FirstSun Capital Bancorp

Thank you and good morning. I'm joined today by Neil Arnold, our chief executive officer and president, Rob Kuffera, our chief financial officer, and Jennifer Norris, our chief credit officer. We will start the call with some brief remarks to highlight commentary around the fourth quarter and full year results, and then move into questions. Our comments will reference the earnings release and earnings presentation, which you will find on our website under the investor relations section. During this call, We will comment on our financial performance using both GAAP metrics and non-GAAP financial measures. Important information about these non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures, is included in the appendix to our earnings presentation and in our earnings release. During this call, we will also make remarks about future expectations, plans, and prospects for the company that constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors. Please refer to our earnings presentation, our annual report on Form 10-K, and our other SEC filings for a further discussion of the company's risk factors and other important information regarding our forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly revise or update any forward-looking statement except as required by law. During our comments today, we will also discuss our pending merger with First Foundation. In connection with the proposed merger, we filed a definitive joint proxy statement and prospectus with the SEC on January 15th, 2026, which we urge you to read. Information regarding the persons who may, under the rules of the SEC, be considered participants in the solicitation of First Son and First Foundation stockholders in connection with that proposed transaction is set forth in such definitive joint proxy statement and prospectus. I will now turn the call over to Neil Arnold.

Thank you, Ed, and thank you all for joining us this morning. We are pleased with our strong operating results in the fourth quarter. For the quarter, we achieved adjusted net income of 26.9 million, representing adjusted diluted EPS of 95 cents and a 127 adjusted ROAs. This quarter was highlighted by strong revenue growth, which was up 10.8% annualized over last quarter, and the growth in our net interest margin to a very strong 418. We also achieved healthy average loan growth of 8.5% annualized, while maintaining a strong revenue mix with non-interest income to total revenue of 24.3%. Overall, this performance underscores our emphasis on relationship-based banking across all our businesses. In addition, we've continued our focus on reinvesting in the franchise, and it has positioned us well and resulted in 11.5 million of positive adjusted operating leverage for the full year. We plan to continue to invest in our growth markets and add to our portfolio products and services to support our relationship-based model with a continued focus on generating operating leverage and maintaining a healthy revenue mix. On the asset quality side, we took a charge on a telecom loan, which we'd prior partially charged off in prior quarters, which resulted in the biggest driver of our total charge-offs in the fourth quarter. While we have not seen pervasive credit issues in any sector or geography within our portfolio, we do continue to monitor carefully the credit conditions of our portfolio. Given our heavy C&I nature of our loan portfolio, I've always said that at times credit will be lumpy. But all in all, we remain focused on driving healthy returns for our shareholders as we have this year. Overall, I'm very encouraged by our performance this year. Given our franchise footprint in seven of the 10 fastest-growing MSAs in the Southwest, we believe we're well-positioned to continue to grow our customer base. We see great growth potential across all markets and believe we have the right team to continue to drive our long-term growth and profitability in these markets. Touching briefly on the pending merger with First Foundation, we are encouraged by the progress our teams are making on all the integration planning, the balance sheet optimization, and we look forward to working together in the year ahead. I want to thank our entire team for their relentless focus on our businesses and our clients. Our teams remain focused on building a best-in-class bank while delivering value added solutions to all of our clients throughout our footprint. I'll now pass the call over to Rob for a more detailed review of our financial results.

