Thank you, Alfred. Good morning and thank you to all who have been able to join our fourth quarter of the 2025 earnings conference call. This morning I'm joined by our President, Joe LaBelle, and our Chief Financial Officer, Pat Barrett. We appreciate your interest in our performance and this opportunity to discuss our results with you. This morning we will provide brief remarks about the financial and operating performance for the quarter and some color regarding the outlook for our business. We may refer to the slides filed in connection with the earnings release throughout the call. After our discussion, we look forward to taking your questions. We reported our financial results for the fourth quarter, which included earnings per share of $0.23 on a fully diluted gap basis and $0.41 on a core basis. In terms of performance indicators, we're pleased to report a fifth consecutive quarter of net interest income growth, which increased by $5 million, or 5%, as compared to the prior quarter, and up 14% compared to the prior year quarter. The current quarter results were fueled by an increase in average net loans of $446 million. Our net interest margin of 2.87% declined modestly compared to the third quarter. Total loans for the quarter increased $474 million, representing an 18% annualized growth rate, driven by $1 billion in originations. Joe will have more to add regarding our growth strategy in a few minutes, but we're very pleased to see the organic growth momentum that is a direct result of the investments we made in the first half of 2025. Asset quality remained exceptional as total loans classified as special mention and substandard decreased 10% to $112 million or just 1% of total loans. This continues to place us among the top decile of our peer group. The quarterly provision was primarily driven by improvements in asset quality and a decrease in unfunded commitments offset by loan growth. Gap operating expenses for the quarter were 84 million dollars and include 13 million dollars of expenses related to our residential outsourcing initiative, merger costs, and execution costs for our credit risk transfer. On a core basis, operating expenses of 71 million dollars were down one million dollars or two percent from the linked quarter primarily driven by the impact of our strategic initiative to outsource our residential lending platform. PAP will provide additional commentary on the credit risk transfer and a detailed update on our financial outlook in a moment. Capital levels remain robust an estimated common equity tier one capital ratio of 10.7 percent and tangible book value per share increased to $19.79. We did not repurchase any shares this quarter under the existing plan as our capital was utilized to support loan growth. This week, our board also approved the quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per common share. This is the company's 116th consecutive quarterly cash dividend. Finally, on December 29th, we announced a merger agreement with Flushing Financial Corporation and an investment agreement with Warburg Pincus. The acquisition of Flushing will directly support our organic growth initiatives in New York, positioning Ocean First as a scale competitor in the deepest banking markets in the country. The resulting company is expected to demonstrate improved profitability and increased operating scale, which should deliver meaningful upside to our shareholders. We continue to work towards an expected close in the second quarter of 2026 and will provide more updates as regulatory approval progresses. In the meantime, we remain focused on Ocean First's continued organic growth efforts, which are proving successful as shown in the results of this quarter. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Joe for additional color on the businesses.

I'll start with loan originations for the quarter, which totaled just north of a billion for the second consecutive quarter and resulted in record quarterly loan growth of $474 million. Our C&I business grew 42% for the year as we've reaped the benefit of our continued recruitment of talent, coupled with favorable conditions for many of our borrowers. Much of that was in the second half of the year, which bodes well for interest income growth early in 2026. In the previous quarter, we made the decision to outsource the residential and title businesses, and we have worked through the remainder of the existing pipeline and expect to see measured runoff in the portfolio going forward. The pipeline of $474 million, while lower quarter over quarter, is due to the outsourcing of residential and is still markedly higher than this time last year, reflecting the robust growth in the commercial bank. total deposits in the fourth quarter increased 528 million with 323 million driven by organic growth across varied business lines among those lines the premier bank team grew deposits 90 million worth 37 percent from the link quarter with the weighted average costs of their deposit portfolio, declining 36 basis points to 2.28 percent as of December 31st. To date, the premier banking teams have brought in a $332 million in deposits across more than 1,300 accounts and representing more than 350 new customer relationships. Approximately 21% of those balances are in non-interest-bearing DDA. Lastly, non-interest income decreased by 3.3 million to 9 million during the quarter primarily driven by lower title fees and a reduction in the gain on sale of loans related to the outsourcing of our residential and title platforms we continue to see strong swap demand linked to our commercial growth and look for that to continue in the coming quarters non-interest income levels were in line with our expectations as guided in the previous quarter. With that, I'll turn the call over to Pat to review the remaining areas for the quarter. Thanks, Joe.

