Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (BRKL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting for Brookline Bancorp, Inc. Our host for today's call is Michael McCurdy. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I'll turn it over to Michael McCurdy. Go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good afternoon. As Chief Risk Officer, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Brookline Bancorp, Inc., and on behalf of our Board of Directors and management, I'd like to welcome you to our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. This is our first virtual meeting of stockholders. Due to the public health concerns surrounding COVID-19 and in keeping with guidance from government officials, we have made the difficult decision to hold our annual meeting in a virtual-only format this year. We thank you for your continued support of our company. It is now a little after 2:00 p.m., and in accordance with the notice of meeting, I would like to call to order the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. It is a pleasure to welcome you today. I will be the Chairman of this meeting. I will go through the business of this meeting first, and we will take your questions at the end of this meeting. Please note this meeting is being recorded. For those of you who many have not voted -- for those of you who may have not voted your shares before this meeting, the polls are now open and you may vote your shares electronically using the vote now button on your screen. Stockholders who have already voted and do not wish to change their vote do not need to take any further action. The business before this meeting is described in our notice and proxy statement, a copy of which has been mailed on or about April 3, 2020, to all of our stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 20, 2020. As you know, the company subsequently filed a notice of change of location of the annual meeting with the SEC to a virtual-only meeting on April 17, 2020. Before proceeding to the formal business, I would like to begin by introducing the directors of the company who are in attendance by phone: David Chapin, Joanne Chang, John Doyle, Margaret Boles Fitzgerald, John Hackett, John Hall, Thomas Hollister, Bogdan Nowak, John Pereira, Paul Perrault, Charles Peck, Merrill Sherman, Joseph Slotnik and Peter Wilde. Next I would like to recognize that many members of our management team are in attendance by phone and including our President and Chief Executive Officer, Paul Perrault; and Chief Financial Officer, Carl Carlson. Our outside counsel -- outside securities counsel, Goodwin Procter, is represented virtually at this meeting by Samantha Kirby. Our independent accountants, KPMG, are represented virtually at this meeting by Mary Crealese. Our transfer agent, Broadridge Financial Solutions, is represented virtually at this meeting by [ Jennifer Borden ], who will be serving as the inspector of election. A link to the rules of conduct for the annual meeting is on our virtual meeting page. As a reminder, stockholders attending today's annual meeting can vote their shares online now through the close of the polls by clicking the vote here button on your screen. If you previously cast your vote and do not wish to make any changes, your vote will be recorded as cast, and you do not need to do anything further. The Board of Directors fixed March 20, 2020, as the record date for determining the shares of the company's common stock entitled to vote at this meeting. As Corporate Secretary, I confirm that the meeting was called and proper notice was given to all stockholders of record. A copy of the notice of annual meeting and affidavit are on file. The Board of Directors has appointed [ Jennifer Borden ] as independent inspector of election for this meeting, and she will tabulate the results of the voting. The inspector of election has signed the oath of office, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The inspector of elections has confirmed that a quorum is present, and we are qualified to act on all matters set forth before the annual meeting. With the meeting now convened and a quorum present, we will now move through the 3 proposals before the annual meeting. Vote on proposal number one, election of directors. The first item of business is to consider and vote on the proposal to elect the 4 nominees named in the proxy statement to serve for the 3-year term and until their respective successors are duly elected and qualified. The Board of Directors has nominated Margaret Boles Fitzgerald, Bogdan Nowak, Merrill Sherman and Peter Wilde for election as directors of the company. Vote on proposal number two. The second item of business is to ratify the appointment of KPMG as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2020. Vote on proposal number three. Third item of business is to hold a nonbinding advisory vote on the compensation of our named executive officers. Before I report the preliminary vote results for the 3 proposal -- for these 3 proposals, I will pause for a moment to allow anyone who has not cast their votes electronically to do so. [Voting]

It seems that all those desiring to vote have cast their votes. I therefore now declare the voting polls closed as of 2:05 p.m. Based on the preliminary voting results, each proposal has now passed with more than a majority vote. I'm pleased to announce that the 4 directors named in the proxy statement have been elected for a 3-year term, and the other 2 proposals have passed as the Board recommended. The final results of voting will be included in the minutes of this meeting, and I will also -- and will also be included in a Form 8-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within the next 4 business days. We have now completed the formal portion of our agenda. There being no other business before this meeting, this concludes the official business portion of this meeting. 2020 Brookline Bancorp Annual Meeting is now adjourned, and we now will have some time for questions and answers.

First question.

Okay. So the first question that we have is, "I have a commercial apartment loan due for renewal. After 45 years with the bank, why am I, for the first time, asked [ to pay point ] to renew as the money is already out there?

Let me start -- this is Paul Perrault. Let me start by saying thank you very much for your long-standing customer relationship. And I don't know the loan specifically. We have not instituted an across-the-board pricing policy. And so I would suggest that it may have to do with the fact that the current rates are really, really low, and we may be looking to maintain some level of profitability in the account. But I would suggest that you negotiate that directly with your banker, which would be at Brookline Bank, and speak to him about how that might be managed -- him or her.

Any other questions? No questions. All right. There no -- being no further questions, I want to thank you for your time and attendance today. All of us at Brookline Bancorp wish you and your families all the best during this time. We will continue to serve our communities as we all work through this time together. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us, you may now disconnect.