Community Financial System, Inc.

Welcome to the Community Bank System first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. Please note that this presentation contains forward-looking statements within the provisions of the private security litigation reform act of 1995 that are based on current expectations, estimates, and projections about the industry, markets, and economic environment in which the company operates. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in these statements. These risks are detailed in the company's annual report and form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Today's call presenters are Mark Kaczynski, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Joseph Tsitaras, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Gentlemen, you may begin.

Thank you, Grant. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining our first quarter conference call. In addition to Joe and I, I've also asked Scott Kingsley and Joe Surbin to join us on the call this morning. This is clearly a different and challenging environment for all of us. Let me start with our COVID response. Early in March, we mobilized a pandemic response team consisting of senior leadership across the company. Our initial focus was and continues to be the health, safety, and well-being of our employers, employees, customers, and communities. We began execution immediately by limiting formal meetings, instituting sick time policies, and enhancing cleaning protocols in all company facilities. Over the following week, we closed branch lobbies, instituted work from home, separated our critical operating functions into multiple teams in different facilities, utilized shift work, and instituted social distancing in all office spaces. We've been operating with this environment for over a month, and although less efficient, our operational cadence is quite stable. We're prepared to continue as we are until such time as it's safe for our people to resume normalized operations. At this juncture, in New York and Vermont, the governor's stay-at-home orders extend through May 15th. In Pennsylvania, that date is April 30th. We will remain abreast of circumstances and react accordingly in the best interest of our employees, customers, and communities. Also in March, we announced that Scott Kingsley, our chief operating officer, would be retiring from the community bank system effective June 30, 2020. Scott served in that role for a year and a half after having served as Chief Financial Officer since 2004. Scott worked side by side with me for nearly 16 years, and the company will miss his energy, passion, and talent. At that same time, we further announced that Joe Servin was appointed to the role of Chief Banking Officer. Joe began his career with Community Bank in 2008 and previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer. Joe will continue to bring exceptional leadership to our company for the benefit of all of our stakeholders. I will make only a few comments on Q1. It was pretty good. Absence of COVID-related allowance bills, earnings were very strong. I think a couple pennies better than last year's quarter. The total loan book was down much less than seasonally expected, and we had organic growth in commercial. And deposit performance was also good in the quarter. Our non-banking businesses had a great quarter. The pre-tax earnings of our wealth management business was up 12%. Benefits was up 9%, and insurance was up 2%. With respect to the acquisition of Steuben Trust Company that we announced in October, it is proceeding, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. We continue to be hopeful that we can close in the second quarter, but have not yet received regulatory approval and there remains uncertainty around the ultimate impact of COVID-19. Joe will provide a little more color on the quarter, but there are obviously more significant matters to discuss. One of those I wanted to touch on was financial strength. In severe circumstances of economic and financial distress, there is no substitute for earnings, liquidity, capital, asset quality, core deposits, and revenue diversification. When I look at the fundamental financial strength of our company, I'm highly confident we are as well prepared for whatever the future may bring as we possibly can be.

Joe?