excited about what equity is positioned to accomplish than I am starting 2024. We have an excellent management team, strong balance sheet, and a guiding expectation to be the bank of choice for our communities. I'll let Chris talk you through our financial results.