Stellar Bancorp, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Stellar Bancorp third quarter earnings release conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow after the formal presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star followed by number one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Courtney Theriault Chief Accounting Officer, you may now begin.

Thank you, operators, 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 third quarter of 2024. This morning's earnings call will be led by our CEO, Bob Franklin, and CFO, Paul Ege. Also in attendance today are Steve Redfloss, 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 safe harbor 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 beliefs at the time the statement is made and such beliefs 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 release, 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.

Yeah, thank you, Courtney. And welcome to the Stellar Bancorp third quarter earnings call. I begin by thanking our team for the great work they're doing every day to build our brand and to continue to provide the great service our bank is known for in our markets. As we pass our second anniversary of Stellar Bancorp, we are proud of our progress toward building a strong infrastructure needed to cross the $10 billion mark, and our focus on capital, liquidity, and credit. We have de-risked our balance sheet by significantly increasing our liquidity, reducing our CRE concentrations, and building capital. We believe that we have provided the bank maximum optionality and are well positioned for the future. Soon we will have the stress of the presidential election behind us, and it appears that interest rates are attempting to normalize. Combined with the strong markets we serve, the runway for 2025 appears to be good. We will be approaching the market with a more balanced lending philosophy, and we will continue to build strong relationships to support both sides of the balance sheet. Our capital base is strong and allows us optionality. Top of mind will always be safety and organic growth, With respect to M&A, we will continue our efforts to look at well-balanced franchises that will help us grow our bank with an emphasis on funding profiles. We will also weigh our opportunities to buy back our stock, increase our dividends, or pay down subordinated debt in an effort to return excess capital to shareholders. The markets we serve are some of the best in the country, and we are well positioned to succeed in these markets in the coming years. I'll now turn over the call to Paul Ege, our CFO, for more detail on the quarter.