As Chris noted, net interest income grew while margin declined modestly, as we had previously guided. Pre-tax pre-provision core earnings grew 9%, or $3 million from the prior quarter, driven by earning asset growth over the second half of the year. Loan yields decreased modestly, reflecting the impact of floating rate resets and a continued mixed shift in our portfolio. Total deposit costs increased modestly, reflecting very isolated upward repricing for certain and for sparing accounts, combined with continued competitive deposit pricing. Borrowing costs also contributed a modest one-basis point of pressure on our margin, reflecting the net impact of our subordinated debt issuance and retirement during the fourth Average interest earning assets increased meaningfully compared to the prior quarter, reflecting increases in both the securities and loan portfolios. Growth in securities was from our late third quarter opportunistic purchases, which also had a modestly compressing impact on our margin. Looking ahead, we expect positive expansion in both NII and margin. As Chris mentioned, asset quality remained very strong, with non-performing loans to total loans at 0.2% and non-performing assets to total assets at 0.22%. Asset quality continues to remain at the low end of historical levels for criticized and classified loans as risk ratings across our commercial portfolio remain stable. Net charge-offs ticked up slightly, but full-year net charge-offs as a percentage of total loans remained extremely low at five basis points. Turning to expenses, core not interest expenses decreased from 72.4 million to 71.2 million driven by the sale of our title business. Non-core items include restructuring charges of seven million dollars related to our residential outsourcing initiative four million dollars of merger related costs and one million dollars of professional fees related to the credit risk transfer transaction we executed during the quarter looking ahead we expect our first quarter core operating expense run rate to remain in the range of 70 to 71 million with seasonal compensation increases offset by a full quarters benefit of our residential outsourcing initiative levels remain strong with our CET1 ratio increasing to 10.7%, reflecting strong loan growth during the quarter, combined with the benefits of the credit risk transfer transaction. This trade provided approximately 50 basis points of CET1 ratio benefit at an annual pre-tax cost of less than $4 million. A word on taxes. We expect our effective tax rate, which was 22% in Q4, to remain in the 23 to 25% range quarterly, absent any changes in tax policy. There are no changes to our full year guidance as stated in the third quarter's earnings release, mid to high single-digit loan and deposit growth, NII and NIM growing with NIM growing past three percent during the year, and NII ramping in the second half of the year. Other income, seven to nine million per quarter and expenses relatively flat to current run rates. Note that these are standalone expectations that do not reflect the impact of the Flushing acquisition. We've also added our first quarter outlook for convenience, but again, remember that the first quarter always reflects the impact of 2% fewer days and the impact that has on a lot of our P&L items in NII. At this point, we'll begin the question and answer portion of the call.

Thank you. So our lines are now open for questions. And as a reminder for our audience, if you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypads. And of course, when preparing to ask your questions, please ensure your devices are unmuted locally. And moving on to our questions, we have one from Daniel Tamayo from Raymond James. Go ahead, please. Your line is now open.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Morning. Maybe just a clarity on your net interest income guidance, Pat. The growth in dollars matching the growth in loans, that's to be read as, you know, the back of the envelope math is just under 90 million, I guess, in loan growth. So that's the way to think of that. That number is the net interest income growth, or how should we be thinking?

No, it actually will probably grow at a bit higher clip than whatever our loan balances grow just because of the compounding effect of how big the balance sheet is today. So I was just reminding that Q1, it always looks disappointing because you have to shave 2% off for fewer days in the quarter with the drop from fourth quarter to first quarter, and then it will begin to ramp back up. i think i think you'll you'll see high single digit growth in nii for the year um and then here the um i guess as it relates to the um the deal uh any kind of updated commentary around what loan sales might end up looking like after the after the close

it's a little bit too early to give you any precise figures on that we're undergoing a process right now to review the portfolios. You know, a lot of the work we could not really kind of get deep into when we were still in a confidential mode of negotiating with flushing. So now we've got a little better ability to do that. So we'll update you as our thoughts evolve, but we do expect to be able to do some work on the balance sheet in a way that improves our margins and ROA outlook over time while also reducing credit risk good thanks chris um and then maybe just a um clarification question for you pat on the expense line where's the uh the recurring crt premium expense in what line comes through other just like insurance premium expense essentially so expense it's not in the yield it won't be in the nim or in the It'll look like OPEX.

