The Bancorp, Inc.

star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Friday, October the 27th, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Andres Virslav. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Jerry. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for the Bancorp's third quarter 2023 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.thebankcorp.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 043391. Before I turn the call over to Damian, I would like to remind everyone that when using this conference call, The words believes, anticipates, expects, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meanings of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks 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. I think 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 $0.92 a share with revenue growth of 31% and expense growth of 6%. ROE was 26%. The NIM expanded to 507 from 483 quarter over quarter and 369 year over year. GDV increased 17% year over year, and total fees from all of our FinTech activities increased 12%. The Bancorp continues to produce record core profitability and exemplar financial performance in a challenging interest rate and macro environment for most financial institutions. We continue to invest heavily in the development of new products and services, especially in our FinTech industry. solutions ecosystem. These investments should have meaningful impact on performance and gross dollar volume growth in 24 and beyond. As I stated in our last earnings call, we expect to have above-trend GDP growth in 2024 of more than 15% and increasing participation in providing credit sponsorship solutions to our business partners. We also opened our new FinTech hub in Sioux Falls, focused on collaborative space for our Bancorp team and business partners. while providing best-in-class workspace to innovate and create the future of banking solutions. As a result of our investments in growth and efficiency, our ROE is driving a continued increase in our regulatory capital ratios. With the Reggie II Durbin balance sheet limit of $10 billion, the bank core is fast approaching the maximum equity capital needed to support our business growth into the future. Therefore, we are significantly increasing our buyback in 2024 by $100 million to $200 million, or $50 million a quarter. Since the inception of our buyback in 2021 through September 2023, we have purchased 6.4 million shares at an average cost of $27. We believe our stock continues to be significantly undervalued when considering our long-term equity returns and EPS growth prospects. Therefore, our capital return policy will remain focused on stock buybacks rather than dividends. In addition, in our 2023 fourth quarter full-year conference call, we will announce our new strategic framework that will propel our company forward to 2030. We will outline how the Blaine Corps will continue to grow revenue and profitability and announce new long-term targets. Having already achieved exemplar bank performance with robust growth with little need for new capital, the Bancorp can produce future performance that is truly extraordinary in the financial services industry. We are reiterating our guidance for 23 at 360 a share. We are also initiating 2024 preliminary guidance of 425 a share without including the impact of share buybacks. And in addition, This does not include bond purchases where we would normalize our balance sheet similar to peer banks. This is approximately 18% earnings growth over 2023 guidance. We expect the bank core to continue to meaningfully outperform our peers and deliver superior growth and continued improvements in ROE and ROA. I now turn the call over to our CFO and my colleague, Paul Frankel, for more color on the third quarter.