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First Financial Bancorp.
10/24/2025
Thank you for standing by and welcome to the first Financial Bancorp third quarter 2025 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, again, press star one. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Scott Crawley. You may begin.
Thank you, Rob. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss First 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 Herriot, 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 third quarter 2025 earnings release, as well as our SEC filings for a full discussion of the company's risk factor. The information we will provide today is accurate as of September 30th, 2025, and we will not be updating any forward-looking statements to reflect facts or circumstances after this call. And I'll turn it over to R.G. 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 The third quarter of 25 was another outstanding quarter for First Financial. Adjusted net income was $72.6 million, and adjusted earnings per share were 76 cents, which resulted in an adjusted return on assets of 1.55%, and an adjusted return on tangible common equity of 19.3%. We achieved record revenue in the third quarter, driven by a robust net interest margin and record non-interest income. We have successfully maintained asset yields while moderating our funding costs, which combined to result in an industry-leading net interest margin. In addition, our diverse income streams remained a positive differentiator for us, with our adjusted non-interest income representing 31% of total net revenue for the quarter. Expenses continue to be well managed. Excluding incentives tied to strong performance and the record fee income, total non-interest expenses were flat compared to the second quarter. Our workforce efficiency efforts continue during the period, and to date we've successfully reduced our full-time equivalents by approximately 200, or 9%, since we began the initiative two years ago. We expect further efficiency subsequent to the integration of our pending acquisitions. Loan balance has declined modestly during the quarter, falling short of our expectations. Lower production in our specialty businesses, along with a greater percentage of construction originations, which fund over time drove the modest decline. Loan pipelines are very healthy as we enter the fourth quarter, and we expect to return to mid-single-digit loan growth to close out the year. Asset quality metrics were stable for the third quarter. Non-performing assets were flat as a percent of assets, and annualized net charge-offs were 18 basis points, which was a slight improvement from the late quarter. We're very happy that our strong earnings led to continued growth in tangible value per share and tangible common equity during the quarter. Tangible book value per share of $16.19 increased 5% from the linked quarter and 14% from a year ago, while tangible common equity increased 47 basis points from June 30th to 8.87% at the end of September. I'll now turn to caller Jamie to discuss those results in greater detail. And after Jamie is done, I'll wrap up with some additional forward-looking commentary and closing remarks. Jamie.
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