WesBanco, Inc.

Hey and welcome to the West Banco first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Should you need assistance please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Iannone, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Carrie. Good morning, and welcome to WestBanco, Inc.' 's first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Leading the call today are Todd Claussen, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Bob Young, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's call, an archive of which will be available on our website for one year, is forward-looking information. Cautionary statements about this information and reconciliation of non-GAAP measures are included in our earnings-related materials issued yesterday afternoon, as well as our other SEC filings and investor materials. These materials are available on the Investor Relations section of our website, lesbanco.com. All statements speak only as of April 28, 2021, unless bank owner takes no obligation to update them. I would now like to turn the call over to Todd Claussen. Todd?

Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. On today's call, we're going to review our results for the first quarter of 2021 and provide an update on our operations and 2021 outlook. Key takeaways from the call today are we delivered strong year-over-year pre-tax, pre-provision earnings driven by our diversified growth engines and company-wide commitment to expense management. West Banco remains a well-capitalized financial institution with solid liquidity, strong balance sheet, solid credit quality that is focused on shareholder value through earnings growth and effective capital management. And we continue to receive national accolades for our employees' commitment to our community banking roots and values. We're pleased with our performance during the first quarter. We're in the early stages of emerging from this pandemic. For the quarter ending March 31st, 2021, we reported net income available to common shareholders of $71.3 million and diluted earnings per share of $1.06, when excluding merger and restructuring charges. On the same basis, our pre-tax pre-provision income of $64.2 million grew 3.6% year-over-year, driven by strong fee income growth and disciplined cost control. and we reported strong pre-tax pre-provision return on average assets and average tangible equity of 1.57% and 16.8% respectively. Reflecting our strong legacy of credit and risk management, our key credit quality ratios remained at low levels and our regulatory capital ratios remained well above the applicable well-capitalized standards. Furthermore, as you can see on slides eight and 10 of our earnings presentation, our key ratios also remained favorable to peer bank averages. We're excited about our opportunities for the upcoming year as we build upon our well-defined long-term strategies, which are enhanced by our flexibility provided by our strong capital position, strong liquidity position, and good expense management. In addition, we have experienced teams in the markets with positive demographics, including several that we just entered just prior to the pandemic, which put us in a good position to compete effectively on a relative basis as our local economies continue to rebound. We remain focused on appropriate capital allocation to provide financial flexibility while continuing to enhance shareholder value through earnings growth and effective capital management. To that end, last week our board of directors authorized the adoption of a new stock repurchase plan of up to an additional 1.7 million shares. This new authorization is in addition to the existing stock repurchase program that we had approved in December of 2019, which has approximately 1.1 million remaining shares for repurchase. So the combination of these two authorizations represents about 5% of our outstanding shares. As I mentioned previously, we assisted tens of thousands of customers, individuals, families, businesses, and nonprofits across our communities. Including in this community outreach has been helping more than 10,000 businesses secure critical funding through approximately $1.2 billion to date through all rounds of the Small Business Administration's Payroll Protection Program. Earlier this year, we renamed the Forbes Magazine's list of the best banks in America for the 11th time since 2010 and the second consecutive year in the top 15. As this ranking is based on growth, credit quality, profitability metrics, it demonstrates the strength of our diversified earnings streams, our long-term growth strategies, our unique competitive advantages, our legacy of credit quality and risk management, and our unwavering focus on shareholder value. Then earlier this month, we were again named as one of the world's best banks for the third consecutive year. This is a ranking of which I am especially proud because it's a testament to the hard work and dedication of all of our employees. It is based completely on customer satisfaction and feedback. We received strong scores across the survey, very high scores in the areas for satisfaction, customer service, financial advice, and digital services. To again be named as one of the top focused companies across the world in terms of customers, I'd like to personally thank our employees. I would also like to recognize Abdul Muhammad, our Senior Vice President and Regional Manager of Residential Lending, as he was appointed just recently as one of the eight members of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland's Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council in order to provide advice, strategic counsel, and feedback aimed at improving diversity, equity, and inclusion and opportunity at the Cleveland Fed and the regions that it serves. In addition, Abdul chairs our own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, which is focused on our three key initiatives, leadership development, employee education, and community development in order to benefit both the communities in which we serve and also our employees. By focusing on hiring, retention, and the development of diverse employees, we'll be better prepared to help minority communities work to close the wealth gap and work toward a better financial future. I'd now like to turn the call over to Bob Young, our CFO, for an update on the first quarter results and outlook for 2021. Bob?