Provident Financial Services, Inc

Good morning, and welcome to the Provident Financial Services Incorporated Third Quarter Earnings Call. All participants will be in 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 telephone keypad. 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 Adriano Durarte. investor relations officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Anthony. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter earnings call. Today's presenters are Chairman and CEO Chris Martin, President and Chief Operating Officer Tony Lavazetta, and Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Tom Lyons. Before beginning the review of our financial results, we ask that you please note of our standard caution as to any forward-looking statements that may be made during the course of today's call. Our full disclaimer is contained in this morning's earnings release, which has been posted to the investor relations page on our website, provident.bank. Now, it's my pleasure to introduce Chris Martin, who will offer his perspective on the third quarter. Chris. Thank you, AD.

Providence third quarter results were strong, and we believe the business climate is promising as we look into Q4. Earnings of 49 cents in the quarter exceeded last year's results by 32%. And performance was augmented by several factors, including an improving economy as it continues to climb out of COVID restraints, better credit metrics, and the achievement of earnings acceleration from the acquisition of SB1. The quarter was marked by growth in net interest income and a strong return on average assets of 1.11% and return on average tangible equity of 12.04%. Based on their confidence in our earnings outlook, our board approved an increase in our quarterly cash dividend to 24 cents per share, representing an increase of 4.3%. During the quarter, we also repurchased approximately 630,000 shares of our common stock at an average price of $22.04 per share. Our capital position is strong and comfortably exceeds well-capitalized levels. As Tony and Tom will detail in their remarks, we are dealing with excess liquidity, not unlike many other financial institutions. We have diligently deployed a portion of that liquidity into securities, but obviously loan growth would be our preferred investment. We anticipate the Fed will commence tapering their quantitative easing purchases in the fourth quarter, which we hope will result in a steepening of the yield curve. This always takes a while to make an impact, but would signal a positive economic outlook. And a moderate amount of inflation would be positive for the bank. With a fairly neutral interest rate, Risk position, excess liquidity, and stable low-cost deposit funding, we continue to be well-positioned to benefit from a rise in interest rates while remaining well-protected if rates remain low. The focal point for Provident was our loan growth, XPPP, which contributed to increased net interest income and our strong quarter-end loan pipeline, which reflects customer confidence and provides positive momentum for respectable growth going into the fourth quarter. In terms of pricing, the weighted average rate on our loan pipeline has increased, reflecting movement in the treasury curve. The market remains aggressive and our lenders face competition on rates from banks and on structure from non-banks. In spite of the challenging environment, we win deals because of our relentless focus on delivering a best-in-class customer experience. Our core deposit growth continues to be strong in both the consumer and commercial areas, And our cost of deposit remains one of the best in our markets. And we're also seeing growth in the wealth management and insurance businesses, and we'd expect that organic growth to continue. Asset quality improved and charge-offs were negligible as the economy continues to improve. And core operating costs are well-controlled as reflected in our adjusted non-interest expense to average asset ratio of 1.85 percent and an efficiency ratio of 54.5 percent for the quarter. I remain highly enthusiastic about that prospects within our markets and the drive and motivation of our banking teams will continue to spur growth and enable us to continue to deliver long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll ask Tony to add more context.