Wintrust Financial Corporation

Welcome to Wintrust Financial Corporation's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. A review of the results will be made by Tim Crane, President and Chief Executive Officer, David Dykstra, Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, and Richard Murphy, Vice Chairman and Chief Lending Officer. As part of their reviews, the presenters may make reference to both the earnings press release and the earnings release presentation. Following their presentations, there will be a formal question and answer session. During the course of today's call, when trust management may make statements that constitute projections, expectations, beliefs, or similar forward-looking statements, actual results could differ materially from the results anticipated or projected in any such forward-looking statement. The company's forward-looking assumptions that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the information discussed during this call are detailed in our earnings press release and in the company's most recent form 10-K and any subsequent filings with the SEC. Also, our remarks may reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Our earnings press release and earnings release presentation include a reconciliation of each non-GAAP financial measure to the nearest comparable GAAP financial measure. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference call over to Mr. Tim Crane.

Good morning, and for those of you we haven't seen or talked to recently, Happy New Year. Thank you for joining us for the Wintrust fourth quarter and full year 25 earnings call. In addition to the introductions Lateef made, I'm joined by our Chief Financial Officer Dave Starr and Chief Legal Officer Kate Bogey. As we usually do on these calls, I'll begin the morning with a few highlights. Dave Dykstra will review the financial results, Rich will speak to loan activity and credit performance, and I will return with some summary comments on 2025 and early thoughts on 2026. As always, following our remarks, we'll be happy to take questions. With that, Wintrust delivered solid performance in 2025. The results reflect our focus on generating strategic and disciplined growth. I'm proud to say our efforts drove record net income for the year. For full year 2025, we reported net income of $824 million, up 19% from $695 million in 2024. Earnings per diluted share was 1140, up from 1031 in 2024, and tangible book value increased by over $13 to nearly $89 a share. Total assets at year end were just over $71 billion. Our fourth quarter was also strong. Net income was $223 million, also a record up 3% or $7 million from the prior quarter. Solid loan and deposit growth during the quarter and a slightly improved margin led to continued growth in net interest income. Credit quality remained solid and overall non-interest expenses were well managed. When I look back over the year, I want to highlight three things that I am particularly pleased by. First, we delivered disciplined growth at a level above most of our peers with a stable margin. As we've discussed, we are adding new relationships, consumer and commercial, that we expect will be with us for years to come as we continue to build the franchise. In fact, in 2025, our steady and consistent approach moved us into third position in deposit market share in the Chicago area, and we showed strong gains in both Wisconsin and West Michigan. Second, we achieved solid operating leverage. On a percentage basis, net revenue was up 11.2%, 340 basis points higher than our non-interest expense. We did this while investing in the tools, technology, and people to both run a bank our size today and to build the foundation for future growth. Lastly, we saw improved net promoter scores that were already best in class in both retail and commercial banking in 2025 as our focus on exceptional customer service continues to differentiate us from many of our peers. Before I turn this over to Dave, I want to call your attention to the charts we include in our press release at the end of each year showing our 10-year performance on key metrics. What you will see here is the continued consistent performance that we stress with our teams. I'm very proud of these results and how they translate into real value for our shareholders. Now let me turn this over to Dave.

Great. Thanks, Tim. We finished off 2025 with another quarter of strong loan and deposit growth with both falling within our stated range of mid to high single digits growth. Specifically, the deposit growth is right at $1 billion during the quarter representing a 7% increase over the prior quarter on an annualized basis. This deposit growth helped to fund continued strong fourth quarter loan growth of a similar $1.0 billion amount that represented 8% growth on an annualized basis. On a full year basis, loans and deposits grew 11% and 10% respectively. Turning to income statement results, this was a very solid operating quarter for Wintrust, producing a record level of quarterly net income. Speaking to the major components of the income statement, our net interest income also reached another high record quarterly amount, a $1.1 billion increase in the average earning assets, as well as a four basis point increase in the net interest margin. drove the $16.9 million increase in net interest income over the prior quarter. The net interest margin ranged from 3.50 to 3.56 during the four quarters of 2025, and the 3.54 net interest margin for the fourth quarter fell squarely in that range. I would note that period end loans are once again higher than the average loans for the fourth quarter, giving us a good start on achieving higher average earning assets in the first quarter of 2026. The provision for credit losses was relatively consistent with prior quarters, remaining in the $20 to $30 million range experienced in all quarterly periods of 2025, as the overall credit environment and asset quality has remained relatively stable. Regarding other non-interest income and other non-interest expenses, non-interest income totaled $130.4 million in the fourth quarter, similar to the $130.8 million recorded in the prior quarter. The very slight decline was impacted by lower security gains, but overall, other than the continued softness in the mortgage revenue, it was a solid outcome for non-interest income for the fourth quarter. As to non-interest expense categories, non-interest expenses totaled $384.5 million in the fourth quarter, which represented a slight increase from the $380 million recorded in the prior quarter. Increases in employees' health insurance claims, OREO expenses, travel and entertainment, and various other small expense increases were offset somewhat by seasonally lower marketing costs. Overall, expenses were well controlled and within the expected range we discussed on our last call. Additionally, both the quarterly net overhead ratio and the efficiency ratio remained relatively stable during the quarter from the prior quarter. In summary, I'll reiterate what I said on our last call, with this being another very solid quarter. The company accomplished good loan and deposit growth, a stable net interest margin with a steady outlook, a record level of net interest income, and a continued low level of non-performing assets. Our team delivered net income that was a record for any full fiscal year in the company's history, and we have a positive outlook for continued growth in assets, revenues, and earnings. So with that, I'll conclude my comments and turn it over to Rich Murphy to discuss credit.