Thank you, Leah. Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss First Financial Bancorp.'

s second quarter financial results. Participating on today's call will be Archie Brown, President and Chief Executive 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 2026 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 30th, 2026, and 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.

Thanks, Scott. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call.

With second quarter earnings and the Finward announcement, we have a lot to cover, the format of our call will be a little different today. Our plan for today's remarks is that I will start with my summary of the quarter, then turn over to Jamie, who will add his comments on the financial results.

After Jamie finished, I'll provide thoughts on our third quarter outlook. Then once I've wrapped up the outlook commentary, we'll then pivot to discuss the details of the Finward acquisition, which is a deal that we're very excited about.

After that, we'll open it up for questions. The second quarter was another active quarter as we remain focused on post-integration efforts related to the Westfield acquisition and successfully converted BankFinancial systems.

Our second quarter operating results were strong, and we're very pleased with our performance. Adjusted net income for the period was a record $83.9 million or 80 cents per share, with an adjusted return on assets of 1.5% and an adjusted return on tangible common equity of 19.7%.

These adjusted earnings per share represent an 8% increase over the second quarter of 2025, and they were driven by increases in earning assets from a combination of organic loan growth and our recent acquisitions. Our net interest margin was stable at approximately 4% as lower funding costs offset a decline in loan accretion income.

Assuming no significant changes in interest rates, we expect our margin to remain stable over the near term. Loan growth for the quarter was 7% on an annualized basis and reflected continued momentum across the portfolio, with C&I, Agile, and Summit being the primary drivers of our increase in balances.

Loan originations increased 23% over the first quarter, and advanced stage pipelines remain strong heading into the back half of the year. We expect loan production to remain healthy and contribute to solid loan growth into the third quarter.

Second quarter adjusted fee income was below our expectations. After a very strong first quarter, lower foreign exchange, swap income, and investment banking fees led to a decline in total noninterest income compared to the linked quarter.

While results in these business lines can vary from quarter to quarter, we anticipate a rebound in the third quarter. Conversely, adjusted noninterest expenses were materially lower than the linked quarter, driven by lower commission expense, payroll taxes, and acquisition-related synergies.

As of June 30th, virtually all the expected Westfield cost reductions have been realized, while savings related to the BankFinancial acquisition will gradually phase in over the course of the third quarter, with full savings expected by quarter-end. Asset quality was stable for the quarter, with net charge-offs declining by 15 basis points to .2 .20% of total loans.

Capital levels remain strong, with tangible common equity increasing to 8.2% and tangible book value increasing 3% from the linked quarter to $16.64. No shares were repurchased during the quarter as we focus on integrating recent acquisitions and preparing for the acquisition of Finward.

Now I'll turn the call over to Jamie to discuss our second quarter results in greater detail. Jamie?

Thank you, Archie, and good morning, everyone. Slides 5, 6, and 7 provide a summary of our most recent financial results.

The second quarter was another outstanding quarter, highlighted by strong earnings, 7% loan growth, a solid net interest margin, and positive credit trends. Our net interest margin remains very strong at 3.98%.

Deposit costs declined 6 basis points from the linked quarter, while asset yields decreased 7 basis points due to lower accretion income. Loan balances increased $240 million or 7% on an annualized basis.

Growth was broad-based, with C&I, Summit, and Agile all having strong quarters. Average deposit balances increased $41 million due primarily to a seasonal influx in public funds and higher interest-bearing deposits.

We maintain 21% of our total balances in noninterest-bearing accounts and remain focused on growing lower-cost deposit balances. Turning to the income statement, despite a decrease from the first quarter, second quarter fee income was solid, led by the leasing and foreign exchange business lines, while noninterest expenses declined from the linked quarter due to lower incentive-based compensation costs.

Our ACL coverage increased 2 basis points during the quarter to 1.38% of total loans. We recorded $8.2 million of provision expense during the period, which was driven primarily by net charge-offs and loan growth.

Overall, asset quality trends were positive. Net charge-offs declined 15 basis points to 20 basis points of loans on an annualized basis, while NPAs and classified assets also declined during the period.

