Morning and thank you for joining us today. Many of you joined our call on September 8, where we discussed the completion of several important initiatives that put United in a stronger financial position and made the franchise more resilient.

Our goals were to de risk the balance sheet, to enhance our profitability and to position the company for future growth. We are glad to be able to give you details today on the preliminary results of those actions and let you see more clearly the improvements we anticipate as we head into the fourth quarter and into 2027.

The quarter, our operating earnings reached $0.77 per share a significant improvement from the $0.71 recorded in the second quarter. 1 of the drivers included strong core loan growth of 10% annualized.

Of which nearly almost 40% was driven by our new hires discussed on September 8. For comparison, our core loan growth ex Navitas was 6% in the second quarter and 4% for full-year 2025.

We also had solid core deposit growth of 8% annualized. Non interest bearing deposits were stable as a percentage of the total and deposit cost increased very modestly despite the upward rate environment.

Even without Navitas in their higher yielding loan portfolio for the last month of the quarter, our margin was stable at 3.68% and net interest revenue increased by $10 million over the second quarter. Credit continues to be very strong and net charge offs were only 9 basis points consistent with the 9 basis points in the core bank last quarter.

The sale of Navitas significantly de risked the company from a credit perspective. Looking forward, we are well positioned to grow our earnings and returns.

Our loan to deposit ratio is 77% providing liquidity to deploy into customer relationship lending opportunities. Our capital ratios remain strong, giving us flexibility to support growth from new hires as well as optionality return capital to shareholders and welcome additional quality in footprint banks into the company when appropriate and available.

Like to now turn it over to Tom H. Speir, our new CFO for more detail on the quarter.

Thank you, Lynn. I am honored to have the opportunity to join this outstanding team at an important point in United's evolution.

The third quarter was an important 1 for United as the strategic actions that were over the past few months position us very well to generate sustainable and profitable growth moving forward. Starting with loan growth on Page 6.

We were pleased this quarter with the strong core loan growth delivered by the bank. Excluding the sale of Navitas and the addition of Peach State, core loan growth was 10% annualized, the strongest we have seen since the second quarter of 2022.

Production was robust exceeding $1 billion for the second consecutive quarter, reflecting the continued benefits from our investments in hiring revenue producers. Production from new hires within the last year increased to approximately $170 million in the third quarter contributing almost 40% United's funded loan growth for the quarter.

Following the Peach State acquisition, which was effective August 1st and the Navitas sale effective September 1st, we wanted to provide an update on the go forward loan portfolio. The quarterly reported loan yield was 6.06%, that compares to a loan yield of 5.83% in the month of September provides a good baseline heading into the fourth quarter.

Approximately half of the loan portfolio's floating rate including the impact of swaps. Higher short term rates and the continued benefit from fixed asset repricing will serve to support loan yields.

Turning to deposits, we generated deposit growth of $1.2 billion in the quarter, which includes acquisition of Peach State. Excluding the impact of Peach State, deposit growth was solid at $473 million or 8% annualized.

Growth was particularly strong in money market which was up to $366 million excluding acquired balances. Core DDA growth was solid as well at $111 million or 6.9% annualized.

Time deposits remained relatively flat with an increase of $13 million or 1.4% annualized. Public funds ended the quarter at $2.8 billion stable versus the second quarter.

Public funds typically have seasonal inflows in the fourth 0.25 of $32$5 million to $37$5 million with meaningful outflows beginning late in the first quarter and returning to normalized levels by the end of the second quarter. For the quarter, average total deposit costs were 1.69% and interest bearing costs were 2.31%, up 3 and 4 basis points respectively.

As of the end of September, total deposit costs were 1.71%. Approximately 15% of total deposits are indexed and have already realized the impact of the Fed rate hike in September.

United's quarter end loan to core deposit ratio was 77%, gives us strategic flexibility as we grow both sides of the balance sheet and allows us to be more deliberate with respect to deposit pricing in the current environment. Moving to the investment portfolio.

We Following the restructuring executed in the third quarter, we have added information related to our securities portfolio on Slide 8. More details related to the Navita sale and restructuring are available in the presentations published June 12th and September 8.

