Webster Financial Corporation (NYSE:WBS) Q2 2022 Earnings Conference Call July 21, 2022 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

John Ciulla - Chief Executive Officer

Glenn MacInnes - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Chris McGratty - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods

Mark Fitzgibbon - Piper Sandler

Steven Alexopoulos - JPMorgan

Matthew Breese - Stephens

Laurie Hunsicker - Compass Point

Bernie Horn - Polaris Capital Management

Operator

Good morning. Welcome to the Webster Financial Corporation Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. Please note this event is being recorded [Operator Instructions].

Comments made by Webster Financial's management team may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to the safe harbor rules. Please review the forward-looking disclaimer and safe harbor language in today's press release and presentation for more information about the risks and uncertainties which may affect us. The presentation accompanying management's remarks can be found on the company's Investor Relations site at investors.websterbank.com.

I will now turn the call over to Webster Financial's Chief Executive Officer, John Ciulla. Mr. Ciulla, please go ahead.

John Ciulla

Thank you, Chantelle. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our second quarter earnings call. I am excited to be speaking with you this morning on our quarterly results as I think they are a great illustration of the potential of our company, the quality of our execution, the team we put together and our colleagues’ focus and dedication as we progress through the integration. I am going to start with a high level overview of our financial performance in the quarter, review the progress of our integration and other strategic initiatives, and then I’ll turn it over to Glenn for a review of the quarter’s results and the outlook. I’ll wrap it up at the end with a few additional comments including some perspectives on the uncertain macroeconomic environment.

I'm on Slide 2. As I mentioned just a moment ago, the second quarter is a great reflection of Webster's potential. The earnings power of our new company is materializing in the first full quarter following the close of our merger with Sterling. We exhibited strong and diverse loan growth, the quality of our core deposit franchise led by HSA Bank and our consumer banking team with a rising rate environment, and we maintained an advantageous capital position. On an adjusted basis, eliminating onetime merger-related costs, we generated EPS of $1.29 with a return of sets of 1.41% and a return on tangible common equity of 18.5%. Our efficiency ratio was 45% as we continue to execute on the synergies our merger provides and leverage the diverse competencies of our company.