From a capital standpoint, our ratios are in excess of both internal and regulatory targets. Tangible book value increased to $16.64, while our TCE ratio increased to 8.2%.

Slide 9 reconciles our GAAP earnings to adjusted earnings, highlighting items that we believe are important to understanding our quarterly performance. Adjusted net income was $83.9 million or 80 cents per share for the quarter.

Noninterest income was adjusted for losses on investment securities and $2.2 million of acquisition-related items. Noninterest expense adjustments exclude the impact of acquisition costs, tax credit investment amortization, and other expenses not expected to recur.

As depicted on slide 10, these adjusted earnings equate to a return on average assets of 1.5%, a return on average tangible common equity of 20%, and a pre-tax, pre-provision ROA of over 2%. Turning to slides 11 and 12, net interest margin decreased 1 basis point from the linked quarter to 3.98%.

The core margin remains very strong, with the slight decline from the linked quarter driven by a 5 basis point decline in loan accretion, which was impacted by low prepayment rates on our acquired mortgage loans. Total deposit costs declined 6 basis points from the linked quarter, partially offsetting the impact of lower asset yields.

Slide 14 illustrates our current loan mix and balance changes compared to the linked quarter. Loan balances increased 7% on an annualized basis, with growth across most of the portfolio, highlighted by C&I, Summit, and seasonal growth from Agile.

Slide 16 depicts our NDFI exposure. As you can see, our total NDFI balances are approximately 3% of our total loan book, and all NDFI loans were pass rated at the end of the second quarter.

The majority of our NDFI lending is concentrated in loans to REITs, which we believe further mitigates our risk. Slide 17 depicts our average deposit mix as well as a progression of average deposits from the linked quarter.

In total, average deposit balances increased $41 million during the quarter, driven by a seasonal influx of public funds and growth in interest-bearing demand accounts. These increases were offset by declines in retail time deposits and brokered CDs.

Absent the decline in brokered CDs, average deposits increased $169 million from the first quarter. Slide 19 highlights our noninterest income.

Total adjusted fee income was $72 million, with leasing and foreign exchange income both delivering solid quarters. Additionally, other noninterest income increased $3.6 million for the quarter due to higher income from bank-owned life insurance and other limited partnership investments.

Noninterest expense for the quarter is outlined on slide 20. Core expenses decrease $5.7 million during the period, driven by lower compensation costs tied to lower fee income.

Turning now to slides 21 and 22, our ACL model resulted in a total allowance, which includes both funded and unfunded reserves, of $208 million and $8.2 million of total provision expense during the period. This resulted in an ACL that was 1.38% of total loans, which was a 2 basis point increase from the first quarter.

Provision expense was primarily driven by loan growth and net charge-offs, which were 20 basis points for the period, declining 15 basis points from the first quarter. Overall, credit trends were positive, with a 42% reduction in net charge-offs and slight declines in both nonperforming and classified assets.

Finally, as shown on slides 23 and 24, capital ratios remain in excess of both regulatory minimums and internal targets. During the first quarter, tangible book value increased to $16.64, while the TCE ratio increased to 8.2% at the end of the period.

At this point, our tangible book value exceeds pre-Westfield and BankFinancial levels. Our total shareholder return remains strong, with 34% of our second quarter earnings returned to our shareholders during the period through the common dividend.

We are also very pleased that the board of directors voted to increase the common dividend going forward to 26 cents per share. We maintain our commitment to providing an attractive return to our shareholders and will evaluate capital actions that support that commitment.

I'll now turn it back over to Archie for some comments on our outlook. Archie?

Thank you, Jamie. Before we conclude our prepared remarks, I want to comment on our third quarter outlook, which can be found on slide 25.

In regard to the balance sheet, we expect mid-single-digit loan growth on an annualized basis, while on the deposit side, we expect low-single-digit core deposit balance growth. Our net interest margin remains among the highest in the peer group, and we expect it will hold steady in the 396 3.96% to 4.01% range over the next quarter.

That assumes no changes in interest rates. This also assumes purchase accounting accretion that's in line with the second quarter.

