Webster Financial Corporation

Good morning. Welcome to Webster's Financial Corporation's fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to introduce Webster's Director of Investor Relations, Emelyn Harmon, to introduce the call. Mr. Harmon, please go ahead.

Good morning. Before we begin our remarks, I want to remind you that comments made by management may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to the Safe Harbor rules. Please review the forward-looking disclaimer in Safe Harbor language in today's press release and presentation for more information about risks and uncertainties which may affect us. The presentation accompanying management's remarks can be found on the company's investor relations website at investors.websterbank.com. I'll now turn the call over to Webster Financial CEO, John Sciullo.

Thanks, Emily. Good morning and welcome to Webster Financial Corporation's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. We appreciate you joining us this morning. I'm going to start with a quick synopsis of the year. Our President and Chief Operating Officer, Luis Maciani, is going to provide an update on operating developments, and our CFO, Neil Holland, will provide additional detail on financials before my closing remarks and Q&A. Webster continued to excel from a fundamental perspective in the fourth quarter, and we entered 2026 on our front foot. Our strategic efforts in 2025 largely focused on execution, and our performance was consistently strong over the course of this year. Despite an uncertain macro backdrop at times, we held our focus on delivering for our clients and enhancing the operating capabilities of the bank. On a full year basis, Webster generated a 17% ROTCE and a 1.2% ROA. Our EPS was up 10% over the year prior, while we grew loans 8% and deposits 6%. Our tangible book value per share increased 13% over the prior year, while accelerating capital distributions to shareholders by repurchasing 10.9 million shares. We produced strong financial results while continuing to invest in our non-traditional banking verticals, including HSA Bank, Mitros, and Intersync, as we look to fortify and advance the strategic advantages these businesses provide. We also aggressively remediated the two isolated pockets of our loan portfolio with less favorable credit characteristics, which optimizes our balance sheet and enhances forward profitability. One illustration of this initiative is the 5% decline in commercial classified loans relative to prior year end. The macroeconomic backdrop remains supportive of asset quality performance more generally as we continue to see solid asset quality trends from our portfolio at large. We enter 2026 with robust capital levels and a uniquely strong funding and liquidity profile, diverse asset origination capabilities, consistent credit performance, robust capital generation, and a strong risk mitigation framework. These enable the sustainable and steady growth of the company. I'll now turn it over to Luis to review business developments.