Mercantile Bank Corporation

Good morning and welcome to the Mercantile Bank Corporation fourth quarter 2023 earnings results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, please press star then one. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. We'd now like to turn the conference over to Zach McKewa, Lambert Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Ed. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Markentel's Bank Operations conference call and webcast to discuss the company's financial results for the fourth quarter of 2023. Joining me today are members of Markentel's management team, including Bob Kaminski, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chuck Christmas, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Ray Reisman, Chief Operating Officer and President of the bank. We'll begin the call with management's prepared remarks and presentation to review the quarter's results, then open the call to questions. Before turning the call over to management, it is my responsibility to inform you that this call may involve certain forward-looking statements, such as projections of revenue, earnings, and capital structure, as well as statements on the plans and objectives of the company's business. The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements made today due to factors describing the company's latest securities and exchange commissions filings. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call. If anyone does not already have a copy of the fourth quarter 2023 press release and presentation deck issued by Markenthal today, you can access it at the company's website at www.markbank.com. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mercantile's President and Chief Executive Officer, Bob Kaminski. Bob?

Thank you, Zach, and thanks to all of you for joining us on the conference call today. This morning, Mercantile released its fourth quarter and full year earnings, which demonstrated a strong finish to 2023. For the quarter, Mercantile earned $1.25 per share on revenues of $57 million. For the full year, Our company earned $5.13 per share on revenues of $226 million. We also announced a cash dividend of $0.35 per share, payable on March 13, 2024. Headlining the news for the fourth quarter was extremely strong commercial loan growth. We remain very pleased to see the ongoing work of our lending teams to build robust pipelines bearing some meaningful fruit as we ended 2023. This growth is a prime illustration of the effectiveness of the consultative relationship banking approach employed by Mercantile. Net interest margin for the fourth quarter was 3.92%, an average slightly over 4% for all of 2023, continuing to demonstrate Mercantile's ability to effectively manage loan yields and deposit costs. Asset quality remains extremely strong, with non-performing assets and loan losses continuing at nominal levels during 2023. Our customer base and our markets continue to demonstrate solid metrics, despite some uncertainty in the economic environment. Our lending teams remain closely engaged, as always, with their clients, which provides the ability to quickly identify any emerging trends. Ray and Chuck will provide more detail on our financial performance next. The strength of our year in 2023 has positioned us well for 2024 and beyond. Our suite of products and services and the markets we serve set the table for our excellent staff of bankers to continue working to exceed our customers' expectations and fulfill our strategic objectives. I'll now turn the call over to Ray and then to Chuck for their comments.