Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call January 20, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jay Staley - Investor Relations

George Gleason - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Brandon Hamlin - President

Tim Hicks - Chief Financial Officer

Cindy Wolfe - Chief Operating Officer

Conference Call Participants

Steph Scouten - Piper Sandler

Manan Gosalia - Morgan Stanley

Timur Braziler - Wells Fargo

Catherine Mealor - KBW

Matt Olney - Stephens

Jennifer Demba - Truist

Michael Rose - Raymond James

Brian Martin - Janney Montgomery

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bank OZK Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jay Staley. Please go ahead.

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; Brandon Hamlin, President; Tim Hicks, Chief Financial Officer; and Cindy Wolfe, Chief Operating Officer. We will now open up the line for your questions.

Let me now ask our operator, Victor, to remind our listeners how to queue in for questions.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Steph Scouten from Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Steph Scouten

Hey, good morning, guys. Congratulations on a great quarter. First of all, I guess when you all are thinking about originations, I mean, I think it was 2.81%, it’s still extremely high relative to what we saw in ‘21 or early ‘22. What’s the reason maybe for the thinking it will be a little slower? Is it just overall economic slowdown? Are you seeing more construction projects kind of get tabled today than you were maybe 90 days ago or how can we think about those trends that you are seeing from customers in that space?