As for credit, we expect third quarter credit costs to approximate second quarter levels and ACL coverage to remain relatively stable as a percentage of loans. I was pleased to see positive trends in our credit quality metrics in the second quarter, and we see net charge-offs approximating 25 to 30 basis points for the back half of the year, consistent with our outlook for the last couple of years.

On fee income, we expect foreign exchange and investment banking income to rebound, and total fee income to be between $74 and $77 million in the third quarter, which includes $15 to $17 million for foreign exchange and $22 to $24 million for leasing business revenue. Noninterest expenses are expected to be between $149 and $152 million.

We successfully completed the BankFinancial conversion in June, and we are on pace to achieve our modeled cost savings, with full savings realized in the fourth quarter. Full savings from the Westfield acquisition will be in the third quarter run rate.

Turning now to Finward, as we announced late yesterday, we've agreed to acquire Finward Bancorp, the holding company for Peoples Bank. Finward currently has 24 banking locations, is headquartered in Munster, Indiana, and as such, this acquisition is expected to strategically expand First Financial's ability to serve the consumers and businesses of the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana markets.

Finward has approximately $2 billion in assets, $1.7 billion in deposits, $1.5 billion in loans, and $412 million in wealth assets under management. We're very excited to partner with a bank with a similar operating philosophy and strong credit culture.

Not only does this transaction demonstrate our commitment to strategic growth in the Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland markets, we believe the transaction is also an attractive one for our shareholders. Under the terms of the agreement, each outstanding share of Finward common stock will be converted into the right to receive 1.35 shares of First Financial common stock, valuing the transaction at approximately $208 million based on First Financial's closing price on July 20th.

In addition, we expect the transaction to be approximately 5% accretive to First Financial's earnings per share, and First Financial's tangible book value per share at closing is estimated to be only slightly diluted, with an anticipated tangible book value earnback of just over half a year. For further details on the transaction, please refer to the slides 26 through 33 in our deck.

Including our recent acquisition of BankFinancial, we will have added $2.9 billion in lower-cost deposits to our legacy operation in Northwest Indiana and have a total of $4.1 billion in deposits in Chicago and Northwest Indiana. We'll have a branch network of over 40 offices, and we'll have built an impressive combination of talent in commercial banking, mortgage banking, wealth management, and specialty bank solutions, complemented by our client-centered, community-focused business model that is the alternative to larger banks in the region.

Through these two acquisitions, we expect to add approximately 8% in earnings per share accretion with no impact to tangible book value, and the Chicago-Northwest Indiana market will become the second largest market in our company. To demonstrate our further commitment to this market, First Financial's committed to donate $500,000 to its foundation for the benefit of local organizations in the community served by Finward, in addition to the $1 million we donated to the foundation when we entered the Chicago market with the completion of the acquisition of BankFinancial in January of this year.

To wrap up my comments, the second quarter was another great quarter for our company. We achieved record earnings while successfully integrating two bank acquisitions and positioning the company for continued success in the second half of the year.

Regarding the recently integrated Westfield and BankFinancial acquisitions, we're very pleased with how our newer associates have assimilated into the company. They remain deeply committed to serving their clients and communities, and their efforts have been instrumental in high client retention levels.

We are thankful for their dedication, hard work, and client-focused approach over the past year. I'm very proud of the work our teams have done throughout the integration process, and their efforts position us for success in our newly expanded markets.

Finally, we're really excited to announce our expansion in Northwest Indiana and Chicago with Finward, and we look forward to the opportunities that this combination provides. With that, we'll now open up the call for questions.

Leah, go ahead and open up the lines. Thank you.

Hey, good morning, guys. Hope you're doing well.

Morning, Brendan.

Morning. Maybe starting off here on capital, just in light of the Finward deal.

I guess you're using some capital, but honestly, not that much for the transaction. I guess, two parts: one, three deals in short order, are you on the M&A sidelines now, or is there still an ability to transact?

Then two, last quarter you started talking about a higher total payout ratio. Curious for your updated thoughts in light of the Finward announcement.

Brendan, this is Archie. I'll answer the first part and then have Jamie answer the second part.

