In this session, we have with us Flagstar, and from Flagstar we have Lee Smith, President of the Commercial and Private Bank. So first of all, thank you both for being with us. Yeah, thanks, Ebrahim. Give us an update. I mean, obviously, fourth quarter was a bit of a milestone for Flagstar, turned profitable. As you think about just talk to us about the progress that's been made in terms of shifting the focus, moving from sort of addressing. Kind of how you've seen all of this evolve and where things stand today. Yeah, no, absolutely. It's obviously the last couple of years; it's been a tough haul. It all starts with people. Obviously, the new investors and board, the first thing Joseph did an incredible job of bringing together very quickly a new management team. And it's a management team. Twice a week for an hour, and we talk about everything. And so I think the foundation is additional capital. So we sold some very successful non-core businesses, particularly mortgage businesses. That gave us the liquidity. We used that liquidity to deleverage the balance sheet. We've paid down over $20 billion of wholesale borrowings over the last 15 months. We re-underwrote the credit book, particularly the multifamily and CRE book, and we took both, you know, no other bank has done. And so in 2024, we took over $900 million of charge-offs, as well as increased our coverage ratios, as some of the highest in the industry for multiple asset classes. People didn't think we could do. And while we were doing all of that, we were investing heavily in Rich's C&I business to a more diversified balance sheet, which is, we say, a third, a third, a third, a third CRE, a third C&I, a third. Because that created the foundation from which we could grow and be successful. And then as you moved through 2025, we achieved net C&I growth, and that was something that we had been targeting. And then in the fourth quarter, as you. A couple of years, and that was something that we said we would do. So everything we said we would do, and we ended the year with a balance sheet of $87.5 billion. We're looking to get to $94 billion by the end of 2027. And, you know, we believe that we've got the appropriate resources and teams in place, to. Got it. That's helpful. And I'd like to come back to some of the credit quality and just the New York CRE talk. It was a good sort of year 2025. As we think about just the momentum and what you've laid out, around growth expectations. On On last year? Like, what just the pedigree of those bankers, their ability in sort of to move business both on the lending side, and hopefully. Of transformation that Lee touched on, since I joined in June of 2024, we've had the privilege of onboarding more than 300 organization here at Flagstar. And these are generally mid-career professionals who know what good looks like. We're hiring from banks of our size and larger. And me running our commercial and private businesses, we grew up as bankers. We grew up as commercial bankers. So we're able to go out in the marketplace, hire who are also attracting talent. And that network effect is working very positively around how we're constructing a more mortgage and commercial real estate than they were C&I or private banking. So that's the clay that we've had to two key focus areas. First and foremost, we need to be more relevant in the geographies where Flagstar also already with 340+ retail branches and 20 private banking and wealth branches. So Florida, more density in the New York area, in Michigan, out in Arizona and California, to make us more relevant in those markets. Another part of priority number one is leaning into specialized industry segments. So we've added over a dozen new industry verticals. That side of the growth, because many of the industries that we desire to serve in the C&I space require specialized industry knowledge and lending revenue producers, but also credit underwriters and credit process professionals who understand the last 12-18 months, segments such as oil and gas, renewable energy, entertainment, sports, technology, sponsor coverage, etc., so that we can round out those areas of focus. And that's enabled us each quarter for the last 6 quarters to show on the commitment side and in the funded loan outstandings. So we expect that trend to continue into 2026. And that. In our fourth quarter earnings slide deck, we aspire to drive $6-$7.5 billion of net. Like we have a great runway there. We also expect to add another 40-60 commercial bankers and corporate bankers that will help us as we industry segments. So we feel like we have the workings of a very realistic expectation for this growth in 2026. Bankers, and each banker delivering generally 4 new transactions, new client relationships for us that turns out to about $25 million. That drives about $12 billion of new credit commitments. And with about 70% of that funded, that amortization that gets us back to our target range of $6 billion-$7.5 billion of net C&I loan growth in 2026. They start getting to that rhythm of adding four commitments in a quarter? Great, great question, Ebrahim. The great news about hiring mid. First 90 days. We expect them to bring over their first relationship and do their first deal in the first 90 days of joining the company. And then four new client relationships in the first 12 months