Thank you, Nick. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today.

Earlier, we reported diluted earnings per share of $0.78 for the second quarter. When adjusted for 1-time items, our diluted EPS for the quarter was $0.96 which exceeded consensus analyst estimates of $0.85 These 1-time items included an $8.2 million loss, which reduced diluted EPS by $0.18 related to the strategic sale of investment securities from our portfolio in preparation for the Citizens merger and our current strategic objective to remain below $10 billion in assets.

We also re recorded acquisition related expenses of $410 thousand during the second quarter which reduced our diluted EPS by $0.01 We recently purchased an energy tax credit lowering our income tax expense by $480 thousand in the second quarter and positively impacting diluted EPS by $0.01. We have several highlights for the second quarter, as many of our performance metrics improved compared to the linked quarter.

Our net interest income increased 3% while our net interest margin expanded 7 basis points. Fee based income grew over $340 thousand Provision for credit losses declined 51%.

The efficiency ratio improved to 58.3% compared to 58.6% Our loans grew $51 million or 3% annualized. Non-interest-bearing deposits grew $7 million or 2% Our tangible equity to tangible assets ratio increased 34 basis points to 9.25%, Book value per share increased to $34.41 from $33.85 a 7% annualized growth rate.

Our tangible book value per share improved at an 11% annualized rate to $23.56 from $22.95, and all of our regular capital ratios improved Our provision for credit losses totaled $4.7 million for the second quarter, a decline of $5 million or 51% compared to the first quarter Our allowance for credit losses declined to 1.14% of total loans from 1.16% in March 31. Our lower provision for credit losses for the quarter was driven by a reduction in net charge offs, coupled with the stabilization of macroeconomic conditions used within our model.

Our annualized quarterly net charge off rate improved to 31 basis points compared to 40 basis points for the linked quarter. Our indirect consumer net consumer loan net charge offs decreased $751 thousand which was driven by lower charge offs and improved recoveries.

We continue to see declines in our small ticket lease charge offs which were $3.4 million compared to 3.8 million for the first quarter. These charge offs contributed 20 basis points to the annualized net charge off rate for the second quarter we have significantly reduced our position in high balance accounts, which totaled $7.2 million at June 30 we have limited residual risk remaining within this segment of the small ticket leasing portfolio.

For additional details on our small ticket leasing business, please refer to the accompanying slides. Our nonperforming loans increased slightly and were point 6% of total loans at quarter end.

Criticized loans grew $50 million compared to March 31, comprising 4.01% of total loans at quarter end. While classified loans declined $1 million.

The increase in criticized loans was mostly related to 2 commercial credits, 1 of which was acquired. We do not currently expect any charge offs to arise from these relationships.

As a reminder, our first quarter criticized loans as a percent of total loans was 3.3% which was lower than our typical historical run rate of around 4%. Our delinquency levels improved as 99.1% of our loan portfolio was considered current at June 30 compared to 98.9% at the linked quarter end.

Moving on to loan balances. We generated loan growth of $51 million or 3% annualized.

Commercial and industrial loans contributed $43 million of growth followed by increases in premium finance loans of $37 million construction loans of $25 million and home equity lines of credit of $13 million. Overall, our lease balances grew with our mid ticket leasing business adding over $15 million in balances partially offset by declines in our small ticket leasing portfolio.

At the same time, our other commercial real estate loan balances declined $58 million as we experienced the elevated first half payoffs we had anticipated. I will now turn the call over to Katie for a discussion of our financial performance.

Thanks, Tyler. For the second quarter, we saw improvement in our net interest income which grew $2.3 million while our net interest margin expanded 7 basis points.

The reduction in our deposit costs benefited both net interest income and margin for the second quarter. Accretion income totaled $1.2 million compared to $1.3 million for the first quarter contributing 5 basis points and 6 basis points to net interest margin, respectively.

For the first 6 months of 2026, net interest income improved $10.3 million or 6% while net interest margin expanded 6 basis points. Our deposit cost discipline along with higher interest income, contributed to the increase.

