Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call July 21, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Laura Rossi - Head of IR and Sustainability

Jerry Plush - Chairman and CEO

Sharymar Calderon - EVP and CFO

Conference Call Participants

Michael Rose - Raymond James

Graham Dick - Piper Sandler

Brady Gailey - KBW

Feddie Strickland - Janney Montgomery Scott Research Division

Matt Olney - Stephens

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Amerant Bancorp Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I'd now like to hand over conference over to your speaker today, Laura Rossi, Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability at Amerant Bancorp. Please go ahead.

Laura Rossi

Thank you, Gigi. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us to review Amerant Bancorp's second quarter 2023 results. On today's call are Jerry Plush, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Sharymar Calderon, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

As we begin, please note that discussions on today's call contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Exchange Act. In addition, references will also be made to non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the company's earnings release for a statement regarding forward-looking statements as well as for information and reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP measures.

I will now turn over to our Chairman and CEO, Jerry Plush.

Jerry Plush

Thank you, Laura, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Amerant's second quarter 2023 earnings call. I'd like to first welcome Shary who as our new Chief Financial Officer is on her first earnings call with us today and to also thank Carlos Lafigliola for his tenure as our CFO. As recently announced, Carlos became our new Chief Operating Officer in June. I believe having both of them as part of our executive team makes us a much stronger organization.

Next, I think it's important to address upfront that while this was an outstanding quarter in many ways, the results are clearly overshadowed by the provision expense reflected in the 2Q results. The substantial increase from last quarter was driven by a legacy New York City commercial real estate loan originated in 2016 and from increased negative economic factors used in the CECL calculation. In her section, Shary will provide additional details of the provision recorded this quarter.