Beacon Financial Corporation Common stock

Hello and welcome to the Beacon Financial Corporation second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. And if you would like to ask a question during this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dario Hernandez, corporate counsel. You may begin.

Thank you, Sarah. And good afternoon, everyone. Yesterday, we issued our earnings release and presentation, which is available on the investor relations page of our website, BeaconFinancialCorporation.com, and has been filed with the SEC. This afternoon's call will be hosted by Paul Perrault, Carl Carlson. During the question and answer session, they will also be joined by our Chief Credit Officer, Mark Meiklejohn. This call may contain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, and business of Beacon Financial Corporation. Please refer to page two of our earnings presentation for our forward-looking statement disclaimer. Also, please refer to our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which contain risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Any references made during this presentation to non-GAAP measures are only made to assist you in understanding Beacon Financial's results and performance trends and should not be relied on as financial measures of actual results or future predictions. For a comparison and reconciliation to GAAP earnings, please see our earnings release. At this time, I'm pleased to introduce Beacon Financial's President and Chief Executive Officer, Paul Perrault.

Thanks, Dario. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our second quarter earnings call. Our second quarter results reflect improved operating momentum and solid execution across the organization as we continue to move beyond merger integration activities and focus on realizing the full potential of the combined franchise. We took a clear step forward from the first quarter with stronger profitability and improved operating performance across several key measures. Gap earnings were 77 cents per share compared to 55 cents per share last quarter. driven by higher net interest income, increased fee income, lower credit provisioning, and the elimination of further merger related expenses. Return on assets improved to 1.17%, while return on tangible common equity increased to 12.84%, reflecting the earnings power of the franchise as integrated related disruption subsides. While the operating environment remains competitive and economic uncertainty continues to influence client decision-making, we saw encouraging trends during the quarter. Our net interest margin expanded to 3.81%, deposit growth resumed, and non-interest income improved across several business lines. These results underscore the value of our diversified business model and the resilience of our funding base. Loan balances declined modestly during the quarter, consistent with our expectations as runoff in commercial real estate and equipment finance portfolios were partly offset by growth in commercial and consumer lending. Although overall loan demand remains uneven, client activity and pipeline levels are quite healthy. We continue to see opportunities across our commercial banking platform and remain optimistic production levels will continue to improve. Expense discipline remains a core strength. Excluding the benefits of completed merger-related activities, operating expenses declined modestly from the prior quarter as we realized additional efficiencies from systems consolidation and facility optimization efforts. Our core efficiency ratio improved significantly to just over 54%, demonstrating the benefits of the integration work completed over the past year or so. Credit performance remains manageable and generally in line with our expectations. While non-performing assets increase modestly, charge-offs were concentrated on a small number of previously identified credits which were reserved in prior periods. We remain focused on active portfolio management and continue to believe our reserve levels appropriately reflect the current risks in the portfolio. Our capital position continued to strengthen during the quarter, supported by solid earnings generation and disciplined balance sheet management. Tangible common equity increased to 9.25% of tangible assets and tangible book value grew 50 cents during the quarter to $23.98 per share. These results reflect the strong earnings generation capacity of the business while maintaining a conservative balance sheet posture. As we look ahead, our priorities remain unchanged. We are focused on driving profitable growth, improving operating efficiency, maintaining strong credit discipline, and delivering consistent value to our shareholders. With the merger integration completed and expense synergies fully realized, we believe we are well positioned to continue building earnings momentum through the remainder of 2026. I will now turn it over to Carl to discuss the financial results in more detail.