Accretion income totaled $2.4 million compared to $6.1 million for 2025. Contributing 6 basis points and 15 basis points to net interest margin, respectively.

As far as our balance sheet structure, at this time, we are positioned to benefit more from a rising rate environment. A falling rate environment would cause a nominal reduction in our net interest income.

However, rate uncertainty validates our relatively neutral position. As it relates to our fee based income, we had growth of over $340 thousand compared to the linked quarter.

We had improvements in the majority of our fee based income lines, which more than offset the decline in insurance income driven by the annual performance based insurance commissions received in the first quarter of each year. For the first 6 months of 2026, fee based income grew $3 million mostly due to higher lease income and trust and investment income.

Our noninterest expenses were up 2% compared to the linked quarter. Which included $410 thousand of acquisition related expenses.

The majority of which contributed to the increase in professional fees. For the first 6 months of 2026, noninterest expenses were up 2%.

The growth was driven by higher operating lease expense, which corresponds to our fee based lease income, as well as salaries and employee benefits costs and data processing and software expense. For the first half of 26, we have recorded $426 thousand of acquisition related expenses.

Our reported efficiency ratio was 58.3% for the second quarter and 58.6% for the linked quarter. The improvement in our efficiency ratio was driven by higher revenue, compared to the first quarter.

For the first 6 months of 26, our reported efficiency ratio was 58.4% compared to 60% for the prior year. And was also driven by higher revenue.

Looking at our balance sheet at quarter end, our loan to deposit ratio increased to 91.5% compared to 88.5% at March 31. As we had loan growth for the second quarter, coupled with a reduction in deposits.

Our investment portfolio as a percent of total assets declined to 19.1% at June 30 compared to 20.3% at the linked quarter end. The decline was driven by the sale of a approximately $135 million of available for sale investment securities resulting in a loss of $8.2 million for the second quarter.

These sales were part of our current plan to stay below $10 billion in total assets restructure our portfolio in conjunction with the pending Citizens merger. Our core deposit balances which exclude brokered CDs, declined $155 million compared to March 31.

As expected, we had seasonal decreases in our governmental deposits which were down $87 million We also had reductions in our interest bearing demand accounts, of $17 million During the second quarter, we also had reductions of $92 million in retail CDs, However, we improved our deposit cost by 6 basis points compared to the linked quarter. These declines were partially by an increase of $37 million in Money Markets, and $7 million in non-interest-bearing deposits.

Our demand deposits as a percent of total deposits grew to 36% at June 30, compared to 35% at the linked quarter end. Our non interest bearing deposits to total deposits ratio was flat at 21% for both June 30 and March 31.

As it relates to our capital levels, all of our regulatory capital ratios improved compared to the linked quarter end, as earnings outpaced dividends. I will now turn the call back over to Tyler for his closing comments.

Thank you, Katie. We continue to make progress with the pending Citizens merger and are excited about the opportunity to bring our associates together.

We have spent a considerable amount of time within the footprint interacting with associates and hosting meetings to discuss our future. We are coordinating processes between teams, both on the front lines and operationally to ensure a seamless transition.

We are awaiting regulatory and citizens shareholder approvals for the merger but are anticipating a close date of early in the fourth quarter of 26. As with recent bank acquisitions, the court system conversion will be at a later date which we are targeting to take place early in the second quarter of 27.

At the same time, we will continue to be opportunistic about other potential acquisitions. Moving on to our performance expectations for the full year of 2026, excluding the impact of non core expenses and the planned merger, we expect to achieve positive operating leverage for 2026 compared to 2025.

We anticipate our net interest margin will be between 4.1%-4.3% for the full year of 2026. A 25 basis point increase in rates from the Federal Reserve is expected to result in a 6 to 8 basis point improvement in our net interest margin for the full year.

We believe our quarterly fee based income will range between $28 million and $30 million We expect quarterly total noninterest expense to be between $73 million and $75 million for the 2 remaining quarters of 2026 We believe our loan growth will come in towards the low end of our guided range of 3% to 5% due to the continued movement of paydowns from late 2025 to 2020. We anticipate a slight reduction in our net charge offs for 2026 compared to 2025 which we expect to continue to positively impact provision for credit losses excluding any changes in the economic forecast.