You're right. This is the third transaction.

I think we closed of course BankFinancial in January, converted it in June. Finward we would hope we would close by year-end and then convert sometime in the second quarter of next year.

Relative to our size, this is a fairly smaller, incremental deal, very strategic, we think very important for what we're doing in that part of our footprint, but it is somewhat incremental. We don't see ourselves on the sideline.

There's just a window here where opportunities are popping up, and so we'll assess them as they come. We don't see anything in the near term, I would say near to intermediate term, that we're focused on other than getting Finward closed and integrated into the company.

That's probably our work the next, I'd say, four quarters or so, and then we'll just see what happens as we get into '27. Yeah.

Brendan, this is Jamie. On the, I guess return of capital question, part of the question you had there, just with the common dividend, we kind of look in that 35 to 40% range.

I think we're right in that mid-30s right now. We talked about, I think, last quarter bumping that up to include some buybacks.

With the deal kind of in the process in the second quarter, we just held off on the buyback. I think, here going forward, we'll be in the market.

We're kind of looking at our capital and our earnings as kind of breaking them up into three parts, with a third-ish getting returned through the common dividend, a third retaining for organic growth and potentially some small M&A like we're doing now, and then allocating a third for a buyback. I think that's the plan kind of long term going forward.

Okay.

Fantastic. That's helpful color from both of you.

Maybe pivoting to fee income, as always, you give really good color on expectations for the lease and forex lines. Maybe just help us with client derivative fees and kind of the wealth management piece.

I guess there was an investment banking component for wealth this quarter. Just kind of help us on what was going on this quarter and then how those kind of fit into the fee outlook going forward.

Sure. Brendan, this is Archie again.

On on foreign exchange, it's a little bit a little bit lower than Q1, and a little bit lower maybe than their their run rate. If you look at it for the first half of the year, Q1, Q2, we always say this is a little bit of a lumpy This business has some lumpiness to it, we don't typically look at it in one quarter isolation.

If you look at it even over the last first half of this year and compare to the first half of last year, they're up about almost 12% in revenue. This year 29.4% first half, last year 26.3, they're doing fine.

They do have lumpiness. We've always said there's a core part of their business, a lot of small transactions, and then they have some chunky pieces that are a little bit larger based on, some of the clients they work with, especially those who may be buying or selling companies.

That creates a little bit of chunkiness, in in their results. We look at it over longer windows to see how they're doing, but right now, for the first year first half of the year, they're on plan, in our internal, versus our internal budget and doing, quite a bit better than last year.

On the, wealth side, we we have a small M&A advisory practice. Really makes up our investment, our invest investment banking income.

Again, it's very small. It probably does $5 to $6 million in revenue, so, think about it kind of, $1.5 million a quarter, kind would be kind of an average.

Again, it's chunky. Coming into the quarter, we had two deals we expected to, get done in the quarter, and they both just got pushed.

We expect those to happen, in the in the third quarter. There's a pipeline, a nice pipeline of other deals, but, they just get closed when they get closed.

It's just a small enough business that, if you don't get one, then it it changes what happens there.

Okay. Thank you for taking my questions.

Much appreciated.

You're welcome.

All right, thanks guys. Still with Raymond James, by the way, but [laughter] moving on.

Hey, Danny.

Hey, Archie and Jamie. I guess first just on the deal, curious what your plans are for the Finward balance sheet, any sales considered in terms of anything in the loan side, securities book.

Curious what you're going to do with that, and, bigger picture, how you see the size of the balance sheet trending over the next several quarters.

Danny, on the loan side, good news is the asset quality is strong, stable. We just see that we'll bring in, actually, a talented team of bankers.

We don't have that big of a team up there, we're going to incorporate the bankers from Finward into our team, and we're going to add capacity for them and products and capabilities, if anything, we can do more with the clients they have and go out and I think probably create a faster run rate for growth overall. As far as the loans on the books, we're going to retain those and incorporate them into our balance sheet overall, and then just, again, try to use that team to go deeper with their clients and bigger.

On the securities side, Jamie, I'll let you cover.