Got it.

That wonderful caption of other.

Oh, yes. All right. I'll step back. Appreciate the color, guys.

Thank you.

Thank you for that question.

Moving on, we have Tim Switzer from KBW. Go ahead, please. Your line is now open.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I got a few on... Morning. I mean, I got a few unbalance sheet growth here. So first up on commercial balances, C&I, on a dollar basis, it looks like it's accelerated for four straight quarters, basically every quarter this year, with a pretty meaningful pickup in Q4. You know, what kind of pace should we expect for 2026?

Tim, it's Joe. Look, I think we probably snuck in a couple Q1 stuff in the Q4. But that's what the borrower wants. That's what we're going to do. But seasonality aside, which tends to be a little slower in Q1 as everybody's waiting for year-end financial statements, you know, I would tend to think that you're going to see very similar growth rates. I think we've got it in that 7% to 9% range, which I think is fair. Look, we've put a ton of dollars into talent in that space, and I think that space is now just starting to deliver what we expected. So more to come.

Okay, okay, that's helpful. And I think you guys disclosed this last quarter, but did you ever talk about how much of the growth this quarter in C&I was driven from the Premier Bank in cross sales?

Yeah, so I don't have the quarterly number in front of it, but I do have the half a year number. So they generated just shy of $200 million in gross closed loans, and the outstandings at the end of the year are about $64 million, which is pretty much what we figured, right? They're going to be more deposit-heavy, loan-to-deposit number is going to be really good. But they do have a solid CNI clientele, which is a benefit. And I think we'll see more of that to come in 26 as well.

Hey, Tim, it's Chris. One other thing I'd mention is that we're really pleased that the level of self-funding in the CNI customers was pretty strong this year. So we're seeing, you know, pretty strong deposits come in. The CNI teams have done a nice job with that. So, we had just shy of like a 40% coverage of outstanding self-funding. So, as that book rotates, you know, we do more CNI and on a relative basis, less CRE, the deposit portfolio is going to strengthen as well.

Got you. Yeah, that's great. And then on the Brewer Bank specifically, it looks like the deposit growth maybe slowed down a little bit. I know it's just one quarter. It's probably some volatility, maybe some seasonality in there. But can you add some color? on that, and then, you know, reconfirm if you still feel good about the target for $2 to $3 billion of deposits by the age of 27.

Yeah, so, Tim, I think you hit on the head. We had higher balances up until really the last week of the year. We had some seasonality, some distribution, some bonus payments. I think that's part for us to learn about the clientele as well. You know, you onboard 350 new clients you're trying to solve for what works. So, we saw nothing but a ramp up until the last week. So I think you're going to see recoveries as the year goes on. You're going to see continued growth. I don't see any reason why we would back off the 2027 targets.

Awesome. Good to hear. Thanks for taking my question.

Thank you for that question, Tim. Moving on, we now have Christopher Marinak from Janney Montgomery Scott. Go ahead, please. Your line is now open.

Thanks very much. Chris and Pat and Joe, I wanted to ask about the Premier Banking new money rate that came in. You may have mentioned it. I just missed it. Then I had a follow-up.

Yeah, I don't know that we have the new money rate handy. The overall portfolio was down nicely to just like a $2.25 cost. We're seeing non-interest barriers coming in faster now. And although the balances were seasonally weak, as Joe mentioned, we continue to open new accounts and establish new relationships at a good clip. So I think you're going to see that trend with more non-interest over time, better or lower yields on those deposits, and a faster pace of growth in Q1.

So 225 is the overall rate, and that works with what I was asking. Chris, as you move forward with flushing, can you just go back through the opportunity to kind of reset deposit rates, And is there anything instructive from what you're doing now with premier banking and those new customers with what you can do with flushing? And I guess part of my question is also how much of that is sort of additional potential earnings beyond what you underwrote going in?

