NBT Bancorp Inc.

Good day, everyone. Welcome to the NBT Bancorp's third quarter 2023 financial results conference call. This call is being recorded and has been made accessible to the public in accordance with the SEC 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 Security and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ from those projected. In addition, certain non-GEP measures will be discussed. Reconciliation of 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, and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference 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, Michelle, and good morning, and thank you all for participating in this earnings call covering NBT Bancorp's third quarter 2023 results. Joining me today are NBT's Chief Financial Officer, Scott Kingsley, our Chief Accounting Officer, Annette Burns, our Treasurer, Joe Ondesco, and our Chief Information Officer and President of Retail Banking, Joe Stagliano. It was a very active quarter at NBT. We continued to successfully navigate the volatile interest rate environment and its impact on our company and our customers. We closed on the acquisition of Salisbury Bancorp on August 11th. The simultaneous core systems conversion was successful, and the integration is substantially complete. We welcomed over 40,000 new customers, 141 new colleagues, and we brought 13 additional branches onto our platform, allowing us to add scale in Connecticut and to expand south into the Hudson Valley. We also welcome Salisbury CEO Rick Cantelli to our executive management team and our board of directors. The successful closing of this acquisition positions NBT well for future strategic growth. Let me take a moment to highlight 3Q activity across our businesses. First, we are very pleased with our operating results, including EPS at 84 cents. and return on tangible equity of 16.25%. We've achieved commercial and consumer loan growth at an annualized growth rate of 6.1% in the third quarter. That growth was diverse with our commercial lending and indirect auto businesses leading the way. Through nine months, we continue to observe a resilient consumer and small business owner. As stated, our indirect auto business had a strong quarter with originations of over $148 million. Our residential mortgage business experienced a seasonal lift despite the interest rate environment. Credit quality at NBT is strong, and each of the core credit portfolios continue to perform at levels better than those we experienced prior to the pandemic. Like the rest of our industry, our cost of funds has risen as customers seek out higher-yielding deposit products. With that said, total deposits grew during the third quarter, including the seasonal municipal inflow we experienced. Our full-cycle deposit beta is at 24%, including acquired deposits. We continue to enjoy high account retention levels. Our funding sources are robust, and we have the headroom we need to execute on our organic growth plans. Our fee-based businesses continued their solid performance in Q3. Our EPIC Retirement Services Administration business experienced organic account growth and was additionally supported by the acquisition of Retirement Direct in early July. Total non-interest income was 30% of total revenue in the third quarter. In August, we announced that Mike O'Reilly joined the NBT team in Portland as our main regional president. In addition, he will oversee the execution of our strategy across our markets in northern New England. Mike's focus on the diversification of our approach in those markets is the next phase of our long-term organic expansion plan. During the quarter, activity associated with the upstate New York chip corridor was notable. In central New York, Micron filed its application with the Commerce Department for multi-million dollar grants and other support under the CHIPS Act. The international semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices announced that it opened research and development facilities in Fishkill and Rochester. The Albany Nanotech Complex was designated by the federal government as a center for workforce training and received significant federal funding commitments. At the end of the quarter, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded a new 10-year contract to Global Foundries in the Capital District to produce semiconductors for defense and aerospace applications. Total spend under this contract will be over $3 billion. As we have discussed in prior calls, the economic activity generated along the CHIP corridor will drive long-term transformational economic growth across our core markets. That growth will promote long-term success at NBT as our platform is uniquely positioned along the corridor. As we head into the final months of the year, NBT continues to be on offense, enhanced by the successful integration of Salisbury into our model. the continued focus on growth in New England, and the organic growth occurring along the CHIP corridor. We are well positioned with strong liquidity and capital levels, a diversified business mix, highly effective risk management practices, and an experienced team of professionals. I will turn the call over to Scott and Annette now to talk in greater detail about the outcomes associated with the Salisbury merger and our financial performance in the third quarter. Following their remarks, we will take your questions. So, Scott, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. Before we get started with some additional color on quarterly results, I would like to ask Annette to summarize some of the specific outcomes related to the Salisbury acquisition. Annette?