Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Kate and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q1 2026 earnings release conference call. All lights have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. As for the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed with the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, Press star one again. Thank you. I would like to turn the call over to Andrew Segliaca, Vice Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Kate, and good morning, all. I want to welcome you all to Esquire's first formal conference call for the first quarter earnings release. On the call with me is Eric Mater, our EVP and COO. and Michael Lacapria, our SVP and CFO. Our format for our first call will be simple. I plan to hand the call over to Michael to give you a financial update for the first quarter. After Michael is done, I'll have a few comments and update you on several items that I feel are important. And finally, we'll open the call up to questions from our investors, analysts and other guests on the call. At this time, I'll hand the call over to Michael.

Thank you, Andrew. To those in attendance on the call, I intend to provide a brief summary of our performance highlighted in the earnings release and investor presentation published pre-market this morning. Let me start with our first quarter net income. For the current quarter, we printed gap net income of $12.2 million, or $1.40 per diluted share. These results included $1.7 million of elevated pre-tax non-interest costs, of which $1.3 million were merger costs associated with our acquisition of Signature Bank Corporation and $398,000 in accelerated stock compensation expense related to the previously announced departure of two board members. Excluding these two items, our adjusted net income was $13.8 million, or $1.58 per diluted share. These adjusted results are in line with adjusted fourth quarter 2025 net income of $13.6 million or $1.57 per share and represent a $2.4 million or 21% increase over the first quarter 2025 net income of $11.4 million or $1.33 per diluted share. Our adjusted returns on average assets and equity continue to be industry leading at 2.37% and 18.95% respectively, while we invest in our current resources to support future growth and maintain excellence in client service from which our customers have grown accustomed. Our net interest margin remained resilient at 604 basis points, fairly consistent with prior periods despite our asset sensitive balance sheet and significant declines in short term interest rates over these past three years. Loan growth on a linked quarter basis was 56.7 million or 13% annualized reaching 1.82 billion. This growth consisted of 30 million in commercial loans and 23.3 million in commercial real estate, which was tempered by 53.1 million in anticipated litigation loan pay downs in response to seasonal elevated commercial loan draws we saw linked to the prior quarter. As it relates to our litigation loan portfolio, we saw 44 million or 15% annualized net growth bringing our litigation book to 1.22 billion at a yield of approximately 9% for the quarter. On an average basis, Our overall loan portfolio grew $115.6 million, or 28% annualized, compared to the trailing quarter fueled by our national litigation platform. Deposit growth on a linked quarter basis was $39.6 million, or 8% annualized, where our total deposits reached $2.1 billion at a cost of funds inclusive of demand, remaining flat at 1%. This quarter's deposit growth was again tempered by the anticipated escrow and IOLTA disbursements from elevated settlement balances in the prior quarter. Off-balance sheet sweep funds totaled $1 billion, where approximately 33% is available for on-balance sheet liquidity. Our administrative service fees associated with these funds totaled $1.1 million. Additional available liquidity including cash borrowings and additional sweep balances totaled approximately $1.1 billion. Asset quality remains strong. Our allowance coverage was 1.3% with non-performing loans totaling $736,000 at a ratio to total assets of only three basis points. We have zero exposure to commercial office space or construction and vacant land loans. As far as credit activity for the quarter, we foreclosed on the property securing our one $7.8 million non-accrual multifamily loan and sold it to an unrelated third party, recognizing a $3.2 million net charge off. Non-interest income was stable at $6.5 million, or 16% of total revenue. led by our payment processing platform that services 93,000 small business clients and processed $9.7 billion across 137 million transactions this quarter. Adjusted operational expenses of $19 million were in line with the trailing quarter driving an industry-leading adjusted efficiency ratio of 46.9% as we continue to invest in our platforms. Our capital foundation is strong and well capitalized with equity assets of 12.44% and bank level regulatory leverage and CET1 ratios at 11.85% and 14.25% respectively. From a corporate perspective, we increased our regular quarterly cash dividend by 14% to 20 cents per share paid this past March. Now I'll turn it over to Andrew to provide commentary on the business.