Republic First Bancorp, Inc.

Welcome to the fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. My name is James, and I'll be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. During the Q&A session, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your phone, and also note that this conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn to caller Frank Cavallaro. Frank, you may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for taking the time to join us this morning for our fourth quarter earnings call. Today I'm joined by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Vernon Hill and President and Chief Operating Officer Andy Logue. Before turning the call over to Mr. Hill, I'd like to inform you that Republic First Bancorp intends to file a proxy statement and related proxy materials with the SEC for our 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. In connection with this meeting, certain directors and officers will participate in the solicitation of proxies from our shareholders in advance of the annual meeting. Shareholders are strongly encouraged to carefully read the proxy statement and all other related materials filed with the SEC in their entirety when they become available. They will contain important information about the 2022 annual meeting. As you may know, a dissident shareholder has recently stated its intention to launch a proxy contest at this year's annual meeting. We will not comment on the proxy contest today or take any suggestions, questions regarding the proxy contest on the call. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Hill to begin the review of our financial results. Good morning to all.

Thank you for spending time to join this call. We are pleased to report on the Republic Bank's fourth quarter financial results, which brings to a close a very successful year. our Power Up Red expansion campaign is going strong. We not only achieved asset, loan, and deposit growth far above the industry average, but we also saw a dramatic improvement in profitability during the current year. Earnings improved approximately 400% year over year as a result of our efforts to drive top-line growth at a greater growth rate than our expense growth. We look forward to the year ahead. We are excited about the opportunities for growth, and we see unfolding in 2022 that we can continue our growth plan. We plan to deliver significant enhancements to our technology platforms in 2022. We remain committed as as ever, to delivering the best experience to our customers across every delivery channel, including in-store, online, mobile, and by phone. With that, I'll go on with some comments about quarter four. As I said earlier, fourth quarter of the year was an excellent quarter for us. If you have the press release on the first page, the main items are shown there. For the 12 months ending December of this year, net income grew 398% to $25.2 million, or $0.33 a share. Earnings per share for the year grew, what's the percentage, Frank?