First Financial Bancorp.

Thank you, Kelvin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss First Financial Bankers' first quarter 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 statement disclosure contained in the first quarter 2025 earnings release, as well as our SEC filings, for full discussion of the company's risk factors. The information we will provide today is accurate as of March 31st, 2025, and we will not be updating any forward-looking statements to reflect facts or circumstances after this call. And I'll 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 first quarter. Before I turn the call to Jamie, I'd like to make provide a few comments on our recent performance. We had another pleased with our performance overall. Adjusted earnings per share was 63 cents with a return on assets of 1.33% and return on tangible common equity of 17.8%. Our net interest margin remains strong, but declined slightly for the quarter as the decline in loan yields outpaced the decrease in deposit costs. Given current short-term interest rates, we expect the margin to expand in the near term. Loan balances were stable during the quarter. First quarter loan production was seasonally lower. This, along with the work out of several CNI credits and accelerated payoff pressure in the ICRE portfolio, impacted loan growth for the period. We expect a modest level of growth in the second quarter as loan pipelines in our consumer CNI and ICRE lines of business are very healthy. However, elevated prepayments in ICRE are expected to continue. Fee income was in line with our expectations at $61 million, representing a decline from the linked quarter due to seasonal fluctuations and less foreign exchange income, which offset another record revenue quarter for our wealth management business. We expect seasonal rebounds in the second quarter and a healthy increase in fee income overall. We were very pleased with our expense management during the quarter, as non-interest expenses declined by 3.3%, due to a decrease in incentive compensation and lower fraud losses. Our efficiency efforts are ongoing and excluding the acquisition of Agile in the first quarter of last year have resulted in a 7% reduction in FTE. We remain diligent in managing our expenses and expect additional benefits from our optimization efforts in coming periods. We are pleased with improvements in our asset quality metrics for the quarter. Net charge-offs declined four basis points from the length quarter, while non-forming assets declined by 9.5%. In the near term, we expect asset quality to continue to improve. With respect to tariffs, we do not yet know their impact, and we remain in close contact with our clients to assist them through any uncertainty. Capital ratios are strong and continue to grow in the first quarter. All regulatory ratios were well in excess of regulatory minimums, and our tangible common equity ratio increased to 8.2%. Tangible book value per share increased to $14.80, representing a 5% increase from the linked quarter and 18% over the last year. We're focused on growing our tangible book value and are pleased that in the last three years, tangible value per share has increased by 35%. Lastly, I want to mention how proud I am of two other first quarter events. First Financial has been selected for the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award for Associate Engagement. This distinction is earned by less than 3% of the thousands of companies that Gallup partners with worldwide. Engagement is a core part of our strategy, and I want to acknowledge and thank our associates who work tirelessly to drive associate engagement, which directly leads to highly satisfied clients and increased shareholder value. Additionally, we have received another outstanding Community Investment Act rating from the Federal Reserve. This rating reflects our commitment to our communities, which is the foundation of our strategic plan. I'm proud of our strength in service, investments, and lending, particularly to low and moderate income areas for our footprint. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Jamie to discuss these results in greater detail. After Jamie's discussion, I'll wrap up with some additional forward-looking commentary and closing remarks.

