Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.

Hello and welcome to the Q1 2023 Washington Trust Bancorp Inc. Earnings Conference Call. My name is Lauren and I will be coordinating your call today. There will be opportunity for questions up to the end of the presentation. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand you over to your host, Elizabeth Eccle, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing and Corporate Communications Officer to begin. Elizabeth, please go ahead.

Thank you, Lauren. Good morning and welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp Bank's first quarter 2023 conference call. Joining us this morning are members of Washington Trust Executive Team. Ned Handy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Ron Osberg, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Mary Nunes, who is our incoming President and COO, who will be succeeding Mark Ginn, who is retiring effective with tomorrow's annual meeting. 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 this morning, 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, and thank you for joining our first quarter call. We appreciate your time and your interest in Washington Trust. I'll provide some comments about the first quarter as well as some thoughts on the current environment. Ron Osberg will then discuss our financial performance, and afterward, Mary Nunes and Bill Ray will join us and will answer any questions you may have about the quarter. As Ron will walk through in detail, our first quarter was impacted by the combination of steep interest rate increases and extreme deposit competition. Given the strength of our customer relationships, we were able to keep deposit levels intact, but we experienced both product mix changes and beta increases across all products. On a positive note, we've maintained a relatively low level of uninsured and unprotected deposits, which Ron will detail in his comments. Also, in the quarter we saw a 1.4% lift in net new retail households, which is an improvement over the prior four quarters. Washington Trust posted first quarter net income of $12.8 million, or $0.74 for diluted share, compared to $16.6 million, or $0.95 per diluted share in the prior quarter. Total loans grew by 2%, or $118 million, and in-market deposits were essentially flat in the quarter. Asset yields, although improving, did not keep up with funding cost increases in the quarter. Our balance sheet remains strongly positioned for long-term performance. Our liquidity, capital, and credit positions are strong. Our CREE loan portfolio remains in sound condition. Our office loans at 14% of overall CREE exhibited 1.74 times average debt service coverage, 58% weighted average loan to value at 12, 31, 22. 36% of the square footage is subject to rollover risk in the next three years, a risk that we monitor closely. 11 of the 53 loans mature in the next three years. We regularly stress interest rates to assess refinance risk. In all, we're comfortable with the current state of our office book and we'll be happy to provide additional details during the Q&A session. Both our wealth and mortgage businesses were up slightly quarter over quarter and remain well positioned when markets and rates rebalance. We attracted new talent in our mortgage business, including our new division head, Rolando Lora, who has started today. Rolando has a long career in mortgage banking, most recently with Wells Fargo. In the quarter, we continue to take steps to ensure our long-term success. We opened our Barrington, Rhode Island branch last week. Our recent East Greenwich and Cumberland branches surpassed $50 million and $20 million in deposits, respectively, reaffirming our confidence that over time, we can grow deposits in our Rhode Island footprint by extending geographically within the states. We look forward to opening our new Olneyville branch in Providence and our Smithfield branch. We made incremental technology investments in the quarter to further our commitment to provide customers and prospects with a digital experience as satisfying as the personal service we've provided for 223 years. We remain steadfast in our intent to serve our customers, existing and new, through all times, turbulent or otherwise. As a community bank, what we do for our customers, communities, and shareholders is permanent, while interest rate inversions and inflation are transient. For this reason, we will continue to make loans to creditworthy borrowers, and we will continue to be protective of capital as we grow. Current conditions are challenging in the short run, but we're positioned to weather this storm and thrive thereafter. I'll now turn the call over to Ron for an in-depth review of our financial performance.