Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLB) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 21, 2022 2:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Clint Stein - President and CEO

Aaron Deer - EVP and CFO

Christopher Merrywell - EVP and COO

Andy McDonald - Chief Credit Officer

Conference Call Participants

Jeffrey Rulis - D.A. Davidson

David Feaster - Raymond James

Christopher Mcgratty - KBW

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Columbia Banking System's 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]

I would now like to hand the conference over to the speaker today, Clint Stein, President and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Banking System. Please go ahead.

Clint Stein

Thank you, Catherine. Welcome and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call as we review our first quarter results. The earnings release and accompanying investor presentation are available at columbiabank.com. Our first quarter financial performance was outstanding. Net income of $57.5 million and EPS of $0.74 per share were the best first quarter on record. Our bankers delivered with solid loan and deposit growth, credit remains stellar and expenses were well managed.

During the quarter, we also completed the integration of the Bank of Commerce Holdings acquisition and integration activities related to our combination with Umpqua Holdings are also proceeding very well. The integration management office led by executives from bank has done an excellent job seeking out and addressing any challenges that can arise in a sizable combination. As a result, teams from both companies have come out to ensure a smooth and timely close to once [indiscernible] regulatory approvals are received.

On the call with me today are Aaron Deer, our Chief Financial Officer; Christopher Merrywell, our Chief Operating Officer; and Andy McDonald, our Chief Credit Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the line and take your questions.

Before I turn the call over to Aaron, I need to remind you that we may make forward-looking statements during the call. For further information on forward-looking comments, please refer to either our earnings release, our website or our SEC findings.

Aaron?

Aaron Deer

Thank you, Clint and good morning to everyone. First quarter pre-tax, pre-provision income of $67.4 million, net income of $57.5 million and earnings per share of $0.74 were all new first quarter highs in spite of $7.1 million of merger related costs which decreased earnings by $0.07 per share. Average earning assets increased by $3.80 billion from the first quarter of 2021, including $1.8 billion from the Merchants Bank acquisition. This combined with the partial quarter impact with the feds March rate increase resulted in an increase in net interest income of $22 million or 18% over the prior year period.