As a reminder, last month we reclassified $2.2 billion in held to maturity securities to available for sale designation. We then sold $2.5 billion of long dated securities were yielding approximately 2.2%.

At that time, we were expecting to redeploy over $3 billion into securities yielding approximately 4.5% with a duration of around 2 years. With the increase in rates in September, our average reinvestment rate was over 4.6% with the same expected duration of approximately 2 years.

The securities yield for the quarter was 3.34% up 37 basis points from the prior quarter. The end of the quarter, the portfolio was yielding approximately 4.2%, which represents a good loss point for forward projections.

Our portfolio is highly liquid and well positioned for a higher for longer rate environment. Quarterly cash flows are expected to average around $340 million in 2027 up more than almost 40% from pre restructuring levels.

And floating rate securities account for approximately 45% of the total portfolio. Moving to Slide 9, net interest revenue increased $10.3 million from the second quarter, primarily driven by the Peach State acquisition, core growth, the net effect of the portfolio restructuring higher interest rates and day count partially offset by the impact of the Navitas sale.

Our net interest margin of 3.68% was stable in the third quarter as higher securities yields following the repositioning largely offset lower loan yields following the Navitas sale. Following the securities repositioning and Navitas sale, United's asset sensitivity has meaningfully increased.

We are well positioned for a higher for longer rate environment as approximately half of our loans and securities are floating rate. Additionally, repricing of our back book of fixed rate assets will continue to be a tailwind over time.

Moving to Page 10, GAAP non interest income decreased by $3.00 $2 million from the second quarter reflecting the impact of both the gain on the sale of Navitas and the loss on the investment portfolio repositioning. On an operating basis, non interest income was $40.7 million for the quarter.

Up slightly from prior quarters primarily driven by higher BOLI gains and service charges. Mortgage fees increased largely driven by an increase in MSR valuation which was mostly offset in the hedge included in the other non interest income line item.

On page 11, we highlight non interest expense for the quarter. Quarter included 2 months of expense related to Peach State, and 2 months of expense related to Navitas.

Expenses in the fourth quarter will include a full quarter with Peach State and without Navitas. We were pleased that the bank's operating efficiency ratio improved to 53.1% in the quarter and was stable year over year.

Moving to page 12, credit quality for the quarter was very strong, Net charge offs benefited from the sale of Navitas, which has historically contributed approximately half of the bank's net charge offs. Net charge offs for the quarter were $4 million or 9 basis points of average loans improved from $7.9 million in the second quarter.

Non performing assets and past dues were both down quarter over quarter and remained at benign levels. On Slide 13, the allowance for credit losses increased to $200 million up from $188 million in the prior quarter primarily driven by robust loan growth in the third quarter.

The provision also included approximately $800 thousand to establish the Peach State initial unfunded reserve. The ACL coverage ratio inclusive of unfunded commitments was 1.05%.

Moving to Page 14, United's liquidity and capital positions remain robust following the strategic actions taken in the third quarter. Our solid CET1 and TCE ratios provide us with strategic flexibility moving forward.

Our TCE ratio is 9% and our CET1 ratio is 13%, both down from the second quarter primarily due to recent strategic actions but remain strong relative to peers. Our relatively low loan to deposit ratio is also a continued source of strength allowing capacity for future organic growth.

On Slide 15, we note the previously announced repurchase of approximately $50 million of common shares in the third quarter, which effectively converted the Peach State deal into an all cash transaction. Additionally, the third quarter, United's Board authorized a $100 million increase to our existing share repurchase authorization through year end 2027, bringing the total outstanding authorization to $113 million Also in the third quarter, we increased our common dividend to $0.26 per share.

A 4% increase year over year. Tangible book value came in largely as expected reflecting the impacts of the various strategic actions taken in the quarter as well as higher interest rates.

Moving to the outlook for the fourth quarter on Page 16. While United does not typically provide detailed forward guidance, we felt that it was important to help provide some clarity on key metrics given all the movement in the third quarter.

The completion of the strategic actions executed in the third quarter will improve profitability and earnings in addition to derisking the balance sheet. Earnings per share in the fourth quarter are expected to increase to a range of $0.80 to $0.83 per share driven by solid growth in pre provision net revenue.

