Thank you for standing by. My name is Jordan, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Bankwell Financial Group 3rd Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Courtney Cicchetti, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Bankwell's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. To access the call over the Internet and review the presentation materials that we will reference on the call, please visit our website at investor.mybankwell.com and go to the Events and Presentations tab for supporting materials. Our third quarter earnings release is also available on our website. Our remarks today may contain forward-looking statements and may refer to non-GAAP financial measures. All participants should refer to our SEC filings, including those found on Forms 8K, 10Q, and 10K, for a complete discussion of forward-looking statements and any factors that could cause actual results to differ from those statements. And now I'll turn the call over to Chris Grosecki, Bankwell's Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Courtney. Welcome, and thank you to everyone for joining Bankwell's quarterly earnings call. This morning, I'm joined by Courtney Cicchetti, our Chief Financial Officer, and Matt McNeil, our President and Chief Banking Officer. We appreciate your interest in our performance and this opportunity to discuss our results Bankwell delivered another strong quarter with gap net income of $10.1 million, or $1.27 per share, up from $9.1 million, or $1.15 per share last quarter. Pre-provision net revenue return on assets was 1.7% for the quarter, up 27 basis points from the prior quarter. Our results reflect a continued expansion of the company's net interest margin, as well as growth in non-interest income generated by our SBA division. We've also made further progress in reducing our non-performing asset balances during the quarter and continue to have a positive outlook on credit for the quarters ahead. Our NIM continued to expand this quarter as we forecast for the last several quarters. This is the result of the combined impact of repricing approximately $1 billion of time deposits, increased asset yields, and the growth of our low-cost deposit balances. Low-cost deposits include non-interest-bearing deposits as well as NOW accounts at rates of 50 basis points or lower. These accounts' average balances collectively grew by $20 million over the prior quarter and $64 million, or 16%, since the fourth quarter of 2024. Loan originations remained strong. During the third quarter, we funded $220 million of loans, bringing our year-to-date fundings to just over $500 million. Our SBA division increased its momentum as gains on sale rose to $1.4 million for the quarter. SBA originations totaled $22 million for the quarter, bringing our year-to-date total originations to $44 million. The government shutdown has potential to temporarily impact our SBA results for the remainder of this year. While there may be potential for short-term impact, the SBA division has been a strong performer, reaching nearly 90% of our full-year origination goal of $50 million within the first three quarters of this year. Year-to-date non-interest income, including SBA gains on sale, totaled $6 million. Credit trends in the portfolio continue to improve. Non-performing assets as a percentage of total assets fell to 56 basis points compared to 78 basis points last quarter. This improvement was driven by the collection of $5 million on three SBA guaranteed loans and the sale of a $1.6 million commercial real estate loan. Additionally, special mention loan balances decreased by $30 million. Finally, our efficiency ratio improved to 51.4% in the quarter, down from 56.1% last quarter as we continue to balance growth with fiscal discipline. Now I'll ask Courtney to provide a more detailed review of our financial results.

