Cadence Bank

Good morning and thank you for being with us. I will begin by introducing the members of the senior management team participating today. We have chairman and chief executive officer, Dan Rollins, executive vice chairman, Paul Murphy, president Chris Bagley, chief financial officer, Valerie Tolson and chief banking officer, Hank Holmes. Before the discussion begins, I'll remind you of certain forward looking statements that may be made regarding the company's future results or future financial performance. Actual results could differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors and or risk. Information concerning certain of these factors can be found in the Legacy BancorpSouth 2020 Annual Report on Form 10-K. Also during the call, certain non-GAAP financial measures may be discussed regarding the company's performance. If so, you can find the reconciliation of these measures in the appendix to the presentation, as well as the company's fourth quarter 2021 earnings release. Our speakers will be referring to prepared slides during the discussion. You can find the slides by going to our investor relations page at ir.cadencebank.com, where you'll find them on the link to the webcast, or you can view them at the exhibit to the 8K that we filed yesterday afternoon. These slides are also in the presentation section of our investor relations website. And now I'll turn to Dan Rollins for his opening comments.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for the first Consolidated Earnings Report for the new Cadence Bank, formerly known as Bancorp South Bank. As you all know, we completed our merger with the former Cadence Bank Corporation on October 29, 2021, and immediately changed our name to Cadence Bank. Today, we will be discussing Cadence Bank's fourth quarter and full year 2021 results. Paul and I will make a few comments this morning on our merger progress and our views on our company and the economic activity around our footprint. Valerie will discuss the financial results and updated purchase accounting disclosures, and Chris and Hank will cover our frontline efforts. After we conclude our prepared comments, our executive management team will be happy to answer questions. Our slide deck this quarter has been expanded to include additional information over and above our normal quarterly disclosures in an effort to give our shareholders more insight into the new cadence. We will reference certain slides in our remarks this morning, but we will not be covering them all. It's obviously a very exciting time for our company. I hope you all saw our announcement yesterday unveiling the new Cadence Bank logo. We shared this news internally last Friday, which created considerable buzz around our company. While this project has taken many months and was led by our marketing and corporate communications teams, it's just the beginning of our journey as we strive to create a brand that reflects the combined cultures and values of two great companies. We will continue to unveil other parts of our brand identity in the coming months as we work towards full integration this fall. Our operational and support teams, led by our executive steering committee, continue to make tremendous progress in our conversion planning and implementation. We have a number of integration activities that are already taking place across the company. For example, effective back in December, all new mortgage loan applications for the combined company began flowing through one consolidated systems. This is just one of many examples of smaller conversion projects that are occurring across the company prior to our main core conversion, which is still on track for this fall. Our operational support teams have done a tremendous job of continuing to adequately support our frontline teammates while working through the conversion planning process. I would also like to recognize the efforts of our accounting and finance teams. Over the past few weeks, they've worked very hard in order to be able to provide our consolidated financial information Closing late in the year certainly created a time crunch, and I personally appreciate their efforts on our behalf. Finally, I'll conclude my opening remarks by briefly mentioning our business development and frontline efforts. Paul, Chris, and Hank will provide more detail and color, but our results for the fourth quarter and for the full year speak for themselves. With the exception of industry headwinds associated with mortgage, our fee income business units produced record results in 2021. The successes of our banking relationship managers also stand out, particularly in the fourth quarter. With that, I'll turn to Paul for his comments. Paul?

Thanks, Dan, and good morning to everyone joining us. When I look at New Cadence Bank today, there really is a lot to like. I've been a banker for 40 years, and from a shareholder's perspective, I think New Cadence Bank is the best bank I've ever been part of. First, we're in some very attractive markets. I like our non-state footprint, and I like the outlook for economic and job growth in our markets. We have a diverse revenue stream and numerous complementary business units. For the full year 2021, a 32% non-interest income number is a pretty good number. Our 62% efficiency ratio should improve as the conversion is completed and growth resumes. A look at our mortgage team, it's really pretty impressive. First, they run a tight ship. We have roughly 200 mortgage loan originators. We have a financial literacy training initiative throughout the footprint that's focused on helping first-time homebuyers. By training and qualifying more people, our team is increasing the size of the market for low- to moderate-income census tracts and in majority-minority neighborhoods. This is an initiative that we are all very proud of. Looking at the 145-year-old legacy Bancorp South Community Bank, it's a major strength. These teams are deeply ingrained in their communities, and this business brings a steady source of diverse revenue and profit to the table each year. Legacy cadence CNI model is a nice complement to the community bank, and over time we will see meaningful synergies. I'm looking forward to getting the conversion done and having one brand throughout the footprint. Clients will be pleased. More branches means more convenience. Just last week I had breakfast with a prospect who lives in Texarkana, He would not have considered us previously. Now with local branches, our chances are good. When I look at our $22 billion in assets under management in our management platform, we see much opportunity for continued growth there. Our client retention rates in this business are best in class. Bank referrals have been and will be a meaningful part of the growth in revenue and profitability of this business. The 140-year-old insurance business is impressive. Chris is going to tell you more about that in a minute, but it is a consistent provider of attractive revenue and profitability. One of my jobs is to see the referrals from our bankers increase, and they should, because the insurance team is very experienced and good at what they do. Our combined operations team is extremely capable. Putting the two companies together is a plus for long-term talent retention. Our operations backbone in Tupelo is strong and our go-forward plan is enhanced by having meaningful presence in Birmingham and several other important satellite locations. Perhaps most importantly of all is credit, and I will say I'm really impressed with our results this year. We came through COVID with flying colors. The credit culture is mature, and we did well in the most significant stress test ever taken. In 2021, Legacy K credit improved significantly, including a number of large payoffs and recoveries late in the year. These serve to reduce the preliminary mark significantly, so closing day marks are much less than preliminary marks due to positive credit results all year long. This difference increases tangible book value materially relative to preliminary expectations. So our healthy capital ratios and liquidity ratios give us confidence to increase our dividend and to continue the share buyback program. In the past, Operating a bank, I'm often worried about being too small. Years ago, worried if a hurricane hit Houston, it would impact a significant portion of our customers and our operations center. As we grew, this was less of a concern. But even at $18 billion, we had concentration issues that were a hindrance. Today, the diverse revenue stream and the granular profile of the new cadence is very comforting. Today, we have room to grow all business lines. I feel very fortunate to report that we have high retention of key bankers from both legacy organizations. Our cultures are similar. We have very little overlap geographically or in business lines, and the reality is our bankers truly have more opportunity now than ever before. We value our teammates, and we're constantly working on ways to continue to be a great place to work. I never take that for granted. the senior management team is working well together. We all like and respect each other. Maybe I shouldn't put words in their mouth. I like and respect them. I guess you can ask them later if they like me. But I can tell you that we are all adjusting to our new roles. And as a reminder, the senior management team, we all have a material portion of our net worth invested in this company, and we're pulling together as a cohesive team. In the years ahead, We have a significant opportunity to build on these strengths that we've mentioned, and I can assure you our team is determined to do so. I'll now turn it over to Valerie.