WesBanco, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the West Banco first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero on your telephone keypad. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. 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 and Public Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to WestBanco Inc.' 's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Leading the call today are Jeff Jackson, President and Chief Executive 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 April 24th, 2024, and West Banco undertakes no obligation to update them. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff. Jeff?

Thanks, John, and good morning. On today's call, we will review our results for the first quarter of 2024, and provide an update on our operations and current 2024 outlook. Key takeaways from the call today are continued strong deposit and loan growth combined with good progress on new fee income opportunities. A sustained focus on controlling discretionary costs. We remain well capitalized with solid credit quality and liquidity. Our first quarter results marked a strong start to 2024. We grew loans and deposits while smartly managing borrowings, controlling costs, and advancing our efforts to diversify revenue streams and drive non-interest income growth. For the quarter ending March 31, 2023, we reported net income available to common shareholders of $33.2 million. and diluted earnings per share of 56 cents. Furthermore, the underlying strength of our financial performance is demonstrated by our return on average tangible common equity of 11 percent, non-performing assets to total assets of just 0.19 percent, and a capital position that continues to provide financial and operational flexibility. as demonstrated by our tangible common equity ratio of 7.63%. The key story for the first quarter was our strong deposit growth that both funded loan growth and paid down borrowings on a sequential quarter basis. We reported deposit growth of 5% year-over-year and 10% quarter-over-quarter annualized across our business, consumer, and public funds customers. This deposit growth funded both our loan growth and the 19% decrease in FHLB borrowings from the fourth quarter of 2023. We remain encouraged by the ability of our teams to grow our deposit base. First quarter loan growth was 9% year over year and 8% quarter over quarter annualized, which was again driven by our commercial and residential lending team. Total commercial loans increased 9% year-over-year and 10% sequentially annualized, driven by our banker hiring and loan production office strategies. Our four newest loan production offices accounted for roughly 20% of the commercial loan growth year-to-date, as they continue to demonstrate a strong return on investment. Our commercial loan pipeline, as of April 15th, was approximately $1.2 billion, a 69% increase from the level at year-end 2023 and roughly flat to March 31st, as our teams continue to find business opportunities to replenish the pipeline that has been driving our strong loan growth. Our pipeline highlights the strength of our commercial strategies as our banking teams are able to maintain a billion-dollar pipeline while generating high single-digit loan growth. In addition, our new loan production offices account for 29 percent of the current pipeline, with Tennessee continuing to represent a meaningful percentage. Based on the ongoing success of our LPOs, we continue to evaluate opportunities to expand this strategy into new metro markets adjacent to or within our footprint. Representative of the strong efforts of our teams across our markets is a nice win in our Mid-Atlantic market during the first quarter. A team comprised of commercial bankers, treasury management, and credit associates won a new business relationship from a large financial institution. This win was led by our Mid-Atlantic leadership team, as this company is known for longstanding business partnerships and loyalty to their partners and vendors alike. After a business-focused shift by the customer's previous bank, WestBanco earned a complete banking relationship with this premier customer that included both low eight figure deposits and credit facility, as well as a full suite of treasury management products and services. Because the customer's business model is complex, it took a coordinated and collaborative effort amongst the team to provide the customer with the ideal solution that would help to optimize their business model. This is yet another example of our commitment to exceptional service and winning complete banking relationships through a deep understanding of a client's needs. As you heard in our customer win example, our treasury management team is partnering very well with our commercial banking team to help us win deep banking relationships. To further highlight the success of this reorganized group, into a sales oriented business, they sold roughly 300 of our products and services to our business customers during the first quarter, including receivables, payables, reporting, anti-fraud, investment sweep services, and encouragingly several multi-card relationships. As I mentioned last quarter, we are making progress on building a strong pipeline for our new multi-card and integrated payables products. with revenue expected to begin to be generated during the second half of 2024. Lastly, we remain diligent on managing expenses. While some of the sequential quarter decline was due to the timing of marketing campaigns, our non-interest expenses decreased approximately $2 million from the fourth quarter. We have completed our retail transformation initiative which focused on ensuring appropriate staffing models for all of our financial centers, including staff and hour reductions and the hiring of business bankers to drive additional growth. We have reduced retail staffing by approximately 100 people. Over the past year, through a combination of attrition and retirements, and have strategically adjusted operating hours to ensure we are available at peak times for our customers, and reducing or eliminating hours when customers do not need our help. As I mentioned last quarter, we are using about half of this savings to grow our business banking program and generate additional revenue through loans and deposits and merchant and treasury management fees and are in the process of making these hires. Furthermore, We continue to seek additional levers to pull to help efficiencies in our functions and drive positive operating leverage. These efforts are still in the early planning stages and I expect to provide updates on future calls. Our commitment to customer service, sustainable growth strategies, and strong credit quality earned us yet another national accolade for this quarter. For the 14th time, WestBanco was named to the Forbes list of best banks in America, which evaluated 10 metrics measuring growth, credit quality, and profitability for the 2023 calendar year. During a year that tested the resilience and adaptability of the banking industry, WestBanco remained a strong and sound financial institution well positioned to serve our customers, communities, and shareholders. This latest accolade reinforces the trust and confidence our customers place in their banking relationship with us, and we are proud to continue to help advance their financial journeys. I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Weiss, our CFO, for an update on our first quarter financial results and current outlook for 2024. Dan?