Community Financial System, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Community Financial System, Inc.'s third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note that this event is being recorded and discussion may contain forward looking statements within the provisions of the Private Securities 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. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed. Refer to the company's SEC filings, including the risk factors section, for more details. Discussion may also include references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the company's earnings release. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dimitar Karaivanov, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chloe.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. Our company performed very well in the third quarter. As expected, our results accelerated with operating diluted earnings per share increasing 16.5% year over year and 9.5% quarter over quarter, representing our sixth consecutive quarter of record results. Record revenues and profitability in banking, record revenues and profitability in insurance services, Record Revenues and Profitability in Wealth Management Services. SOLID Revenue Performance in Employee Benefit Services, which was challenged by elevated expenses due to startup legal costs associated with a number of new fund launches in our collective investment trust business. A couple of items of note. Wealth management revenue was up 41% year over year, and pre-tax earnings were up 42%, driven by both very strong organic performance and the addition of ClearPoint. We remain very excited about the opportunities ClearPoint is providing us, and we are already seeing tangible client cross-service opportunities with banking. Insurance services revenue was up 8.9% year-over-year, while keeping expenses basically flat, resulting in pre-tax earnings growth of 41%. As previously mentioned, DM&A activity is really strong, and these results do not yet incorporate the more sizable opportunities we're working on this quarter, should they come to fruition. Employee benefit services revenue was up 5.6% year-over-year, while pre-tax earnings were down 3.5% predominantly due to the aforementioned legal expenses. Banking had a very strong quarter with both margin expansion and organic growth. Commercial and consumer lending were both strong. Deposits experienced typical seasonal fluctuations, while liquidity and credit remained a source of strength. I would expect some seasonal slowdown in consumer lending in Q4, plus the impact on demand of higher rates in mortgage and auto lending. The commercial pipeline remains strong, but we also expect some larger payoffs, so I wouldn't extrapolate from Q3. As noted, we pulled forward our December securities maturities as we took advantage of the shape of the curve and our own liquidity needs and produced a positive net present value transaction. In addition, we believe that this illustrates the positive dynamics embedded in our balance sheet with over $600 million of securities maturities coming due in 2027. I will now pass it to Marya for more details.