Good morning, and welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.'s Conference Call. My name is Vaishnavi, and I will be your operator today. If participants need assistance during the call at any time, please press star and zero. Participants interested in asking a question at the end of the call should press star and then one to get into the queue. Today's call is being recorded. Now I will turn the call over to Elizabeth B. Eckel, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing and Corporate Communications Officer. Ms. Eckel. Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc.'s Second Quarter 2021 Conference Call. Joining us on today's call are members of Washington Trust executive team, Ned Handy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Mark Gim, President and Chief Operating Officer; Ron Ohsberg, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer; Bill Wray, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer. As a reminder, today's call may contain forward-looking statements and actual results could differ materially from what is discussed today. Our complete safe harbor statement appears in our earnings press release, as well as in other documents filed with the SEC. You may view these materials, as well as our safe harbor statement in its entirety on our investor relations site at ir.washtrust.com. Washington Trust trades on Nasdaq under the symbol WASH. I'm now pleased to introduce the host of today's call, Washington Trust Chairman and CEO, Ned Handy. Thank you, Beth. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining our second quarter call. I hope everyone's doing well and has remained healthy since our last call. We appreciate your continued interest in Washington Trust. Today's agenda is similar to past calls. I'll provide an overview of our second quarter highlights. Ron Ohsberg will review our financial performance. After our prepared remarks, Mark Gim and Bill Wray will join us to answer any questions you may have about the quarter. I'm pleased to report that Washington Trust posted strong second quarter results with net income of $17.5 million, or $1 per diluted share. Meaningful quarter-over-quarter increases in net interest income, wealth management revenues, and loan-related derivative fees were offset by lower mortgage banking revenues. Non-interest expenses were well managed in the quarter. Our returns and capital levels reflect the successful quarter. Ron will provide more detail in a moment. We are increasingly optimistic about where we, our customers, and the economies in which we operate stand with regards to the pandemic. As we contemplate the new work environment, we think first about what is safest for everybody, and then we turn to what is most effective and efficient for our customers. We will implement all of the best practices we've learned throughout the pandemic, and we'll find the appropriate balance between technology-assisted flexibility, outstanding customer service, culture-enhancing practices, and continued dedication to delivering consistent, strong results. I continue to feel great pride in the way our employees adjusted and adapted without ever losing sight of what matters most to our customers and the communities we serve. We were recently named by Forbes as one of America's Best-In-State Banks for 2021. This award, based on a survey of our customers, recognizes the strength of our franchise based on factors such as trust, products, branch services, digital services, and financial advice. Additionally, we were also recognized by Providence Business News as one of the best places to work and one of the healthiest employers in Rhode Island. We're very proud of these acknowledgments and believe that when we take great care of our customers and our employees, it translates into growth and profit for our shareholders. We were pleased that Lisa Stanton joined our board in April. Lisa has deep experience in the payment space and in various aspects of data security. Lisa was most recently General Manager, Enterprise Strategy for American Express. We very much look forward to her contributions. It's a digital world, and we recognize that the ever-spreading technology ecosystem poses both opportunities and challenges. We continue to invest in improving our customers' experience across delivery channels and in our evolving hybrid work environment. At the same time, we are investing to protect our customers' data privacy while educating them about the increasing risks of cyber fraud that accompany the shift to digital commerce. Our business model has consistently provided a diverse stream of earnings for us through various economic cycles, and that has served us well during the crisis. Our commitment to strong credit practices has helped to minimize potential costs associated with the pandemic. We opened our new branch location in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, our first in that vibrant market. We're very pleased with the first few months of operations. We continue to believe we have deposit market share