Medallion Financial Corp.

Today, and welcome to the Medallion Financial Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be listed on only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist with presses star followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touchtone telephone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ken Cooper, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Medallion Financial Corp's second quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Andrew Murstein, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Anthony Catrone, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Certain statements made during the call today constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to and within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended. Such forward-looking statements are subject to both known and unknown risks and uncertainties, that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. Those risks and uncertainties are described in our earnings press release issued yesterday and in our filings with the SEC. The forward-looking statements made today are as of the date of this call, and we do not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. In addition to our earnings press release, you can find our second quarter supplement presentation on our website by visiting medallion.com and clicking investor relations. The presentation is near the top of the page. With that, I'll turn it over to Andrew.

Thank you, Ken, and good morning. We were pleased with another solid quarter. We produced $7.1 million of net income and $0.30 of earnings per share. For the first half of the year, we have delivered $17.1 million of net income to our shareholders. This has been driven by the performance of our loan portfolio and the high yields we earned. Looking at our segments, REC lending, our largest segment, had another strong quarter. The highlight was originating more than $200 million of loans. Importantly, most of these loans came from high interest rates as we continued to have success passing through elevated market rates to borrowers. Our average interest rate as of June 30th was 14.8%, up 18 basis points from a year ago. In addition, we continue to originate loans to individuals with stronger credit profiles in the prime and near prime segment of the credit spectrum. Our home improvement lending segment grew 6% over the prior year quarter and now sits at $773 million. This segment continues to be dominated by super prime borrowers with strong credit scores. Like the REC segment, We have passed on some of the Fed rate increases to our borrowers, and our current average rate of 9.71% is 50 basis points higher than a year ago. Our commercial lending segment had a steady quarter, generating $500,000 of earnings. The loan portfolio grew 19% from a year ago and is now at $110 million, with an average interest rate of 13.05%. I'd like to briefly mention two other items. One, after an absence of about five years, we were pleased to again be included in the Russell 3000. This is another testament to the continued growth and performance of our company. And two, we continue to effectively deploy capital for shareholders. During the quarter, we repurchased $1.5 million of our common stock, which left us with $16.4 million remaining on our authorized $40 million share buyback plan. We have now utilized nearly 60% of the current buyback plan authorized just two years ago. We expect to remain opportunistic on any future share repurchases. Our share buyback activity together with our 10 cent per quarter dividend and net income performance continues to deliver positive results for our shareholders. With that, I will now turn the call over to Anthony, who will provide some additional insight into our quarter.