Fulton Financial Corporation

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fulton Financial Fourth Quarter 2035 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in list-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star-1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star-1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Pat Lafferty, Investor Relations Manager. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thanks for joining us for Fulton Financial's conference call and webcast to discuss our earnings for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2025. Your host for today's conference call is Kirk Myers, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President. Joining Kirk 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 Events and 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 guaranteed for 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 2 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 and slides 28 through 38 of today's presentation on for a 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, Kurt Myers.

Thanks, Pat, and good morning, everyone. For today's call, I'll be providing a few high-level comments, as well as some operating highlights for the full year of 2025. Unless I note otherwise, comparisons I discuss are with the full year of 2024 performance. Then Rick will review our quarterly financial results and provide our 2026 operating guidance. After our prepared remarks, we'll be happy to take any questions you may have. 2025 is another outstanding year for our company. I want to start by thanking all of our team members for their dedication to advancing our mission to change lives for the better and for generating strong operating results. Last year, we once again successfully executed on our community banking strategy and delivered value for customers, career success for employees, and meaningful operating results for shareholders. Our goal going forward remains the same, creating long-term value by growing the company, delivering effectively for customers, and operating with excellence so that we can continue to serve all of our stakeholders. Our 2025 results were strong. Operating earnings per share of $2.16 set a new record. We also maintained a solid balance sheet and demonstrated disciplined expense management. Customer deposits grew by $449 million, and we're seeing momentum from our enhanced deposit initiatives, which have increased customer engagement and driven a 25% growth in consumer demand deposit account openings year over year. Sales productivity is strong and CD retention remains solid. This has resulted in good deposit growth and an ability to effectively manage cost of funds over time. Our focused and expanded business banking team has generated great results, raising over $133 million in lower-cost operating deposits. Throughout the year, we highlighted some strategic actions that have offset organic loan growth. These actions represented more than an $800 million headwind during 2025. Even with these actions, our organic loan growth originations delivered overall net loan growth on a year-over-year basis. Over the course of 2025, we consistently drove growth in quarterly originations, creating a strong foundation for 2026 and beyond. To support this ongoing loan growth, we've been adding new team members. This expands our ability to serve small businesses and middle market customers throughout the footprint. Accordingly, in 2026, we expect loan growth to return to our historical growth rates in the mid-single-digit range. We're also pleased with our non-interest income generating performance in 2025. When excluding the bargain purchase and investment securities gains and losses, Non-interest income of $277 million was up almost 7%. Non-interest income continues to represent more than 20% of total revenue and underscores the strength of our diversified revenue model as we've grown both non-interest income and net interest income at a similar pace. The drivers of non-interest income growth were broad-based. Commercial fees grew overall by 8%. led by 17% growth in cash management revenue. Fulton Financial Advisors continues to be a meaningful contributor to overall fee incomes. Wealth assets under management and administration surpassed $17 billion in 2025. And referrals from financial centers to our advisors increased 17%, or almost $50 million, year over year. This strong level of activity was supported by significant new opportunities from legacy Republic First financial centers. This highlights our strategy to bring new product and value to acquired customers and grow our overall revenue base. Turning to expenses, we continue to realize benefits from strategic initiatives driving positive operating leverage for the year. Our operating expenses grew by a modest 1.9% in 2025. When normalizing for a full year of Republic First expenses in 2024, our operating expenses would have been down 2.7% year over year, a meaningful contributor to profitability and efficiency. Our profitability, liquidity profile, and capital position all further improved during 2025. Our operating return on assets improved by 17 basis points to 1.28%, as we continue to drive greater efficiencies across the bank. We ended the year with a loan-to-deposit ratio of 91%, allowing for continued balance sheet flexibility. Our teams worked diligently to grow balances while also managing deposit costs. Our net interest margin was strong, increasing nine basis points to 3.51% from the prior year. Net interest margin ended the fourth quarter at an even stronger position of 3.59%, despite several Fed rate cuts. The consistent increase in net interest margin throughout the year demonstrated our relatively neutral interest rate profile. Our strong earnings also supported higher capital ratios, helping to grow tangible book value per share by 15%. Our capital ratios ended the year at the highest level seen in more than a decade, even after we increase our dividend and opportunistically repurchase $59 million of common stock. Credit metrics meaningfully improved throughout 2025. Non-performing assets as a percent of total assets declined 11 basis points, ending the year at 58 basis points. Net charge-offs for the year remained historically low at 21 basis points as a percentage of average loan. Our allowance for loan losses ended the year at 1.51% total loans. We believe we are well positioned moving forward. In November, we announced the acquisition of Blue Foundry Bankwork, a strategic move that strengthens our footprint and reinforces our community banking model. We're excited to have our new team members and customers join our organization as we expand our presence in several attractive markets. This expansion positions us to deliver even greater value to our customers and shareholders as we leverage shared strengths and deepen relationships in these communities. Looking forward, we're excited about the opportunities ahead. We've focused on making 2026 a year of continued strength, building on our momentum, driving growth, and delivering strong results for all stakeholders. Now I'll turn the call over to Rick to discuss our quarterly financial results and provide our 2026 operating guidance.