Premier Financial Corp.

and welcome to the Premier Financial CARP fourth quarter and year-end 2020 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a 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'll be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touchstone phone. 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 Tara Murphy. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's fourth quarter and full year 2020 earnings conference call. This call is also being webcast, and the audio replay will be available at the Premier Financial Corp. website at premierfincorp.com. Following leadership's prepared comments on the company's strategy and performance, they will be available to take your questions. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that during the conference call today, including during the question and answer period, you may hear forward-looking statements related to future financial results and business operations for Premier Financial Corp. Actual results may differ materially from current management forecasts and projections as a result of factors over which the company has no control. Information on these risk factors and additional information on forward-looking statements are included in the news release and in the company's reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And now I'll turn the call over to Mr. Heilman for his comments.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to our call. Joining me on the call this morning to prepare remarks on our financial performance is our CFO, Paul Nugester, as well as Gary Smallbank, President, and Matt Garrity, Chief Lending Officer. Vince Liusi, Chief Banking Officer, will also be available for questions. Last night, we issued our fourth quarter and full year 2020 earnings release, and now we would like to discuss that release and provide some insight into 2021. At the conclusion of our remarks, the team will take any questions you might have. While 2020 was a very challenging year for the company on many fronts, With the merger of equals, the pandemic, our system conversion, and the branding change, we were able to successfully navigate through the challenges and show strong core operating results for the quarter and the full year. I am pleased with our results and the momentum in the balance sheet growth, financial strength, credit quality, and strategic performance that carries us into 21. The fourth quarter of 2020 net income on a GAAP basis was $30.8 million or $0.82 per diluted common share compared to $12.5 million and $0.63 per diluted common share in the fourth quarter of 2019. Net income excluding merger costs for the quarter was $32.6 million or $0.87 per share compared with $13.2 or $0.66 per diluted common share in the fourth quarter of 2019. For the year ended December 31st, 2020, Premier Financial earned $63.1 million or $1.75 per diluted common share compared to $49.4 or $2.48 per diluted common share for 2019. Net income for the full year excluding merger costs and provision was $99.3 million or $2.76 per diluted common share with $57.4 or $50.7 million, or $2.54 per diluted common share, in 2019. At the quarter end, our total assets were $7.2 billion. Loan growth, exclusive of the impact of PPP loans and the deposit growth trends in the fourth quarter, were healthy in this environment. Deposit growth continues to outpace loan growth as customer deposit activity remains strong. Our core efficiency ratio ended the year at 50, compared to 59% for 2019. For the fourth quarter, our ROA was strong at 1.73 and 1.83 on a core basis. This represents continued financial strength and an improving credit profile at year end. Our ROA for the full year was 0.96 compared to 1.5 for 2019. Core ROA was 1.5 for 2020 compared to 1.54 for 2019. Net charge-offs for the quarter were five basis points, or $680,000 compared with a net charge-off of $91,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019. Overall, net charge-offs remain under our long-term expectations. Our allowance for loan loss ended the year at a strong 1.49%. As you might recall, we have adopted CECL. And Paul will add more details on the reserve movement shortly. We are pleased with the trend in non-performing assets this quarter. The total assets is 0.73 percent, just up slightly from last quarter and consistent with our expectations at this point. The overall credit profile of the organizations continues to remain very strong. As we look into 21, our continued ability to grow our loan portfolio will be a key strategic focus for us. We are very satisfied to see an increase in loans across our footprint in the fourth quarter, driven by our metro markets, even in the face of strong competitive pressures relating to lower interest rates and the difficult economic conditions driven by the pandemic. We are very pleased to announce an increase in our first quarter dividend of $0.24 per share, representing a 9.1% increase from a year ago and a current dividend of approximately 4%. We also increased the authorization limit for buyback to 2 million shares. These actions reflect continued confidence in our overall performance and reflective of our expectations of our strong capital levels and are consistent with our overall capital management strategy. We enter the year with a strong capital position and will continue to review on a quarterly basis our capital management and would expect that as performance levels are maintained and improved, we would have the ability and the desire to move the dividend payout ratio toward the 35% level, which is our long-term desired level. I will now ask Paul to provide additional financial details for the quarter before I conclude with an overview. Paul?