Renasant Corporation

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Renaissance Corporation's 2021 Third Quarter Webcast and Conference Call. Participating in this call today are members of Renaissance's Executive Management Team. Before we begin, please note that many of our comments during this call will be forward-looking statements which involve risk and uncertainty. There are many factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements. Although the markets in which we operate reopened over the first half of 2021 in connection with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, the spread of the Delta variant during much of the third quarter reminds us that the impact of the pandemic and the federal, state and local measures taken to arrest the virus may remain significant factors impacting our financial condition and operating results for the foreseeable future. Other factors include, but are not limited to, interest rate fluctuation, regulatory changes, portfolio performance, and other factors discussed in our recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our recently filed earnings release, which has been posted to our corporate site, www.renaissance.com, at the Press Releases link under the News and Market Data tab. We undertake no obligation, and we specifically disclaim any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events, or changes to future operating results over time. In addition, some of the financial measures that we may discuss this morning are non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release. And now I will turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Mitch Waycaster.

Thank you, Kelly. Good morning. We appreciate you joining the call today. Before Kevin and Jim discuss the results for the third quarter, I will offer reflections on the quarter and the outlook for the fourth quarter. As we entered 2021, there was still considerable uncertainty, and although that remains today, we are seeing increasing signs of business activity in our markets. In the face of these conditions, I am very proud of our team for results through the first nine months. We see all areas of the bank contributing to performance. The company's financial condition is strong and marked by a liquid, core-funded, and well-capitalized balance sheet. Earnings were up year over year, and we have initiatives underway that will further improve profitability in future periods. The markets in which Renasant operates continue to rebound in terms of economic activity. There is considerable net in-migration into many of the places we do business. These demographic trends accelerated during the pandemic, and this bodes well for loan growth in the coming quarters. I will now turn the call over to Kevin.

Thanks, Mitch. Our second quarter earnings were $40 million or 71 cents per diluted share compared to $41 million or 72 cents per diluted share in the second quarter. Forgiveness of our Triple P loan portfolio slowed this quarter and was the largest contributing factor to the decline in net interest income quarter over quarter. We were expecting the contribution from Triple P to decline and have been focused on growth and other lines of business and expense efficiency initiatives to mitigate the impact. Our insurance and wealth management lines of business put forth strong results, and stabilizing pricing and volumes in our pipeline help boost results in our Mortgage Division as well. Our previously announced efficiency initiatives continue to provide benefit on the expense side as evidenced by our expenses trending down to the lowest level in the last five quarters. Further, we expect the contributions from these and other initiatives to reduce expenses in upcoming quarters. Operationally speaking, we continue to adapt to our customers' evolving needs and preferences for service delivery. The rise in virus cases, during the third quarter brought back levels of uncertainty that we experienced early in the pandemic. Our branches remained open during this most recent wave, and our mobile and digital metrics continue to increase. We must remain nimble in this rapidly changing environment and provide our customers with quick and convenient access to banking services, whether through physical or digital channels. We are focused on innovation and continue to seek investments that deliver the technology and security that our customers have come to expect. I will now turn it over to Jim.