Thank you, Archie, and good morning, everyone. Slides 4, 5, and 6 provide a summary of our most recent financial results. The first quarter was highlighted by strong earnings and a robust net interest margin. Our net interest margin remains very strong at 3.88%. This represented a decline of six basis points from the linked quarter. Deposit costs declined 12 basis points during the period, while asset yields decreased 18 basis points. Loan balances were relatively stable during the quarter as payoffs in CNI and ICRE offset modest growth in our other portfolios. Average deposit balances decreased $99 million due primarily to a seasonal decline in public funds and lower broker deposit balances. We maintained 21% of our total balances in non-interest-bearing accounts and remained focused on growing lower-cost deposit balances. Turning to the income statement, first quarter fee income was solid, led by leasing and record wealth management income. These results were partially offset by losses on the sales securities as we restructured a portion of our investment portfolio. Non-interest expenses declined from the linked quarter due to lower incentive compensation and fewer fraud losses. Additionally, the quarter was positively impacted by our efficiency initiatives in 2024, and we expect to see further benefits in the coming periods. Our ACL coverage was unchanged during the quarter at 1.33% of total loans. This resulted in $8.7 million of provision expense during the period, which was driven by net charge-offs. Overall, asset quality trends were stable. NPAs as a percentage of assets declined slightly, while first quarter net charge-offs were 36 basis points on an annualized basis. Classified assets decreased five basis points to 1.16% of total assets during the period. From a capital standpoint, our ratios are in excess of both internal and regulatory targets. Tangible book value was $14.80, while our tangible common equity ratio increased 43 basis points to 8.2%. Slide 7 reconciles our gap earnings to adjusted earnings. highlighting items that we believe are important to understanding our quarterly performance. Adjusted net income was $60.2 million, or 63 cents per share for the quarter. Non-interest income was adjusted for $9.9 million of losses on the sales of investment securities, while non-interest expense adjustments exclude the impact of efficiency costs, tax credit investment write-downs, and other expenses not expected to recur. As depicted on slide 8, these adjusted earnings equate to a return on average assets of 1.33%, a return on average tangible common equity of 18%, and a pre-tax, pre-provision ROA of 1.85%. Turning to slides 9 and 10, net interest margin declined six basis points from the linked quarter to 3.88%. Asset yields declined 18 basis points compared to the prior quarter, as loan yields declined 22 basis points and the yield on the investment portfolio increased 7 basis points. Total deposit costs declined 12 basis points from the linked quarter, partially offsetting the impact of lower loan yields. Slide 11 outlines our various sources of liquidity and borrowing capacity. We continue to believe we have the flexibility required to manage the balance sheet through the expected economic environment. Slide 12 illustrates our current loan mix and balance changes compared to the linked quarter. Loan balances decreased 1% on an annualized basis, with payoffs in CNI and ICRE outpacing modest growth in other portfolios. Slide 13 provides detail on our loan concentration by industry. We believe our loan portfolio remains sufficiently diversified to protect us from deterioration in any particular industry. Slide 14 provides detail on our office portfolio. Similar to last quarter, about 4% of our total loan book is secured by office space, and the overall portfolio metrics remain strong. No office relationships were downgraded to non-accrual during the quarter, and our total non-accrual balance for this portfolio is approximately $17 million. Slide 15 shows our deposit mix as well as a progression of average deposits from the linked quarter. In total, average deposit balances declined $99 million during the quarter. Excluding broker deposits, total average deposits increased $63 million from the linked quarter. There was a seasonal decline in public funds, while on the consumer side, growth was concentrated in retail CDs, money market accounts, and interest-bearing demand accounts. Slide 16 illustrates trends in our average personal, business, and public fund deposits, as well as a comparison of our borrowing capacity to our uninsured deposits. On the bottom right of the slide, you can see our adjusted uninsured deposits were $3.7 billion. This equates to 26% of our total deposits. We remain comfortable with this concentration, and we believe our borrowing capacity provides sufficient flexibility to respond to any event that would stress our larger deposit balances. Slide 17 highlights our non-interest income for the quarter. Total adjusted fee income was $61 million, with leasing having another strong quarter and wealth management posting record results. Additionally, we rebalanced a portion of the investment portfolio, selling $165 million of investments. This negatively impacted non-interest income by $10 million. However, we expect the earn back on these sales to be a little over two years. Non-interest expense for the quarter is outlined on slide 18. Core expenses decreased $4 million or 3% during the period. This was driven by lower incentive compensation and fewer fraud losses. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to recognize the impact from our ongoing efficiency initiative and expect to complete this work in 2025. Turning now to slides 19 and 20, our ACL model resulted in a total allowance, which includes both funded and unfunded reserves, of $172 million and $8.7 million of total provision expense during the period. This resulted in an ACL that was 1.33% of total loans, which was unchanged from the fourth quarter. Provision expense was primarily driven by net charge-offs. which were 36 basis points for the period and were primarily related to a single C&I relationship. Additionally, our NPAs to total assets declined slightly to 32 basis points, and classified assets declined five basis points as a percentage of total assets from the linked quarter. While our ACL coverage was flat compared to the linked quarter, we continue to believe we have modeled conservatively to build a reserve that reflects the losses we expect from our portfolio. We anticipate our ACL coverage will remain relatively flat or increase slightly in future periods as our model responds to changes in the macroeconomic environment. Finally, as shown on slides 21 and 22, capital ratios remain in excess of regulatory minimums and internal targets. The TCE ratio increased 43 basis points to 8.2%, and our tangible book value increased 5% to $14.80. Our total shareholder return remains strong, with 45% of our earnings returned to our shareholders during the period through the common dividend. We maintain our commitment to provide an attractive return to our shareholders, and we continue to evaluate capital actions that support that commitment. I'll now turn it back over to Archie for some comments on our outlook. Archie? Thank you, Jamie.