Banc of California, Inc.

Hello, and welcome to the conference call to discuss Bank of California and PacWest merger and second quarter earnings. All participants will be in 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. To withdraw your question, you may press star, then two. Please note, this call is being recorded. Today's presentation will include non-GAAP measures. The reconciliation for these and additional required information is available in the earnings press releases, which are available on each company's investor relations website. The reference presentation is also available on each company's investor relations website. Before we begin, we would like to direct everyone to the Safe Harbor Statement on forward-looking statements included in both the press releases, and investor presentations published today. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Jared Wolf, Bank of California's Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. With me on the call today is Joe Cowder, the new CFO of Bank of California, and Paul Taylor, Kevin Thompson, and Bill Black from PacWest. Each company is going to provide a brief review of their second quarter financial results, with more limited commentary than usual so that we can spend the majority of the call discussing the merger that was announced today. Let me start off by saying how thrilled we are to announce this transaction. We are very excited to discuss the tremendous benefits to stockholders, clients, communities, and colleagues that this merger will bring. The transaction will result in the third largest bank headquartered in California with day one tangible book value per share accretion and significant EPS accretion in 2024 when expense savings have been realized. The transaction is accompanied by $400 million of capital from two very sophisticated bank investors, which will accelerate the transformation of the combined company. Paul and his team have done an outstanding job transforming the balance sheet in a short amount of time through the initial restructuring efforts they have undertaken. Paul and I are both committed to making this successful, and I know this will be a powerhouse franchise. We have worked extremely closely to bring this deal together, and it's going to be highly successful. Let me turn it over to Paul.

Thank you, Jared, and good afternoon, everyone. I wanted to start off by saying what a great job Jared has done with the Bank of California. He took over bank a few months before I took over Opus Bank, so we've known each other for many years. Having turned around a few banks myself, I've been impressed with the transformation he has led at that institution in a short period of time. With that backdrop, it makes me excited about what's to come with this combination. This is a great deal. With very compelling economics, the ability to reposition the combined balance sheet and set the stage for growth. We are clearly better together. I believe this merger will be beneficial for all of our stakeholders, with clients having access to an expanded set of products and services, employees having more opportunities for career advancement as part of a larger institution. The merger creates a premier California banking franchise, which will be well positioned to capitalize on market opportunities and broaden the channels and customers and serves through increased scale and expanded product offerings. This is an opportunity to assemble a world-class team from both banks. I would like to thank all of the hard work people at PacWest that they do every day, and they've done through this year, and they will continue to do so in the years to come in the new combined organization. With that, I will turn it back to Jared.