Central Pacific Financial Corp New

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the central central Pacific financial corporation third quarter 2023 conference call. During today's presentation all parties will be in a 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.cpb.bank. I'd like to turn the call over to Ms. Dana Matsumoto, Group Senior Vice President and Director of Finance and Accounting. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Abby, and thank you all for joining us as we review the financial results of the third quarter of 2023 for Central Pacific Financial Corp. With me this morning are Arnold Martinez, President and Chief Executive Officer, David Morimoto, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Anna Hu, Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer. We have prepared a supplemental slide 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 President and CEO, Arnold Martinez.

Thank you, Dana, and aloha, everyone. We appreciate your interest in Central Pacific Financial Corp. As we normally do, I'll start with an update on the Hawaiian market, then I'll turn it over to the team to provide additional detail and insights on our financial and credit metrics, as well as other key updates. The wildfire in Lahaina, Maui in August was devastating, and I want to first thank our employees, customers, and all of you for your continued support. While it will be a long road to recovery, Maui is strong and resilient. Central Pacific Bank is committed to servicing and supporting our Maui community to the fullest. We were fortunate that our Lahaina branch was unimpacted by the fires and reopened late August, which enabled us to help meet the needs of the community. The Hawaii tourism industry has been affected by the Maui wildfires, with a significant drop in visitor arrivals to Maui in August compared to a year ago. With government officials now encouraging visitors back to Maui, we hope the negative impacts will be short-lived and Maui visitor counts will return to normal. Fortunately, we continue to see increases in visitors to the other islands and overall the Hawaii state economy is expected to have limited impact. In the month of August, a total of 769,000 visitors came to the state of Hawaii, which was down 7% from a year ago and 83% of pre-pandemic levels. Total visitor spending was $1.58 billion in August, down 9% from a year ago, and up 5% from August 2019. Total statewide hotel occupancy in August was 74%, down 3% from a year ago, with an average daily rate of $370, down 4% from a year ago. Hawaii's statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate to decline to 2.8% in September and is outperforming the national unemployment rate of 3.8%. Year-over-year statewide non-farm payroll increased by 6,600 jobs or 1.1%. Unemployment claims on Maui have surged following the fires but is expected to gradually recede with government leaders focused on supporting businesses and reopening areas of West Maui unaffected by the fires to help restart the island's economy.