Central Pacific Financial Corp New

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Central Pacific Financial Corp First Quarter 2022 conference call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be open for questions. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay shortly after its completion on the company's website at www.cpbbank.com. I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. David Morimoto, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Lydia, and thank you all for joining us as we review the financial results of the first quarter of 2022 for Central Pacific Financial Corp. With me this morning are Paul Yonomide, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Catherine Lowe, Executive Vice Chair, Arnold Martinez, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Anna Hu, Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer. We have prepared a supplemental side presentation that provides additional details on our release and is available in the investor relations section of our website at cpb.bank. During the course of today's call, management may make forward-looking statements While we believe these statements are based on reasonable assumptions, they involve risks that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. For a complete discussion of the risks related to our forward-looking statements, please refer to slide two of our presentation. And now, I'll turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Paul Yonemita. Thank you, David.

And good morning, everyone. As always, we appreciate your interest in Central Pacific Financial Corp. We are pleased today to share our strong first quarter financial results as well as provide updates on our market and our digital transformation strategy. Our Shaka checking digital product launched in Hawaii last November continues to grow in account holders and customer engagement. Over 60% of our Shaka customers are now checking account holders to the bank. given us a great opportunity to further build banking relationships and engagement. Building upon our successful rebrand in 2021, earlier this month, we launched a new brand campaign called Digital Banking the CPB Way that focuses on our high-tech, high-touch business approach in Hawaii, which offers best-in-class digital technology while providing the exceptional customer service that we are known for. We continue to advance our recently announced banking as a service mainland expansion strategy and remain very optimistic about the opportunity. The new FinTech entity, Swell Financial, which we incubated last year, was formed at the beginning of this year. In February, Swell successfully completed a $10 million Series A preferred funding round, which CPF also participated in. The Swell Money app with an integrated checking and line of credit product is on track to publicly launch in the summer, with CPB serving as the bank sponsor utilizing our banking as a service technology platform. We believe Swell's product will be unique in the market in that it addresses a large underserved group in the U.S. that we call strivers. At the same time, we continue discussions with several other potential FinTech partners for future banking as a service expansion. We are seeing growing interest in this area, but we are being selective in who we collaborate with as we are focused on profitable and sustainable business models for both parties involved. Finally, our digital transformation encompasses all areas of our business, and we continue to make progress on other digital enhancements, such as a new trust management system that went live at the beginning of this year, a new consolidated loan and deposit origination system initiative that will be developed throughout this year, and other back office efficiency and automation initiatives. Next, here to talk about the Hawaii economy and our strong position, here is Catherine Ngo, our Executive Vice Chair. Catherine.