Yeah, so I think there's a tremendous opportunity there, Chris. So let me just kind of walk through mechanically what we think it is and I hope you understand also kind of shy away from any numbers around that opportunity. But the premise is, well, first, I should say, if you look at Flushing's numbers, they've done a nice job of building non-interest-bearing accounts at a pretty good clip. They've built nicely over the course of the year and have had some momentum on their side. I think our premier folks who operate in the markets where Flushing branches are today will find a higher rate of success because they have the opportunity to offer that kind of branch distribution network over time. And then I think the real important part of this is that for both us and for Flushing, being a stronger, larger regional bank is going to help us in recruiting top tier talent. So I think we are a more attractive destination for career commercial bankers who are looking for a platform to continue to build their brand and build their teams and build their legacy. So I kind of see it a few ways. Flushing was doing a great job on its own. We can probably do a little better with our premier teams, giving them a branch distribution network. And then we're going to be a much more competitive place to land. I think as we go through the first few quarters as a combined company, hopefully later this year, we'll be able to put a finer point of what we think that growth rate will look like. But those deposit markets are absolutely massive. So, you know, although you do – in the Northeast, you're always picking up share from someone That's kind of the name of the game. There's a lot of share out there in the markets we're picking, and we really like the branch distribution network where it is, the neighborhoods they're in, the streets they're on. And I think that's going to help both of us grow faster than either one of us would have grown standalone.

That's helpful, Chris. And I guess, you know, without getting too deep in the weeds, I mean, in general, it doesn't seem like what you had told us in late December really is dependent on adjusting these rates, that as you can have success later on that, then that creates future opportunities for earnings.

Yes, with the one caveat, and, you know, we are thinking through the balance sheet, and in every bank you have a variety of different funding sources and a variety of different assets, and this is an opportunity for us to be very thoughtful about thinking through the higher cost deposits and the lower yielding loans and securities. And kind of saying, looking at that mix and say the marginally highest cost funding and the lowest yielding assets present an opportunity to be much more efficient together. And that's really what the balance sheet process is about.

And that's something that we may not be able to solve exactly at closing, but we would hope that, you know, within 30 days of closing, we would be able to provide some really good data on it sounds great thank you for all the background on that i appreciate it thanks chris thank you for that question chris uh we now have david bishop from hoge group go ahead please your line is now open hey good morning guys hey a quick question on the uh back to the sea and high growth here and maybe for joe just curious uh geographically maybe where you're seeing the the best strength Is any of this growth also, you know, driven by, you know, maybe expiration of not competes or handcuffs that were maybe placed against some of these lenders you had hired over the past year?

So the good news is it's pretty geographically dispersed, David, which I appreciate because we've hired lenders in all markets. Yep, we are some of the handcuff stuff that comes off, even if it's really like what I consider to be not really true handcuffs. People do feel that obligation, and that's a fair assessment. So I anticipate that we'll see more and more out of those folks as they get a little deeper into their ocean-first tenure. But I wouldn't say that there's anywhere where we're not performing up to standard. And I think I mentioned earlier that we've even got some of that activity from the Premier Bank, which is really valuable in terms of some of their clientele in New York City-centric.

And there's like a positive flywheel as these new bankers come on.

Their first few clients take a little bit of time, and then those clients have good experience. they tell not just their friends but the accountants the attorneys and get better known and then it becomes incrementally better to pick up kind of the second round the clients and the third round so the uh we see a lot of opportunity going forward got it and i saw the uh the earnings narrative um on the deposit funding side something like one large deposit client reset in terms of deposit rates from zero upwards i don't know pat or joe if you have that number in terms of maybe with the nim headwind and is that sort of just a one-time ephemeral impact yeah it's a one-time

i it happens all the time where customers don't know where they want their money and they keep it out of higher higher earning promotional type things if they think they need it so it was just it was noteworthy because of its size and it's very infrequent and you'd expect not recurring it was it was fully reflected in q4 it actually it was kind of like a late q3 thing so So you're not going to see that drag or provide a headwind going into Q1. I could have just said that NIMM hardly moved at all, just due to a lot of little things and noise, but that didn't feel like it was a good enough explanation for three basis And I know the summer bumps around, especially at the end of the year, but notice will pick up at the early stage delinquencies and the 30-89 day bucket.

