WesBanco, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the West Banco fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a 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 a touch tone 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 Ione, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to WestBanco Inc's fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Leading the call today are Todd Claussen, President and Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Jackson, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Dan Weiss, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's call, an archive of which will be available on our website for one year, contains forward-looking information. Cautionary statements about this information and reconciliations 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, westbanco.com. All statements speak only as of January 25th, 2023, and West Banco undertakes the obligation to update them. I would now like to turn the call over to Todd. Todd?

Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. On today's call, we'll review our results for the fourth quarter of 2022. and provide an update on our operations and current 2023 outlook. Key takeaways from the call today are our operational strategies and core advantages were evident throughout 2022 and were highlighted by our earning numerous national accolades. We had solid financial performance demonstrated by loan growth, debt interest margin expansion, and discretionary cost control. We remain well positioned for continued success and are excited about our future growth opportunities. WestBanco had another successful year during 2022 as we remained focused on ensuring a strong organization for our shareholders and continued to appropriately return capital to them through both long-term sustainable earnings growth and effective capital management. Through successful operational execution, we generated solid annual net income while remaining a well-capitalized financial institution with strong liquidity, balance sheet, and credit quality metrics built upon our well-defined strategies and core advantages, which will ensure success regardless of the economic environment. We are pleased with our performance during the fourth quarter of 2022 as we continued to deliver loan growth, control discretionary expenses, and maintained our reputation for credit quality. For the quarter ending December 31, 2022, we reported net income available to common shareholders of $49.7 million and diluted earnings per share of 84 cents when excluding after-tax merger and restructuring charges. On the same basis, for the full year, we reported net income available to common shareholders of $183.3 million and diluted earnings per share of $3.04. Furthermore, the strength of our financial performance this past quarter is further demonstrated by a return on average assets of 1.18% and return on tangible equity of 16.05%. And our capital position remains strong and continues to provide financial and operational flexibility. Throughout the year, we accomplished several milestones and continued to receive numerous national accolades that resulted from our performance, operational strengths, and community focus. I'd be remiss if I did not congratulate our employees for these recognitions, as they are a testament to their hard work and dedication. Just to highlight a few. West Banco remains a leader in and advocate for its communities, and we continually look for ways to expand our outreach and involvement, including the issuance of our initial sustainability report. We launched new lawn production offices in Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Nashville, complementing our existing LPOs in Akron-Canton and Northern Virginia. Based on customer satisfaction and consumer feedback, WestBanco Bank was named by Forbes as the number one bank in Ohio and the number two bank in Kentucky, including high scores for trust, branch services, terms and conditions, customer service, digital services, and financial advice. For the fourth year in a row, we were named one of the world's best banks, which was also based on customer satisfaction and consumer feedback. For the third year in a row in the top 12, WestBanco Bank was once again named to Forbes list of the best banks in America based upon growth, credit quality, and profitability. We were named to the Forbes list of America's best midsize employers, earning a spot within the top 10% of all companies recognized. as well as securing the number two spot out of 30 companies included in the banking and financial services category. In fact, we were the only mid-sized bank making the top 10 for both financial performance and employer of choice. Finally, WestBanca was recognized as one of America's most trustworthy companies, as well as being one of only 20 banks to earn this nationwide honor for three touch points of trust, customer trust, investor trust, and employee trust. The key story this quarter was the strength of our lending teams as we demonstrated strong loan growth for the third consecutive quarter combined with solid credit quality measures, which continue to remain relatively low from a historical perspective and consistent through at least the last 10 plus quarters. Reflecting the strength of our markets and lending teams, we again reported solid broad-based loan growth during the quarter. Total loan growth excluding SBA PPP loans, was 11.7% year-over-year and 4.2% or 16.8% annualized when compared to September 30, 2022, while key credit quality measures such as total loans past due and criticized and classified loans declined both year-over-year and sequentially to 0.19% and 2.34% respectively of total loans. Despite mortgage originations of just $179 million during the fourth quarter, 90% of which were either purchase or construction, residential real estate loans increased more than 20% both year over year and sequentially annualized through the retention of approximately 80% of the one to four family residential mortgages generated by our team of mortgage loan originators. Total commercial loan growth continues to benefit from our team's and markets that have been enhanced by our hiring efforts over the past two years. For the fourth quarter, total commercial loan growth was 9.6% year-over-year and 4.1% from the third quarter or 16.2% annualized. Our commercial teams continue to find new business opportunities to replenish the pipeline. In addition to new loan originations of approximately $490 million during the fourth quarter, Our commercial pipeline has remained relatively consistent since last quarter at approximately $900 million. The strength of our pipeline represents the talent of our lending teams, as well as early success from our loan production office strategy, which only account for approximately 13% of the pipeline. While we will see what the economy will provide this year, I'm encouraged about our future commercial lending prospects as our newer lenders continue to gain traction, our recent LPOs gain market share, and we hire additional lenders. Through the last few years, we have transformed our company into an evolving regional financial services institution with a community bank at its core. We have done this through the successful expansion in a higher growth market spanning six states with the majority of our company now located within these markets while adhering to our foundation of disciplined discretionary cost control, risk management, and credit standards. As we have discussed before, A key investment in support of this evolution has been and will continue to be the investment in our employees as they are critical to our long-term growth and success. During both 2021 and 2022, we focused on improving retention and boosting morale by implementing increases in the hourly wage, which was very well received. In addition, we developed plans to increase the depth and strength of our teams across our business lines and markets. We successfully executed upon these plans by hiring more than 45 revenue producers during 2021 and more than 50 during 2022 and have begun to see the growth and positive operating leverage from these investments. We will continue to enhance our evolution into a solid and sound growth story combined with our strong foundation and core advantages through an ongoing lender hiring strategy. While we will continue to evaluate existing lenders to ensure appropriate productivity, We plan to annually add high-value and productive individuals to enhance our ability to leverage growth opportunities across our markets. We remain focused on ensuring an organization with sound credit quality, solid liquidity, and a strong balance sheet. We have the right markets, teams, leadership, and strategies to provide long-term success for our shareholders, customers, and employees. We're excited about our opportunities for the upcoming year. I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Weiss, our CFO, for an update on our fourth quarter financial results and current outlook for 2023. Dan? Thanks, Todd, and good morning.