Thank you, Chris. For the third quarter, pre-provisioned net revenue totaled $13.9 million, or $1.77 per per share, representing a 21% increase from the second quarter. Net interest income reached $26 million, while non-interest income increased to $2.5 million, driven by $1.4 million in SBA sales gains. Net interest margin expanded to 3.34%, up 24 basis points over the prior quarter. This growth was driven by a 13 basis point rise in loan yields, with approximately three basis points of both margin and yield attributable to one-time interest income from resolved SBA loans. Deposit costs also improved 10 basis points, now at 3.30 percent. Improvement in both deposit costs and loan yields have contributed materially to our NIM expansion this year, up 74 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2024. Interest-bearing deposit costs are down 37 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2024. Loan yields widened, with our year-to-date average originations yield approximately 136 basis points higher than the runoff yield, generating a 41 basis point increase on yield for the total portfolio from the fourth quarter of 2024. These results do not reflect our response to the September rate cut made by the Fed. In response to the rate cut, we reduced our CD rates by 25 basis points and repriced approximately half a billion dollars of non-maturity deposits. We expect $1.25 billion in time deposits to reprice favorably over the next 12 months by approximately 27 basis points. The annualized incremental benefit of this repricing is approximately $3.4 million. Please refer to page 10 of our investor presentation for more detail on our time deposit maturity schedule. Although we expect to realize the benefit of lower cost time deposits over the next 12 months, we also have approximately $800 million in loans tied to prime that repriced at the end of September. We anticipate the short-term impact of these recent rate changes to hold our net interest margin relatively flat in the fourth quarter. However, as term deposits mature, we expect our margin to improve as liability repricing aligns with assets. For a future 25 basis point rate cut, we would anticipate a modest annualized increase in our net interest margin of approximately five basis points. Since the start of the year, we have strategically increased our proportion of variable rate loans from just over 20 percent to 35 percent. As we have constructed a more neutral balance sheet, the impact of future interest rate changes on our results is expected to diminish. Non-interest income of 2.5 million dollars increased 24 percent versus the linked quarter, largely driven by 1.4 million dollars of SBA gain on sale income, an increase of 0.3 million dollars over the last quarter. As you can see on page 14 of our investor presentation, non-interest income now represents 8.8% of total revenue compared to 4.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024. Total revenue grew 10% compared to the prior quarter, while non-interest expense increased just 1%, resulting in positive operating leverage. While our non-interest expense to average assets was 180 basis points, our efficiency ratio improved to 51.4% for the quarter. We're pleased with this progress and expect further improvement in our efficiency ratio as profitability expands. Turning to credit, third-quarter results reflect continued positive trends. We reduced our non-performing assets by $7 million, bringing our MPA-to-assets ratio to 56 basis points. We recorded modest recoveries and a small provision of $372,000 in the quarter. Our allowance for credit losses remains at 110 basis points of total loans, while our coverage of non-performing loans increased to 177%. A few final thoughts on our financial condition. Our balance sheet remains well-capitalized and liquid, with total assets of $3.2 billion up slightly versus the linked quarter. The holding company and banks both saw expanding capital ratios during the third quarter, with our consolidated common equity Tier 1 ratio now at 10.39% versus 10.18% in the prior quarter. Our tangible book value also increased, reaching $36.84. I'll now turn it over to Matt to provide an update on loan originations.

Good morning. As Chris mentioned, loan fundings in the first three quarters remain strong. The bank has funded $500 million in new loans as of 9-30. 2025 year-to-date loan fundings have already outpaced full year 2023 and 2024, respectively. Payoffs have been at record levels and are projected to remain high through the end of the year. Despite our strong origination numbers, net loan growth only increased $49 million in the quarter and $12 million year-to-date. I would like to point out that some of our payoff activity is being encouraged by the bank, where we would like to exit some less attractive credits. Overall, we believe the recycling of the loan book is a sign of good health, and it provides the bank the opportunity to make new loans at more favorable yield. Now, I will hand it back to Courtney to summarize our guidance for the remainder of the year.

Due to our elevated payoffs, we are revising our low single-digit loan growth guidance to flat for the year. We affirm our non-interest income guidance of $7 to $8 million for the full year, and the resumption of the SBA program would be additive to that total. We also affirm our net interest income guidance of $97 to $98 million, along with our guidance on non-interest expense of $58 to $59 million. With our fourth quarter earnings in January, we will provide additional guidance on our 2026 outlook. I'll now turn the call back to Chris for closing remarks.

Thank you, Courtney. We've continued to make excellent progress and to deliver on our strategic objectives of diversifying our income streams, improving our deposit base, and continuously attracting talented banking professionals who value the opportunities afforded by working with a team committed to constant improvement. Importantly, we've made significant strides on closing out some pandemic-era credits with no further losses. Non-performing assets now stand at 56 basis points of total assets versus 207 basis points a year ago. And we look forward to further improvement in the quarters ahead. Thanks to everyone on the Bankville team whose commitment to excellence has enabled these results. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, will you please begin the question and answer session?

Just as a reminder, for the question and answer session, press star and one on your telephone keypad to ask a question. Our first question comes from the line of Steve Moss from Raymond James. Your line is live.

Good morning.

Nice quarter here.

Good morning, Steve.

Maybe, hey, Chris, maybe just starting with, you know, the good originations this quarter. I think Courtney gave a loan yield number, but I'm sorry I missed it. I was kind of hopping on the call a little late here. Just kind of curious, where is loan pricing these days? And, you know, do we continue to see elevated payoffs maybe carrying over into 2026?

