Signature Bank

Welcome to Signature Bank's 2019 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results Conference Call. Hosting the call today from Signature Bank are Joseph J. DiPaolo, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Eric R. Howell, Executive Vice President, Corporate and Business Development. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on your touch-tone phone. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing the pound key. We ask that you please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality. Lastly, if you should require operator assistance, please press star 0. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Joseph J. DiPaolo, President and Chief Executive Officer. You may begin.

Thank you, Christy. Good morning and thank you for joining us today for the Signature Bank 2019 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results Conference Call. Before I begin my formal remarks, Susan Lewis will read the forward-looking disclaimer.

Please go ahead, Susan. Thank you, Joe. This conference call and oral statements made from time to time by our representatives contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are subject to risks and uncertainties. You should not place undue reliance on those statements because they are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and may be beyond our control. Forward-looking statements include information concerning our future results, interest rates in the interest rate environment, loan and deposit growth, loan performance, operations, new private client team hires, new office openings, business strategy, new products, and future dividends and share repurchases. As you consider forward-looking statements, you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ maturely from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include those described in our quarterly and annual reports filed with the FDIC, which you should review carefully for further information. You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statements made by signature banks speak only as of the date on which they were made. Now, I'd like to turn the call back to Joe.