USCB Financial Holdings, Inc.

All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on your touchtone phones. To withdraw your questions, you may press star and two. Please also note, today's event is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Lou de la Aguilera, Chairman and CEO. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you, Jamie, and good morning, and thank you for joining us for USCB Financial Holdings Q4 2025 Earnings Call. I am Luis de la Aguilera, Chairman, President, and CEO of USCB Financial Holdings. With me today reviewing our Q4 highlights is CFO Rob Anderson and Chief Credit Officer Bill Turner. who will provide an overview of the bank's performance, the highlights of which commence on slide three. 2025 was another successful year in which Team USCB closely focused on our business plan, executed efficiently, and delivered strong results. In reviewing overall performance, we note that total assets reached $2.8 billion, up 8.1% year over year. Loans grew by $216 million, or 11%, reflecting strong commercial activity and disciplined underwriting. Deposits increased $171 million, or 7.9%, demonstrating continued franchise growth and decline relationships. Net interest income expanded to 3.27%, improving from 3.16% in the prior year. Credit quality remains excellent, with non-performing loans at 0.14% of total loans. Tangible book value per share increased 10.8% year-over-year to 11.97%. These metrics affirm that our business model remains sound and that the bank continues to execute consistently across all major areas, profitability, balance sheet strength, credit quality, and capital. Still, as we executed our 2025 plans, management kept its eye on the future, taking strategic actions to enhance our earnings power in 2026 and beyond. In the third quarter of 2025, we completed a successful 40 million subordinated debt issuance, providing efficient capital at attractive terms. Most of the proceeds were used to repurchase approximately 2 million shares at a weighted average of 17.19% per share, underscoring our confidence in the intrinsic value of our stock and our commitment to returning capital to shareholders. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we reported gap-diluted EPS of $0.07, which included two known non-operating impacts – First, the execution of select restructuring of a securities portfolio that resulted in the sale of $44.6 million of lower yielding available for sale securities, producing an after-tax loss of $5.6 million, or $0.31 per diluted share. Second, a $0.06 per share income tax liability expense related to prior periods for income generated in states outside of Florida. When you exclude these strategic non-routine items, operational diluted EPS was 44 cents consistent with last quarter and reflecting strong stable performance. The balance sheet repositioning was thoughtfully planned as we reinvested the proceeds into higher yielding loans at year end. As a matter of fact, Q4 2025 was our strongest loan production quarter for the year and this past December posted a record monthly closing high for 2025. This action is expected to lift NIM, accelerate earnings, and deliver long-term value for our shareholders. On expenses, while GAAP non-interest income and expense reflect the restructuring and one-time items, our operation efficiency ratio remained 55.92%, demonstrating stable operating leverage. Our capital remains strong, and we announced this week that the Board's approval of a 25% increase quarterly cash dividend of 12.5 cents per share. Risk-based capital ratios continue to exceed regulatory requirements by a comfortable margin, and the bank's underlying business remains solid, disciplined, and resilient across all metrics. CFO Anderson will guide us in detail through these strategic actions and their expected positive impacts. The following page, four, is self-explanatory, directionally showing nine select historical trends since recapitalization. Profitable performance based on sound and conservative risk management, is what our team is focused on consistently delivering. I'll now turn the call over to Rob for a deeper review of our performance.

