First Financial Bancorp.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Jeannie and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the First Financial Bank Corps Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After 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 by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Scott Crawley. You may begin.

Yeah, good morning. Thank you, Jeannie. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss Fresh Financial Bancorp's third quarter and year-to-date financial results. Participating on today's call will be Archie Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Anderson, Chief Financial Officer, and Bill O'Hara, Chief Credit Officer. Both the press release we issued yesterday and the accompanying slide presentation are available on our website at www.bankatfirst.com under the investor relations section. We'll make reference to the slides contained in the accompanying presentation during today's call. Additionally, please refer to the forward-looking savings disclosure contained in the third quarter 2024 earnings release as well as our SEC filings for a full discussion of the company's risk factors. The information we will provide today is accurate as of September 30, 2024, and we will not be updating any forward-looking statements to reflect facts or circumstances after this call. I'll now turn the call over to Archie Brown.

Thanks, Scott. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call. Yesterday afternoon, we announced our financial results for the third quarter. I'll provide some highlights this morning and then turn the call over to Jamie to provide further details. The third quarter financial results reflect our ongoing commitment to driving industry-leading performance. Adjusted earnings per share was $0.67, which resulted in a return on assets of 1.42% and a return on tangible common equity of 19.77%. We're particularly pleased with our 4.08% net interest margin with only a two basis point decline from the second quarter. The margin has proven to be more durable than expected due to high asset yields from Agile investment portfolio restructuring and moderating funding costs. Average deposit balances grew 4.9% on an annualized basis as declines in our low-cost products moderated. Consistent with our expectations, loan growth slowed during the third quarter as softer pipelines in the second quarter led to fewer fundings in the current period. Loan growth was also impacted by higher payoffs in our commercial banking and investment commercial real estate portfolios. Loan pipelines strengthened during the third quarter and we expect higher growth rates as we close out the year. Third quarter non-interest income was $45.7 million, or $58.8 million on an adjusted basis, with strong earnings from foreign exchange, wealth management, and the leasing business. There were several large non-recurring items that impacted non-interest income, including $17.5 million of losses on securities, which included a $9.7 million impairment charge on two bonds secured by skilled nursing homes. While the third quarter non-interest income was a little noisy, non-interest expenses were relatively flat compared to the prior quarter. We remained diligent in managing our expenses, and our workforce efficiency initiative has resulted in the elimination of 120 positions to date, with additional savings expected into 2025. Asset quality was stable for the quarter, and our ACL increased to 1.37% of total loans. Additionally, third quarter net charge-offs were 25 basis points on an annualized basis in line with our expectations. And non-performing assets as a percent of assets increased one basis point to 36 basis points. We are optimistic about asset quality and are confident in our ability to manage the portfolio through the expected interest rate reductions and economic uncertainty in the near term. With regard to capital, strong earnings and the decline in interest rates led to significant improvement in tangible book value per share and tangible common equity. Tangible book value per share increased 10% from the linked quarter and over 30% from the same quarter last year to $14.26, while tangible common equity increased 75 basis points from June 30 to 7.98% as of the end of September. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Jamie to discuss these results in greater detail. And after Jamie's discussion, I will wrap up with some forward-looking commentary and closing remarks.