Yeah. Danny, on the securities side, I think what we'll end up doing just because, typically, these smaller banks will have a lot of different pieces and CUSIPs, and so we'll probably blow a lot of it out, but that all gets accounted for in purchase accounting, we already have that, I guess, their unrealized loss built into the accretion in the deal.

We'll basically blow it out and reinvest it at current rates, which is what purchase accounting does anyway. Nothing really, any big change in the balance sheet, nothing like we had on BankFinancial where we sold the big chunk of loans.

It's really just kind of I would say selling and reinvesting into more of our philosophy on the investment side, but nothing radical that would change the math or anything.

Okay. In terms of I know it's a tough question, but ultimate balance sheet, the trajectory of the balance sheet post-close, And this kind of wraps in a question on the legacy bank, but obviously you've been kind of staying flattish, maybe modest growth, just overall balance sheet despite the sizable loan growth.

Is that probably still the plan over the next several quarters as the bank or the balance sheet kind of continues to normalize?

Daniel, this is Jamie. So, yeah, I think you're talking about last quarter we we talked about kind of going forward what our our plan was in terms of earning assets, and so I think with the with the loan growth that we see going forward, our plan, if we look at our balance sheet now, the securities portfolio, is a little bit, outsized compared to what we would normally run just because of all the cash that we got in, in the first quarter, from BankFinancial.

Then, they already had a a fairly low loan-to-deposit ratio, and then we sold, about $400 million of their loans, we basically got, about $1 billion in, in, excess funding there, which we put most of that to work in the securities portfolio for the time being. Then over time here, and really when I say over time, it's probably over the next, year, year to two years, we'll let that, securities portfolio kind of bleed back down.

Our plan for the short term is that we're funding roughly about 50% of the loan growth through the cash flow in the securities portfolio. If we're growing, if we're growing loans in that, kind of mid mid- to high single digits, call it 6, 7%, about half of that will get funded through the securities portfolio and half of that will be, earning asset growth.

Great. That's very helpful, appreciate it.

Then, I guess, this last one for you, Archie, on the M&A side, just more high level. Does this feel like, you mentioned Chicago is now your second biggest market.

Does that feel like it's a good size for you post-close of this deal that you're fine kind of growing organically going forward, or are you still interested in opportunities to further the penetration in Chicago?

I think, Daniel, $4 billion at least gets us to a place where we've got a platform to grow with talent, which we, when we're smaller, it's harder to do. We think we've got ourselves to that where we can do that now.

Also, just spend more money on the brand and introducing the brand to the market, we're probably better able to do that. I think there's opportunities in that market still, and I think these two companies that, well, one we've closed and now the one that we announced yesterday will give us opportunities to probably have some more discussions over the next year or two.

We think there's more to do, but I think if this is where we landed, it's big enough.

Okay. Great.

Thanks for all the color, guys. Appreciate it.

Thanks.

Morning. I just have maybe a first one on expenses.

With the close at the end of this year, can you maybe kind of talk about when the conversion takes place and then in which quarter next year do you think you have one 100% of the cost saves realized?

Right. We are right now, obviously we're early in the process through the application process and what not, but we are anticipating that we would close at the end of the year, call it January 1.

We think that the conversion then would take place sometime in the second quarter. If you just said right now, let's just say the conversion takes place in the middle of the second quarter, then we would realize cost savings then, those would bleed in a little bit post-conversion.

Call it you probably have 90 days after that conversion. If you said as of the end of the third quarter of next year, everything would be fully baked in.

I guess the first full quarter of all the cost savings would be the fourth quarter of next year. ):

Gotcha. Perfect.

Thank you for that. Then can you maybe talk about the trajectory for your core margin on a go-forward basis, and what I mean by that is when you look at new balance sheet growth, where are you seeing new loan yields come on on a blended basis and then same for blended interest-bearing deposit costs?

Right now, I would say absent any changes in rates, we look at our margin here going forward as being relatively flat. I guess the only variable there, which is what we had in the second quarter, would be on the accretion income front.

