Provident Financial Services, Inc

Good morning, my name is Carrie and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Provident Financial Services first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. 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. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star 1 again. I would now like to turn the call over to Michael Perito, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Today's presenters are President and CEO Tony LaBazzetta and Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Tom Lyons. Before beginning their review of our financial results, we ask that you please take 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 last evening's earnings release, which has been posted to the investor relations page on our website, provident.bank. Now I'd like to hand it off to Tony LaBazzetta, who will offer his perspective on our first quarter. Tony?

Thank you, Michael, and welcome, everyone. I appreciate you joining us today to discuss Providence's first quarter I am pleased to report that we delivered another strong quarter of financial performance, demonstrating the continued momentum of our business and the effectiveness of our strategic initiatives. For the first quarter, we reported net earnings of $79 million, or $0.61 per share, representing solid profitability as we continue to execute our growth strategy. Our annualized return on average assets was 1.29%, while our adjusted return on average tangible common equity was 16.6%. Pre-provision net revenue of $108 million, which grew 13.5% year over year, benefited from higher net interest income and notable growth in contingency income from our insurance platform, Provident Protection Plus. This represents 1.75% of average assets on an annualized basis compared to 1.61% for the same quarter last year. We continue to focus on our balanced approaches to sustaining growth across our business lines while also managing risk appropriately and generating sustainable, positive operating leverage. Turning to our balance sheet, Our commercial loan team generated new loan production of 649 million in the first quarter, up 8% compared to the same quarter last year. This production contributed to our commercial loan portfolio growth of 161 million, or 3.9% annualized. Commercial and industrial loan activity was particularly strong, growing at a 10% annualized rate. Commercial loan payoffs during the quarter were down significantly to $191 million. And overall, we remain positive about our loan growth guidance for 2026. Our commercial loan pipeline reached a record $3.1 billion as of March 31st. This pipeline is well diversified and comprised of $1.3 billion in CRE, $1.1 billion in C&I, $400 million in specialty lending, and $200 million in middle market loans. This is the first time in our company's history that both the Cree and CNI pipelines have exceeded 1 billion, reflecting the investments we have made in our commercial banking group to generate sustainable, diversified loan growth. Switching to deposits, our total non-maturity core business and consumer deposits increased 66.5 million during the quarter, or 2.2% annualized. Seasonal municipal deposit outflow and an intentional reduction in broker deposits during the quarter impacted our total deposit balances, which were down sequentially. Our average non-interesting bearing deposits were relatively stable, and we remained focused on deposit generation strategies to build core deposits in consumer, small business, and commercial verticals. While the overall deposit environment remains very competitive, our focus on relationship banking combined with our expanding digital capabilities and treasury management solutions, positions as well to continue attracting quality deposit relationships that support our loan growth objectives. Providence's commitment to managing credit risk and generating top quartile risk-adjusted returns remains unchanged. During the first quarter, we experienced net charge off of $3.1 million, representing just six basis points of average loans. Nonperforming loans increased to 73 basis points of total loans from 40 basis points in the fourth quarter, with the increase primarily attributable to a bankruptcy that impacted four related commercial loans totaling $82 million. I'd like to provide additional context on this relationship. These loans have no prior charge-off history and require no specific reserve allocations due to strong collateral values. Appraisals received in 2026 reflect loan-to-value ratios for the collateral properties of 32.9%, 51.7%, 61.3%, and 81.9% respectively. We are expecting resolution of these credits by year-end. Based on the current cash flow and occupancy rates of the properties and our secure position, we don't foresee a material loss to the bank. Outside of this relationship, we would have seen improvements in all credit metrics during the first quarter, including the levels of loan delinquencies, non-accrual loans, and criticized and classified assets. Shifting to non-interest income, we are pleased with the performance during the quarter. Our Profit and Protection Plus insurance platform, in particular, delivered exceptional results in the first quarter, with the customer retention rates continuing at approximately 95%, and significant year-over-year growth in both new business and contingency income. The strong contingency income we received this quarter reflects the quality of the relationships with our clients and carriers and the effectiveness of our risk management approach. We're seeing increased collaboration among our insurance platform, bank, and Beacon Trust, which is creating meaningful cross-sell opportunities and deepening client relationships across all organizations. The pipeline of our insurance business remains strong heading into the remainder of 2026, and we continue to invest in talent and capabilities that will drive sustainable growth in this differentiated revenue stream. Beacon Trust remains focused on retaining and growing its customer base, and we are optimistic that the recent hires will help accelerate growth over the balance of 2026. Additionally, we have a strong pipeline for further SBA gain on sale over the remainder of the year. Our strong financial performance continues to build our capital position well beyond regulatory requirements. We delivered another quarter with significant year-over-year growth in earnings per share, profitability, and tangible book value, with our tangible common equity ratio ending the first quarter at 8.6%. During the quarter, we opportunistically took advantage of market volatility and bought back $12.4 million of our shares. Having said that, our top capital priority remains unchanged, driving sustained organic growth across our franchise while achieving top quartile risk-adjusted profitability. I'm incredibly proud of both the efforts and production of our employees. I would now like to turn the call over to Tom for his comments on our financial performance.