For the remainder of the year, we will focus on the integration of the Citizens merger, along with continuing to develop our core business while closely monitoring our total asset levels in relation to the $10 billion threshold. As we mentioned before, we continue to have diverse and potentially fruitful conversations with other institutions.

Our lines of business work together to deliver a client experience unlike many institutions, and we see opportunities arise because of our unique market offerings. For the clients and associates of citizens, we are excited to share our deep bench of experienced professionals, who will bring access to our vast array of products and services.

This concludes our commentary, and we will open the call for questions. Once again, this is Tyler J.

Wilcox. Joining me for the Q and A session is Kathryn Bailey, our Chief Financial Officer.

I will now turn the call back into the hands of our call facilitator.

Good morning. This is Ryan Payne on for Jeff Rulis today.

Starting on the margin, does that 10 to 34 for the full year bake in any rate move expectations?

It does not. it is a relatively stable rate environment.

Got it. Okay.

And maybe big bigger picture. What would have to happen for the margin to end the year at the higher end of that range?

I mean, I think the aggressiveness by which we continue to reprice our CDs and the ability to maintain a sizable deposit book in the noninterest bearing or the interest bearing account? Think that will be heavily influencing as you saw the outcome in this quarter in the margin, so I think that will have a heavy influence in the margin going forward.

Understood. And I was going off on deposits there.

Some seasonality, it sounds like. But how would you describe the competitive environment for funding now?

And would you expect to increase rates to maintain or grow deposits this year?

I would say that the deposit competition remains relatively stable. I think it is competitive, but it is not increasingly so relative to what we have been seeing the last few months.

I think we will continue to evaluate the term of rate increases. I do not know that the RAC rates on the shorter term products will move significantly, but I think with rate expectations as they are and as they evolve over time, we will continue to evaluate the term at which we are raising rates.

Okay. Thanks.

that is all for me. Mhmm.

Hi, this is Anisha Ghosh on for Brendan. First question kind of moving back to the NIM and looking on Slide 15.

We can see you increased your sensitivity to a plus 25 increase for the Fed funds from 3 to 4 basis points previously to 6 to 8 basis points currently. Can you just unpack that change a bit and dig into the drivers behind that?

Yes. So I just want to be clear.

The projection or the guidance of 4.10% to 4.30% is a steady rate environment. It does not include an increase or a decrease in rate.

What we have been doing in the past couple of quarters is quantifying if rates do go down by 25 basis points or if the Fed moves by 25 basis points, we have been quantifying what that would do on an annual basis to our margin. And given when we were drafting this, the expectation was more likely for a rate increase than a rate cut, we quantified the upside potential of a 25 basis point increase.

that is not baked into that 10 to 34. that is just telling articulating what the benefit would be if that situation unfolds.

So I think it is largely the asset. We have a over 50% of our loan portfolio is variable rate.

So I think that is influencing the benefit on the upside and given our deposit costs as you can see in the release and in the presentation, there is not as much room to go down in that avenue as there is to go up on the variable rate loan.

Thank you. And just 1 follow-up looping into credit in your opening remarks.

You talked about those 2 commercial credits. Is there any other color that you can provide on them?

Sure. This is Tyler.

A couple of thoughts 2 completely different credits, first of all, so no commonality between them. 1 is a larger multifamily project that is in footprint somewhat anchored to a related kind of large economic project that is somewhat delayed, but we believe will continue.

So you know, hence the comment that we do not expect any kind of losses over the long term in that project. The other is in vehicle floor plan finance.

That we expect to be fully paid off by the end of the year. Again, no losses expected and no pattern there.

Just kind of a reversion to the mean is what I would say with respect to the criticized and our kind of historical averages.

Perfect. Thank you.

And that is all my questions.

This is Tim Brown on for Danny. Hope you are doing well.

Hey, Tim. Good to hear from you.

Hey. You as well.

So just starting off on loan growth here. You know, you know, loan growth was obviously impacted by the CRE paydown But, you know, otherwise, growth is pretty good outside of that.

