Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.

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

Thank you, Melissa. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp Bank's 2022 Second Quarter Conference Call. Joining us for today's call are members of Washington Trust Executive Team, Nan Handy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Gim, 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. Please note that today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements and actual results could differ materially from what is discussed on the call. Our complete safe harbor statement is contained in our earnings press release, which was issued yesterday afternoon, as well as 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 and good morning and thank you for joining our second quarter call. We appreciate your time and continued interest in Washington Trust. I'll provide some commentary on the second quarter and our view of the current environment and then Ron Osberg will review our financial performance. After our remarks Mark Kim and Bill Ray will join us and we will all answer any questions you may have about the quarter. I'm pleased to report that Washington Trust posted solid second quarter results with net income of $20 million or $1.14 per diluted share, compared with $16.5 million or $0.94 per diluted share in the prior quarter. In the quarter, our results benefited from interest rate movements, offsetting fee pressure in our wealth and residential mortgage businesses. While our wealth management net new business and our mortgage portfolio volume were both strong in the quarter, Market conditions negatively impacted fee revenues. The fundamentals of our customer-facing businesses are very strong. Continued expense management assisted in the results. The diversity of our revenue streams combined with credit discipline and strategic balance sheet positioning enabled us to deliver a strong quarter. Total loans were up 5% in the quarter, primarily due to strong growth in our residential portfolio. Both residential and commercial loan pipelines remained strong. And despite the continued payoff pressure that muted commercial growth in the first half of 2022, we remain confident that we will see mid-single-digit commercial loan growth for the full year. New loan formation has been strong all year, and the commercial pipeline remains near its historic high point. With expectations that prepayments will moderate with rising rates, we expect to see strong net commercial growth in the second half. Overall, credit has remained very strong. Our commercial loan book has no non-accruals and virtually zero delinquency at quarter end. Our consumer lending is almost entirely secured by residential properties and nearby markets with excellent asset quality metrics built on sound underwriting standards and practices. Ron will provide some detail on our credit statistics and provide some comments on our provisioning and reserve positioning. While the pandemic is clearly not over, the financial programs designed to help our clients through the most difficult times, like loan deferments and the PPP program, have successfully culminated. We have no loans remaining in deferral status and only five PPP loans remaining in the forgiveness process of the nearly 3,000 that were originated between the two phases. We are proud of our attentive approach to assisting both new and existing customers and feel that our franchise has been strengthened by our comprehensive response. Over the past few years, we have invested in incremental improvements in all of our business units, both in product and process, with an eye towards continuous enhancement of our customers' and employees' experience. We've made appropriate investments in building our capacity to enable a highly productive hybrid work environment, allowing our teams to meet their customers when, how, and where the customers prefer. Our technology investments continue to provide us a firm foundation for growth while continually improving our system resiliency. We are intent on delivering the best balance between digital access and personal service to accommodate our evolving customer requirements. We continue our efforts to be convenient to our customers and we'll open a branch in Cumberland, Rhode Island in early August. And we opened a commercial lending office in New Haven, Connecticut yesterday. The New Haven office is adjacent to our existing wealth management office, enabling our strategy of relationship building between those two business units to thrive. We will also house some residential mortgage loan officers in that office. Our teams have positioned all of our businesses to weather any current economic challenges and to excel as and when the business climate improves. And there are challenges in the current economy. The discouraging impact of inflationary pressures on segments of the population that can least absorb it and the general pressure on consumer spending has negatively impacted GDP growth expectations. The Fed will likely stay aggressive in combating inflation throughout 2022. While there is speculation that we are already in a recession, there are also signs that a soft landing is still possible. Pent-up consumer demand, strong labor markets, relatively sound corporate balance sheets, combined with remaining ARPA funds available in most municipalities, might provide cushioning. Unemployment rates in our markets are matching all-time lows. For example, Rhode Island unemployment levels are significantly favorable to pre-pandemic levels. As supply chain issues and general supply scarcity resolve, the current levels of demand may provide positive momentum as recovery begins. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ron for comments on the second quarter financial results.