Net interest revenue growth will be driven by continued growth in loans and deposits along with a full quarter's benefit of the securities portfolio restructuring Peach State Bank and the benefits from higher interest rates on our asset sensitive position. Expect net interest margin to expand to the mid-3.70s.

Our effective tax rate is expected to normalize to the high-22% area in the fourth quarter following an increase in the third quarter due to the specific tax rates applicable to the Navitas sale and the investment securities losses as well as a higher core effective tax rate resulting from higher S estimated pretax income and certain discrete items recognized in the quarter. We are entering the fourth quarter with strong fundamentals and momentum as we continue executing on our strategy as a simpler bank positioned for growth in some of the nation's best markets.

Our asset sensitivity, strong capital liquidity position us well for the current environment. I am very proud to have joined this outstanding team and an important inflection point for the company.

I will now turn the call back over to Lynn.

Thank you, Tom. I will end by repeating the core goals of the actions we completed last quarter.

We simplified the business and reduced credit risk by exiting Navitas. We are investing in the core franchise strengthening organic growth, remaining disciplined around tuck in acquisitions and capital deployment.

And we have repositioned the balance sheet reducing interest rate risk and creating a more resilient capital and earnings profile. We are excited about our momentum and outlook as we head into the end of the year.

I will now open the floor for questions.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I wanted to start on the strong organic growth results this quarter. It would be helpful to get a sense for what type of contribution the new commercial lenders are putting up so far.

And then with the recent backup in rates and likelihood we get some additional Fed hikes, is there an absolute level in rates where you would expect to see, some pipeline fallout that puts your high single digit organic growth rate at risk

Russell, good morning. This is Richard William Bradshaw.

I will tackle that 1. So our new hires represented nearly 40% of the production in Q3.

I also wanted to point out because I am very proud that was our second quarter in a row of $1 billion of production. So I feel like the machine is working.

In terms of interest rate hikes and where you see that kind of over under, I would say it is probably about a couple of 100 basis points. And the first place you are going to see that CRE.

So you would expect that construction loans will slow down. Yesterday, I happened to meet with Lisa Shallenut, who is our player coach in charge of CRE, and they.

She said they were as busy as they have ever been. So I was actually tiny bit surprised by that.

So I found that encouraging. But, again, if there is a couple of 100 basis points, the math starts, not working as well.

In terms of the deals penciling out. But we do have a lot of construction loans that we did.

So we would have the continuing draws from that. And then because of a possible raising rate environment, our customers are starting to ask about our mini perm program because capital markets slowdown.

So I do expect that we will see some pickup in the mini-perm and those will be 2- or 3-year loans as the owners are waiting for the capital markets to get a little bit better for their end.

Got it. Okay.

Very helpful. And then my second question is on the margin.

So appreciate all the color in terms of where we are going to jump off next quarter. And as you fleshed out the increased asset sensitivity here, would be helpful to get a sense for how you think about incremental rate hikes and what that means to the NIM.

And particularly what deposit beta assumptions underpin that.

Yeah. Russell, hey.

it is Tom H. Speir.

Good morning. So, yeah, good question.

So, guidance gives you the outlook is with the 25 basis point rate hike, in December. So, will benefit from obviously rates continuing to move higher.

So, that mid-3.70s is a good place to be when you think about our securities portfolio repositioning. And the yield increases that will come along with that along with our floating rate nature of our portfolio.

We have also got our fixed rate asset repricing on loans and securities, will be a continued tailwind. I think as we move forward from there, if we see continued rate hikes, there is opportunity for the margin to continue to expand The beta assumptions within that, so historically our interest bearing beta was in the high 50s, I think 59% that is a good place to anchor.

However, in the near term, we think we will see deposit costs perform better than that. This quarter.

So an opportunity to be lower and then move up over time depending on the speed of this rate cycle and the level of competition.

Okay, awesome. Thanks, Tom.

I appreciate it guys. Thanks for taking my question.

Just wanted to ask a follow-up on that new producer question that Russell asked. I am kind of curious if you could size the impact that group had on the deposit side.

I am just curious kind of what kind of success they are driving on the other side of the balance sheet.

