Dime Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:DCOM) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 26, 2024 8:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Stuart Lubow - President and Chief Executive Officer

Avinash Reddy - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Stephen Moss - Raymond James

Mark Fitzgibbon - Piper Sandler

Manuel Navas - D.A. Davidson & Company

Christopher O'Connell - KBW

Matthew Breese - Stephens, Inc.

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Dime Community Bancshares Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions].

Before we begin, the company would like to remind you that discussions during this call contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such statements including, as set forth in today's press release and the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to which we refer you.

During this call, references will be made to non-GAAP financial measures as supplemental measures to review and assess operating performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with the U.S. GAAP. For information about these non-GAAP measures and for a reconciliation to GAAP, please refer to today's earnings release. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Stuart Lubow, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Stuart Lubow

Good morning. Thank you, Shannon. With me today is Avi Reddy, our CFO, and thank you all for joining us this morning for our fourth quarter earnings call. 2023 was an unprecedented year in many respects, with the Federal Reserve taking interest rates to a multi-decade high and three regional banks failing resulting in significant focus on liquidity and deposits.

Throughout all of this uncertainty, Dime's business model remained resilient as demonstrated by year-over-year growth in deposits of over $275 million and loans is over $200 million. Importantly, in 2023, we put in place several cornerstone investments that will serve as growth engines for the franchise in the years ahead.

First, we rapidly assembled a cross-functional internal team to attract productive deposit gathering bankers from Signature Bank. In the second quarter, we were able to onboard six groups, and at 12/31, their portfolio stands at approximately $350 million with approximately 50% being in DDA. To provide some background, after I joined Dime in 2017, we put in place the building blocks for our private and commercial bank deposit gathering operations.