opportunity in Rhode Island and believe that physical presence matters in tandem with enhanced digital connection and service points. In-market deposits were up 12% from a year ago. We also saw a continued reduction of cost in both our in-market deposit base and our wholesale funding base, and Ron will comment on the margin impact. Turning to lending, total loans amounted to $4.3 billion at June 30th, up 3% from the end of the first quarter, with residential mortgage and commercial real estate growth outstripping reductions from PPP forgiveness. We processed forgiveness of about $85 million in PPP loans in the second quarter. Commercial pipelines continue to improve and have returned to pre-pandemic levels. We've seen a resurgence in CRE, in warehouse and multifamily in particular, and are seeing commercial lending activity pick up as the economy begins to recover. Mortgage sales volume in the quarter remained strong at $291 million, essentially even with Q1. Consistent with that, we've seen in the industry and our market area, market pricing has reduced our sales yields from very elevated levels realized over the past several quarters. Residential mortgage originations at $489 million continued to be very strong in the second quarter, with an increasing percentage of these originations heading for portfolio. Our mortgage team continues to work diligently. The pipeline and application activity remains strong and at higher than pre-pandemic levels. It appears, however, that we are beginning to see indications of normalizing in the industry, although it's too soon to forecast the pace and the impact. Our wealth management division's assets under administration reached a record $7.4 billion at June 30th, up 6% from March 31st. This growth reflects financial market appreciation as well as strong business development and client retention efforts, net of routine client asset flows. Wealth management revenues were $10.4 million for the second quarter, up 5% from the preceding quarter, providing a key source of non-interest income. We are very pleased with our wealth management division's second quarter performance. I'll now turn the call over to Ron for a more detailed review of our financial performance. Ron? Thank you, Ned, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our call today. As Ned mentioned, net income was $17.5 million, or $1 per diluted share for the second quarter. This compared to $20.5 million and $1.17 in the first quarter. Net interest income amounted to $34.8 million, up by $1.9 million or 6% from the preceding quarter. Net interest margin was 255, up 4 basis points. Net interest income continued to benefit from accelerated fee income recognition due to PPP forgiveness, which totaled $1 million and had a 6 basis point benefit to the margin. This compared to $1.2 million and 9 basis points for the first quarter. Excluding PPP accelerated fees in both periods, the margin increased by 7 basis points from 2.42%-2.49%. Also in the second quarter, commercial loan prepayment fees totaled $717,000 compared to $217,000 in the first quarter. Excluding the PPP and prepayment fees, the margin increased from 2.40% - 2.42%. Average earning assets increased by $140 million, with increases of $114 million in average investments and $42 million in average loans. The yield on earning assets decreased by 5 basis points to 2.85%. On the funding side, average in-market deposits rose by $113 million, while wholesale funding sources decreased by $3 million. The rate on interest-bearing liabilities declined by 12 basis points - 38 basis points. Non-interest income comprised 37% of total revenues in the second quarter and amounted to $20.6 million, down $5.4 million or 21% from the preceding quarter. As previously disclosed, included in other non-interest income in the first quarter was income of $1 million associated with a settlement. Excluding the impact of this item, non-interest income was down by $4.4 million or 18%. Wealth management revenues were a record $10.4 million in the second quarter, up by $533,000 or 5%. This included an increase in asset-based revenues, which were up by $408,000 or 4%, as well as an increase in transaction revenues of $125,000. The increase in transaction revenues was largely due to tax reporting and preparation fees, which are concentrated in the first half of the year. The increase in asset-based revenues correlated with an increase in the average balance of assets under administration, which were up by $359 million or 5%. The June 30 end of period assets totaled an all-time high $7.4 billion, up by $392 million or 6% from March 31st, reflecting market appreciation of assets and net positive new business. Our mortgage banking revenues totaled $6 million in the second quarter, down by $5.9 million or 50% from the first quarter. This included net realized gains of $8.6 million, which were down by $5.2 million or 38%. Loan sales volume remained strong in the second quarter. Realized gains were impacted by a reduction in the sales yield compared with the very high levels recorded