Central Pacific Financial Corp New

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 SDP, Director, Finance and Accounting. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Jessica, and thank you all for joining us as we review the financial results of the second quarter of 2024 for Central Pacific Financial Corp. With me this morning are Arnold Martinez, who was recently appointed chairman of our board in addition to his role as 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 Chairman, 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 our latest updates and results with you. We had a strong second quarter, highlighted by NIM expansion, bar deposit growth, and improving that charge off. With half the year behind us, I am pleased with the results and have a positive outlook for the rest of the year. Our team is successfully navigating the challenges of the current economic environment. While this continues to impact loan growth and demand, we are seeing positive trends developing. I'm also proud of the recognition we recently received by Forbes as one of America's best banks and best in-state bank for Hawaii in 2024. With that said, I'd like to provide an update on the Hawaii market before turning it over to my team to cover the quarter's results in more detail. Hawaii overall is experiencing modest economic growth due to higher inflation and continued pressures on tourism. particularly the Japanese market where headwinds and exchange rate persist. Conversely, construction and defense spending in Hawaii are at all-time highs and helping to offset the impacts we're seeing from other sectors of the economy. In the month of June, total statewide visitor arrivals were down 1.9% from the prior year, and were about 92% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Visitors from Japan were up 28% from a year ago, yet remained about 50% of the same month in 2019. For the island of Maui, total visitors in June were about 78% of the prior year, as recovery following the wildfires continues at a slow but steady pace. Total statewide hotel occupancy in June was 76%, down 1.2% from a year ago, with an average daily rate of $373, down 3.7% from a year ago. Hawaii's statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.9% in June and continues to outperform the national unemployment rate of 4.1%. Hawaii real estate values remain very strong. The Oahu median single-family home price was $1.12 million, and the median condo sales price was $530,000 in June, reflecting year-over-year increases of 6.7% and 3.9% respectively. Home sales volumes in the first half of the year were up 6.7%, for single-family homes, but down 5.8% for condos compared to the prior year. Homes continue to move quickly, with a median of 15 days on the market. Overall, we remain optimistic about Hawaii's economic outlook and believe the state economy will continue to grow modestly and demonstrate resiliency. I'll now turn the call over to David Morimoto, our Chief Financial Officer. David.