Yeah, so Steve, it's Courtney. On page 10 of our investor presentation, we do give a little bit more detail. Year-to-date, our originations are a weighted average rate of $7.86. That's on about a half a billion dollars of originations, and that's the rate as of 930, so as, you know, impact from any repricing or anything there. Matt?

Yeah, loan demand is very strong. You know, that's reflected in that pricing, so we choose kind of where we want to move forward. You know, the lack of material loan growth year over year is really related to the timing and the velocity of the payoffs. This is the strongest year of payoffs that we've experienced, and it takes a couple of months to get the loan pipeline to respond to be able to backfill those numbers, which we successfully did this quarter, and we anticipate the fourth quarter to have some similarly strong payoffs. So we think we'll be able to meet in, you know, Courtney had said earlier that we're going to stay flat, and that's how we're looking at it. But the loan demand is still there. It's just the timing of payoffs and, you know, trying to get the pipeline robust enough to respond to that.

Stephen, with regard to next year, we have demand to do to originate, and we have. So it's a matter of lead time. So we'll just plan to, you know, be out in front of it.

Okay.

Appreciate that. And then we can control it with pricing.

Yes. Yes, hear you there. And then in terms of, you know, an update on your core deposit initiative with the teams you brought over, just kind of curious, you know, how is that developing and if you have any update on that front?

The teams, the first teams were hired in April. And, you know, we've hired some subsequent teams since then, including in the third quarter. We're bullish on the teams. They're already starting to produce and add deposits to the balance sheet. We don't think that we will have their full production in place until sometime in 26. We did very carefully target teams that had large portfolios of non-interest-bearing deposits, so those are primarily accounts, which take longer to move than a high-interest-bearing account where it's just money sitting around that's not being utilized in a business. So they're well within our time threshold for how they're performing,

And, you know, we're full impact. Okay.

And just kind of maybe just last one for me here in terms of just thinking about, you know, just the cadence of lower cuts. I hear you guys on CDs getting repriced 100% beta. I'm kind of curious on the non-maturity deposits, you know, how you're thinking about deposit beta there with the Fed.

Right. So the most recent rate cut at the end of September, we have just rough numbers, approximately a billion dollars of non-maturity interest-bearing deposits. About $250 million, $260 million of that, we have indexed to Fed funds, so that will move, you know, that's part of the relationship that we have. And then with this recent round, we did another $250 million or so of our exception rate pricing, 100% beta down. So we were able to achieve effectively 50% beta on a billion dollars of deposits.

Okay. Great. That's helpful. I'll step back into the queue. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Steve.

Your final question comes from the line of Sadi Strickland from Hovade Group. Your line is live.

Good morning. This is Sadi's associate, Anira on forehand.

Good morning, Anira.

Good morning. The first question, we saw some strong SBA contributions in the quarter, and we wanted to know how much more do you feel you can ramp up that side of the business? And in your opening remarks, you did mention that there may be short-term government shutdown effects. Will that affect the ramp up or anything to do with that side of the business?

I believe the answer to the second question is it really depends on the duration of the shutdown. Right now, so Bankwell is a preferred lender. We're able to continue to underwrite SBA credits. We are not able to get in-place guarantees, and we are not able to sell our guaranteed portion previously originated. There is a temporary freeze to the SBA income. If the government opens up in a relatively short amount of time, it may not have an impact on the business. We may be able to fluidly flow through it, but it's really going to depend on the duration of the shutdown. As far as the ramp, we hired Michael Johnston from ReadyCap, which was the fourth largest producer of SBA loans in the country in previous years. And we believe that, you know, the SBA division does have operating leverage to be able to further scale the business beyond $50 million in production. And we'll talk about that in the fourth quarter. And we'll just need the government to be open to do that.

Perfect.

This is Chris. I'll continue a little bit on that answer and say that we did note that in the three quarters worth of activity, we've pretty much hit our original goal, original expectations in the results. So if the government opens, as Courtney had mentioned, it'll be out of the between when the government is open.

Perfect. Thank you.

There are no further questions. This concludes today's meeting. You may not disconnect.