Provident Financial Services, Inc. (PFS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, my name is Sia, and I will be the conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Provident Financial Services, Inc. Annual Stockholders Meeting. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Chris Martin. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is Chris Martin, Chairman of the Board of Provident Financial Services. On behalf of your Board of Directors, I'd like to welcome you to our 18th Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which for the first time, is being held virtually via the Internet. We appreciate everyone who has joined us virtually this morning. Before beginning the business portion of today's meeting, allow me to introduce the other members of your Board of Directors who are participating remotely in today's meeting: Robert Adamo, Thomas Berry, Laura Brooks, James Dunigan, Frank Fekete, Ursuline Foley, Terence Gallagher, Matthew Harding, Carlos Hernandez and John Pugliese. Let me also introduce the officers of Provident Financial Services who are also participating in this morning's meeting: John Kuntz, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary; Tom Lyons, our Chief Financial Officer; and Len Gleason, our Investor Relations Officer. Also with us remotely today is John Gorman of Luse Gorman, our outside Securities Law Counsel. We'll now turn to the business portion of today's meeting. As of March 2, 2020, the record date fixed by the Board of Directors for determining stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting, the company had 65,826,269 shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote. Commencing on March 13, 2020, notices of this meeting and the availability of proxy materials were mailed to all stockholders of record as of the record date. As you know, subsequent to that mailing, on April 2, 2020, the company issued a news release advising that this Annual Meeting be held as a virtual, rather than an in-person meeting, due to restrictions on public gatherings resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. The company subsequently filed with the SEC additional proxy materials in the form of a Notice of a Change of the place of the annual meeting. The Corporate Secretary will file a copy of each of these notices, the news release and proof of the original mailing with the minutes of this meeting. Before calling the meeting to order, I'd like to mention 2 administrative items. First, the Board has appointed Peter Descovich of Broadridge Financial Solutions as Inspector of Election to tabulate the votes at this meeting. Mr. Descovich has taken his oath and is participating virtually in today's meeting. Second, the agenda and the rules of procedure, which will govern the conduct of this meeting, can be accessed from the landing page of this webcast for your reference. By adhering to the rules of procedure, we can maintain an orderly and efficient meeting. Your Board of Directors holds proxies for at least 90% of the shares outstanding. A quorum is, therefore, present for this meeting, and I now call the business portion of the meeting to order. At the conclusion of voting on all matters presented, I will announce the closing of the polls and the conclusion of the business portion of the meeting. We'll now proceed to the items being voted upon today's meeting. Each item of business will be put before the meeting, and there will be an opportunity to submit questions regarding each item. You can submit your questions by entering it in the field provided in the web portal for today's meeting. We will then vote all items at one time. Our first item of business relates to the election of directors. As stated in the proxy statement, 4 directors are to be elected to the class of directors whose terms expire in 2023 or until their successors are elected and qualified. The nominees for director are: Robert Adamo, Laura L. Brooks, Terence Gallagher and Carlos Hernandez. As also noted in the proxy statement, 1 director is to be elected to the class of directors whose terms expire in 2021 or until her successor is elected and qualified. The nominee for director is Ursuline F. Foley. If any stockholder wishes to submit a question relating to the election of directors, now is the time to do so. You can submit a question by entering it in the field provided on the web portal for today's meeting. Seeing no question. Our second item of business is a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation. Your Board of Directors is asking stockholders to cast a nonbinding advisory vote to approve the compensation paid to the company's named executive officers. If any stockholder wishes to submit a question relating to the advisory vote to approve executive compensation, now is the time to do so. Seeing no questions. Our third and last item of business is the ratification of the appointment of our independent registered public accounting firm. As stated in the proxy statement, KPMG LLP has been reappointed to serve as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended December 31, 2020. Our stockholders are now being asked to ratify that appointment. With us virtually at today's meeting from KPMG are Christie Shea and Dan White, both of whom are partners in the firm, and Owen Amster, a senior manager with the firm. If any stockholder wishes to submit a question regarding the ratification of the appointment of the independent registered public accounting firm, now is the time to do so. We'll now vote on the matters before the meeting. Please remember that if you have already previously voted by proxy, you do not need to vote again. If you haven't already voted and would like to vote your shares now, please click on the Vote Here button, provided on the web portal for today's meeting, and vote your shares promptly. [Voting]

I now declare the polls closed and the business portion of the meeting is concluded. The inspector of election will now tabulate the votes, and we expect that the results will be available in approximately 24 hours. And we will announce the results in a Form 8-K filing tomorrow morning. In addition, we will be releasing our first quarter 2020 financial results next Thursday, April 30. I'd like to now ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting.

Move to adjourn.

May I have a second to that motion?

Second.

The 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders is now adjourned. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for participating in today's meeting. We look forward to seeing you in person at next year's annual meeting, and we hope that you and your families are safe. And we are optimistic about the future as we weather the COVID virus and its impact to our customers, our employees and to you, our stockholders. Thank you very much.