NBT Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:NBTB) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call July 23, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Scott Kingsley – President and Chief Executive Officer
Annette Burns – Chief Financial Officer
Joe Stagliano – President-NBT Bank, N.A.

Conference Call Participants

Matthew Breese – Stephens Inc.
Christopher O’Connell – KBW

Operator

Good day, everyone. Welcome to the conference call covering NBT Bancorp's Second Quarter 2024 Financial Results. This call is being recorded and has been made accessible to the public in accordance with the SEC's Regulation FD. Corresponding presentation slides can be found on the company's website at nbtbancorp.com.

Before the call begins, NBT's management would like to remind listeners that, as noted on Slide 2, today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ from those projected.

In addition, certain non-GAAP measures will be discussed. Reconciliations for these numbers are contained within the appendix of today's presentation. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

I will now turn the conference over to NBT Bancorp President and CEO, Scott Kingsley, for his opening remarks. Mr. Kingsley, please begin.

Scott Kingsley

Thank you, Michelle. Good morning and thank you for joining us for this earnings call covering NBT Bancorp's second quarter 2024 results. With me today are NBT's Chief Financial Officer, Annette Burns; Joe Stagliano, the President of NBT Bank, N.A.; and Joe Ondesko, our Treasurer. This is our first earnings call following our leadership transition in May and we want to extend our thanks to John Watt and the entire NBT Board of Directors, as well as the management team for supporting us through a very smooth transition.

I would also like to congratulate Rick Cantele on his upcoming retirement from our senior management team in August. Rick's insight and contributions following the completion of the Salisbury merger have been invaluable. He will continue to provide important guidance as a member of our board.

We're pleased to now review our second quarter results with you today. Our operating performance for the first quarter and the first half of – the second quarter and the first half of 2024 continues to reflect the strength of our balance sheet, our diversified business model, and the collaboration of our team. During the second quarter, we productively grew loans across our footprint and improved our net interest margin as earning asset yields increased incrementally higher than funding costs, a positive result, but we're still cautious on pronouncing it as a trend.