Stellar Bancorp, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Stellar Bancorp first quarter 2023 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You'll then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Courtney Theriault, Chief Accounting Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you to all who have joined our call today. Good morning. Our team would like to welcome you to our earnings call for the first quarter of 2023. This morning's earnings call will be led by Scholars, CEO, Bob Franklin, and CFO, Paul Eggie. Also in attendance today are Steve Rutzoff, Executive Chairman of the company, Ray Vitulli, President of the company, and CEO of the bank, and Joe West, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer of the Bank. Before we begin, I need to remind everyone that some of the remarks made today constitute forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended. We intend all such statements to be covered by the State of Harper provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Act. Also note that if we give guidance about future results, that guidance is only a reflection of management's belief at the time the statement is made, and such reliefs are subject to change. We disclaim any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, except as may be required by law. Please see the last page of the text in this morning's earnings relief, which is available on our website at ir.stellerbankcorpinc.com for additional information about the risk factors associated with forward-looking statements. At the conclusion of our remarks, we will open the line and allow time for questions. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Bob Franklin.

Thank you, Courtney, and good morning. Welcome to Stellar Bancorp's first quarter earnings call. I will begin by thanking the great team at Stellar Bank for their hard work and dedication in making Stellar truly Stellar. During the long weekend provided in February, our team completed a successful system conversion of our Burge Bank's bringing all Stellar Bank customers under one system. Our staff worked tirelessly to get this right and I congratulate them on their success. The other major event during the quarter cannot go without mention, the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. These failures stunned and stressed our industry, the customers and the customers we serve. Despite the suddenness of the failures, Stellar Bank has strong relationships with its customers, developed over many years that form our customer base. Though we face some deposit runoff during the quarter, some seasonal, some due to rate, some frightened by media reports, the team will give some more granular information around deposits, but I would be remiss in not thanking our incredible customers who have supported our bank as the industry experiences stress. In the wake of the failures, we saw again that the closeness to the customer is what fuels confidence in local institutions. We have relied on those customers, and they have relied on us, and we believe that that will continue. Since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates, we have concentrated our efforts on building capital, managing liquidity, and maintaining our credit quality. We believe that these efforts are paying dividends as we continue to work to maintain our strong core funded franchise. We continue to gain efficiencies as we learn to operate together as one organization. We have made a concentrated effort to maintain our margins in a difficult operating environment with some in our markets paying much higher interest rates. We have strengthened our underwriting to help combat the effects of rapidly rising interest rates, but today our customers remain strong and our markets are good. As we move through the balance of the year, we will continue to be mindful of our core franchise and building capital, maintaining liquidity, and strengthening our credit underwriting. Our goal is to be well positioned as the Federal Reserve finishes its work to take advantage of the opportunities that we believe will be available. And I remind our shareholders that we reside in one of the most robust markets in the United States. The future of Stellar is bright. And now I'll turn this over to Paul Iggy, our CFO.