the past few quarters. The decline in sales yield is consistent with what we are seeing within our markets. Note that the second quarter sales yield is still higher than it was at the pre-pandemic level. Mortgage loans sold totaled $291 million in the second quarter, down modestly by $1 million from the previous quarter. Realized gains in the second quarter were offset by net unrealized losses of $2.5 million, reflecting a decrease in the fair value of mortgage loan commitments as of June 30th. This compared to a net unrealized loss of $1.9 million in the preceding quarter. Originations amounted to $489 million, up by $48 million or 11% from the preceding quarter, and were up by $63 million or 15% from the second quarter in 2020. We are seeing a shift in market demand away from saleable loans to portfolio. The percentage of originations to be sold in the secondary market declined from 70%-50% on a linked quarter basis. Our mortgage origination pipeline was smaller, but still very robust at June 30th. The pipeline was approximately $298 million, down by $98 million or 24%. From $396 million at the end of March. Loan-related derivative income was $1.2 million, up by $708,000 from the preceding quarter. Regarding non-interest expenses, these were down by $1.7 million or 5% from the first quarter. In both the second and first quarter of 2021, debt prepayment penalties were incurred to pay off higher cost FHLB advances. This expense was $895,000 in the second quarter, compared to $3.3 million in the first. Excluding the impact of these penalties from both periods, non-interest expense was up by $739,000 or 2% from the first quarter of 2021. Salaries and employee benefits expense increased by $555,000 or 3% in the second quarter, largely due to increases in performance-based compensation accruals. Advertising and promotion expense was up by $338,000 on a linked quarter basis, largely due to timing. Income tax expense totaled $4.9 million for the second quarter. The effective tax rate was 21.8% compared to 21.7% in the previous quarter. We currently expect our full year 2021 effective tax rate to be approximately 22%. Now turning to the balance sheet. Total loans were up $105 million or 3% from March 31st, and by $12 million, essentially flat from a year ago. In the second quarter, commercial loans decreased by $25 million or 1%, which included a net reduction in PPP loans of $82 million. Excluding PPP, commercial loans increased by $57 million or 3% from March 31st, reflecting originations and advances totaling $162 million, partially offset by payoffs and pay downs of $103 million. Residential loans increased by $133 million, reflecting a higher proportion of loans originated for portfolio, as well as $39 million of residential loans with a weighted average rate of 2.74% that were purchased for portfolio. Investment securities were up by $104 million or 11% from March 31st. In the second quarter, we purchased $194 million of investments with a weighted average yield of 1.91%. Securities represented 18% of total assets as of June 30th. In-market deposits were down $20 million or 1% from March 31st, and were up by $421 million or 12% from a year ago. The quarterly decline was modest considering the drawdown of PPP related deposits and the normal seasonal outflows of our municipal and higher ed deposits. Compared to last year, deposit inflows have allowed us to improve our funding mix by paying down higher cost wholesale advances. Wholesale brokered CDs were up by $197 million in the second quarter at an average marginal rate of 8 basis points. FHLB borrowings were down by $58 million from March 31st. Total shareholders' equity amounted to $548 million at June 30, up by $14 million from the end of Q1. Washington Trust remains well capitalized. The total risk-based capital ratio was 13.65% at June 30, and the tangible equity to tangible asset ratio was 8.27%. Our second quarter dividend declaration of $0.52 per share was paid on July 9th. Regarding asset quality, non-performing assets declined by $2.5 million in the second quarter. Non-accruing loans were 24 basis points on total loans, and loans past due 30 days or more were 20 basis points of total loans, both of which were lower than the first quarter. TDRs decreased by $3.5 million from March 31st, reflecting payoffs. The allowance for credit losses on loans totaled $41.9 million or 97 basis points of total loans and provided NPL coverage of 400%. Excluding PPP loans, the allowance coverage was 100 basis points. There was no provision for credit losses in the second quarter compared to a -$2 million recognized in the preceding quarter. The provision for credit losses and the related ACL reflected our current estimate of forecasted economic conditions and continued stable asset quality metrics. Net charge-offs were $258,000 in Q2 compared to $18,000 in Q1. Finally, I'd like to provide an update on our COVID-19 lending impact. As of June 30, we had loan deferments on 22 loans totaling $93 million or 2% of total loans outstanding excluding PPP, which was down from 88 