of being there. But in that first 90 days, that's pivotal, where they're starting to leverage in a multiple bank syndicate or a club transaction or a bilateral transaction where you're getting full relationship primacy from. Got it. I think I know the answer, but when you think about just the appeal for these. What sort of is appealing to them and what keeps them around, not just for a year or two, but to sort of build their careers for? The things that attract bankers to our platform are, first and foremost, they love the fact that we have commercial bankers running the enterprise. So our Chairman grew up in the business as well. So I think that leadership is, you know, resonates with candidates. They definitely understand and ambition to create a diversified regional bank with a third commercial real estate, one third C&I, and one third consumer. Our size and complexity have C&I loan portfolios that are generally double the size of where Flagstar is today. So they know that we have a large themes that I hear from bankers that we bring over from not only, you know, the top four or five banks in the country, but also the super regionals and other where they know they can get business done, they can deliver for their clients. We're not overly layered or bureaucratic because of the size of our company. We'd like to say we're big enough to matter, but small enough to care. It's easy to get myself or our CEO out in front of a client in person. It's really fun to build a business with an entrepreneurial set of bankers that feel like they can make a big impact in an organization like Flagstar. Just said, you know, we're sitting on 12.83% CET1 capital. So we want to use that capital to grow the balance sheet based on the numbers. These new C&I, the dozen verticals that Rich mentioned, we're sort of new to this. Other banks that have been in the business for multiple years and already they're full up or they're approaching those concentration levels in. Well, at Flagstar, and I think that's important. Got it. And when we think about the 6-7. The macro outlook, it feels like in your instance, it's a lot more about them moving their books of business. In any given quarter? Would that be a fair way to sort of. I would say that's a fair assessment. Absolutely. That first transaction or that first relationship, but there's many in the queue behind that from their, you know, from their. Like we can grow our business at a faster rate than the market gives us because of the ongoing build of our platform and with more. Like when do they go to a point where they've grown enough and then they're managing sort of to stay in place? Like is it? So, an accelerated ramp in the first 12-18 months, we think it starts to level off after three years. Because if you think about the facility or some event-driven transaction like a new warehouse that they build or a competitor that they're going to merge or acquire, opportunity to recapture that relationship over. So the maturity level is generally 36 months out. As we side of the balance sheet, like what's the expectation of these bankers to bring in core deposits? One, does Flagstar have the technology. The goal for these bankers to do that? Yeah, so I'll start and then I'll sort of kick it over to Rich to get more specific that with deposit growth. The deposit growth is coming from multiple angles. So obviously, we want to use the new C&I deposits, but for fee income as well. We're very much about relationship banking. We're not just into transactional banking. Relationship. And so if we're going to lend to someone, then we expect that there's ultimately a deposit relationship and to come our way as well. And I think Rich and the team, the bankers are aware of that. We're also leveraging. The bankers have all the products that they need now. You think about the interest-only mortgage, subscription lending, chief investment officer. We've got a trust advisor. We've got an insurance advisor, a family wealth planner. So it looks like works and those services to bring in deposits. We obviously have 350 bank branches in Arizona, California, and we feel that we have a good product set there. And then we're going to be originating new to bring in deposits. We're talking to vendors that we do business with. Again, if we're going to give them business, we expect relationship banking model. And we're not leaving a stone unturned as it relates to bringing in deposits. The final thing I'd mention is Rich has a team underneath these deposits. And as part of that team, you've got a Government Banking Group that is working with municipal deposit programs. So we're really looking at it in a holistic way. But I'll let Rich talk about any specific targets for the bank new relationship and over the last 12 months in the focus areas, we've added, you know, about 165 new relationship. As they onboard that new relationship, what is the client strategy beyond just the initial extension of the balance sheet? Investing in the product capabilities as well. So whether it's uplifting a treasury management product or a fraud capability, like interest rate hedging or an FX and loan syndications and other kinds of capabilities, that exponentially expands our bank under my leadership, there's a natural synergy where we're banking lots of privately held businesses and there's an