Fulton Financial Corporation

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fulton Financial first quarter 2025 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Matt Joswak, Director of Investor Relations.

Good morning and thanks for joining us for Fulton Financial's conference call and webcast to discuss our earnings for the first quarter ending March 31st, 2025. Your host for today's conference call is Kurt Myers, Chairman and Executive Officer. Joining Kurt is Rick Kramer, Chief Financial Officer. Our comments today will refer to the financial information and related slide presentation included with our earnings announcement, which we released yesterday afternoon. These documents can be found on our website at fult.com by clicking on Investor Relations and then on News. The slides can also be found on the Presentations page under Investor Relations on our website. On this call, representatives of Fulton may make forward-looking statements with respect to Fulton's financial condition, results of operations, and business. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, and actual results could differ materially. Please refer to the safe harbor statement on forward-looking statements in our earnings release and on slide two of today's presentation for additional information regarding these risks, uncertainties, and other factors. Fulton undertakes no obligation other than as required by law to update or revise any forward-looking statements. In discussing Fulton's performance, representatives of Fulton may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the supplemental financial information included with Fulton's earnings announcement released yesterday in slides 16 through 22 of today's presentation for reconciliation of those non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures. Now, I would like to turn the call over to your host, Curt Myers.

Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. For today's call, I'll be providing a summary of the first quarter operating highlights and an update on certain corporate initiatives. Then Rick will review our financial results and discuss our 2025 operating guidance. After our prepared remarks, we'll be happy to take any questions you may have. We were pleased with our first quarter operating results and encouraged by the strong start of the year. We continue to remain customer-focused, deliver solid operating performance, and execute on our strategy. Operating earnings per share of 52 cents represents a four cent increase link quarter as we continue to produce positive operating leverage and maintain a strong balance sheet. With revenue exceeding expectations and a continued reduction in total operating expenses, PPNR increased nicely and we continue to become more efficient. The quarterly operating efficiency ratio dropped to 56.7%, operating return on assets increased to 1.25%, and operating return on average tangible common equity grew to 15.95%. Through disciplined management of the balance sheet, we maintained historically strong liquidity and grew our equity base. We remain focused on creating long-term value for our customers, communities, and our shareholders. and our team performed well for all stakeholders again this quarter, growing our tangible book value per share 13.8% on an annualized basis. So now let me turn and provide a few highlights of the quarter. We continue to execute on our strategic transformation through the implementation of Fulton First. During the quarter, we made tangible progress in areas related to talent alignment, reinvestment for growth, and operational simplification. We are seeing positive benefits and outcomes both operationally and financially. Now let me turn to the balance sheet. Customer deposit growth was solid this quarter as we continue to win new customers while effectively managing overall deposit costs. Deposit accounts and balances are up while deposit costs are down. On the lending side, we remain focused on relationship lending to generate prudent and profitable loan growth over the long term. During this past quarter, total loans declined, even though originations were relatively consistent link quarter, as several strategic actions impacted overall balances. During the quarter, we saw a $38 million decline in indirect auto balances, as we've previously forecasted. We also saw a $231 million decline in commercial construction balances, as there were certain projects we elected not to convert to permanent. And finally, overall balances were also impacted by accelerated resolutions of troubled assets. Given these strategic decisions and the overall current environment, loan growth is expected to be in the low single-digit range for the year. Turning to the income statement, while revenue was relatively consistent, we've seen strong performance generated through a meaningful expense reduction linked quarter. Finally, let me provide some updates on our credit performance. As a result of several portfolio management actions, many of our asset quality metrics improved. Our MPL to total loan ratio declined as we resolved certain non-performing loans. Even with the accelerated non-performing loan resolutions, net charge-offs declined one basis point length quarter. Saying all of that, we remain cautious in our outlook for credit quality as customers navigate the current volatile environment. Now I'll turn the call over to Rick to discuss the impact of these initiatives on our financial results and provide comments on our 2025 operating guidance in more detail.