Thank you, Neil. I will touch on several highlights this morning in regards to our fourth quarter and full year results. In addition, please note that when I refer to our financial outlook for the full year 26, I'm referencing First Son on a standalone basis and not reflective of the financial impact of our proposed merger with First Foundation. Starting on the balance sheet side, you know, for the fourth quarter, on an average balance basis, we achieved healthy loan growth of 8.5% annualized. New loan fundings totaled approximately 350 million in the fourth quarter. And while this has historically been our seasonally slowest quarter for new loan fundings each year, This year's new funding level was up 30% over the fourth quarter of last year. While we saw healthy average balance growth, period end loan balances were flat, given some late quarter paydowns, and as we saw, overall line utilization dropped three percentage points. For the full year, we saw net balance growth of approximately $300 million, or almost 5%, with the bulk of that growth in our C&I portfolio. As Neil noted, we plan to continue to invest in our franchise, including adding to our C&I teams in several of our higher growth markets in 26. On the deposit side for the fourth quarter, on both an average balance and period end basis, balances were relatively flat. Although not exactly the outcome we were looking for on the deposit side, we continue to be focused on mix, and we remain pleased with our trending there. We saw average balance growth in transaction products and period end growth in our money market accounts with a noticeable decline in consumer CD balances. Rates in many of our markets on the CD side seem to be staying higher, and that isn't our focus. We will remain focused on operating count and money market account growth across our customer base. For the full year, we saw total deposits increase over 400 million, or approximately 6.5%. with strong overall growth in our money market, non-interest-bearing and interest-bearing accounts, partially offset by a drop in consumer CDs. We finished the year with an approximate 93.9% loan-to-deposit ratio, a slight improvement from the third quarter. Overall, for loans and deposits, we finished the year roughly where we expected to be on a growth basis, and our growth expectations on a standalone basis on the loan and deposit side for 26 are much the same, growing at a rateable basis throughout the year with average balance growth in the mid-single digital level. Flipping to the P&L side, as Neil noted, we're quite pleased with the fourth quarter EPS performances. Our adjusted diluted EPS of 95 cents was our best EPS quarter of the year. Our net interest margin in the fourth quarter was quite strong at 4.18%, up 11 basis points from the third quarter, and has now been above 4% for the last 13 consecutive quarters. Overall, net interest margin and net interest income trending in the fourth quarter was largely driven by improved funding costs, with interest-bearing deposit costs down 21 bps, and wholesale borrowing costs favorably impacted by a sub-debt payoff we completed at the very beginning of the quarter. All in all, we're pretty pleased with our margin performance and 7% NII growth on the full year. It's a testament to our focus on our loan and deposit product and business mix. Looking ahead to the full year 26, we expect mid-single digit growth in our net interest income with NIM remaining stable relative to full year 25 performance. Shifting to the service fee revenue side, We had a really nice quarter with non-interest revenue totaling $26.7 million, or roughly $400,000 more than Q3, and up almost 24% over the fourth quarter of 24. The sequential growth in the fourth quarter of 25 was largely driven by our loan syndication and swap revenue streams, partially offset by a nominal decline in our mortgage revenues, which certainly showed strong given the season. We also saw growth in our treasury management and interchange service fee revenues in the fourth quarter. For the full year, we saw growth of approximately 12.1 million, over 24, or approximately 13%, driven mostly by service fee revenues in our mortgage and treasury management lines of business, which were up 21% and 18% respectively. Our results on the non-interest revenue side really highlight the diversity across all our fee businesses. contributing to our achieving the 13% full-year growth in 25. For 26, we expect non-interest revenue percentage growth in the low double-digit to low-teens range. Our total adjusted non-interest expense in the fourth quarter, which excludes merger-related expenses, was up from the third quarter by approximately $1 million, primarily related to increases in other non-interest expenses. The increase there was primarily the result of the write-off of the remaining deferred expenses associated with the sub-debt redemption at the beginning of the fourth quarter, as well as some maintenance expenses related to some real properties. That said, the adjusted efficiency ratio for the quarter was slightly down from the prior quarter at 63.36%, resulting from the net revenue growth for the quarter. As Neil noted earlier, we saw nice operating leverage this year in both the fourth quarter and for the full year. For 2026, we expect to see our adjusted non-interest expense percentage growth in the mid to high single-digit range. On the asset quality side, provision expense for the fourth quarter was 6.2 million, resulting in an ending allowance for credit loss as a percentage of loans of 1.27%, an increase of one BIP from Q3. Our provisioning this quarter was due primarily to impacts from net portfolio downgrades. Our classified loan balances were down about 5% from the prior quarter, while non-performing loan balances also decreased from the third quarter by about 13%. As Neil referenced earlier, credit on the CNI side can be lumpy at times. You know, we finished the year with an approximate 43 basis point charge-off ratio on the full year, with approximately 75% of the charge-off dollars related to two loans in our CNI portfolio, the telecom credit and the cross-border credit that we've referenced earlier in the year. For 2026, we expect our allowance for credit losses to loans to stay in the mid to high 120s in basis points with a net charge-off ratio in the mid to high 20s in basis points. On the capital side, we continue to strengthen our position as we close out the year with our TDV per share improving by $3.89 or roughly 11.5% over 2024 year end to $37.83, and CET1 ratio ending at 14.12%. I will now turn the call back to the moderator to open the line for questions.