Great question, Gary. So we have brought over some private bankers and they have certainly had an impact But in terms of managing that, reporting that on the deposit side, I do not have that in front of me, but we can get back to you on.

Okay. Great.

And I just wanted to clarify on the securities portfolio, is there any additional build to come or is that 6.5 billion or so right sized as you see it today?

Yes. So we ended the quarter around $6.8 billion and I think that 6.8 billion to $7 billion is a good level for us.

it is really going to be dependent on loan growth. Obviously, this quarter loans outperformed quite a bit.

So, we were a little slower to deploy into the securities portfolio. So, that will be the dynamic.

I think we are relatively close to that level and so we will just see how the balance sheet performs and we will go from there.

All right. Got it.

Thank you.

Gary, I wanted to get back to you. I do not have the answer, but I do have part of the answer.

We do not make loans without depository relationships. So just they all they definitely have contributed.

I just do not have the dollar amount.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes. Hey, great guys.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So it is kind of nice to see that the balance come together. I know there is quite a few moving pieces this quarter, but just kind of this newfound optionality you have with lower loan to deposit, high levels of cash.

And obviously strong momentum in the loan portfolio, you pointed out close to 10% organic growth this quarter. I mean, that the way we should start to think about your growth rate moving forward, just kind of knowing the optionality you now have with the balance sheet?

We start to think of UCB as more of a high single digit grower as we look across the balance of this year and into 2027?

This is-- I mean, Will, this is Lynn. Yes, that is our goal.

Again, we think we are in fantastic markets. We have been focused on hiring now for about 15 months.

We plan on continuing that. And Rich may want to add some color to that, But yes, that would be my view and my goal.

And to add a little more color to that, when we made this strategic decision to exit Navitas, we looked at an organic growth initiative and a 5-year plan. And roughly that was growing the amount of salespeople by 10% a year.

And that is roughly 20-ish people a year. And so we are ahead this year.

We certainly expect to hit that number next year. And we really feel that culture drives a lot of this too.

So if you. And the last thing I would say is it is not just headcount.

We are hiring, I think, very good people. They all have more than 20 years experience.

None are coming from headhunters. And they are all known by people at United Community.

Bill, I just want to jump in. This is Tom to add in an emphasize a couple of points you made around our optionality.

I think that is a key point. Our 77% loan to deposit ratio gives us a lot of flexibility.

Continue to grow our balance sheet and do so profitably in the thoughtful with respect to how we fund that on the deposit side. So, I think we are really differentiated with respect to our outlook relative to others and feel good about our future path.

Yes, that is great. And Tom, maybe just on the on that point there.

Have you guys kind of, you know, if you look out over the next, 12 to 18 months, you know, have you guys thought about what you would like to see this balance sheet composition look like and how quickly have you placed a timeline on how kind of quickly we could see some of this liquidity get deployed

Yeah, great question. I would just say that we do not forecast the loan to deposit ratio per se.

I think we have got quite a bit of runway to deploy into that. We want to continue, as Richard alluded to, to grow deposits alongside loans.

So we would be totally fine if loan deposit ratio stayed in this context, but we do have good flexibility for it to inch up over time, but I think that runway is into the foreseeable future.

Yeah. Okay.

that is helpful. I appreciate that color.

And Maybe lastly for me, Lynn, just more high level big picture. We talked our call about a month ago about just thinking about, you know, updated capital targets, you know, and where a longer term ROE could trend for UCB.

I know you guys had talked about getting to the drawing board and maybe fine pointing, what capital ratio targets could look like longer term. Are we any closer to talking about those targets today?

Just what kind of update do you have on the capital front?

Yes. We are still debating the actual targets for capital levels.

We are very comfortable where we are. We feel like the level that we have today gives us flexibility to if another Peach State kind of opportunity came around that we would be able to flex and do that, gives us the opportunity to do stock buybacks.

So we clearly have room at this level take some capital actions. And we are set on getting to that 15%+ ROTCE, regardless of where capital levels are.

And we tend to take capital down to get there. So we tend to take earnings up to get there.

So we are still debating the actual target level, we feel like we have got some room where we sit today.

