Hancock Whitney Corporation

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and a welcome to Hancock Whitney Corporation's third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this call may be recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Tricia Carlson, Investor Relations Manager. You may begin.

Thank you and good afternoon. During today's call, we may make forward-looking statements. We would like to remind everyone to carefully review the Safe Harbor language that was published with the earnings release and presentation and in the company's most recent 10 and 10 , including the risk and uncertainties identified therein. You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statements made by Hancock Whitney speak only as of the date on which they were made. As everyone understands, the current economic environment is rapidly evolving and changing. Hancock-Whitney's ability to accurately project results or predict the effects of future plans or strategies or predict market or economic developments is inherently limited. We believe that the expectations reflected or implied by any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions but are not guarantees of performance or results and our actual results and performance could differ materially from those set forth in our forward-looking statements. Hancock Whitney undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Some of the remarks contain non-GAAP financial measures. You can find reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures in our earnings release and financial tables. The presentation slides included in our 8K are also posted with the conference call webcast link on the Investor Relations website. We will reference some of these slides in today's call. Participating in today's call are John Hairston, President and CEO, Mike Ackery, CFO, and Chris LaLuca, Chief Credit Officer. I will now turn the call over to John Hairston.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We're pleased to report another solid quarter despite the impact from the COVID-19 Delta surge and Hurricane Ida. Net income of $130 million or $1.46 per share was up $41 million or $0.46 linked quarter. After adjusting for non-operating items in both the second and third quarters results, EPS for the third quarter was $1.45, up $0.08 linked quarter. The primary driver of the quarterly increase was a $27 million negative provision in the third quarter compared to a negative provision of $17 million in the second quarter substantially due to less than $2 million of net charge-offs. Our asset quality metrics have continued to improve and are now among the best in the mid-cap group. Criticized and non-performing loans continue to improve and are down 29% and 65% respectively from one year ago. Our ACL coverage remains strong at just under 2% of total loans. Without performing asset quality ratios and certainly an adequate loan loss reserve, we are positioned well on credit. At this point, we do not anticipate any significant pressure on credit from Hurricane Ida or the remnant Delta surge. Stimulus funding and other programs designed to help businesses navigate the pandemic have worked, and the recent storm was mostly an insured event, thankfully much different than Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago. I should mention my appreciation for the incredible efforts of our team during the Ida recovery as we reopened locations and storm-impacted areas on a very rapid basis, while simultaneously feeding nearly 40,000 people in our impacted communities. That only happens with commitment and with teamwork, both of which were strongly exhibited by my colleagues at Hancock Whitney. Before I turn the call over to Mike, I'd like to note that this quarter's results and our near-term guidance are the building blocks for our plans in 2022. Slides 17 and 18 in the investor deck provide a good background for our path to a 55% efficiency ratio. Today we reported another good quarter of organic loan growth in line with guidance and expect another quarter of solid growth to end the year. We kept expenses flat, linked quarter despite inflationary pressure, and are committed to hitting the $187 million target for the fourth quarter, as well as the $750 million target for 2022. Deployment of excess liquidity into loans and then modestly into securities as rates begin to rise is key to our continuing success. We expect to harvest additional efficiencies via strategic procurement and operational effectiveness gains due to technology deployment and as a means to offset wage inflation and the addition of new bankers. As shown in the top right quadrant of slide 18, we are hiring bankers in new and in growth markets across our footprint. and have recently added 15 new bankers in those markets, with more to come in 2022. And finally, we are able to execute from a position of strength, with TCE projected back to 8% or better by year-end, a de-risked balance sheet, successful results from efficiency efforts, and hopefully with economic and biological challenges in the rearview mirror. I will now turn the call over to Mike Agri for further comments.