So just curious if you can help us think about the expectations you guys have for payoff activity in the back half of the year and maybe how loan pipelines are shaping up Sure thing. Thanks for the question.

So a couple thoughts on the expected pay downs. We guided last quarter that we expected about $480 million in payoffs for the full year.

And estimated that we would come in at about, you know, 2-thirds to 3-quarters of that in the first half. Where we came out was about, you know, 300 million in the first half.

We still expect the full year, you know, to fall somewhere around that original estimate. So, know, call it anywhere from $150 million to $200 million for the remainder of the year.

So that certainly is a is a bit of a headwind. And then you combine that a little bit with some of the you know, a good, I would say, pipeline that is kind of competing with that.

And a little bit of an, you know, remixing over the last multiple quarters into the C&I business away from the CRE business of the increased paydowns in CRE is where we land there at that kind of lower end of the guide because the payoffs, amortization, and then the final, you know, kind of factor I would add would be that in the consumer lending, we are we are seeing, you know, kind of muted demand. So we expect kind of indirect auto to be largely flat throughout the year and not experience growth as well.

So those would be the kind of puts and takes factors that are you know, getting us out there with respect to the loan growth.

I appreciate all that color, Tyler. Katie, maybe 1 for you.

Just a point of clarification on the pre positioning during the quarter. You know, hoping you can help us out, you know, with us when those securities were sold during the quarter, and, you know, kind of what the yields were on the securities that were sold.

Yes. They were sold in early May and the yields were about 2.75%.

Okay. I appreciate that.

And then, Tyler, maybe 1 last 1 for you. You know, as you have gotten deeper, you know, here in integration planning with Citizens, you know, just curious, know, if there are any aspects of the franchise that stood out to you or any incremental areas where you believe legacy people, you know, kind of, you know, enhance the franchise further, you know, since we spoke in April.

Yeah. Since we last spoke, the story is really it is what we thought it was, and that is why that is why we are very excited about adding it.

Know, the strong deposit base, you know, good loyal clients and communities that we do well in, you know, and an opportunity. We have we have added some, for example, some wealth management professional capabilities in those markets and are already seeing some benefits there.

We are we are very strong in insurance in Eastern Kentucky and bringing to bear that those introductions to our clients and kind of the beginnings of the cross pollination that will take place over the coming you know, months and years. And so we are very excited about the those 2 core businesses of ours, particularly, the investments in insurance and the opportunity to provide those to the Citizens clients.

And everything is according to plan. I will note just since you asked about Citizens and I a couple of the early reaction notes, I think, commented that the expected closing was delayed.

We do not view it as delayed, and if we gave that impression, I just wanted to clear that up. I think we had guided second half in last quarter's call, and we are still right on schedule.

And everything, of course, is pending regulatory approval and shareholder approval, but we are we believe we are right on track where we expected to be.

Okay. Terrific.

Well, thanks for that point of clarification and color there, Tyler. I will step back now.

Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions.

Good morning.

Good morning, Tim.

I had a follow-up on the balance sheet restructuring. I think you guys previously talked about selling about $560 million of balances including the Citizens portfolio.

Should we expect more sales to occur before the deal closes? And if it is after the deal closes, what is the timing we should expect for that?

Yeah. So just as a reminder, about half of that was the sale of what we would be acquiring from Citizens and their investment portfolio, and then about half of it was selling some of our portfolio and you have seen us sell about half of our contribution of that.

We would anticipate selling the Citizens portion in as close to close as possible. And we will continue to evaluate the sale of the remaining component of our portfolio We may do something in the third, but it likely would not be until fourth, and it will all just be dependent on where we are from an asset size and where the rate environment is at the time.

Okay. And do you still see a way for that to be accretive to NII, by pairing it with the, offloading of I assume broker deposits like what we saw this quarter.

Yes. I think that is right.

And an overnight position as well once brokers completely eliminated. Reduced.

that is helpful. And putting Citizens aside for a minute, how do you see the trajectory of the margin over the rest of this year in early 2027, assuming there is no rate movement at all, do you think you can continue to squeeze out, a little bit of margin improvement going forward?