Yeah. Okay.

that is fair enough. Well, thanks for the color, guys, and then nice quarter.

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions.

Just wanted to step back to the deposit side. It was good to see the NIB mix.

Held steady here at 27% level. Just as we think about kind of the intermediate to long term impacts of 27% level for some time?

So as we look into the near to intermediate term, I feel very comfortable with that. In terms of the agentic deposit activity, personally we are very cognizant of that.

We are thinking about that. I personally think it will be slower than some people have said.

Because if you think about our large depositors, already have multiple options including with us whether it is sweeps, whether it is ICS, whether it is index deposits, they have certainly got money market accounts. And these are large depositors or sophisticated people there within the bounds of their comfort And, you know, you want to be very comfortable that your money is safe, they were already optimizing their deposits.

And so and then on the small end, your typical consumer DDAs I really do not see the return relative to the risk for them turning over their passwords, etcetera. Today at least to an agent.

So personally think it is going to be slower. I know Tom has done some work and thought on this as well.

You may have some color to add.

Lynn, I think you summarized that really well. We are not dismissing this as a threat longer term to deposits, but in the near term, we really do not see that playing out.

Again, I think our the competitive advantage for us is our deposits pick on the retail side are going to be smaller, more granular. Those are operating accounts So, we see less need for folks to rate seek out there and you know, we do pay fair rates on our money market and CDs.

So, just less of a need for customers to seek that out elsewhere. So again, something we are paying attention to, but not seeing that as a threat.

At the moment.

that is very helpful. And then maybe just as a follow-up it was good to see mortgage gain on sale margin held steady at 2.6%.

But obviously, we are in what appears to be a higher for longer rate environment. Just kind of talk to us about the mortgage business.

And then if you could also touch on kind of expectations at least near term for SBA loan sale gains? Thanks.

Hi, this is Richard. How are you doing?

In terms of the mortgage forecast, we are certainly with interest rates where they are and where they may be heading, we are forecasting that down like the whole industry. So that is going to be in the 10% to 20% lower to depending on the quarter and the year.

And with regards to SBA, probably sales are flat on that in terms of premium, the return you get. it is flat right now.

So I do not see it trending up or down.

Richard. I appreciate it.

If I could just flip 1 more in, on credit. Everything obviously looks good, but we did see a little bit of an uptick in substandard classifieds.

Anything in there of note? Or it is just normal course of action?

Yeah. Hey, Mike.

it is Robert. I would exactly call it normal course of action.

In fact, I went back and looked and really we have been since COVID, we have been right in this 3% to 5% range and you would think in normal times it would actually be a little bit higher. So the 2.5% was really the outlier last quarter.

We feel like we are kind of where we have been historically and just the normal course of business.

Perfect. Thanks for taking my questions.

Welcome to the team, Tom.

Thank you.

Thanks. Good morning.

Wanted to ask about the, CECL metrics from S and P this quarter, Robert. And has there any been any movement up or down on CRE?

And does that portend any different to how you reserve in the future?

The CECL metrics in accordance with S and P, was that the question Christopher?

Yeah. Exactly.

Just to kind of what the guidance from the outsourced are.

So we are really forecasting a, stable economic environment in our forecast. So we are not seeing a lot of movement there.

You may recall we did establish back in 2024 a hurricane reserve and that fell off at the end of 25. So the numbers may look a little bit different there because of that hurricane reserve going away.

But maybe we use Moody's and Moody's does have a CRE price index.

Oh, Yes, absolutely. So there is a CRE price index and it is forecasting stable.

Prices if that is the CRE price index. Really, it is it is a stable to positive economic outlook.

Great. Thanks for catching that, Lynn.

I meant to say moody instead of S and P. And then I know you answered on the prior question about sort of the level of criticized being kind of stable, is right.

Is there any indication that those would sort of bounce around, go back in the next quarter? Or is it sort of just normal flow?

Yes. I do not-- I do-- I would expect it to bounce around.

I will say the 2.5% seemed unusually low. So I am not anticipating us going back to 2.5%.

You can look back here on the chart on page 12 and kind of just seems to run in the 3% to 5% range. And quite honestly, you look back longer history, those are very good numbers.

