Fulton Financial Corporation

Hello and welcome to Fulton Financial's second quarter 2026 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask the question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. I would now like to hand the conference over to Pat Lafferty. Sir, you may begin.

Good morning, and thanks for joining us for Fulton Financial's conference call and webcast to discuss our earnings for the second quarter ending June 30th, 2026. Your host for today's conference call is Kurt Myers, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President. Joining Kurt is Rick Kraemer, 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. These slides can also be found on the events and presentations page under investor relations on our website. Today's conference call will contain forward-looking statements These statements represent our expectations about the future and are subject to risk and uncertainty. Our actual results may differ materially from these statements. Please refer to our earnings release and related slide presentation under the heading forward-looking statements for a discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ. 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 26 through 33 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.

Well thanks Pat and good morning everyone. For today's call, I'll share a few details on our second quarter performance and provide some observations on current business trends. Then Rick will review our financial results in more detail and discuss our outlook for the remainder of 2026. After our prepared remarks, we'll be happy to take any questions you may have. The second quarter represented continued strong performance for Fulton. We delivered strong financial results. We maintained focused on supporting our customers, team members and communities. We are proud of the positive impact we're making within our company and throughout our markets. We encourage you to view our recently published corporate social responsibility report, which is available on our investor relations website. This report highlights the many ways our company makes a positive impact. Our strong performance reflects the dedication of our team members and the disciplined execution of our strategy, which continues to guide our decisions and position the company for long-term success. We continue to focus on growing the company, delivering effectively for customers, operating with excellence so that we can continue to serve all of our stakeholders. We made meaningful progress in each of these areas during the quarter. Operating earnings improved as growth was solid, capital levels continued to grow and overall credit performance was favorable. Our teams continue to deepen customer relationships and delivered exceptional service while identifying new opportunities for growth across our footprint. We also achieved an important milestone during the quarter with the successful completion of the Blue Foundry acquisition on April 1st and the subsequent merger and integration of Blue Foundry Bank on July 11th. This transaction advances our strategy by expanding our presence in Northern New Jersey enhancing our community banking model and increasing our ability to serve customers in an attractive and growing market we believe the combination creates meaningful opportunities for growth and long-term value creation i want to thank our team for their effort throughout this process completing this transaction in such a timely manner requires a tremendous amount of work and teamwork and collaboration and positions us for continued growth our results This quarter reflects strong performance across a number of key areas. Profitability was a record high for the quarter. Operating debt income available to common shareholders grew to $115.9 million, or 60 cents per diluted share. Operating earnings on average tangible common equity improved to 15.71%. Operating return on average assets increased to 1.39%. and tangible book value per share grew 13% linked quarter annualized. Loan growth was solid during the quarter, including the positive effect from Blue Foundry. Organic growth was driven primarily by our consumer business. Overall loan activity remains broad-based and across all of our markets. Our team members continue to have productive discussions with customers regarding growth, investment and capital needs. We believe Fulton is well positioned to support those opportunities and to continue to generate disciplined growth moving forward. Deposit balances increased from the prior quarter, including the benefit from the Blue Foundry transaction. Organic deposit trends were as expected on a seasonal basis. Deposit competition within our market has been consistent with recent quarters, and we continue to benefit from strong customer relationships and a diversified funding base across both are consumer wealth management and commercial businesses. Additionally, our non-interest income business continued to generate steady fee income, further diversifying revenue sources, and strengthening overall financial performance. Compared to the prior quarter, commercial fee income increased 9%, consumer fee income increased 8%, and wealth management assets under management administration reached a record $18.4 billion at quarter end. Our capital position further strengthened during the quarter. We repurchased $11.1 million of common stock while increasing tangible book value and improving our common equity tier one ratio to approximately 12.1%. Our solid capital position provides meaningful flexibility to support customer growth, execute strategic initiatives, and drive long-term shareholder value. Finally, I'd like to touch on the credit environment. Our credit performance remains solid and overall asset quality metrics remain favorable. As we move through the second half of the year, we remain focused on executing on our strategy and building on the strong performance delivered this quarter. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rick to review our second quarter financial results in more detail.