Yeah. I think there continues to be some mix shift in the deposit portfolio.

So I think there is upward potential.

The only the only thing I would add that is add some potential as well is, you know, we have been decreasing the, you know, the small ticket leasing portfolio and we expect kind of in early 27 for that to begin to turn around and see growth there and higher yielding assets there have the potential to impact NIM as well.

Okay. Okay.

And how do you see the rate environment, especially with the rates moving higher over the last few months? How do you see that impacting the credit performance?

Of the leasing portfolio?

Yeah. You know, I think it depends.

I think more impact potentially is you know, we weathered I would say we weathered the, you know, tariff you know, kind of questions We have seemed to have weathered the, you know, kind of fuel price increases, which, you know, these this portfolio specifically is a little bit more you know, small business oriented. Now recall that these are fixed rate leases in this business.

But, you know, the term is also not incredibly long. So we think there is limited credit risk there overall and you know, depending on I do not think I do not think a quarter or a couple of rate increases will be meaningfully a meaningful change.

Recall that portfolio is already kind of at a gross origination yield of between 18-20%. So they are not particularly rate sensitive given the, you know, the originations being where they are.

Okay. Got it.

that is super helpful. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Thanks, Tim.

Hey, this is Adam on for Nate. Good morning, Tyler and Katie, and thanks for taking my questions.

No problem.

Maybe a question for Katie. So just going back to the margin, I think last quarter's call, you mentioned an additional 15 to 20 basis points opportunity.

Doing potential NIM expansion for 2027 post the security sale and borrowings pay down. I guess, is that still the right way to think about it for 2027 And just any additional color there?

Yes. I think so.

And that was in conjunction with the Citizens acquisition, I think, collectively, was inclusive of the securities trade that we have been talking about. We just preemptively did a portion of our sale in the second quarter, but, yes, that is still accurate.

Got it. And then could you remind us what you have in terms of fixed rate loans that would be set to reprice higher over the next 12 months or so?

I mean, our fixed rate book is about 46-48% of the portfolio. An average 3 to 5.

I think average life, 3 to 5 years. So yeah.

Okay. Maybe moving to the charge off guide for a slight reduction for 26.

Was wondering if you could quantify the slight reduction guide a bit further and, you know, the expectation that charge offs remain around this 30- to 40-basis-point range for the back half of the year?

Yes. I think you are slight maybe a little bit understating it at this point.

You know, we were pleased with moving to, you know, kind of a annualized rate of 31 basis points. And I think you will see consistency.

You know, we talked for a while about the, you know, the major component of that being the small ticket leasing. And have it that is--you know, 20 basis points of our 31 for this quarter.

And, you know, we talked about for the last year kind of plateau in the second half and kind of coming down. We still expect that and maybe are seeing that happen a little bit earlier than we had expected, which is a good sign.

So, you know, I think when you compare us year over year, you know, we expect this trend to continue for the remainder of the year. Continued strength in the commercial which does not really have much charge off to speak of.

You saw consumer come down because the first quarter is generally is historically our larger charge off quarter in that space. And small ticket leasing continues to decline.

So we are optimistic.

Got it. Thanks for that Tyler.

And on North Star, I was wondering if you had the contribution--the charge-off contribution from the high balance accounts during the quarter?

Yep. Hugh balance accounts specifically, if you give me 1 sec to shuffle some papers, I can get that for you.

First, the high balance of the account at this point came in at about 7% of the total portfolio. And so their contribution to the losses was about, $1.3 million to $1.4 million of the $9 million in charge-offs or so.

Excuse me. Of the year to date charge offs.

Not quarterly charge offs.

Okay. Got it.

Thanks for taking my questions.

Morning, guys.

We are in, Daniel.

Hey, Daniel.

Thanks for all the color so far on the margin and all the moving pieces. So it sounds like deposit competition is still relatively sane.

Maybe kind of stable ish. But can you provide some color on the lending side?

what is what is competition for the better quality loans looking like? And, you know, would you say that the market is still, you know, our competition is still rational coming here into Q3.