Any commentary there that could be driving that? it was just a one loan dave that has a federal government lease where the lease payment is a little bit late so we don't have any concern in the long term but it was already a loan that we had in the substandard bucket we've been watching it because of that tendency so um so we'll give you an update as time goes on but um they have a good lease in place looks like it was just a payment issue their meaning their collection of their rent was just delayed administratively got Got it.

And then maybe a holistic question for you, you know, Chris, looks like, you know, the Netflix studio is entering, you know, sort of the final stages, you know, the building, the studios, the outstages and such. You know, any thoughts about, you know, maybe is there a potential to sort of set up branches within that footprint or any sort of branding, you know, within that community or within that development to sort of take advantages of, you know, branding the company there and, you know, backing the, you know, the caterers, the builders, et cetera. Or do you see any sort of longer-term opportunities if that builds out?

Well, it's going to be a tremendous thing for Monmouth County, which is our second strongest county after Ocean County. So, I think we've got a few branches that provide some good coverage for that market already. I don't know that we'll need to open other branches, but I'll make a broader comment. That's a great kind of boon to the Monmouth County market. But, you know, we continue to see over the course of our core called the Jersey Shore market that the post-pandemic period has been a seismic shift. More people are down at the shore more parts of the year. There's been a significant demand for the infrastructure you need, everything from, you know, hospital systems having to expand to, you know, hospitality and office and all sorts of stuff. So our core, our strongest market in kind of the central New Jersey shore is doing pretty well, and I think that's going to be a pretty sticky thing. We see that happening probably for several more quarters.

Thank you for that question. Next up we have Matthew Brees from Stevens Incorporated. Go ahead. Your line is now open.

Good morning.

Good morning, Matt. On Premier Banking, I guess I was a little bit surprised by the Loan and Deposit Growth Guide and Outlook, maintaining 100% loan-to-deposit ratio. I was thinking once the Premier Banking effort got up and running, there would be a reduction to that ratio. I was hoping you could maybe talk a little bit to that. And then the other one is, you know, I know it's still early days with this, you know, these teams, but on the DDA side is 30% DDAs from Premier Banking. that's still the right long-term number.

So I'll take the first side, then, you know, Joe can take the question about the non-interest bearing. In terms of the, you know, loan-to-deposit ratio, you know, we'd like to see that down under 100. On any particular quarter, it's a little bit of, you know, you know, wait until the last few days as you see deposits come in or go out. I don't expect us to be a bank that's going to wind up at, you know, a 90% loan-to-deposit ratio, but I'd like to be substantially lower than 100. I think we're going to see how things play out. We're opportunistic, too, about earnings and making sure that we've got, you know, the right earnings power. And I would note that we've got a very robust set of deposit verticals. So we have our consumer deposit vertical. We have a government banking vertical. We have our corporate cash management, CNI vertical. and we have the premier vertical, which overlaps a lot with the CNI vertical. So we have a lot of different sources of deposits and feel comfortable running at the higher end, which is not unusual for banks in the Northeast, but to your point, we'd like to be further under 100. I think you may see that over the next several quarters, but not dramatically under 100.

I think on the second half, Matt, I'd tell you that, you know, between 25 and 30 is actually, in my mind, still the right number. What we're hearing a lot from clients and clients that I've met personally is that their anticipation in mid-year 25, late year 25, was a transition into full operating businesses coming across to Ocean First and 26. So, we still have a significant number of unfunded operating accounts that we've opened getting ready for people to migrate. So, I anticipate we're going to see a higher percentage of DDA as time goes on during the 2026 fiscal year.

Got it. Okay. And then, Chris, going back to flushing, you know, you had mentioned that there was some higher cost components. You know, of the $7.3 billion of flushing deposits, could you just describe some of the business lines tied to the higher cost components? And then oppositely, you know, what are the highest quality parts that, you know, you're more likely to kind of keep and grow? What's on the whiteboard there?