opportunity, whether there's a liquidity that bleeds into private banking capability, residential mortgage lending, etc. So that ecosystem is driven by goal setting, both annual goals for growth. So I think that part of the ecosystem is how we're delivering on Lee's mention of us being a relationship-driven bank. But we think that should drive. Multiple and deeper relationships and will help drive us forward both in funding the loan growth with deposits, as well as. Maybe just pivoting back to the good old New York CRE book a little. Just talk to us in terms of how you're thinking about the timing of that coming, like exiting some of those relationships? Yeah, so end of 2025, we expect that to decline by $1 billion by the end of 2026. Because if you just think about that $1 billion, even if you just sit on that cash of 4%, you're earning $40 million. It's coming into your net. The other thing with the non-accruals, they're 150% risk-weighted. So as we further reduce the non-accruals, it's encapsulated. It's been reported publicly. There was obviously a big bankruptcy that went to auction early in 2026. Judge confirmed and approved that, and we expect to close that transaction before the end of Q1. Loans that will get resolved once we close it, hopefully before the end of Q1. So it's a big focus of. And obviously, we're pretty close here to resolving a significant portion. The exits in this case, so what are the other avenues to sort of exit these? Are there private assets like looking to pick these up? Yeah, so we have a SAG, Special Assets Group, and they have multiple tactics, whether doing a workout. so there's lots of different ways and tactics that we're looking to leverage to sort of bring this book down. Negotiation with the borrower. So it's not linear. It can be chunky. But that's just something else that is at our disposal. We're obviously only going to pursue that if it makes economic sense for Flagstar. Work on credit quality, the reserves you've taken, the charge-offs you've taken, as we look forward, lead to a worse outcome than what you've sort of positioned for today? Well, look, I mean, you are always looking at credit statements. But here's what I would tell you, as you said, we re-underwrote that CRE Multifamily Credit Book back in—over $900 million of charge-offs. And we topped up our ACL reserves. So we have very, very strong coverage on CRE loans that are resetting or maturing within 18 months. We do a DSCR analysis. And so we're constantly looking at what is coming due 18 months out. And then that is informing us about how we should—from all of the CRE borrowers. That is something Legacy NYCB did not do. And when we look at the 2024 statements—the way through, 80% of them are stable, 7% showed improvement or improving, which is a good metric. You look at the quantity of C&I originations that Rich says is $25 million. We're not taking outsized positions in any one name. And so that mitigates. Think about our risk process. We have credit specialists in the first line. You've then got the second line, which is. And then you have the third line, which is loan review. So we never take our eye off the ball as it relates to credit because. We look at it in lots of different ways to make sure we're not putting the bank under any undue risk from a credit point of view. Got it. Got it. The net interest margin outlook, I think it implies about 40-50 basis points of expansion. So I'm assuming some of that's coming from these non-accrual margin expansion? Yeah, so there's multiple components. And we're in a sort of fortunate position. Multifamily and CRE loans that are either resetting or maturing. And the weighted average coupon of those is less than three. Those loans are going to hit their reset or maturity dates. And if they reset contractually with Flagstar. Immediate lift in NIM if they reset and stay with Flagstar. If they pay off, we can leverage those funds to invest in Rich's growth. And the C&I loans that he's bringing on are typically coming on at a spread. There. And then the other things on the asset side would be, as we're originating new CRE loans within our footprint, they're typically coming on at a spread to SOFR of 200-225. As we reduce those non-accruals, then we will use those funds and invest in interest-earning assets. So that. Liability side, we've paid down over $20 billion of wholesale borrowings over the last 15 months, high-cost wholesale borrowings. The cost of interest-bearing deposits. Even without Fed cuts, we were bringing the cost of interest-bearing deposits down. Lower-cost CDs. With the Fed cuts, we've targeted and we're hitting a 55. The thing that we have been very surgical and focused on is how do we reduce the cost of. And I think you'll continue to see that as we move throughout 2026 as well. In terms of another lever, you've done a lot on the cost side in terms of optimization, cutting costs. As we look forward, I think versus where you ended fourth quarter on an annualized basis. Just where are. Taken $700 million of costs out of the organization if you compare full year 2025 to full year 2024. And it's across a. We started on this journey was 9,200. We're at 5,500 today. You think. Real estate optimization, FDIC expenses. We've outsourced or offshored non-core. Achieved the $700 million to date. Looking forward and looking at