Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Berkshire Hills Bancorp second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, our lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star 1 on your touchtone phone. If at any time during this call you need assistance, please press star 0 for the operator. This call is being recorded on July 18, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kevin Kahn, Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Berkshire Bank's second 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, Brett Berbovic, 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. If it's time, I'll turn the call over to Nitin. Nitin?

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us today. I'll begin my comments on slide three, where you can see the highlights for the second quarter. Overall, I'm pleased to report that we had a strong quarter with solid improvement in operating earnings quarter over quarter. Operating EPS of $0.55 was up 12% linked quarter. Operating net income of $23.2 million was up 11% linked quarter. ROTC was 9.65%, up 92 basis points linked quarter, and operating ROA was 79 basis points, up 8 basis points linked 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 at seven basis points of loans, the sixth consecutive quarter of declining net charge-offs. Loan loss allowance closed at 1.22% of loans, modestly above the upper end of our guidance range. We've updated the slides on overall CREE, office, and multifamily portfolios. The information on those slides highlights that our portfolio remains granular, geographically diverse, and resultantly less risky. The performance of those loan books remains strong. Our expense optimization focus continues to gain traction. Operating expenses of $71.3 million were down 2% in link quarter, reflecting lower compensation, occupancy, and equipment expense. Our balance sheet remains strong. Capital ratios remain robust with common equity tier one ratio of 11.6% and a tangible common equity ratio of 8.2%. We repurchased about 600,000 shares in the second quarter for $13 million. Asset quality remains strong with a modest decline in non-performing loans with net charge-offs at a low point of seven basis points and ACL to loans at a high point of 1.22%. Liquidity remained solid, and loans to deposit ratio was at 96% and 92%, respectively, excluding and including New York health for sale balances. Average deposits were down 2% link quarter and up 2.2% year-over-year. Deposit costs were up by six basis points in the quarter, while reflecting a reduction in the rate of increase in deposit costs and beta. Average loan balances were up 2% link quarter and up 5% year over year, reflecting solid loan growth versus a relatively soft first quarter. We continue to make steady progress in optimizing our branch network. We'd announced the sale of 10 branches in New York in March, which tightens our footprint and enhances the efficiency and profitability of our network. We remain fully committed to and invested in our remaining presence in New York. The transaction remains on track to close in the third quarter. I'd note that we also consolidated three additional branches in the second quarter, bringing our total branch count to 93 today and projecting to 83 by the end of third quarter. We believe that we are now at about the right size for our branch network. We launched Berkshire One, an expanded suite of digital deposit product proposition for our customers. We intend to make banking with Berkshire when, where, and how you want it, easier than ever. We continue to invest to digitize the client experience, which is reflected in our net promoter scores that reached a record high of 60, and mobile app ratings, which averaged over 4.5 stars for iOS and Android devices, with the latter reaching 4.8 stars for the first time. I want to thank all of my Berkshire Bank colleagues for their continued hard work and commitment to the bank. Through this challenging environment for the banking sector, their commitment to our strategy and dedication to our customers is what continues to bring us together and truly set us apart. We had previously announced Brett Burbowick's promotion to the CFO position after David Rosado's departure in the second quarter. Brett has been with the bank for over 12 years and has deep institutional knowledge. Brett's prior role was as Chief Accounting Officer for us And prior to Berkshire Bank, Brett worked at KPMG for about nine years. I'd like to formally welcome Brett as our new CFO and thank him for stepping up to guide us through our journey ahead. I'll now turn it over to Brett to cover our financials in more detail and share our updated outlook for 2024. Brett.