If we're at 3.98%, I think the bias here going forward is we see a little bit of a slight uptick in deposit costs, and that's mainly due to on the CD side, those repricing slightly higher than what we have on the books right now. Then the same thing on the loan side, when in the second quarter essentially our origination yields and payoff yields were essentially right on top of each other, we get a little bit of growth, we'll get a little bit of net interest income dollars growth, but we see the margin staying relatively flat.

Now, here going forward, obviously the markets are indicating the next movement in rates could be rates going up, which would obviously help us from a margin standpoint. At this point post-BankFinancial and Westfield, we're still asset sensitive, slightly less than what we were maybe a year or so ago or a year or two ago, but we see a 25 basis point rate hike helps us initially about 7 or 8 basis points, and then because the loans are going to move right away with SOFR, and then the deposit costs will bleed in over time.

Then as everything kind of stabilizes, the 25 basis point increase is about call it around 3 or 4 basis points of increase in the margin. ):

Got it. [laughter] Thank you very much for the color, and I appreciate you for taking my questions.

All right, Brandon.

Thanks, Brandon.

Yep,

take care.

Oh, hey, I had one question on M&A and then one follow-up on the new loan production yields. Maybe to start on M&A, it just feels like with other banks, it's almost like a truism that you've got to accept tangible book value dilution upfront, you get the earnings accretion hopefully going forward, and you kind of solve for a three-year earnback.

When we look at these deals you've done and the ability to generate 20% accretion now across the three deals with really not much impact on tangible book, would you say it was more just unique opportunities, or is there something you're doing in the type of deals you're looking for, the way you're structuring the transactions, that this is more of a sustained thing you can do going forward as well if opportunities arise?

Brian, this is Archie. Hey, I wish we could bottle that and do it every time.

I think it's probably unique circumstances. Certainly the BankFinancial case, that was so, and we ended up with a bargain purchase gain there, and you think about this one, I think the big driver is just the differentiation in our price to tangible versus Finward's.

That's probably a significant part of this. Don't know that we can always find those opportunities that way, and we are disciplined that we certainly wouldn't want to go over three.

I think the size of this one and the differential in price to tangible were the drivers for the earnback math. It's kind of got to be situational, but we are going to stay within a pretty tight discipline with regard to how we do the capital.

Then maybe on the new loan yields, I know you all have been pretty intentional about building a pretty diversified platform and maybe that's serving you well in the current environment. A lot of your peers are kind of starting to point to new production being below the existing book and creating some margin pressure.

Is it, as you break apart all the pockets of loans you have, is it kind of across the board that it's relatively equal, or are there maybe some unique or niche businesses that or markets that are maybe coming in a little better, and that's why maybe you're not seeing the same trend that some of the peers are citing?

Brian, hey, it's Jamie. Like I mentioned that essentially the origination and payoff yields were right on top of each other for the second quarter within like 5, 10 basis points.

That's for the whole portfolio. There are some I would say some puts and takes in there, and where we are picking up, I think, a little bit of yield and spread that's kind of offsetting the payoffs is really in the specialty lines that we have.

I think those are the fact that that makes up about 15, 20% of the loan book, and that's where we really saw in the especially in the second quarter a decent amount of our growth, I think that is helping prop those yields up a little bit. Overall, we're seeing some deterioration in spreads and resulting yields in what I would call the core bank, but it's not significant.

Again, we're able to kind of offset that with the specialty lines.

Great. Thank you so much.

Yep.

Thanks, Brian.

Good morning, Archie and crew. Hey, I just got a small comment here.

Thanks for buying Finward or the old Northwest Indiana Bancorp. Hey, you guys are really making my summer super.

Also, thanks for buying BankFinancial. I also had positions in those two companies.

Again, super thanks for raising our dividend by a penny. It helps us all that are on Social Security.

Thank you. I pull back.

Thank you, Henry. We look forward to providing more value for shareholders, we're glad that you feel good about the announcement.

Thank you, Leah. Thanks everybody for joining us today.

We are excited about the year. We're excited about the announcement of Finward and integrating it into the company and building a much bigger market in northwest part of our footprint.

Thanks for following us. We look forward to talking to you again next quarter.

Have a nice day. Bye now.