Thank you. I will now hand the call over to Greg Kenny, the Interim Managing Director and CEO. You may begin your conference. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the results announcement for Auswide Bank for the first half of the financial year. My name is Greg Kenny, and I'm the Interim Managing Director of Auswide Bank. Bill Schafer, the Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary, joins me this morning, and I will hand over to Bill shortly to present our financial results for the year. Auswide has experienced a challenging start to the financial year, with intense competition for both home loans and customer deposits. We've seen elevated refinancing activity across the banking industry, as knowledgeable customers are released from low fixed-rate home loans and seek out the best available rates in the market. On the deposit side, we've seen a dramatic shift in customer behavior as customers chase higher-yielding deposits. The bank's statutory net profit after tax for the half year was AUD 7.663 million, down 45.7% on the prior corresponding period. The underlying net PAT of AUD 6.618 million excludes the gain of the sale of the equity accounted investment in Fangroup and professional fees for potential M&A activities. Due to intense competition, the bank adopted a conservative approach to loan book growth across the half year, which resulted in a marginal reduction of 2.1% in the loan book. Looking forward, new growth aspirations in the second half have effectively recovered the first half decline, and we expect to see loan book growth in the region of 5.8% across the second half as the market returns to more rational pricing. The bank continues to manage credit risk well and subscribes to prudent loan underwriting standards. Loan arrears continue to remain at low levels and represent 0.14% of the loan book. Auswide continues to focus on expanding customer deposits and closely manages funding costs to enhance loan book growth. Retail deposits increased by AUD 180 million when compared to the prior corresponding period. However, customers, as mentioned earlier, wisely chose to invest in higher-yielding term deposit products over lower-cost transaction and savings accounts. Competitive pressures around loan retention and changes to customer deposit behavior resulted in a contraction of the net interest margin. The NIM for the first half was 150 basis points, compared to 177 basis points for the six months to the 30th of June 2023. The board has declared a fully franked interim dividend of AUD 0.11 per share, in line with the net interest revenue and NPAT for the year. I would like to invite Bill to present an overview of the results. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Greg, and good morning, everyone. As Greg referenced in his opening comments, the bank has faced a challenging half year, and this is reflected in our results. Our decision to step back from the above-system growth was based on the pressure experienced in the mortgage wars, home loan pricing, and elevated funding costs. As a result, there was a 2.1%, or AUD 93 million reduction in the loan book across the half. The pressure from this competition and the funding costs led to a reduction in the net interest margin, down 27 basis points in comparison to the second half of financial year 2023 to 150 basis points. As a result, the net interest revenue reduced by 19.8% to AUD 37.3 million. While expenses remained static in comparison to the prior corresponding period, the reduction in net interest revenue resulted in the cost-to-income ratio rising to 74.5%. The statutory NPAT was materially down as a result, at AUD 7.66 million, including a AUD 1.1 million return on the sale of the equity accounted investment in the financial planning company. The underlying NPAT was AUD 6.62 million, representing an underlying return on equity of 4.6 million dollars... 4.6%. Deposits were up AUD 180 million compared to the prior corresponding period, and capital was strong at 15.34%. The NPAT reconciliation on page 8 discloses the AUD 9.2 million reduction in net interest revenue, down to AUD 37.3 million. The focus on expenditure is evident, with a 0.2% increase in the expenses, net of credit losses, in comparison to the first half of financial year 2023. There were increases in fees and commissions relating to bank fees, broker fees, and securitization, as well as professional fees relating to regulatory and compliance issues. However, these were offset by reductions in personnel expenses and some discretionary items, such as marketing. The consistent level of expenses was achieved during the period of ongoing regulatory compliance and continuing investment in cybersecurity, data protection, and technology advances. The loan book data on page 9 discloses the conservative approach to lending in quarter one of the financial year, with a marginal decline in the loan book. A new lending campaign was launched in quarter two, with sustained growth returning in December. The 2.1% decline has now been recovered, and the loan