speaker
Dennis
Conference Operator

Hello and thank you for standing by. My name is Dennis and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the first Interstate Bank System Incorporated first quarter 2026 earnings call. 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. I would now like to turn the call over to Nancy Vermeulen. Please go ahead.

speaker
Nancy Vermeulen
Director of Investor Relations

Thanks very much. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter earnings conference call. As we begin, please note that the information provided during this call will contain forward-looking statements, and actual results or outcomes might differ materially from those expressed by those statements. I'd like to direct all listeners to read the cautionary notes regarding forward-looking statements contained in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC and in our earnings release, as well as the risk factors identified in the annual report and our more recent periodic reports filed with the SEC. Relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements are included in the earnings release and in our SEC filings, and the company does not undertake to update any of the forward-looking statements made today. A copy of our earnings release, which contains non-GAAP financial measures, is available on our website at fibk.com. Information regarding our use of the non-GAAP financial measures may be found in the body of the earnings release, and a reconciliation to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included at the end of the earnings release for your reference. Again this quarter, along with our earnings release, we've published an updated investor presentation that has additional disclosures that we believe will be helpful. The presentation can be accessed on our investor relations website, and if you have not downloaded a copy yet, we encourage you to do so. Please also note that as we discuss our financials today, unless otherwise noted, all of the prior period comparisons will be with the fourth quarter of 2025. Joining us for management this morning are Jim Reuter, our Chief Executive Officer, David Della Camera, our Chief Financial Officer, and other members of our management team. Now, I'll turn the call over to Jim Reuter. Jim.

speaker
Jim Reuter
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Nancy, and thank you for joining us on our earnings call today. In the first quarter of 2026, we completed the redesign of our banking organization, which was a major step forward in the ongoing strategic focus on full relationship banking. This, along with the expansion of our teams in key markets such as Colorado, it's translating into an increase in production as we move into the second quarter. As a reminder, we initiated the redesign in the fourth quarter of last year with the intent of changing our banking organization from a layered structure to a flatter, more streamlined model resulting in a better client experience. We completed the transition in the first quarter, successfully integrating top performers from within the company with exceptional external talent to create a more agile structure focused on delivering the full capabilities of the bank. We remain focused on disciplined earning asset growth, supporting earning asset repricing to drive the value inherent in our best-in-class deposit base. Over the course of 2025, we began reorienting our branch network to geographies that have high growth potential for us, which entail divestitures of some of our lower density markets and planned branch openings in areas where we have opportunities to gain market share. We completed the previously announced consolidations of four branches in eastern Nebraska, the closures of the single branches in Minnesota and North Dakota, and the opening of an additional branch in Montana in the first quarter. On April 10th, after quarter end, we completed the sale of 11 branches in rural Nebraska, and later in the month completed a major upgrade of our branch location in Sheridan, Wyoming. We are currently consolidating two locations in Iowa and Oregon, which will close early in the third quarter. We have made significant progress optimizing our branch network in the past 18 months. And while we believe most of the large activity is behind us, branch optimization will always be an ongoing process to ensure we can serve our customers most effectively and efficiently. Our overall objective is disciplined growth. placing assets on the balance sheet that are accretive to our return profile as we work to unlock the underlying value in our balance sheet. As we focus our capital investment in 2025, we initiated a share repurchase authorization and have purchased about 6 million shares since announcing the program last August. We continue to see value in share buybacks and are in a position to return capital as well as grow organically. Turning to credit, In the first quarter of 2026, credit quality was generally stable with a modest decline in criticized loans. We experienced a modest increase in non-performing loans that was driven by one individual credit. Net charge-offs were six basis points of average loans. In addition to efforts to optimize our physical branch network mentioned earlier, we are also investing in digital channels to meet customers where they are, whether that be in a branch or online. We have made improvements to our online account opening experience and our Zelle P2P service. Both of these changes have produced positive results that are supporting our efforts to attract and retain customers. In addition, we are making investments in our management of data to ensure we are able to leverage new technologies and integrate the use of AI, which are key to many of our strategic initiatives. Finally, we brought a new marketing partner on board in the first quarter, And this firm is now developing a creative campaign across consumer and business platforms. Given that the transformation at First Interstate is now visible in our footprint, our balance sheet, and our delivery of first-class services and products, the timing is right to increase brand presence. You will begin to see that across our footprint over the summer months. And now I will hand the call over to David to discuss our results and our guidance in more detail. David.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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Investor presentation