Medallion Financial Corp.

Good day and welcome to the Medallion Financial Corp. Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in the 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, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. 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 Val Ferraro. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning. Welcome to Medallion Financial Corp's second quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Andrew Merstein, 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. 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, and good morning, everyone. Before discussing our second quarter performance, for all of you new to our story, I would like to start by providing an overview of Medallion Financial. Medallion Financial is a specialty finance company primarily operating via two subsidiaries, Medallion Bank and Medallion Capital. Medallion Bank is an industrial bank, a special and unique banking charter. These charters are highly sought after and there are only about 15 of them in the U.S. We are not a bank holding company and not regulated by the Fed, but through Medallion Bank are able to take in FDIC insured deposits. thus giving us a low-cost, dependable funding source for our lending business. We originate and service a growing portfolio of consumer loans, working with more than 4,000 dealers, contractors, and financial service providers to finance RVs, boats, collector cars, other consumer recreational equipment, and home improvements. We also offer loan origination services via our FinTech strategic partners. Medallion Bank recently raised over $75 million through a public offering of non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock that trades under the symbol MBNKO on the NASDAQ. Medallion Capital is a small business investment company, or SBIC, with its founding dating back to the 1980s. As an SBIC, Medallion Capital is able to access 10-year debentures from the Small Business Administration. These debentures, along with capital, are what fund our grown commercial loan portfolio. While most SBICs have a finite life, Medallion Capital has a permanent capital base which has allowed it to operate and grow for nearly four decades. This unique structure is advantageous and allows us to invest over a longer time horizon than many of our competitors. Medallion Capital originates and services mezzanine loans in various commercial industries and as an equity investment in many of the portfolio companies it finances. Now moving on to our quarterly results. We are very pleased with our second quarter performance. As compared to the second quarter of last year, Our net income increased 56% to $11.1 million, and our earnings increased to $0.46 per share. Net interest income also increased 7% to $53.4 million, and our net interest margin remained steady at 8.09%. This improved performance reflects the continued strength across our lending segments, driven by disciplined execution and strategic positioning, which I will now walk through in further detail. I'll start with consumer lending, our largest and most profitable business line, which continues to anchor our performance. While total originations for both recreational and home improvement segments were lower at $197 million compared to $277.6 million a year ago, interest income rose 9% to $71.2 million. The recreation loan book grew modestly to $1.55 billion, representing 62% of our total loans. While originations were lower at $142.8 million compared to $209.6 million a year ago, interest income rose 8% to $51.1 million. Delinquencies of 90-plus days were just 0.49% of gross recreational loans and the allowance for credit losses was 5.05% to reflect expected seasonal and economic dynamics as compared to 4.35% a year ago. The home improvement loan book also grew modestly to $803.5 million as of June 30, 2025, representing 32% of our total loans. Originations were $54.3 million versus $68 million last year. Delinquencies of 90 plus days were just 0.16% of gross home improvement loans and the allowance for credit losses was 2.54% compared to 2.38% a year ago. Importantly, we are originating loans to individuals in these niches that have strong credit quality with average FICO's and new originations now 687 for recreational and 781 for home improvements. The vast majority of our book falls within super prime to near prime, which has moved up over the years. Our commercial segment continues to deliver meaningful equity gains. It generated $3.3 million of income this quarter, and equity gains have now generated a total of $27.6 million of income over the past eight quarters. The portfolio grew to $121.4 million with an average interest rate of 13.43%. Additionally, as of June 30th, we had more than 30 equity investments with a book value of just $8.1 million on our balance sheet. These equity components are a result of our long-term strategic investments, and while the timing of exits is inherently unpredictable, we remain confident in our pipeline. Our strategic partnership program, whereby we earn an origination fee and about three to five days of interest on holding loans before selling them back to the partner, had its third straight quarter of over $120 million of originations, reaching a record level of $168.6 million this quarter. Most of these loans are outside of rec and home improvement and are mostly offered as employee benefits. by large employers and loans for unplanned or elective medical procedures. Although this program represents a small part of fees and interest generated from Endowed Financial, approximately $1.2 million this quarter, this business continues to expand each quarter and represents a further diversification of our income sources. We continue to do work on our growing pipeline of new partner prospects and expect to add new partners over time. Furthermore, we are taking a very methodical approach to growth to ensure we continue to do it the right way. Turning to our taxi medallion assets, we collected $2.3 million of cash during the quarter. Net taxi medallion assets declined to just $5.9 million and now represent less than 0.3% of our total assets. Despite the small size, these assets continue to generate cash and with more than $150 million of charged-off medallion loans, a majority in New York City, we believe there continues to be recovery opportunities. From a capital allocation perspective, we remain committed to returning capital to shareholders. During the quarter, we repurchased more than 48,000 shares of our stock and have approximately $14.4 million remaining under our $40 million repurchase programs. Additionally, we paid a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share, representing a 20% increase year-over-year, and marked the third increase to our dividend since we reinstated it three years ago. Overall, we remain encouraged by the momentum across our business lines and believe we are well-positioned for continued success. With that, I'll now turn it over to Anthony, who will provide some additional insight into our quarter.