book is growing with a projected uplift of AUD 250 million, or 5.8%, for the second half of the financial year. The loan book was at AUD 4.31 billion at the end of the first half and is expected to comfortably exceed AUD 4.5 billion by the end of the financial year. The commitment to quality lending and risk management is demonstrated on Slide 10, Arrears. The greater than 30 days arrears increased from AUD 4.4 million at 30 June to AUD 6.1 million at the end of the half year. At just 14 basis points of the total loan book, this remains historically low and demonstrates exceptional quality. The 14 basis points of arrears compares favorably with Auswide's peers, with the SPIN index for greater than 30 days past due for other banks at 71 basis points and regional banks at 101 basis points. The greater than 90 day arrears remains very low at just 5 basis points of the book. Adding to the credit quality are the advanced payments, which equate to AUD 250 million, or 5.8%, of the total loan book. In addition, there are AUD 465 million in offset accounts, representing 10.8% of the total loan book. Hardship arrangements offered to customers have remained static, and Auswide has no MIPs on the books. Provisions and reserves for credit losses on page 11 total AUD 6.4 million. The collective provisions have remained at AUD 2.6 million, the level they were increased to in June 2023, with the modeling accounting for projected economic trends. The total provisions and GRCL coverage ratio at 31 December was 41 basis points as a percentage of the credit-risk-weighted assets and 15 basis points of total loans. The distribution of the Auswide loan book is reflective of subdued lending in the first half. However, the loan book outside Queensland totals 36.7%, up marginally from the 36.2% at the end of financial year 2023. The strong broker flows within this quarter are expected to continue the upwards trend in geographical diversification. As previously noted, there was severe pressure on the NIM across the first half of the financial year. Auswide recognized the intense competition for home loans during 2023, with cashbacks and other incentives on offer. The conservative approach to lending was taken, and robust growth did not recommence until December. Auswide continued to focus on retention at the time of historically high refinancing across the industry. The migration of customers from low-cost transaction and savings accounts to high-yield term deposits placed pressure on costs in our largest source of funding, our customer deposits. There was also competition in the deposit markets as banks, including Auswide, looked to replace the maturing RBA Term Funding Facility with more expensive funding. Across the half, the NIM fell to 150 basis points in comparison to the 177 basis points for the second half of financial year 2023. While the return on assets increased 58 basis points, the impact from funding costs included 59 basis points from customer deposits and a further 24 basis points from wholesale funding. As we look forward across 2024, there is a large volume of fixed rate loan maturities to unwind. AUD 439 million of fixed loans mature in the second half of the financial year. Across the calendar year, 2024, more than AUD 1.1 billion of fixed rate loans will mature, providing better yields on the loan book assets. The funding mix on page 14 discloses customer deposits at 73.7% of total funding at AUD 3.43 billion. Securitization, although a more expensive line, remains an important source of funding and capital relief. Auswide will continue to focus on sourcing deposits through Auswide's Queensland-based branch network, as well as partnerships and online capabilities. This strategy has assisted in the repayment of AUD 80 million of the RBA TFF in the first half, with a further AUD 21 million to be paid in quarter three. Capital is disclosed on page 15 and remains well above the board targets at 15.34%, with CET1 at 12.82%. Capital is up on the June 2023 ratio of 13.7%, due principally to the off-balance sheet securitization trust of AUD 400 million, settled in December 2023. This retained 99 basis points of capital for second half growth and investment in the company. Capital growth will continue to be supported by the operation of the DRP for the interim dividend. The board of directors has declared, as Greg said, a fully franked interim dividend of AUD 0.11 per share. The dividend was declared in line with the impact on the NPAT for the half year and the need for continued investment in the company. The dividend reinvestment plan has been retained with a discount of 2.5%. Thank you, Greg, and back to you. Thanks, Bill. Looking forward to the second half of the financial year, Auswide is committed to pursuing growth in retail deposits and reducing reliance on higher cost funding channels. We aim to continually improve the way we engage with customers, and are currently assessing the next stage of investment in loan origination to ensure an efficient and timely processing of loans. The stabilization of deposit rates and abatement of the intense competition for home loans points to a bottoming out of margin pressures. Cost management remains a priority, ensuring capital and operating outlays are based on essential regulatory compliance, critical roles for productivity, risk, customer experience, and key investment programs. Ongoing investment is being made to further enhance our response to cybersecurity, to provide our customers robust protections to safeguard against the risk of increasing sophisticated scams and fraud. The board will continue to actively investigate and pursue opportunities to achieve further growth, drive scale, and diversity through M&A activities. That brings the outlook section to a close. We're happy to hand over for questions. Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind our teleconference participants, in order to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. We kindly request... Thank you. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Adam Hatfield from Henslow. Please go ahead. Oh, no, sorry, it's Nick Caley from Henslow. I suppose an observation would be that the sort of smaller bank end of the market is... This, this time would be felt throughout it. You're sort of viewing this as a, maybe that long-awaited catalyst for M&A at that sort of end of the market? I'm sorry, Nick. Is that Nick Caley? It is me. Oh, sorry, Nick. We didn't, we got cut off there for a moment. How are you, Nick? Thanks for your question. Mm-hmm. Well, Nick, it's Greg Kenny. Look, we're always looking for M&A opportunities. So you know, it needs the stars to align for things to happen. But you know, it's certainly very much on the board's agenda to look either for a merger opportunity or for an acquisition of an adjacent business to add to our diversity or add to our ability to increase on a different source of funding. Great. And just secondly, I suppose the question from here is, just with, you know, we may be at the top of the rate cycle, I suppose, just looking at the NIM outlook from here, you know, what are the triggers for any sort of NIM restoration, or do you think the new normal is closer to 1.5 than 2? I'll start then, and I can hand over to Bill. But, look, I think we have seen an easing of competition in the home loan market, so the buybacks are out of the market at the moment. As Bill mentioned, we still have a number of fixed-rate loans to roll off the book and then move or roll out of fixed rates back to variable rates. Also, we're seeing some more rational pricing back into the deposit market. So, it is pointing to an improvement in NIM, albeit, I think we will see more of a gradual improvement in the NIM over the next 6-12 months. Bill, if you want to add? Yeah, sure, Greg. I agree. It's not going to be an overnight restoration. It will be a gradual restoration. A couple of things in our favor, Nick, most of our RBA term funding facility, which is a very low, as you know, 10 basis points, replacing that with the current funding lines has been a bit of an impulse, of course, but we're almost finished that. Term deposits appear to be around the top of their cycle and perhaps a little bit of pressure easing there, but again, that's gradual. And of course, as I said, the fixed-rate loans, over AUD 1 billion across 2024, and that's a substantial uplift, as they come out of their fixed-rate cycles. You know, without being too specific, there's probably around 300 basis points uplift on average across those loans as they come out of their maturity and move into the current pricing. So, you know, all of those things will assist the NIM gradually across the rest of this financial year and into the next. But we will be watching every point that we can gain as we move forward for sure. So sorry, just to clarify that, you, you've had about AUD 1 billion of fixed retention repricing it 300 basis points, roughly higher? So across financial year 2024, we've got around AUD 1 billion coming out of their fixed-term maturities. So from January to December, and the average rate, calendar? Calendar. Calendar year. Sorry, calendar year. Okay. The average rate on those. Sorry? Okay. From January to December, that's right, the calendar year. So the average rate on those loans are looking forward to what our current front book and back book pricing would be, suggests, yeah, a significant uplift of around about 300 basis points on each of those. How much did you refinance in 2023, calendar? Do you remember? Of the RBA? Yeah. Just the fixed variable. It was roughly... I haven't got a figure exactly, but I recall it was about AUD 1 billion. So we had about AUD 1 billion in 2023, and about another AUD 1 billion in 2024. Right. Okay, that's great. That's all for me. Thanks, Nick. Thanks, Nick. Thank you. Our next question comes on the line of David Fraser of MST. Please go ahead. Mr. Fraser, your line is open. Please go ahead. Oh, morning, Greg. Morning, Bill. Can you hear me? Yes, David. Okay, great. Thank you. Greg, not wanting to get rid of you, but when have you got an update on when you think Doug