The Bancorp, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Bancorp Inc. Q4 and Fiscal 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Friday, January 27, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Andreas Baroflav. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for the Bancorp's fourth quarter and fiscal 2022 financial results conference call. On the call with me today are Damian Kozlowski, Chief Executive Officer, and Paul Frankel, our Chief Financial Officer. This morning's call is being webcast on our website at www.thebancorp.com. There will be a replay of the call available via webcast on our website beginning at approximately 12 p.m. Eastern Time today. The dial-in for the replay is 1-877-674-7070 with a confirmation code of 735961. Before I turn the call over to Damian, I would like to remind everyone that when used in this conference call, the words believes, anticipates, expects, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risk and uncertainties which could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those anticipated or suggested by such statements. For further discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see the Bancorp's filings with the SEC. Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date hereof. The Bancorp undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to forward-looking statements which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Now I'd like to turn the call over to the Bancorp's Chief Executive Officer, Damian Kozlowski. Damian?

Thank you, Andres. Good morning, everyone. The Bancorp earned 71 cents a share in the fourth quarter, driven by 28% revenue growth while expenses were approximately flat year-over-year. GDP, gross dollar volume, transaction growth accelerated to 13% year-over-year, driven by continued double-digit growth in most categories. Core loan growth, which excludes loans previously generated for securitization, was 4% quarter-over-quarter, led by floating-rate CRE multifamily with 12% growth. Year-over-year core loan growth was 45%, with 168% growth in CRE multifamily, 22% growth in institutional, which includes S-block and I-block, plus IRA financing, and 14% growth in commercial, which includes fleet leasing and SBA loans, excluding PPP loans. Net interest margin grew dramatically quarter over quarter from 369 to 421 compared to 351 in the fourth quarter of 2021, driven by the impact of Federal Reserve rate hikes. Efficiency and productivity continues to be a key focus of management with expenses approximately flat year over year. ROE rose significantly over prior periods to 24%. 2022 is another year of strategic and financial progress for the Bancorp. We continue to improve our ecosystem for our FinTech partners while investing across our platform to improve functionality and efficiency in all business lines. 2023 should show continued financial and operational improvement with a focus on continued rigorous risk management and credit oversight. In addition, our focus in 23 will be determining our next strategic steps as a company. After having established exemplar performance, we are now turning our attention to major initiatives which will sustain profitability and growth as we approach the regulation II Durbin balance sheet limit of $10 billion. We believe that TBBK's unique capabilities can be monetized more broadly and that the $10 billion limit will not limit our ability to generate increased profitability. This incremental profitability will be generated from fees by distributing both assets and liabilities, GDV growth and the sale of unique technology services, and other platforms that will drive sustained EPS growth and ROE. For 2023, we are confirming our guidance of 320 a share, not including the net impact of share buybacks of approximately $25 million a quarter or $100 million for full year. We will update our guidance as we learn more in the coming months. we believe our guidance is attainable even with significant economic ambiguity and potential stress in the macro environment. I now turn the call over to Paul Frankel, our CFO, for more details on the fourth quarter and full year 22.