SmartFinancial, Inc.

Hello everyone and welcome. My name is Drew and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Smart Financial fourth quarter 2023 earnings release and 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. To ask a question, please press start followed by one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press start followed by two. I will now turn the call over to your host, Nate Stroll. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Smart Financial's fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. During today's call, we will reference the slides and press release that are available within the investor relations section on our website, smartbank.com. Chairman Miller-Wellborn will begin the call, followed by Billy Carroll, our president and chief executive officer. Ron Krasinski, chief financial officer, and Rhett Jordan, chief credit officer, will also provide commentary. We will be available to answer your questions at the end of the call. Our comments include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results could vary materially. We list the factors that might cause these results to differ materially in our press release and in our SEC filings, which are available on our website. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements because of new information, early developments, or otherwise, except as maybe they're required by law. During the call, we will reference non-GAAP financial measures related to the company's performance. You may see the reconciliation of these measures in the appendices of the earnings release and investor presentation filed on January 22nd, 2024 with the SEC. And now, I'll turn it over to Chairman Miller-Wellborn to open our call.

Thanks, Nate. The fourth quarter of 2023 was another quarter of incredibly busy activity for smart banks. As we all know, last year was a very challenging year for our entire industry, and we couldn't be more proud of how our team performed. We have made a strong effort to improve every line of business that we operate, and I do sincerely believe we are poised for a bright future. The economy in our Southeastern footprint remains strong, and we're very optimistic about every aspect of our company as we begin a new year. I'm proud of the entire team for the focus and continued improvements we made in the fourth quarter. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Billy.