WesBanco, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the WestBanco, Inc.' 's second quarter 2024 earnings and proposed merger 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 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 of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to WestBanco, Inc.' 's second quarter 2024 earnings and proposed merger with Premier Financial Corporation conference call. Leading the call today are Jeff Jackson, President and Chief Executive Officer of and Dan Weiss, Senior 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, including certain plans, expectations, goals, and projections, and including statements about the benefits of the proposed merger between WestBanco Inc. and Premier Financial Corporation, which are subject to numerous assumptions, risks, and uncertainties. In addition, Presentations to which we will be referencing today were filed as parts of Forms 8K and posted to westbanco.com. Cautionary statements about this information and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures are included in both our earnings-related and merger-related materials, 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 July 26, 2024, and WestBanco and Premier undertake no obligation to update them. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Jeff. Jeff?

Thanks, John, and good morning. This is an exciting and momentous day for WestBanco. In addition to reporting our second quarter results, we also announced an agreement to merge with Premier Financial Corp. an almost $9 billion asset bank headquartered in Defiance, Ohio. This merger will create a community-focused, regional financial services partner with more than $27 billion in assets, significant economies of scale, and strong pro forma profitability metrics. As you noticed, we also filed two presentations, one on the proposed merger and the other is our standard earnings presentation On today's call, we will review our results for the second quarter of 2024, provide our current 2024 outlook, and review our announced merger with Premier. Key takeaways from the call are continued strong deposit and loan growth, a sustained focus on controlling discretionary costs, and maintaining favorable credit quality metrics. Recognition as one of America's greatest workplaces by Newsweek for fostering a workplace environment where our employees feel valued, motivated, and empowered to succeed. And finally, transformation of West Banco into a stronger regional financial services institution. West Banco sustained its positive momentum in 2024 with solid second quarter results characterized by continued loan and deposit growth. We maintained a diligent focus on cost control while making strategic investments in our company to secure our long-term success. While I will provide more details on our definitive merger agreement with Premier, the announcement is evidence of our continued solid execution of our long-term growth strategy, as Premier is a great strategic, cultural, and financial fit. I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Weiss, our CFO, for a brief update on our second quarter financial results and current outlook for 2024. Dan?