Financial Institutions, Inc.

Good day, and welcome to the Financial Institutions, Inc. First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star, then zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Shelley Duran, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you for joining us for today's call. Providing prepared comments will be President and CEO Marty Birmingham and CFO Jack Plants. Chief Community Banking Officer Justin Bigum and Director of Financial Planning and Analysis Mike Grover will join us for Q&A. Today's prepared comments and Q&A will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and other factors. We refer you to yesterday's earnings release and historical SEC filings available on our Investor Relations website for a safe harbor description and a detailed discussion of the risk factors relating to forward-looking statements. We will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures intended to supplement and not substitute for comparable GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these measures to GAAP financial measures were provided in the earnings release, which was filed as an exhibit to a Form 8-K. Please note that this call includes information that is accurate as of today's date, April 29th, 2021. I'll now turn the call over to Marty.

Thank you, Shelly. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2021 earnings call. It was another compelling quarter for our company. We generated record high net income of $20.7 million or $1.27 per diluted share as compared to $13.8 million or $0.84 per share in the fourth quarter of 2020 and $1.1 million or $0.05 per share in the first quarter of 2020. Pre-tax pre-provision income for the quarter was also the highest in company history at $24.1 million. A $3.1 million increase from the fourth quarter of 2020 and an $8.7 million increase from the first quarter of 2020. It was a strong quarter for debt interest income and non-interest income as we continue to experience cost savings from our enterprise standardization program. All of these factors contributed to a significant decrease in the efficiency ratio to 52.5% for the quarter. We started to buy back shares under our stock repurchase program during the quarter and repurchased about 238,000 shares at a cost of $24.30 per share, roughly 103% of tangible book value. No shares have been purchased since quarter end. On February 1st, we completed the acquisition of Rochester-based insurance brokerage firm Landmark Group. Landmark was acquired by our SDN Insurance Agency subsidiary and their principals remain with SDN to lead our Rochester insurance operations. We believe this acquisition will expand our insurance business in Rochester and the Finger Lakes region. As we stated last quarter, this is a bolt-on transaction expected to negatively impact the TCE ratio by less than two basis points. EPS solution is projected at only about a penny per share in the first year with EPS accretion generated shortly thereafter. We also announced a new organizational structure during the quarter, one developed to meet evolving customer needs while aligning in-house talent with leadership roles that position them and our company for long-term success. Several members of management demonstrated strong leadership and contributions in 2020, which combined with their exemplary experience and industry knowledge resulted in their promotion within the new structure. A press release issued on February 9th on our investor relations website provides additional details. The reorganization directly impacted two of my teammates on the call today. Justin Bingham was named Chief Community Banking Officer, assuming leadership of the newly established community banking area. Community banking is designed to advance and strengthen Five Star's customer journey and success across all major customer-facing functions with a focus on digital experience and data and analytics. Justin's experience as our CFO and his prior experience with two larger banks, including retail and small business product management responsibilities, positioned him well for this new role. Jack Plants was named CFO and Treasurer, and he now leads financial planning and analysis, accounting, tax, investor and external relations in Treasury. Jack joined our organization in 2019 as Treasurer with more than 14 years of experience in bank finance. He was integrally involved in last year's capital market activities and balance sheet strategies, demonstrating his readiness to assume the role of CFO. With that said, I'll now turn the call over to Jack so he can provide additional details on results and guidance.