OFG Bancorp

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Thank you for joining the OFG's Bancorp's conference call. My name is Katie, and I will be your conference operator today. Our speakers are Jose Rafael Fernandez, Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, and Maritza Erezmendi, Chief Financial Officer, a presentation accompanies today's remarks. It can be found on the Investor Relations website, on the homepage, in the What's New box, or on the quarterly results page. This call may feature certain forward-looking statements about management's goals, plans, and expectations. These statements are subject to risk and uncertainties, outlined in the risk factors section of the OFG's SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated. We disclaim any obligation to update information disclosed in this call as a result of developments that occur afterwards. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Fernandez. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining us. We are proud of this quarter's performance. It is a direct result of our focus on helping customers achieve progress and financial well-being. As always, thanks to our team members for their excellent work, commitment, and dedication. So let us turn to page three of our conference call presentation. Looking at our second quarter income statement, earnings per share diluted was 84 cents. Core revenues totaled $146 million. That included a $4.7 million gain from the sale of a legacy branch building. Net interest margin was 4.8%. Provision was $6.7 million. Non-interest expenses were $85 million. And pre-provision net revenues totaled $66 million. Looking at our balance sheet, When we compared to the prior quarter, total assets amounted to $10.2 billion. Customer deposits increased both from retail and commercial accounts and totaled approximately $9 billion. Our liquid balance sheet enabled us to continue to deploy cash into higher-yielding loans and investment securities, which improved our asset mix. Total loans held for investment increased 2.4%. We saw continued loan balance increases in all three of our KEY BUSINESSES, 4.7% INCREASE IN COMMERCIAL LOANS, 9.7% INCREASE IN CONSUMER LOANS, AND 3.2% INCREASE IN AUTO LOANS. NEW LOAN ORIGINATION REMAINED HIGH AT $587 MILLION. INVESTMENT SECURITIES INCREASED TO $1.7 BILLION. CASH BALANCES DECLINED TO $1.3 BILLION. LOOKING AT OUR CAPITAL AND CAPITAL ACTIONS, We completed an additional $30.6 million of our $100 million share buyback program. Year to date, we have bought back a total of $64.1 million of shares. We ended the quarter with high levels of capital. Overall, we had another great quarter in all our core businesses. This reflects our three main key drivers, consistently increasing recurring net income driven primarily by loan growth, Number two, our larger scale and investment in our people. And three, our focus on increasing digital utilization and customer service differentiation. During the second quarter, we continued to improve the customer experience. We expanded our number of self-service banking kiosks. We introduced digital commercial account opening. Enhancements like these make it fast, easy, and convenient for retail customers and commercial clients to do their banking with us. On a macro level, consumer and business liquidity and credit trends continue to show good momentum. This has positioned OFG well to benefit from further anticipated rate increases by the Fed. Despite global headwinds, the Puerto Rico economic environment also continues to trend positively. This is due in part to the ongoing benefit from the flow of both federal stimulus and reconstruction funds. Now here's Marisa to go over the financials in more detail. Thank you.