OceanFirst Financial Corp.

quarter 2023 earnings call. My name is Lydia and I'll be your operator today. If you'd like to ask a question, you can do so by pressing star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I'll now hand you over to your host, Alfred Goon, SVP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations to begin.

Thank you, Lydia. Good morning and welcome to the Ocean First third quarter 2023 earnings call. I am Alfred Goon, SVP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Before we kick off the call, we'd like to remind everyone that our quarterly earnings release and related earnings supplement can be found on the company website, OceanFirst.com. Our remarks today may contain forward-looking statements and may refer to non-GAAP financial measures. All participants should refer to our SEC filings, including those found on Forms 8K, 10Q, and 10K, for a complete discussion of forward-looking statements and any factors that could cause actual results to differ from those statements. Thank you, and now I will turn the call over to Christopher Moore, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Christopher Moore Thank you, Alfred. Good morning, and thank you to all who have been able to join our third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. This morning, I'm joined by our President, Joe LaBelle, and our Chief Financial Officer, Pat Barrett. We appreciate your interest in our performance and this opportunity to discuss our results with you. This morning, we'll provide brief remarks about the financial and operating performance for the quarter and some color regarding the outlook for our business. We may refer to the slides filed in connection with the earnings release throughout the call. After our discussion, we look forward to taking your questions. Our financial results for the third quarter included GAAP diluted earnings per share of 33 cents. Our earnings reflect net interest income of $91 million, representing a modest decline compared to the prior length quarter of $92 million. Our third quarter results were impacted by modest margin pressure linked to our efforts to improve the bank's liquidity position and the quality of our deposit funding. These efforts resulted in meaningful deposit growth, a substantial decrease in brokered CDs, and a measurable reduction in the loan-to-deposit ratio. The resulting mixed shift in our deposits placed some pressure on net interest margins, but that pressure has decreased significantly as compared to the past two quarters and appears to be reaching a point of equilibrium. Our deposit betas increased to 35 percent from 29 percent in the prior linked quarter. Advancing a more competitive pricing strategy through various channels has protected our deposit base, which increased 4 percent to $10.5 billion, while reducing broker-time deposits by $426 million and bringing our loan-to-deposit ratio to 96 percent. Capital remains strong as we enter the period with a tangible book value per share of $17.93 and a CET-1 ratio of 10.36 percent both measures improving modestly since last quarter. Turning to capital management, the Board approved the quarterly cash dividend of 20 cents per common share. This is the company's 107th consecutive quarterly cash dividend and represents 61 percent of GAAP earnings. The company did not repurchase any shares in the third quarter. While we continue to see the frequency and magnitude of external economic, geopolitical, and natural forces increase, I am reassured that over the past year, our quarterly net interest income has only declined in the range of 5 percent, and we are highly confident that our quarterly expense run rates as we finish 2023 are reverting to mid-2022 levels. Whether or not this becomes a new normal for the industry remains to be seen, but I'm convinced that we will remain very competitive in whatever environment may evolve. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Joe to provide some more details regarding our progress during the quarter.