Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Carly and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Berkshire Hills Bank Corp second quarter 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. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Kevin Kahn. 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, Fred 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 disclosures on page two of the earnings presentation referencing forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. 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 all for joining us today. I'll begin my comments on slide three, where you can see highlights for the second quarter. Overall, this was a very strong quarter and the best quarter yet since we began our transformational journey in early 2021. We had operating net income of 31.6 million, up 14% length quarter and up 36% year over year. Operating earnings per share of 69 cents was up 15% from first quarter and up 25% year-over-year. We continued to drive expenses lower with operating expenses of $67 million, down 2% linked quarter and down 7% year-over-year. We had positive operating leverage of 5% linked quarter and 11% year-over-year, driven by both improved revenues and lower expenses. Operating ROTC was 10.76%, up about 110 basis points linked quarter and year-over-year. Asset quality and balance sheet matrix remained strong. Net charge-offs and non-performing loans remained low at 14 basis points and 27 basis points of loans, respectively. We continued to make steady progress on our strategic initiatives. Our focus on new digital deposit program has gained momentum and has delivered over 100 million of new deposits since inception earlier this year. Our bankers commitment to delivering relationship focused personalized solutions to our clients has been at the core of our improved financial performance and has earned us yet another recognition this quarter. This time from Time Magazine that recognized us again amongst the top performing midsize U.S. companies in 2025. As you know, in December we announced a merger of equals with Brookline Bancorp. The transaction improved scale and meaningfully improved profitability as reflected in the estimated 40% and 23% accretion to Berkshire's 2026 consensus estimate on GAAP and cash basis respectively. Berkshire's net income in the first half of 2025 annualizes to over $118 million and is tracking well ahead of the 2025 consensus net income of $101 million shared in our MOE investor deck in December. Our team continues to work proactively on requisite integration planning for a seamless transition. And on that note, I'll turn the call over to Sean Gray to provide an overview of the merger integration planning process. Sean?