Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call July 21, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jay Staley - Investor Relations

George Gleason - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Brannon Hamblen - President

Tim Hicks - Chief Financial Officer

Cindy Wolfe - Chief Operating Officer

Conference Call Participants

Stephen Scouten - Piper Sandler

Matt Olney - Stephens

Manan Gosalia - Morgan Stanley

Catherine Mealor - KBW

Timur Braziler - Wells Fargo

Michael Rose - Raymond James

Brian Martin - Janney Montgomery Scott

Brody Preston - UBS

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Bank OZK's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to Jay Staley, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead, Jay.

Jay Staley

Good morning. I am Jay Staley, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development for Bank OZK. Thank you for joining our call this morning and participating in our question-and-answer session.

In today's Q&A session, we may make forward-looking statements about our expectations, estimates, and outlook for the future. Please refer to our earnings release, management comments and other public filings for more information on the various factors and risks that may cause actual results or outcomes to vary from those projected in or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Joining me on the call to take your questions are George Gleason, Chairman and CEO; Brannon Hamblen, President; Tim Hicks, Chief Financial Officer; and Cindy Wolfe, Chief Operating Officer.

We will now open up the lines for your questions. Let me now ask our operator Norma to remind our listeners how to queue in for questions.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Stephen Scouten with Piper Sandler. Your line is now open.

Stephen Scouten

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for the time. Maybe if we could start actually around loan growth. I mean, it's been phenomenal last few quarters and the commentary seems to be that origination trends are improving, obviously repayments are still a little bit more muted, seems like we could continue to see this path to growth. I'm just curious if you could comment on that. And then just any thoughts around pushback from folks that might not want to see growth in today's environment and why you still feel good about adding that growth on these loans you booked largely last year.