Thank you, Lou, and good morning, everyone. Q4 was an interesting quarter for us, and there are several items that require some detailed explanations. Prior to addressing each item individually, I would note that the bank's core performance remains strong. The measures implemented in the fourth quarter will further strengthen USCB's position for continued improvement in 2026. First, as we previously disclosed, we executed a securities loss sale in December, which negatively impacted our earnings per share by 31 cents. We also incurred tax liabilities to other states where we generate income from loans. State tax liability expenses for all of 2024 and for the first three quarters of 2025 were recognized during the fourth quarter of this year. This was $1.1 million in negatively impacted earnings by 6 cents per share. Going forward, our tax expense should be modeled at 26.4%. Adjusting our gap figures for these two items only, you will find the operating or adjusted numbers on page six. This includes operating return on average assets of 1.14%, operating return on average equity of 15.05%, operating efficiency of 55.92%, and operating diluted earnings per share of 44 cents. I would note that our expenses were not adjusted, and this line item does include costs that, although semi-routine in nature, do not occur consistently. We have a full-year impact recognized in Q4 and subsequently will be amortized over 12 months in future periods. I'll provide further details once we get to the expense slide. Also, the 18.3 million shares represent a complete three-month period following the repurchase of shares in September. And last, tangible book value per share was $11.97. So with that overview, let's discuss deposits on the next page. Average deposits were essentially stable this quarter, down 3.9 million compared to the prior quarter, but up 314.6 million year-over-year, reflecting continued strength in core relationship growth. Within the mix, a positive development was a 26.4 million quarter-over-quarter increase in DDA balances, which represented 24.3% total average deposit. This shift toward lower-cost funding supports our NIM resilience, particularly in an uncertain rate environment. On pricing, interest... Bearing deposit rates decreased 27 basis points to 3.02%, down from 3.29% in the third quarter. Total deposit costs improved 25 basis points from the quarter to quarter and 20 basis points compared to the same quarter last year. These results reflect the benefit of the September, October, and December rate cuts and the disciplined repricing actions we have implemented. So with that, let's move on to the loan book. Average loans increased 31.9 million or 6.02 annualized compared to the prior quarter and 172.3 million or 8.8% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. On an end of period basis, our loan book grew just under 11%. As Lou mentioned, December was a record month for the new loan production. Also, since these loans were booked at the end of December, we did not get the full benefit of interest income in the period. This will be realized in Q1 of 2026. Additionally, we must provision on day one for these loans, so the financial impact in the quarter was negative. Portfolio yield declined modestly to 6.16%, reflecting the Federal Reserve's Q3 and Q4 rate cuts, which impacted our variable rate loans tied to SOFR and Prime. Additionally, a higher proportion of new loan production was short-tenured 180-day correspondent banking loans tied to SOFR. Gross loan production totaled $196 million in the fourth quarter with $83.5 million or 43% coming from correspondent banking. These loans carried a 5.26% new loan yield due to their short-term 180-day SOFR-linked structure, which helps explain the sequential yield decline. Excluding correspondent banking new loan production, new loan yields remained healthy at 6.43% for the quarter And as we look ahead to 2026, we expect loan yields to remain above 6%. On page 10 is a snapshot of our business verticals, and all these business verticals are led by very seasoned, experienced bankers and are pivotal to our branch-like model. These business verticals are highly scalable, and in the past year, we have added production personnel to support further growth. Moving on to page 11. Net interest income increased $933,000 on a linked quarter basis, representing 17.4% annualized growth and improved by $2.8 million compared to the same period last year. NIM expanded 13 basis points quarter over quarter and 11 basis points year over year to 3.27%, a key driver of this improvement. Consistent with what we discussed on the deposit slide is our ability to reprice the deposit book more quickly than the loan portfolios. Our disciplined deposit pricing strategy supported a steady NIM recovery throughout 2025. As we head into 2026, we expect further NIM improvement to be supported by continued impact of rate cuts and the ongoing execution of our deposit strategy, which emphasizes core relationship funding. Additionally, we anticipate NIM improvement from the securities restructuring performed late in Q4. Moving on to page 12. Our balance sheet remains well positioned to benefit from an easing cycle. According to our ALM model, the balance sheet is liability sensitive, and we continue to maintain a healthy mix between fixed rate and variable rate loans. With additional rate cuts expected in the near term, we anticipate meaningful relief in funding costs and a supportive backdrop for overall margin expansion. While we believe we can continue to outperform our model deposit betas, it's important to consider the dynamics on the asset side as well. We currently have 2.18 billion in the loan portfolio and 61% or roughly 1.33 billion is variable rate or hybrid in nature. Of that, 52% or approximately 692 million is scheduled to reprice or mature over the next year. This will naturally influence the pace at which asset yields adjust in the lower rate environment. In short, our liability sensitivity will depend on our ability to reprice our deposit book faster than the loan portfolio reprices. something we have historically executed well. With that, let's turn to our securities portfolio. We ended the quarter with 461.4 million in securities, split 67% AFS and 33% HTM with a quarterly portfolio yield of 3.01%. At current rates, we expect to receive 68.2 million of cash flows in 2026 and approximately 87.7 million in a 100 basis point down rate scenario. These cash flows provide meaningful optionality, allowing us to support loan growth or retire higher-cost funding as conditions evolve. At this point, we are not anticipating any additional portfolio restructuring. We do expect the yield on the investment portfolio to improve from current levels, driven by natural cash flow reinvestment at higher yields when available. As noted, the loss rate executed in the fourth quarter of 2025 was deliberately aimed at increased earnings, and the resulting cash flows were redeployed into higher-yielding loans. So with that, let me pass it over to Bill to discuss asset quality.