First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP) Q3 2020 Earnings Conference Call - Final Transcript

Good morning, and welcome to the First BanCorp Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call and webcast. [Operator Instruction]

I would now like to turn the conference over to John Pelling, IRO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Debbie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining First Bancorp's conference call and webcast to discuss the company's financial results for the third quarter of 2020. Joining you today from First Bancorp are Aurelio Alemain, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Orlando Berges, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin today's call, it is my responsibility to inform you that this call may involve certain forward-looking statements such as projections of revenue, earnings and capital structure as well as statements on the plans and objectives of the company's business. The company's actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements made due to important factors described in the company's latest SEC filings. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call. And if anyone does not already have a copy of the webcast presentation or press release, you can access them at our website, 1firstbank.com.

At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Aurelio AlemAin. Aurelio?

Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our earnings call today. Please, let's move to Slide four of the presentation. It was a very important quarter for our corporation and I would like to go over some key highlights and then expand in certain matters. First of all, we're extremely pleased with -- that we completed our strategic acquisition by closing the Santander transaction on September 1. This transaction not only solidifies our position in the island, but strengthens our competitiveness in commercial, retail as well as residential. I'm very pleased to welcome our 150,000 new customers and we look forward to support them, to support their plans with an expanded branch network, expanded service channels and enhanced technological offerings. On the economic front, definitely the relief fund from the pandemic combined with 2017 hurricane funds being deployed have bolstered liquidity in our market and will continue to drive economic activity. We'll touch on that. On the balance sheet side, even following the completion of the acquisition we truly sustain a fortress balance sheet, our liquidity reserve capital levels are among the highest in the banking sector. Core performance was strong for the quarter. We generated $28.6 million of net income. Pretax pre-provision was $77 million with only one month of earnings from the acquired operations and loan originations were strong at $971 million for the quarter. We basically increased originations in all categories through the quarter. Total deposits, excluding brokered and government, increased to $12.5 million.

And finally, our capital ratios remain among the highest in the banking sectors and capital actions remain a priority as we see the economic environment stabilizing. Now let's cover more closely a few of these items on Slide 6, starting with Slide 6. Let's talk about