Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 19, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jay Staley - Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Development

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 Inc.

Ben Gerlinger - Citi

Catherine Mealor - KBW

Manan Gosalia - Morgan Stanley

Brandon King - Truist

Brian Martin - Janney

Michael Rose - Raymond James

Brody Preston - UBS

Timur Braziler - Wells Fargo

Operator

Thank you for standing by and welcome to Bank OZK’s Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the call over to Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development, 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 in the business 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, Latif, to remind our listeners how to queue in for questions.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Stephen Scouten of Piper Sandler.

Stephen Scouten

Hey, everyone. Good morning. So impressive NII growth again this quarter, and I know you guys have talked a lot about this kind of horse race that will be occurring with average earning asset growth versus NIM compression moving forward. I am kind of wondering, as we look out into 2025, which I know is hard to project, but how you kind of see that potentially playing out based on projected rate cuts and kind of how that dynamic should occur as we look further out? And presumably, I guess, to your guidance, RESG repayments accelerate a little bit?