Central Pacific Financial Corp New

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Central Pacific Financial Fourth 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. And with that, 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, Greg, and thank you all for joining us as we review the financial results of the fourth 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., and we are pleased to share with you our latest updates and results. We are proud of the recognition we recently received by Newsweek as one of the best regional banks in America for 2024. Also, in a few weeks, we will celebrate our 70th anniversary. It is an honor to lead this institution and continue our legacy of supporting the community. 2023 was another strong year for us as we successfully navigated the operating environment challenges while continuing to deliver solid results. We have a strong balance sheet, and our balanced growth strategy positions us extremely well for the future. During the fourth quarter, we completed a few balance sheet repositioning transactions that were good opportunities to gain greater future returns and efficiencies. We will continue to pursue similar opportunities that align with our strategy in 2024. The team will provide additional detail and insights on our fourth quarter financial and credit metrics, but let me start first with an update on the Hawaii market. The Hawaii tourism industry continues to do well with Maui visitors recovering faster than anticipated. In the month of December, visitor arrivals to Maui were 75% of the previous year, and total statewide arrivals were 90% of pre-pandemic 2019. Statewide, visitors from Japan continue to increase, up 92% from a year ago, but still lagging pre-pandemic levels at only 49% at 2019. Total visitor spending was $1.96 billion in December, down 1% from a year ago, and up 12% from December 2019. Total hotel occupancy in December was 72%, up 0.7% from a year ago, with an average daily rate of $428, down 3% from a year ago. Hawaii's statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.9% in December and continues to outperform the national unemployment rate of 3.7%. The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization forecast the state unemployment rate to remain very low at 2.5% in 2024. Real estate values in Hawaii are consistently strong. In December, the Oahu median single-family home price was $1 million, and the median condo sales price was $510,000. Home sale volumes continue to be down year over year, but with mortgage rates recently declining slightly, we are starting to see an increase in contract signings and with limited inventory, properties continue to move quickly in our market. Overall, we are optimistic about Hawaii's economic outlook. While the state faces some headwinds and uncertainty, Hawaii's economy is proving to be resilient and we hope to turn unfortunate events like the Maui wildfires into opportunities to rebuild and to make our island community stronger in the future. I'll now turn the call over to David Morimoto, our Chief Financial Officer. David? Thank you, Arnold.