Wintrust Financial Corporation

Welcome to Wintrust Financial Corporation's first quarter 2026 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 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. 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 fund 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 thank you for joining us for Wintrust first quarter 2026 earnings call. In addition to the introductions that Lateef made, I'm joined by our Chief Financial Officer Dave Starr, our Chief Legal Officer Kate Bogey. We'll follow our usual format this morning. I'll begin with a few highlights. Dave Dykstra will review the financial results. Rich will share some thoughts on loan activity and credit quality. And I'll be back with some closing thoughts, including a look at expectations for the second quarter and generally for the remainder of the year. As always, we'll be happy to take your questions. Before we begin, I would like to bring your attention to some changes to the presentation document that accompanies the release of our result. We've modified the design, making some updates to how we present the data based on valuable feedback we've received from many of you. We hope you find the format helpful and informative as we continue to try and provide clear information that highlights our strong market position and our disciplined operating approach. Looking at the first quarter 2026 results, I'm very pleased that we delivered a fifth consecutive quarter of record net income. Overall, it was a very solid and straightforward quarter. We continue to focus on our strategic priorities of providing an exceptional customer experience, delivering disciplined and strategic growth across our businesses with a focus on prudent risk management and investing to build upon our foundation to drive a successful future. That said, despite two fewer days in the quarter, we achieved net income of $227 million, up from $223 million last quarter, and $189 million in the first quarter of 2025. While Dave and Rich will provide more detail, in summary, net interest income, net interest margin, and both loan and deposit growth were in line with our expectations. We delivered solid growth in non-interest income, led by our wealth management business. Expenses were well managed, and credit quality remained stable. I would highlight that all of our growth is organic, We continue to see good new customer acquisition and market momentum as our clients appreciate our differentiated approach and relentless focus on customer service. In fact, during the quarter, we were recognized once again by JD Power for Illinois Banking Services and by Coalition Greenwich with multiple awards for our commercial middle market banking services. These awards are evidence of our continued success in delivering for our clients in ways that many of our competitors cannot. Overall, a solid quarter. Let me turn it over to Dave.

Great. Thanks, Tim. Let me start with the balance sheet. Specifically, deposit growth was right at $1.2 billion during the quarter, representing an 8% increase over the prior quarter on an annualized basis. This deposit growth helped to fund continued solid first quarter loan growth of approximately $1 billion, representing a 7% growth rate on an annualized basis. Yields and rates on the major balance sheet categories were slightly lower because of the recent market declines in short-term interest rates, with loan yields moving down 13 basis points in the first quarter from the prior quarter, while interest-bearing deposit costs declined 16 basis points from the prior quarter, thus resulting in a slightly improved growth spread. I'd like to note that loan growth during the quarter was heavily back-end loaded, and accordingly, period-end loans were approximately $1.2 billion higher than average loans for the first quarter. That's giving us a great start on achieving higher average earning assets in the second quarter of 2026. Turning to the income statement, this was a very solid operating quarter, producing record levels of quarterly net income. Net interest income declined slightly compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. The benefit to net interest income from an increase of $555 million in average earning asset growth and a two basis point increase in the net interest margin was almost enough to offset having two fewer days in the quarter. The net interest margin was 3.56% for the first quarter, and the two fewer days in the quarter positively impacted net interest margin by two basis points. The net interest margin has ranged from 3.50 to 3.59% during the last nine quarters, exhibiting sustainability over net interest margin. The provision for credit losses was relatively consistent with prior quarters, remaining in the $20 to $30 million range experienced in all the quarterly periods of 2025. As the overall credit environment, our asset quality has remained stable as we enter 2026. Regarding other non-interest income and non-interest expense sections, total non-interest income amounted to $134.1 million in the first quarter. which was an increase from the $130.4 million recorded in the prior quarter. The increase was primarily a result of strong wealth management and operating lease revenues. Mortgage banking activity continued to be subdued and production-related volumes and revenue were essentially unchanged from the prior quarter. As to non-interest expense categories, total non-interest expenses were $382.6 million in the first quarter, which was slightly lower than the $384.5 million recorded in the prior quarter. Increases in salaries and employee benefits were primarily due to annual merit increases that were offset by lower ORO expenses, travel and entertainment, and various other small expense decreases. Overall expenses were very well controlled. Additionally, both the quarterly net overhead ratio and efficiency ratio improved slightly relative to the prior quarter. In summary, I'll reiterate this was a very solid quarter. The company accomplished good loan and deposit growth, a stable net interest margin, a record level of net income, sustained growth and tangible book value per share, and a continued low level of non-performing assets. So with that, I'll conclude my comments and turn it over to Rich Murphy to discuss credit. Thanks, Dave.