Call Start: 11:00 January 1, 0000 11:56 AM ET

Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)

Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call

April 22, 2022 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jay Staley - Director of Investor Relations & Corporate Development

Tim Hicks - Chief Credit and Administrative Officer

George Gleason - Chairman and CEO

Brannon Hamblen - President

Cindy Wolfe - Chief Banking Officer

Conference Call Participants

Timur Braziler - Wells Fargo

Stephen Scouten - Piper Sandler

Brock Vandervliet - UBS

Michael Rose - Raymond James

Matt Olney - Stephens

Jennifer Demba - Truist

Catherine Mealor - KBW

Brian Martin - Janney Montgomery

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bank OZK First Quarter 2022 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. [Operator Instructions].

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

Jay Staley

Good morning. I'm Jay Staley, Director of Investor Relations & 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 Credit and Administrative Officer; and Cindy Wolfe, Chief Banking Officer.

We will now open up the lines 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] Our first question comes from the line of Timur Braziler from Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Timur Braziler

Hi. Good morning.

George Gleason

Good morning, Timur.

Timur Braziler

So, very encouraging signs. RESG originations kind of in line with the commentary you all provided last quarter and kind of throughout the quarter. I guess my question is on the repayment front and commentary for continued expectation for a record level of repayments here in '22. I’m just wondering what's driving that? It seems like we are now at kind of 2018, 2019 vintages that are beginning to pay down, those are a little bit smaller than the origination activity and funding activity you saw in 2017. Is there some particularly lumpy paydowns are expected to occur during the course of this year that's driving that commentary? Or is there still some effect from lack of activity in 2020 and '21 that's kind of getting pushed into '22 that's driving that outlook?