Thanks, Daniel. I would say it is largely rational.

I would say there is a small element of, you know, the pressure on balances of particularly in the commercial real estate space. Of increased competition and as we have said on this call before, we are not inclined to chase stupid, and we will be happy to trade slightly lower balances for sticking to our knitting on pricing.

So but it is competitive for quality assets. We are not seeing the lemmings going over the cliff.

To any degree. Just to be very clear.

But, you know, we are scrutinizing, you know, deals that we want, being competitive where we are, and there are also maybe a bit fewer projects in general out there But, again, not any major trends that I would identify at this point. I do not know if that helps.

Very, very helpful. Thank you.

And then just looking at your margin here for the quarter and accretion was about 5 basis points contribution to the margin. Absent Citizens is the expectation that yield accretion continues to give you about 5 basis points for the next couple of quarters.

I think that is a it starts to come down a basis point a quarter, I mean, it is stable to down a basis point, I would say, but it is in the range of 5 basis points. Yes.

Okay. All right.

No. All my other questions have been asked and answered.

Thank you, guys. Thanks, Daniel.

Hey, good morning.

Good morning. First for me, this topic has been talked about a couple times too, but Katie, just curious, what was the spot cost of deposits and the spot NIM at the end of the quarter And I guess I am curious, I am going to ask it a different way.

How you feel about your ability to maintain or further lower deposit cost from here. Is that realistic?

I think it is. I think we were, you know, right around the $4.20 range for, you know, the spot at the end of June.

There is some nuance in each month as you might expect, but I do think maybe not as much expansion per quarter, but I think there continues to be some room to reprice some of our CDs downward as we proceed through the year. Okay.

We are not done yet on deposit cost. I do not think so.

And then, Tyler, you had mentioned some of the dynamics within commercial real estate. Do you think that portfolio has been down for 3 quarters in a row Do you think we can start to see some commercial real estate balance stabilization by the end of the year?

And what is your expectation on when you might be able to show some growth? There?

Yeah. First of all, I do not mind, as I mentioned earlier, I do not mind our kind of mix shift towards C and I.

As you are aware, we have kinda been proud of our you know, kind of ability to be selective in the commercial real estate space and in our lower portion of CRE to risk based capital that, you know, I think is now around 178%. So that is kind of been a strategic goal.

The pipeline is strong in that area. You know, recall part of what is driving these payoff pressures is largely 2 things.

1, earlier sales of many of these properties. So it shows there is still high demand in the space.

And then 2, kind of the permanent market refinancing opportunities. But as I look at our pipeline and as we evaluate that, we do think there is still strong demand.

And I could see us, you know, going into 2027 with stabilized to potentially increasing over the coming year. But I am very comfortable with where we are at and where that mix shift is, and it gives us the ability to be very competitive and price right and select the deals that make the most sense for our credit philosophy, which is to be highly selective.

Got it. Okay.

Last 1 for me is, obviously, there is a lot on your plate with the upcoming deal close, but given the balance sheet size dynamics, I would imagine that you remain engaged in additional M&A conversations, and we would just love to hear about how those conversations are going and whether or not you see you know, opportunity on that front in kind of the near to medium term. Thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you.

And 1, we remain ready, willing, and able to do additional deals and we feel very comfortable. And I am not announcing an announcement, but just to say we would be very comfortable in making an announcement should something materialize that we find strategically compelling.

Engaged in a lot of discussions, and I hope they are fruitful and I believe that there are you know, counterparties out there that are interested in the story and in the upside of a better future together. And we continue to engage in those conversations and hope that some of them will bear some fruit here.

So in the meantime, we are as we have for, you know, call it 3+ years now, exercising strategic patience and being you know, focusing on executing in the core, which I think this quarter really demonstrates as this year as a whole. So we are we are ready to go and optimistic I will leave it there.

Thanks.

Yes. I want to thank everyone for joining our call this morning.

Remember that our earnings release and a webcast of this call, including our earnings conference call presentation, will be archived at peoplesbancorp.com under the Investor Relations section. You for your time, and have a great day.