So if you think about, you know, everyone has kind of pockets of deposits and, you know, everyone has more kind of promotionally priced deposits. If you think about their national deposit vertical, the IGO Banking, for example, or Bank Purely, which is not a lot of dollars, it's a good capability for us to have and preserve going forward, but those are higher cost deposits. Not surprising, some of the government deposits are higher cost because they wind up being excess fund accounts and you've got to be competitive on that and then you know there are some money market accounts across the base that have been kind of priced more to to acquire deposits um but you know there's still a pretty big slug of long-term high quality deposits that either historically have been at flushing for a long time i remember the bank was chartered in 1929 so they've got a really long history uh very strong in queens very strong in the Asian communities. A significant number of the branches they've opened in the last several years have been to serve the Asian communities around the city, which are not just in Flushing, but places like Bay Ridge and Lower Manhattan, Sunset Park, you know, kind of those areas. So I think the real opportunity here is those long-term consumer accounts that go back in a lot of the franchise, the Asian markets, and a lot of their commercial clients keep operating accounts with them so that's all high quality stuff around the edges you know we might decrease the amount of dollars that are out in i go banking maybe some of the higher yield money market maybe some of the higher cost government um that's kind of the kind of the high quality lower quality and i think every bank has some of that um you know we're looking at our own stuff too in the way we price understood very helpful um and pat just looking at deposit costs up this quarter i know you've

mentioned, you know, there is an isolated incident. Obviously, Premier Banking as a blend is higher than the average cost. Could you help us out with the deposit cost outlook for the year? Where do we peak and, you know, without any rate cuts or using your rate cut kind of forecast, where do you expect deposit costs to be at the end of the year?

Yeah, I am not going to give you a guess of where deposit costs are going to be at the end of the year, but I do think that they're going to keep coming down. They are coming down. They're lagging a little bit from a speed of repricing relative to rate cuts, which is exactly what happened when we were in an uprate environment. We lagged before they started going up. So I think we're seeing the same kind of thing. So starting off slowly repricing and then picking up. I'm encouraged by the fact that all of our spot rates across all of our deposit types are noticeably lower than the averages for the quarter so they are steadily coming down already rate cuts help because there's a lot of promotionally priced stuff it's not it's not contractually indexed but a lot of the larger promotional balances definitely are are linked there and and frankly the pace of loan growth and the opportunity for loan growth is going to drive a lot of how that ends up occurring similar to the loan and deposit ratio it's less something that we drive the business towards rather than an outcome and if there's high quality loan growth that is a little bit higher than our deposit growth outlooks then we'll probably fill them fill the buckets with some higher cost deposits just to secure the longer term lending relationships so i i think you'll probably see deposit costs and loan yields, roughly moving in line with each other with a slight edge on the loan yields due to growth. And that's going to drive our margin, I think, steadily improving as we move through the year, you know, a handful of basis points every quarter. That's a backhanded way of not answering your question exactly. So.

No, all very, no, all very helpful.

And maybe just to drill in on one category that looks like it has the most room your time deposit cost the spot cost at the end of the quarter was 364 um what's kind of the blended all-in um cost of cds as the you know i know there's going to be some promotional stuff in there but the all-in blend of stuff resets yeah well one thing that i'd note that when we think about the balance sheet restructure to your prior question that's the first hours when you give up we don't have a lot of brokered but we do have some and we've kept those durations really short so as we kind of zero in on the combined balance sheet with flushing the the very first thing we will do is let those brokered run off and those are in the high threes but coming down so even if we kept

them they would be coming down um so i think there's a strong opportunity there and all of that is probably the weighted average duration on that is under six months bet yes it's about four months so we can pretty rapidly change prices and we actually do we don't wait for a rate cut and mess around with kind of daily changes and we see are we able to keep rollover balances or not are we attracting any new balances or not um with it again that being just one of the components of funding base that we we need to to maintain to support whatever the loan growth i'll leave it

i'll leave it there thanks for taking all my questions all right thank you matt thank you and that is it for all the questions thank you everyone for participating on that and the Q&A is now clear and I'll hand it back to Chris Marr for some final remarks all right thank you we appreciate your time today and your continued support of Ocean First Financial Corp we look forward to speaking with you in April about our first quarter results thanks very much and this concludes today's call thank you all for joining you may now Disconnect your lines. Have a great one.