Fulton Financial Corporation

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fulton Financial third quarter 2026 results 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 section. To ask a question during the session, you'll 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. 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 officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thanks for joining us for Fulton Financial's conference call and webcast to discuss our earnings for the third quarter ending September 30th, 2026. Your host for today's conference call is Curt 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 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 and 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 third 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'd be happy to take any questions you may have. The third quarter represented another period of strong performance for Fulton. throughout the quarter we supported our current customers added new customers executed on our strategy and delivered value for shareholders this all resulted in record financial results our strategy is centered around four priorities grow the company deliver effectively for customers operate with excellence and serve all of our stakeholders we believe these priorities provide a disciplined framework for operating the company and we continue to perform across each of these priority areas during the quarter. In support of our growth objectives, we continued investing in talent and capabilities across our businesses. Year to date, we increased our commercial sales force by 14% with over two thirds of that growth occurring during the third quarter. These hires included experienced bankers, business development professionals who are helping expand customer relationships. complementing our strategic acquisitions in northern New Jersey and Philadelphia. These actions combined with ongoing investments in commercial banking capabilities, including treasury management enhancements and embedded banking solutions, are helping us win new customer relationships. This is most evident this quarter in our commercial deposit growth as we added new customers at an accelerated pace and we grew commercial deposits materially. Additionally, Our process improvements are helping our team serve customers more effectively and driving meaningful efficiency gains. We've expanded the use of Salesforce AI enabled capabilities across the organization, powered by coworker. Our adoption has been so effective that our progress was recognized by Salesforce at Dreamforce, where Fulton was highlighted for its innovation and partnership. These investments and enhanced usage are helping improve productivity, customer engagement, and support our long-term efficiency objectives. Collectively, these efforts contributed to another quarter of strong performance. Profitability reached a record high. Operating net income available to common shareholders increased to 119.8 million, or 62 cents per diluted share. Operating PPNR increased to 156 million. Operating return on average tangible common equity improved to 15.94%. and operating return on average assets increased to 1.4%. Additionally, our efficiency ratio improved to 56.8%, reflecting our continued focus on disciplined expense management. Our balance sheet also further improved during the quarter. Customer deposits grew by approximately $1 billion, reflecting both new customer acquisition and growth within existing relationships. This further improved our funding profile as we reduced broker deposits and other wholesale funding. We believe this is a significant strength for the company as our diversified customer deposit base continues to provide stability and support long-term balance sheet growth. While loan growth was modest during the quarter, underlying business activity remained solid. Customer engagement was high and pipelines continued to show good momentum. Total loan originations increased 23% from the prior quarter, reflecting healthy production levels. As we look forward to 2027, we believe several of the headwinds to loan growth should abate. This coupled with increased production from the significant investments we are making in our people, capabilities, and market presence should accelerate growth. Our diversified business model continues to be a meaningful competitive advantage. Wealth management assets under management and administration reached a record $18.6 billion, and wealth management revenue grew more than 9% linked quarter. Commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking fees also increased from the prior quarter, highlighting broad-based growth across our fee businesses. As a result, non-interest income remained a meaningful contributor to overall performance, representing approximately 21% of Total Revenue. Our capital position remained strong during the quarter. We repurchased $56.1 million of common stock, returning capital to shareholders while still maintaining capital levels that provide flexibility to support customer needs, invest in the business, and pursue strategic opportunities. Tangible common equity ended the quarter at 8.4%, primarily reflecting the impact of AOCI. while our CET1 capital ratio remains stable at 12.2%. Credit quality remained favorable during the quarter, demonstrating the strength of our underwriting and risk management practices. Asset quality metrics improved, reserve levels remain solid, and we continue to view the overall credit environment as stable. Looking ahead, we're optimistic about the opportunities in front of us. Our diverse business mix, loyal customer base, solid balance sheet and experienced team provide a strong foundation for continued success overall we are pleased with our third quarter performance and we believe the company is well positioned with that i'll turn the call over to rick to review our third quarter financial results in more detail thank you kurt and good morning everyone fulton delivered another quarter of solid financial performance highlighted by continued earnings growth healthy deposit generation