Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Washington Trust Bank conference call. My name is Bruno and I will be your operator today. If participants need assistance during any time during this call, please press star zero. Participants interested in asking a question, please press star one. Today's call is being recorded. And now I would like to hand over to Elizabeth Peckel, Executive Vice President Chief Marketing and Corporate Communications Officer. Ms. Heckel, please go ahead.

Thank you, Bruno. Good morning and welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp Bank's fourth quarter 2022 conference call. Joining us today are members of Washington Trust Executive Team, Ned Handy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Gimm, President and Chief Operating Officer, Ron Osberg, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Mary Nunez, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Retail Lending Officer, 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 today's call. Our complete safe harbor statement is contained in our earnings press release, which was issued earlier yesterday, as well as other documents that are filed with the SEC. All of 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 pleased to introduce today's host, Washington Trust Chairman and CEO, Ned Handy.

Thank you, Beth, and good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining our call. We appreciate your time and interest in Washington Trust. This morning, I'll provide some comments about the fourth quarter as well as our thoughts on the current environment. Ron Osberg will then discuss our financial performance, and afterward, Mark Kim, Mary Nunes, and Bill Ray will join us to answer any questions you may have about the quarter. Before I turn to our quarterly results, I'd like to make a few brief comments. In December, we announced that Mark Kim will retire as President and Chief Operating Officer this April, and that he has immediately been elected to our Board of Directors. I'd personally like to thank Mark for all the contributions he's made to Washington Trust over the past three decades. During his tenure, he's provided great strategic vision and led key business line growth. We look forward to his continued guidance as a member of our board. It's also my pleasure to introduce Mary Nunes, who will become the first female president and chief operating officer in Washington Trust's 222-year history upon Mark's retirement. Mary is another Washington Trust veteran, and over her 30-year career, played a key role in the successful revenue growth and market expansion of our retail lending operations. She's a proven leader, a strategic thinker, and has a passion for service excellence and process improvement, and I look forward to working alongside her. I'll now turn to our quarterly results. I'm pleased to report that Washington Trust posted sound fourth quarter net income of $16.6 million, or 95 cents per diluted share. Total loans grew by 5% in the quarter and 20% for the full year 2022, reaching a record high balance at year end. While increasing wholesale funding balances and costs challenged net interest margin in the quarter, this robust loan growth helped deliver near-record quarterly net interest income, attracted new customers, and positioned the balance sheet for long-term success. Our main non-interest income drivers, wealth management and mortgage banking, were both under pressure in the quarter. Rising interest rates had an expected impact on mortgage revenues in the quarter despite strong loan production. Wealth management revenues were affected by lower levels of assets under administration, resulting from market pressures and from the departure of client facing advisors from our Wellesley office, which we previously reported on our Q3 call. Ron will provide more details in his comments. We are pursuing legal remedies associated with this matter and remain committed to servicing our wealth management clients and growing this key line of business. Expenses were up slightly in the quarter. but included a $600,000 contribution to our charitable foundation. This allows us to continue our tradition of assisting the organizations that provide health and human service, housing, and other support to those in need in our local communities. I'm proud to report that our board approved a strategic diversity, equity, and inclusion plan, and we launched our employee-driven DE&I Council in the quarter. I very much look forward to working with this team to ensure that ours is an accepting, inclusive workplace built to reflect and benefit our employees, customers, and the communities we serve. We continue to take a long-term view and will be protective of credit and capital as we consider avenues for growth. The current period of continued, although moderating, inflation and the resultant unpredictable rate environment are challenging in the short run, but they are temporary. We continue to invest in talent to support growth, and are also focused on rational technology investments to improve the customer experience and to ensure a secure operating environment. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Ron for an in-depth review of our financial performance.