First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call July 26, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Scott Crawley - Corporate Controller
Archie Brown - President and Chief Executive Officer
Jamie Anderson - Chief Financial Officer
Bill Harrod - Chief Credit Officer

Conference Call Participants

Chris McGrady - KBW
Terry McEvoy - Stephens Inc
Daniel Tamayo - Raymond James
Jon Arfstrom - RBC

Operator

Thank you for standing by. My name is Ian and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the First Financial Bancorp Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.

I will now hand the call over to Scott Crawley, Controller. Scott, you may begin your conference.

Scott Crawley

Yes. Thank you, Ian. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss First Financial Bancorp second quarter and year-to-date financial results. Participating on today's call will be Archie Brown, President and Chief Cxecutive Officer; Jamie Anderson, Chief Financial Officer; and Bill Harrod, Chief Credit Officer.

Both the press release we issued yesterday and the accompanying slide presentation are available on our website at www.bankatfirst.com under the Investor Relations section. We will make reference to the slides contained in the accompanying presentation during today's call.

Additionally, please refer to the forward-looking statements disclosure contained in the second quarter 2024 earnings release as well as our SEC filings for a full discussion of the Company's risk factors. The information we will provide today is accurate as of June 30, 2024. We will not be updating any forward-looking statements to reflect facts or circumstances after this call.

I'll now turn the call over to Archie Brown.

Archie Brown

Thank you. Scott. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's call. Yesterday afternoon, we announced our financial results for the second quarter. I'll provide some highlights on our recent performance and then turn the call over to Jamie to provide further information.

We had an outstanding quarter, adjusted earnings per share was $0.65 in the second quarter, which resulted in a return on assets of 1.4% and a return on tangible common equity of 20.9%. Loan growth was exceptionally strong again this quarter with balances increasing by 11% on an annualized basis and this was a significant driver in the increase in net interest income. Growth was broad-based and was led by commercial banking.