Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Berkshire Hills Bancorp First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, note that all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentations, we will conduct a question and answer session. To ask a question at that time, you will need to press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone. And if at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Also note that the call is recorded Thursday, April 18th, 2024. And I would like to turn the conference over to Kevin Kahn. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Berkshire Bank's first quarter earnings call. My name is Kevin Kahn, investor relations and corporate development officer. Here with me today are Nitin Mahatre, chief executive officer, Sean Gray, chief operating officer, David Rosado, chief financial officer, and Greg Lindenmuth, chief risk officer. Our remarks will include forward-looking statements and refer to non-GAAP financial measures. Actual results could differ materially from those statements. Please see our legal disclosure on page two of the earnings presentation referencing forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures is included in our news release. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Nitin. Nitin?

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'll begin my comments on slide three, where you can see the highlights for the first quarter. Overall, it was a solid quarter. Operating net income of 20.9 million and operating EPS of 49 cents were both up 4% linked quarter, supported by a reduction of non-interest expenses of 4%. ROTC was 8.73%, down 17 basis points versus fourth quarter. We are encouraged by the trends in key performance matrix, especially credit and expenses. Credit costs continue to trend down, with net charge-offs declining by 9% link quarter to 4 million. This is the fifth consecutive quarter of declining net charge-offs, while we increased our loan loss allowance by one basis point to 1.18% of loans, the fifth quarter in a row of building up our loan loss reserves. Our continued expense optimization focus is gaining traction. Expenses of $72.4 million were down 4% link quarter, reflecting lower technology and professional service expenses, and were below the midpoint of our quarterly run rate guidance provided in January. Our previously provided guidance for expenses reflected flat year-over-year expenses for full year 2024 compared to low to mid single-digit expense growth guidance by peer banks. And we continue to look for opportunities for further efficiency improvement while self-funding deposit generation and growth initiatives. Our balance sheet remains strong and a tangible common equity ratio of 8.2%. We repurchased 182,000 shares in the first quarter for $4.3 million. Net interest margin was up link quarter, and while we expect continued funding cost pressure, we believe that the worst of the NIM compression is behind us. Average deposits were up modestly link quarter and were up 3% year over year. Average loan balances were up less than 1% link quarter and up 6% year over year. We could potentially grow loans at a faster rate given that the larger banks have reduced their lending appetite, but we've opted to extend credit selectively while continuing to serve our clients and deepen relationships. We've updated pages on our overall commercial real estate and office portfolio and now have added a new slide detailing our exposure to our multifamily properties. Those slides highlight that our portfolio is granular geographically diverse and resultantly less risky. We continue to make steady progress on our strategic priorities to optimize real estate branch network and balance sheet. We announced the sale of 10 branches in New York, which tightens our footprint further and enhances the efficiency and profitability of our network. We remain fully committed to our remaining presence in New York. We sold securities to offset the deposits sold with the branch sale. You may recall we sold eight branches in the mid-Atlantic region three years ago. The New York branch sale similarly aligns with the strategy of tightening our footprint and improving our focus and profitability. I'd note that we intend to consolidate three additional branches in the second quarter, bringing our total branch count to 83. We believe we are now close to the right size of our branch network. David will cover the details of the transaction and corresponding security sales in more detail in a moment. Lastly, we're honored to be recognized by Newsweek as one of the most trustworthy companies in America for third consecutive year. We were ranked number 10 in the country for most trustworthy banks in the country. We are grateful to our customers for their vote of confidence and to our bankers who deliver exceptional service and advice to our clients every day. We have moved our best target slide to the appendix for this quarter as we come close to the end of our three-year program. We are near the low end of our target range for operating return on assets at 71 basis points and our operating return on tangible common equity at 8.7%. PPNR was 33 million or 132 million on an annualized basis. Our ESG score remains in the top quartile, and our first quarter net promoter score improved further to 54. I want to use this opportunity to thank all of my Berkshire Bank colleagues for their continued hard work and commitment to the bank. Through this difficult external environment and corresponding changes being made internally, their commitment to our strategy and dedication to our customers and all stakeholders is what brings us together and truly sets us apart. We intend to self-fund investments in strategic priorities that support our vision to be a high-performing, relationship-driven community bank. With that, I'll turn the call over to David to discuss our financials in more details. David.