NBT Bancorp Inc.

During Q&A, you can dial star 1-1.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the NBT Bancorp Third Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded and has been made accessible to the public in accordance with the SEC's Regulation FD. Corresponding presentation slides can be found on the company's website at nbtbancorp.com. Before the call begins, NBT's management would like to remind listeners that as noted on slide two, today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ from those projected. In addition, certain non-GAAP measures will be discussed. Reconciliations for these numbers are contained within the appendix of today's presentation. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to NBT Bancorp's President and CEO, John H. Watt, Jr., for his opening remarks. Mr. Watt, please begin.

Thank you, Tanya, and good morning, and thank you for participating in this earnings call covering NBT Bancorp's third quarter 2022 results. Joining me this morning, our NBT's Chief Financial Officer, Scott Kingsley and our Chief Accounting Officer, Annette Burns. In an interest rate environment that is volatile and where economic and macroeconomic conditions are constantly changing, we are extremely pleased with our results for the third quarter of 2022, including earnings per share of 90 cents, return on average assets at 1.3%, and return on average tangible common equity landing at 17.1%. Let me take a moment to highlight activity in our business and in the markets we serve. We are excited to be in a position to support the commercial, retail banking, and other financial service needs of the central New York market as Micron Technology makes a transformational investment in this region. The announcement earlier this month that Micron will invest as much as $100 billion over the next 20 years to boost production of memory chips represents the largest private investment in New York State history. The new Upstate factory will create tens of thousands of jobs. Our franchise is uniquely positioned to play a role in the growth that is being created in the Upstate New York chip corridor running through our core markets from Greater Syracuse to the Mohawk Valley and the Capital District. Global Foundries, Wolfspeed, and now Micron, all engaged in chip fabrication, have and will continue to generate growth. We're working hard to support our customers and the communities we serve who will be the beneficiaries of that anticipated growth. As you will hear from Scott later this morning, we are actively and favorably managing our cost of deposits and cost of funds generally, while maintaining high levels of liquidity to fund further loan growth. We continue to enjoy success in our lending businesses with annualized loan growth of 9% through Q3. It's clear to us that our commercial and small business customers continue to successfully navigate the challenging operating environment in the face of supply chain issues, tight labor markets, and inflation. Our residential solar lending business had a strong quarter, driven in part by the extension and increase in federal tax credits through the Inflation Reduction Act passed in early August. Our fee-based businesses reported solid results despite headwinds in the fixed income and equity markets. Although we are very mindful that the forward environment is likely to be volatile, we continue to observe a strong consumer. Balances and personal checking accounts have held steady in the quarter, and credit quality in the consumer loan portfolios is very healthy. Delinquency across all consumer loan categories is well below pre-pandemic levels. As we head into the last quarter of 2022, we are well positioned with strong liquidity and capital levels, a diversified business mix, highly effective risk management practices, and a team of experienced professionals. So, Scott, I'll turn to you for more detail on our performance in the third quarter, and after Scott's remarks, we'll take your questions.