Third Coast Bancshares, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Third Coast Bank Share's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. This time all participants are in listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone today should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero from your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Natalie Hairston with Investor Relations. Thank you, Natalie. You may now begin.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for Third Coast Bank Share's conference call and webcast to review our third quarter 2024 results. With me today is Bart Carraway, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, John McWhorter, Chief Financial Officer, and Audrey Duncan, Chief Credit Officer. First, a few housekeeping items. There will be a replay of today's call, and it will be available by webcast on the Investors section of our website. at ir.thirdcoast.bank. There will also be a telephonic replay available until November 1st, and more information on how to access these replay features was included in yesterday's earnings release. Please note that the information reported on this call speaks only as of today, October 24th, 2024, and therefore you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay listening or transcript reading. In addition, the comments made by management during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meeting of the United States federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management. However, various risks, uncertainties, and contingencies could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in the statements made by management. The listener or reader is encouraged to read the annual report on Form 10-K that was filed on March 7, 2024, to better understand those risks, uncertainties, and contingencies. The comments made today may also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures were included in yesterday's earnings release, which can be found on the Third Coast website. Now I would like to turn the call over to Third Coast Chairman, President, and CEO, Mr. Bart Caraway. Bart?

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Natalie. Welcome to the TCBX third quarter earnings call. I'll start by giving the highlights for the quarter, followed by John's financial review and Audrey's credit quality review. Then I will discuss our outlook for the fourth quarter. I'm pleased to highlight that we've achieved another record setting earnings quarter with diluted earnings per share reaching 74 cents. In addition, it was a strong quarter for loan production with $131 million in net loan growth over the prior quarter, all while demonstrating improving credit quality trends, which are already better than average. I'd like to recognize the entire bank team for the outstanding progress in our 1% efficiency campaign. Your drive for continuous improvement has led to a much improved return on assets of 1.14% and the efficiency ratio of 59.57% and a return on equity of better than 12%. We also paid down debt, expanded capital ratios, and improved asset quality. We had net recoveries of $57,000 for the quarter and are on pace to achieve our annual goal of less than 10 basis points in charge-offs. I also would like to congratulate the team for its 11 basis points improvement in net interest margin for the quarter, resulting from superior balance sheet planning and execution. The bank has achieved 13 consecutive quarters of net interest income growth, showcasing the continual progress of our original strategic plans. Our goal has always been to become a high-performing company, and we believe last quarter's results are no anomaly. but in fact are the outcome of multiple initiatives working together, reflecting the careful planning and execution of our strategy. We expect the current and future company performance will continue to prove that our exceptional team talent and thoughtfully calculated and implemented business plan are building a company of an extraordinary quality. With that, I'll turn the call over to John for the company's financial update. John?