Trustmark Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Trustmark Corporation's first quarter earnings conference call. This time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation this morning, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Now, my pleasure to introduce Mr. Joey Rain, Director of Corporate Strategy at Trustmark's.

Good morning. I'd like to remind everyone that a copy of our first four earnings release, as well as the slide presentation that will be discussed on our call this morning, is available on the investor relations section of our website at Trustmark.com. During the course of our call, management may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we would like to caution you that these forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results due to a number of risks and uncertainties, which are outlined in our earnings release and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At this time, I'd like to introduce Duane Dewey, President and CEO of Trustmark.

Thank you, Joey, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning. With me this morning are Tom Owens, our Chief Financial Officer, Barry Harvey, our Chief Credit and Operations Officer, and Tom Chambers, our Chief Accounting Officer. Our first quarter financial performance reflects solid loan and deposit growth, strong performance in our mortgage insurance and wealth management businesses, and diligent expense management. For the first quarter, Trustmark reported net income of $50.3 million, or $0.82 per diluted share. This level of profitability resulted in a return on average tangible common equity of 18.03%, and a return on average assets of 1.1%. Let's look at our financial highlights in a little more detail by turning to slide three. At March 31st, 2023, loans held for investment totaled $12.5 billion, an increase of $293 million linked quarter, while deposits totaled $14.8 billion, an increase of $346 million linked quarter. Revenue in the first quarter totaled $189 million, a decline of 1.5% linked quarter, and an increase of 23.1% from the same quarter in the prior year. Net interest income totaled $141.1 million in the first quarter, a decrease of 8.9 million, or 6% linked quarter. Non-interest income totaled $51.4 million, an increase of $6.2 million or 13.7% from the prior quarter and represented 27.2% of total revenue in the first quarter. Non-interest expense in the first quarter totaled $128.3 million, a decline of $2.2 million or 1.6% compared to the prior quarter, excluding the litigation settlement expense. Credit quality remained solid as the allowance for credit losses for loans held for investment represented 320.8% of non-accrual loans. Net charge-offs totaled $1.2 million and represented four basis points of average loans. Non-performing assets represented 0.58% of total loans held for investment and loans held for sale at March 31. We continue to maintain strong capital levels with common equity Tier 1 of 9.76% and a total risk-based capital ratio of 11.95%. The Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of 23 cents per share payable on June 15 to shareholders of record June 1st. At this time, I'd like to ask Barry to provide some color on loan growth and credit quality.