loans totaling $191 million or 5% of total loans as of March 31st. The deferments as of June 30 consist of 14 commercial real estate loans totaling $87 million and eight residential real estate loans totaling $6 million. As of June 30, we are reporting 1,513 PPP loans with a carrying value totaling $147 million. In the second quarter, we originated $4 million of PPP loans down from the $97 million that we originated in Q1. Also, in the second quarter, approximately $85 million were forgiven by the SBA. As I mentioned earlier, approximately $1 million of net deferred fees were accelerated into income. Net unamortized fees amounted to $4.9 million as of June 30th. The timing of the recognition of these net fees into the margin will depend upon the pace of loan forgiveness as approved by the SBA. That concludes my remarks. At this time, I'll turn the call back over to Ned. Thank you, Ron. This was another strong quarter for Washington Trust, and we feel well-positioned heading into Q3. At this point, we're happy to take any questions. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed, like another question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Mark Fitzgibbon with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Hey, guys. Good morning. Morning, Mark. Morning, Mark. I saw that the flows turned positive in the wealth management business. I guess I'm curious, have you hired some new producers there? Have we also seen sort of the last of the runoff from those past employee departures? Mark, this is Mark Gim. I'll start with that. We have not added new business developers recently, but as you know, we've both increased our outbound marketing from our inside business development officers and also had launched a Private Clients Group initiative couple years ago, which is starting to bear fruit on both sides. As far as the outflows from Weston Financial, we do believe that the substantial majority of that is really behind us. A combination of good business development outreach and slowed asset outflows from Weston Financial really contributed to that. We're feeling very positive about business development momentum going into the second half of 2021. Okay, great. Yeah. Mark, just to add on to the Weston outflows really were finished by the first quarter of last year. Okay. Thank you. On the mortgage front, if gain on sale margins kind of remain under pressure, and it sounds like you're going to be portfolioing a little bit more volume versus selling it. I guess I'm curious how you're thinking about the expense structure at the mortgage company. Is there an opportunity to maybe scale back some of the costs there if volumes are coming down a bit? Mark, I'll take the first part of that question as far as expense base is concerned, and then turn it to Ned and Ron for further comments. We really did not add to the expense base in the mortgage banking business at all during the really strong origination volumes of the last four quarters. We think we have a very flexible and process-oriented infrastructure in place. There was very limited incremental cost. The majority of the cost in that business when volumes increase is variable based on commissions and as sales go up, the commission expense goes up as well. If sales come down, the commission expense goes down as well. We really did not build up our mortgage banking cost infrastructure at all at anything more than the very marginal levels during 2020. We're not concerned about cost reductions. As Ron said, the mortgage business remains strong, but more skewed towards purchase in this environment than saleable mortgages. As the 10-year trended up early in the second quarter, we saw refi drop off as a percentage. Cost reduction is not really on our radar screen simply because we didn't have non-variable cost increases running up into that. Mark. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was just going to say, what's the rough split fixed versus variable cost this quarter in the mortgage business? Ron, do you have that? Mark, I'd have to get back to you on that one. Yeah. Okay. Lastly, Ron, I wondered if you could kind of share with us your outlook for the margin and operating expenses. Thank you. Sure. For the margin, I think we'd expect to see a slight decline in kind of the core margin in the third quarter to perhaps 2.4% ±. Mainly that's because we're still seeing some asset yield pressure as the residential mortgages and investment securities roll over. You'll note that we had some asset yield compression in those two areas in the second quarter. That should likely continue. Most of the liability repricing opportunity is behind us. There's a little bit more left to go. I think we'll be roughly in the 240 range. As far as operating expenses, I would say that our Q2 operating expenses represent a good run rate going forward. Thank you. Yeah. The next question comes from Damon DelMonte with KBW. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning, everyone. Hope everybody's doing well today. Morning, Damon. Thanks. Morning, Damon. Great. My first question is just regarding the loan growth. Nice to see commercial loans ex-PPP come back this quarter. Can you just talk a little bit about your outlook here in the back half of the year and how the pipelines look in some of the sectors or areas of the economy that are driving this growth? Yeah. Damon, I'll take that as Ned. The pipeline is healthy. It's back towards pre-pandemic levels. It has been sort of at pre-pandemic levels. We've had a lot of fundings in the last few weeks. The pipeline today is at $158 million, which is decent for us. We're seeing renewed activity in mostly industrial and multifamily on the CRE side. Most of the activity is in CRE. We haven't seen a lot of renewed investment on the C&I side. We've got some senior housing and a memory care unit developments that we're getting involved in. We've always been in that space, but that slowed down a little bit during the pandemic. With vaccinations occurring, that's picked up a little bit. We're seeing opportunities there. We feel good about the second half. I think the mid-single digits is still a good place to peg growth for the year. Okay, great. Just kind of tying in loan growth with the mortgage banking discussion. We should expect to see a continued growth in the residential real estate portfolio as you look to retain more of the originations. Is that fair? Yeah, it is. We saw some of that in Q2. That's just kind of market driven. It's not a conscious decision on our part. It's just the nature of the applications that we're getting more oriented towards jumbo, for instance. I think that's a fair statement, Damon. Okay. Damon, this is Mark. I'll just reinforce that the purchase activity in the Boston suburban areas, where many loans are not saleable into the conforming agency market by reason of size, remains really strong. Although conventional refi activity may have dropped off a little bit, the New England housing markets where we're present remain very robust and purchase demand is extremely high and market values are strong. As Ron said, it's not that we're redirecting loans from saleable into portfolio. It's just that the jumbo mortgage activity is still very robust. Got it. That makes a lot of sense. I guess my last question on credit, obviously credit trends are phenomenal and very consistent for you guys. How do we think about the provision going forward? Took a credit in the first quarter, nothing this quarter. As you continue to book loans, do we think about maybe no provision again in the back half of the year? Yeah. We're pretty comfortable with where we are on reserves. I think generally speaking, the level of provisioning would somewhat correlate to loan growth. We're also factoring in economic outlook, Damon. I guess I just leave it at saying we feel pretty comfortably reserved at the moment. Okay. All right. Fair enough. If I could just sneak in one more. Just any quick updated thoughts on the dividend and just given the strength of the earnings and capital generation, kind of what you would view for the next potential assessment of the dividend? We constantly look at our capital levels, obviously from a safety and soundness standpoint, but also from a shareholder return. We review the dividend every quarter. We're comfortable with it right now. We consider it to be very sustainable. I can't give you any guidance as to when the next dividend increase would be, but that's something that we look at every quarter. Okay. Fair enough. Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks, Damon. The next question comes from Erik Zwick with Boenning & Scattergood. Please go ahead. Good morning, everyone. Morning, Erik. Morning, Erik. First question. I know the loan-related derivative income can be lumpy from quarter -to -quarter, and it's interesting just to look across a couple different banks that reported this morning. You had a strong quarter, and I had another bank that was weaker and pointed to just the shape of the yield curve making it not as attractive. Just curious from your perspective, what led to some stronger income this quarter and how you think about that line item going forward? Yeah. Erik, it's based on new volume, we talk about it with every new customer. If the rate environment is right, we generally fix rates through swaps rather than doing fixed rate lending. I think we're dealing with a relatively sophisticated base of customers, especially in our larger ticket loans, and they're accustomed to using swaps to manage interest rate risk. We happen to have a good quarter in new originations and swaps followed. Yes. You're absolutely correct in your first comment. It's lumpy and it's hard to predict quarter -to -quarter. I can't tell you today what the next quarter is going to look like. We feel pretty good about staying in line with prior years in terms of the total year. That makes sense. Thanks. Just on switching gears to M&A, certainly activity in the industry and in your region has picked up this year. Washington Trust certainly has a very strong currency. Could you just remind us how you think