Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited (The)

Good day and welcome to the Butterfield Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a 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 touchtone phone. And to withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Noah Fields, Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, we will be reviewing Butterfield's fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results. On the call, I am joined by Michael Collins, Butterfield's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Scrum, President and Chief Financial Officer, and Brie Hidalgo, Chief Risk Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the call up for a question and answer session. Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release announcing our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. The press release and slide presentation that we will refer to during our remarks on this call are available on the investor relations section of our website at www.butterfieldgroup.com. Before I turn the call over to Michael Collins, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussions will refer to certain non-GAAP measures, which we believe are important in evaluating the company's performance. For reconciliation of these measures to US GAAP, please refer to the earnings press release and slide presentation. Today's call and associated materials may also contain certain forward-looking statements which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Additional information regarding these risks can be found in our SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to Michael Collins.

Thank you, Noah, and thanks to everyone during the call today. In 2025, Butterfield delivered strong financial results through disciplined execution. Net income improved versus the prior year with core net income per share growing 17.4% year on year to total $5.60 per share. Our strong relationship-led banking and trust businesses increased non-interest income while lowering deposit costs and asset redeployment boosted interest earnings. We maintained expense discipline and advanced our technology platform by adding new customer functionality and improved interface. Capital management remains an important value lever, which is reflected in our quarterly dividend increase last year and share repurchases, which resulted in a total combined payout ratio of 97% in 2025. Our M&A growth strategy remains on track, and we continue to have active dialogue with potential targets. Butterfield is a leading offshore bank and wealth manager with leading competitive positions in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. and a growing retail banking business in the Channel Islands. We provide a range of services, including trust and private banking, asset management, and custody, which are designed to meet the needs of our clients. Beyond these core banking markets, we serve international private trust clients in the Bahamas, Switzerland, and Singapore, and from our London office, we offer high net worth mortgage lending for prime central lending properties. I will now turn to the full year highlights on page five. Waterfield generated solid net income of $231.9 million and core net income of $237.5 million. This resulted in a core return on average tangible common equity of 24.2% for 2025. During the year, net interest margin increased five basis points to 2.69% from 2.64% in 2024, with the average cost of deposits falling to 150 basis points from 183 basis points in 2024. Tangible book value per common share grew 21.7% in 2025, ending the year at $26.41. Balanced capital management continued to be a key driver for shareholder value. In addition to the increase in the quarterly cash dividend rate, the bank repurchased 3.5 million shares for a total value of $146.7 million in 2025. Finally, on behalf of the bank's board of directors, I am pleased to welcome Maury Park back to the board. Maury brings more than 30 years of distinguished public service, including senior leadership roles, at the Smithsonian Institution and the Central Intelligence Agency, where she oversaw governance, operations, and public accountability. Her proven ability to lead in complex environments, coupled with deep expertise in human resources, operations, technology, and cybersecurity, will add a meaningful voice to our board's deliberations. I will now turn the call over to Michael Scrum for details on the fourth quarter.