Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp Inc's conference call. My name is Lydia and 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. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the call over to Sharon Walsh, Senior Vice President, Marketing Strategy and Planning. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Lydia. Good morning and welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp Inc's conference call for the fourth quarter of 2024. Joining us this morning are members of the Washington Trust Executive Team, Ned Handy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mary Nunes, 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 our actual results could differ materially from what is discussed on today's call. Our complete safe harbor statement is contained in our earnings release, which was issued 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 now pleased to introduce today's host, Washington Trust Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ned Handy. Ned?

Thank you, Sharon. Good morning, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter conference call. We respect and appreciate your time and interest in Washington Trust. I'll briefly comment on the quarter, and then Ron will provide more detail on the financial results. After our prepared remarks, Mary and Bill will join us for the Q&A session. We previously announced a December capital raise of $70.5 million and subsequent balance sheet repositioning, which entailed selling lower-yielding securities and loans and reinvesting into higher-yielding securities and paying down expensive wholesale funding. The security sale and reinvestment occurred in the fourth quarter, and the loan sale pricing was locked in the fourth quarter, but the actual sale of the loans occurred last week. The reduction of maturing wholesale funding will occur over the next few months and Ron will provide some detail beyond that. Though this initiative resulted in a loss recognized in the fourth quarter, it will favorably impact future revenues and provide additional capacity for growth and investment. These actions, combined with positive organic momentum preceding them, have further strengthened our financial foundation, allowing us to focus on providing enhanced value for shareholders as well as the customers and communities we serve. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our shareholders who showed tremendous support for this strategy. Again, Ron will provide details on the impact. I'm also very pleased to mention that in the fourth quarter, we hired a new head of retail banking. Michelle Kyle, a Rhode Island native, joined us from Digital Federal Credit Union, where she led retail branch services, business development, and customer experience. We very much look forward to Michelle's impact on our deposit growth strategies. I'll now turn the call over to Ron for some more detail on the quarter. We'll then be glad to address any questions. Ron?