about the possibility of an acquisition today and what might be attractive from an asset size or geographies or business mix? I don't think it's changed a lot, Erik. This is Ned. Our gating factors are what they've always been. Price, it's convincing ourselves we can do something with it once we own it, and it's got to solve for something that we don't think we can solve for as easily organically. I don't think our geo outlook on a whole bank deal has changed. It's in footprint. It's got to be relatively proximate. There aren't a whole lot of opportunities. We'd be very careful on the credit front. We're not going to inherit credit issues. I don't think any of that's different than it has been. We still consider M&A one of the avenues for growth. We're looking, we're talking. We're not certainly unwilling to consider that as an important part of our growth strategy. Mark, you can talk about it on the wealth side if you want. Yes, thanks, Ned. We're always looking, Erik Zwick, for wealth M&A. In addition to being on the other end of the line for any incoming calls from sellers looking for a partner, we are doing our best to start to proactively try to identify opportunities in our area. Probably in that size range, we'd be talking about $800 million-$1.5 billion in AUM, with, as Ned said, business mix and capabilities that help complement what we have or address areas that we might like to build up in. The geography there could extend a little bit further than in footprint as it might for a bank. Really New England in general and maybe a little bit further south of Connecticut. That's a great color. Thanks for taking my questions today. Thanks, Erik. Thank you. As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star then one to be joined into the queue. The next question comes from Laurie Hunsicker with Compass Point. Please go ahead. Yeah. Good morning. Morning, Laurie. I'm hoping that we can just go back to expenses. Maybe just starting with your debt prepays. You've done that for the last three quarters. Is that something that we likely see continue? How are you thinking about that? You've got another $5 million of PPP unamortized fees come in. Do you not let that drop to the bottom line, or how do we think about that? We're pretty close to the end of the barrel on those prepayments. I wouldn't really expect us to be doing any more. Okay. Fair. Just looking at your overall expenses, so stripping out the prepays, you're $32 million a quarter. The last time your mortgage banking revenues were running at $6 million, you were closer to $30 million a quarter on non-interest expenses. Are there other tightening measures that you're looking at, or are we kind of looking at a $32 million run rate for the back half of 2021? Yeah, I think that's right, Laurie. We run things pretty lean to begin with. There isn't a lot of expense that we could take out necessarily. No, I think that's a pretty fair run rate. Okay. Just any comments on future branch openings. How are you thinking about that? Yeah. Laurie, it's Ned. I'll start with that and Mark, you can chime in. I think we still have some market opportunity on the deposit front. We think there are a couple of markets, handful of markets in the Rhode Island footprint where we're not physically present, where it would be helpful to be physically present. We don't have anything planned for this year that would be put in place this year. East Greenwich is it. East Greenwich is doing well already. It's beating our expectations, which is nice to see. I think, Laurie, over the next couple of years, there might be a handful of branches. At the same time, we think it's really important for us to be thinking about sort of the digital approach and what we need to do to simplify things for our customers and find growth through non-brick and mortar approaches. We've got both on the radar. I think our average branch size is still in the $150 million kind of range. We can leverage that a little bit. Every new branch is a little daunting, right, in this day and age, so we're very careful about it. Okay, perfect. That's helpful. Then just, Ned, last question, going back to what Damon was asking on capital management. Can you discuss buybacks? You all haven't been active and many banks out there are. Can you talk a little bit about your thoughts behind that? Thanks. Laurie, it's Ron. We monitor our capital position all the time. We refresh our buyback program, which we will continue to do on an annual basis. No plans at this point in time to be doing any share buybacks at our current stock price level. It is something that is definitely something that we're thinking about on a quarter-by-quarter basis. Great. Thanks so much. Thanks, Laurie. This completes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Ned Handy for any closing remarks. Well, thank you all very much. We appreciate your time and interest and certainly look forward to speaking with all of you again soon. That concludes it. Have a great day. We'll speak soon. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.