Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp Incorporated's conference call. My name is Bailey and I will be your operator for today. If participants need assistance during the call at any time, please press star followed by zero. Participants interested in asking a question at the end of the call should press star followed by one to get in the queue. Today's call is being recorded. And now I will turn the call over to Elizabeth B. Eckel, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing and Corporate Communications Officer. Ms. Eccle, please go ahead.

Thank you, Bailey. Good morning, and welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp Bank's 2022 First Quarter Conference Call. Joining us for today's call are members of Washington Trust's executive team, Ned Handy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Gims, President and Chief Operating Officer, Ron Osberg, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, and Bill Ray, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer. Today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements, and actual results could differ materially from what is discussed on today's call. Our complete safe harbor statement is contained in our earnings press release, which was issued earlier this morning, and other documents that are filed with the SEC. These materials and other public filings are available on our investor relations website at ir.washtrust.com. Washington Trust trades on NASDAQ under the symbol WASH. I'm now pleased to introduce today's host, Washington Trust Chairman and CEO, Ned Handy.

Thank you, Beth. Good morning, all, and thank you for joining our first quarter call. We're grateful for your time and continued interest in Washington Trust. This morning, I'll provide an overview of our first quarter highlights, and then Ron Osberg will reveal our financial performance. After our remarks, Mark Gim and Bill Ray will join us and will answer any questions you may have about the quarter. I'm pleased to report that Washington Trust posted solid first quarter results with net income of $16.5 million, or $0.94 per diluted share, compared with $20.2 million, or $1.15 per diluted share, in the prior quarter. In the quarter, strength in core margin and our wealth business helped offset reduction in mortgage revenues. Continued expense management assisted in the sound results, and Ron will provide detail in his comments. I'm very proud of the way our teams have navigated through the pandemic, keeping customers at the forefront while positioning the pillars of our business model, margin, wealth, and mortgage, for relative strength as the Fed begins to implement anti-inflation measures. Our asset-sensitive positioning will drive continued margin improvement, and our investments in technology and process improvement in all of our business units will optimize productivity in what will be a challenging operating environment. In the quarter, we hit a record high in wealth management revenues, although assets under management declined at quarter end due to market volatility. Net new customer flows were strong in the quarter. Our rebranding in wealth to the Unified Washington Trust Wealth Management brand is helping to build awareness in Connecticut and Massachusetts and promises to deliver a simplified, comprehensive offering across our footprint. We've invested in continuous improvement in our financial planning capabilities, reflecting our deep, long-term care for our customers and their families. Our efforts have been well-received by clients, prospects, and centers of influence. Total in-market deposits hit a high of $4.7 billion at quarter end and enabled us to continue reducing wholesale funding. Given our strong brand positioning, we continue to explore branching opportunities in Rhode Island. Construction of our new branch in Cumberland, Rhode Island is progressing, and we expect an opening in late summer. First quarter mortgage revenues and volume were down as expected, but both weekly applications and pipeline remain above pre-pandemic levels. We're built to service a purchase-oriented market, and the New England markets we serve remain relatively strong. Total loans, excluding PPP loans, were up 1% in the quarter and 8% year over year. Our commercial lending business was impacted by early payoffs as customers continued to take advantage of high valuations and the seller's market. Commercial loans, net of PPP, declined by $12 million in the quarter as new originations and advances of $110 million were more than offset by payoffs and paydowns of $122 million. The commercial pipeline remains strong entering second quarter 2022. Robust growth in residential mortgage loans helped to offset the commercial decline. Once again, this quarter, we are well served by the diversity of our business lines and revenue sources. Credit has remained very strong, and Ron will provide some detail on both our credit statistics and some comments on our provisioning and reserve positional. We've maintained a conservative posture on credit risk, which has served us well through the pandemic and prior cycles. We feel confident about how Washington Trust and our customers have managed through the pandemic. And while there have been some positive signs of economic growth, we recognize there are many variables at play locally and globally. We're planning for and continuously analyze the potential impact of several interest rate adjustments in the near term. We remain cautiously optimistic about the underlying economic fundamentals of low unemployment, strong corporate earnings, and buoyed consumer strength. We believe that active engagement with the FinTech ecosystem is an important method of understanding the competitive landscape. We are continuously updating our products, improving our processes, and working with our core providers and other FinTech partners to ensure we are providing the best experiences and solutions for our customers and our employees. We issued our inaugural ESG report in the quarter, highlighting our long-held belief that we are well-positioned to help our entire communities find opportunity for success and to be a positive contributor to environmental health and to operate with the highest level of integrity, security, and ethics. We are proud of our 221-year heritage and of our deep awareness of today's important opportunities and obligations. We launched a new multi-year financial literacy initiative in the quarter designed to provide individuals, families, businesses, and nonprofit organizations with the money management tools and resources they need to achieve economic empowerment. We've committed multi-year funding to support literacy programs at three local nonprofits and introduced a free web-based financial literacy program for local schools and community groups. We also added a new financial wellness center on the company's website. I want to, once again, thank our employees for their strength of character and their consistent care and concern for each other and our customers. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ron for comments on the first quarter financial results. Ron? Great.