Q4, Q4 of 2025 had some one. Compensation, the associated taxes, and we had $4 million of severance costs related to a reduction that occurred two. Out of Q4 and then look at the run rate, we are at the top end of our 2026 guidance. But as we look. Is, particularly as it relates to FDIC expenses continuing to come down, as technology. To get more efficient because we've still got a lot of manual processes in certain areas. There's some real estate optimization. Focused on. You have to be with costs. We feel very comfortable that we'll be within the 2026 range that we've provided. I guess just last couple of questions. One, in terms of from a regulatory standpoint, we'll cross that at some point, are you expecting additional clarity from the Fed around what? Yeah, so a couple of things on that. We didn't deliberately get below $100 billion. It was more happenstance as we get back above $100 billion by 2027. We do think at some point that the. But our risk infrastructure and the rest of our infrastructure has been built as though we are a category four bank. And we think. The biggest thing for me is this materiality threshold that has been talked about and. Pragmatic way is the right way to regulate. Yes, you need to fix it. But you can actually tie yourself in knots and spend a lot of money. So I think the materiality threshold and the way that that has been introduced and talked about is, for me, the most helpful thing from a regular. Just, I guess, moving to capital. So you had a lot of capital at the end of the year at about 12.8% CET1. I think you've talked about buybacks, maybe something that you might look at in the back half of the year. Just talk to us in terms of. Are there things that you're watching before you initiate buybacks? What's holding you back today? Yeah, I think, look, we were profitable in. Show we can do it again. We want to get the bankruptcy behind us that we talked about. And I think we're pretty close to. That is the first sort of thought and where we want to invest that capital. Because if we execute on the plan we've laid. Shareholders, given where we're trading at a discount. We're trading 82% of book, 90%. In anywhere from 1.5-1.7. So that's the valuation gap that we're trying to solve for. And we believe. That. And a big part of that is growing the balance sheet. And that's where we want to use the capital. Having said that, we do have. Do both. And I think sometime later this year, if we're still trading at a discount of book and. That we'll have with the board about should we look at doing a buyback here? Maybe this is a good way to return value to share. Last one, just to wrap things up. As you fast forward, maybe over the next 2-3 years, you've laid out the financial roadmap very clearly. What are the other major milestones? How do you think this franchise would look different in 2028 than what it does today? Yeah. Simple as that. If you think about our strategic plan, there are three pillars. It's profitability. And it's obviously risk and compliance, not putting the bank at undue risk. And so everything we sort of looked at. And in terms of 3-5 years, we want to be the best regional bank. And as I mentioned just a few moments ago, the opportunity for us. If we execute on our strategic plan, by the end of 2027, our profitability, our capital. And so if we are there at the end of 2027, then there's no reason why we're not trading like value for our shareholders in a short period of time. And then the other part of being relevant and where we want to be in 3-5 years, aspire to be more meaningful in. So we will be, as a leadership team, we will have a certain level of franchises that we are building right now with the team members that we're building. We're still attracting talent. We're going deeper in those communities. We're going deeper and wider in the industry segments that we seek to be relevant in, not just in my world, but in commercial real estate, in consumer banking, the community that is Flagstar. And I view this as the most special situation in the banking universe right now because we have this opportunity, talent that we're attracting to really build something special and to make a really big impact in the market. And frankly, I'm a big fan of M&A. Unique opportunity in many of our geographies to take advantage of dislocation that happens related opportunities where banks will be distracted with M&A, focused on integration and other kinds of internal areas. To be able to take advantage of bankers that may fall out of M&A integration situations with some of these more recent announcements. And we expect clients to potentially be in motion as well because they're have been the glue that kept that relationship at an institution. And we may have an opportunity to get relationship primacy with that client. So we see opportunity economic landscape with a realistic regulatory environment, but with M&A happening for us to gain market share by a with clients and client engagement. So 3-5 years from now, we expect to just be a bigger version of ourself with a lot more durable business units that we're building. That's a great point, given that one of your New York peers did decide to sell itself to a foreign bank. So assume that creates. M&A. Excellent. On that note, Rich, Lee, thank you so much. Thanks, Ebrahim. Appreciate you having me.