And so I would not expect it to get back down to that level. that is me, that is not a long term run rate for criticized and classified.

Great. And last question related is just as you continue to grow the loan portfolio, will the average life be kind of around that 3 to 3.5 years, again, just trying to relate charge offs and reserves?

In the long term.

Yes, absolutely. Yes, that would be a good number to use for average life.

Great, Robert. Thank you very much for taking our questions this morning.

Good morning, everyone. This is Emily Graves stepping in for David this morning.

So my first question is, what do you view as a reasonable core operating expense run rate going into the next quarter?

Hey, Emily. Good morning.

This is Tom. So, yes, so we, as you saw this quarter, we delivered in the mid-$150 million and that was down from last quarter primarily driven by the Navitas licensing settlement that happened in the second quarter.

As we look forward, again recall that we had 2 months of Navitas in our expenses and then we also had 2 months of Peach State. And so Navitas on a run rate basis was $9 million Peach State is $5 million So we picked up a little bit of that net benefit this quarter and you will see the rest of that flow into the fourth quarter on a full run rate basis and that will that will put us in the call it low-$150 million area.

From there, you will see us typical growth for us at 3% to 5% range along with other investments that we will make. So, that low-$150 million is a good level to use.

Great. Thank you.

And then, second question I have is what is a reasonable expectation for purchase accounting accretion, and how should we think about that going forward?

Yeah. So I think, purchase accounting accretion, you know, I would put that in kind of the $5 million context run rate a quarter.

Great.

Thank you for the color.

Yeah. Good morning.

Thanks, guys. Nice to have you here with us, Tom.

I guess, first question would be maybe I know you gave. Tom, I may have missed it, but some commentary on unexpected betas.

How do you think about if you were to quantify upside to the NIM from if we get you know, these 2 more hikes that are expected in the forward curve? Like, what do you think we will see with each 25 basis point hike to the NIM?

Yeah, Stephen, it is a good question. So again, if you step back and look at our balance sheet, we have roughly half of our loan and securities are floating rate.

And when you look at the deposits side, we have I mentioned that historically our beta was in the high 50s We obviously would just saw deposit cost interest bearing go up 4 basis points, so we are outperforming that. We would expect to be lower than the high 50s here in the near term.

And so with those dynamics along with the fixed rate asset repricing on loans and securities, I mean, we have got good tailwinds on the margin. So, that mid-3.70s for the fourth quarter that is a good kind of launching off point and I think there is opportunity for continued expansion given those dynamics.

Okay. Jake sense.

And I think you gave September, loan yields around, like, 5.83% x Navitas. What are you guys seeing in terms of new loan yields and maybe new deposits costs coming on average and are spreads largely holding?

Are they getting compressed with competition? Can you give us a feel for kind of what those dynamics look like?

Hi, this is Richard. I will cover the loan side.

So we have seen call it, the last 6 months, we have seen pricing compress a little bit. that is kind of flattened out on our side.

So we feel like right now, do not see that going further.

Yes. With respect to deposit pricing, I think all in our deposit pricing is been really in that kind of mid to high-2% area.

As we put on kind of all in new deposits. And so, obviously, as rates move up and we have got CD going on, those levels continue to tick up.

But I would think about that in the context of that beta that I mentioned. And the new loans are going on and The new loans are going on, call it, in the 6.25% range kind of area.

Is a good level to think about.

Okay. Very helpful.

And then just lastly for me, obviously, the share repurchase, I think, was done at $35.81 a share this quarter. And the whole industry is trading down a bit.

Did that lead you to, you guys could be more aggressive with the remaining authorization or should we expect that to be maybe somewhat ratable through year end 2027? How does the movement in the share price dictate that?

Yes. So it definitely impacts it.

We think it is very attractive at these rates. And we certainly expect to be to be active.

I would say though probably more throughout the year, but certainly you will see us be active at these current prices for sure.

Okay, great. Thanks for all the color and congrats on all the all the hard work and progress here over the last quarter.

it is impressive. Thank you.

Great. Well, thank you all for joining.

We really appreciate the questions. As always, if you have any follow ups or any additional information you need, do not hesitate to reach out to us, and we will look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thank you.