Snell will start? Yes, I've been in contact with Doug. He's still on his enforced garden leave, but he would look to start mid to late April. Right. Great. Of course, we'll have a transition period of a week or two when he starts. Okay, thank you. And as I said, not trying to get rid of you, but I'm sure you'll just go back onto the board. Just following on from Nick's questions on where interest rates are going, or NIM's going, second half to date, have you seen much movement in, you know, obviously, you've just touched on the fact that you're going to have AUD 1 billion of fixed rate rolling off over this calendar year, so you'll see that in the second half and the first half of next full year, 2025. But are we seeing much movement outside that, on, I guess, loans and advances, and then more importantly, and also just the interest rates you're having to pay on your customer deposits? Has there been much movement that second half to date? Yeah. So I think you referenced the advanced payments there, David. I'll start there. So across the period of time to December, we saw a gradual increase in the advanced payments, and I've been tracking that fairly carefully, you know, to make sure that there wasn't a major turnaround. Up to December, it was creeping ahead. It appears to have stabilized now, but it's still 5.8% of the book, so there's a big buffer there. From a point of view of funding, a lot of our funding is coming through term deposits, particularly with customers transferring funds from their transaction and savings accounts, not surprisingly, to the high yields on the term deposits. So we are seeing some of that still happening, and we expect it will continue to do so, but there does appear to be a slight easing in those term deposit rates. So we're watching that very carefully, but that's what's unfolded. And from the loan rates, we did have some front book increases in December and again in January. So we are seeing the average return on our front book gradually creeping ahead as well. So there's a mix of items there, but we do imagine all of those things brought together, we will see a gradual improvement across the remainder of, certainly, the calendar year. Just to add to Bill's comments, we'll be looking to further expand our deposit product range and looking to target different segments of the deposit market to help lower the overall cost of funding. So there'll be some products under development, and we'll look to roll those out probably in the next 2-3 months. Okay, great. So just on that, I mean, is there an assumption there's a little bit of additional cost to do that, or is the existing staff base capable of selling that product as well? With the sales force have the capability to sell that product, and it's not a substantial capital investment, but it will give us a very good return on the investment that we make. Okay, and last one from me, if that's all right. The 5.8% growth in the loan book in the second half, any risks associated with achieving that target? No, I don't. I, I don't see. No. No, not at all, David. Our pricing is quite sound. It's competitive and sound. We continue to focus on low LVR lending. So, you know, our low LVR lending, less than 80%, has been running across the financial year at a well in excess of 70%. And we do have some of the first home loan lending in the greater than 90% bucket, but as you would know, that's got a government guarantee down to 80% as well. So we certainly haven't loosened our risk parameters on our risk management, and we expect to continue with the same quality in the loan book. I said the last one, but just one more, if that's okay. Okay. On a macro level, I mean, obviously, you're seriously overweight Queensland. How's the Queensland economy going, and what's the risk associated with that to your business going forward? Well, I hail from New South Wales, and I'm pretty envious of the Queensland economy. So it's been very good population growth. We're certainly not seeing any deterioration in loan quality in Queensland. So and Queensland's been a huge beneficiary of net migration, not only from overseas, but also internally from Victoria and New South Wales. So I certainly see the Queensland economy still being quite robust. Yeah. Bill's, Bill's a local Queenslander, so he's probably got another view on it. So could have a view on that as well? No, I agree with all of that. It is robust, and having just been looking in the market for an investment property myself, I know that pricing is very, very strong. Demand for property is strong, and certainly there doesn't seem to be any immediate risk of around property prices, that's for sure. As Greg said, you know, the Queensland population is growing with interstate and international migration, so the demand for property is good. And we're focusing on the lower LVR part of the market. So, it's looking pretty good from our point of view. Plenty of investment in Brisbane and the regional area. Unemployment's at a historically low level, you know, so strength through the economy at this stage.