Good morning. My name is Marty Dietrich, and as chairman of the NBT Bancorp board of directors, I am pleased to Welcome you to the NBT's 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. As is our custom, we will conduct the business portion of our meeting and then answer questions. It is now just after 11:00 A.M . Eastern Time, May 19th, 2026, and this meeting is officially called to order. Scott Kingsley is President and Chief Executive Officer of NBT Bancorp and serves on the board of directors. He will conduct the formal proceedings of today's meeting and then provide an update on our company. Good morning, Scott.
Morning, and thank you, Marty, and welcome to everyone joining us today. We appreciate the support of our shareholders and the trust you place in NBT's Board of Directors, executive management team, and the nearly 2,400 NBT employees who serve our customers and help move our organization forward every day. Before we continue, I'd like to recognize our directors and others joining us on this virtual platform. All of our directors are in attendance today. We sincerely appreciate their expertise and the thoughtful guidance they provide, which is vital to our continued success. Our executive management team is also with us today. I'd like to thank each of them for their leadership, for their collaborative way they develop and execute our strategies, and for how they inspire and support our employees.
With us to conduct this annual meeting are President of NBT Bank, Joe Stagliano, Chief Financial Officer, Annette Burns, and General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Randy Sparks. The company has appointed Randy Sparks to act as Inspector of Election. Earlier today, he swore an oath to serve in that capacity. Finally, representatives from KPMG, our independent auditors, and Hogan Lovells, our corporate counsel, are also present for this meeting. After we adjourn the formal meeting, I will provide an update on NBT, and we will answer questions from shareholders. Questions can be submitted through the conclusion of the business update. The Board of Directors fixed March 23rd, 2026, as the record date for determining shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting. An affidavit has been delivered attesting to the fact that meeting documents were mailed commencing April 6th, 2026, to all shareholders as of the record date.
This affidavit will be incorporated into the minutes of this meeting. As of the record date, there were 52,009,646 shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting. We are informed by the Inspector of Election that approximately 82% of our common stock is represented in today's vote totals. Since this represents more than a majority of the voting power of all issued and outstanding stock entitled to vote on the record date, a quorum is present for purposes of transacting business. We are conducting this annual meeting for the following purposes: to elect 12 directors, to approve on a non-binding basis the Say -on -Pay proposal, and to ratify the appointment of KPMG LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm.
These proposals were discussed in detail in our proxy statement and are in the notice of this annual meeting. If any stockholder would like to make a comment regarding any of these proposals, please submit your comment through the web portal. The polls are now open. Any stockholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. Shareholders who have sent in their proxies or voted via telephone or internet and who did not want to change their vote need not take any further action. At this time, we will pause to provide time for shareholders to vote. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls for the 2026 NBT Bancorp Annual Meeting of Stockholders closed.
At this time, I will turn the meeting over to Randy Sparks for the voting results.
Thank you, Scott. The 12 directors nominated have been elected. The say on pay proposal has been approved, and the appointment of KPMG as our independent registered public accounting firm has been ratified.
Thank you, Randy. With the formal proceedings of the meeting complete, I will provide a brief update on NBT. I would first like to recognize Amy Wiles, Executive Vice President, Chief Credit Officer, and Chief Risk Officer, who will be transitioning to retirement in June and continuing as a strategic advisor through year-end. Amy has dedicated more than 40 years to banking, including the past decade in executive leadership at NBT. During that time, she has played a central role in strengthening our credit culture and advancing our enterprise risk management practices while helping position our company for significant growth. We are deeply grateful for Amy's leadership and the lasting impact she has made on our organization, and we wish her the very best for the future. We are also pleased to have strong internal leadership ready to step into those important roles.
Tara Trafton will assume the role of Chief Credit Officer, and Joseph Sergienko will become Chief Risk Officer. Tara will bring more than 30 years of banking experience, including deep expertise in credit and commercial banking leadership. Joseph brings 25 years of expertise in enterprise risk management and compliance, advising financial institutions of all sizes and complexities. Their appointments reflect the depth of talent within NBT and reinforce our confidence in the continued strength of our leadership team. Turning to our results, NBT's 2025 operating performance reflected the strength of our community banking model, our diversified revenue streams, and disciplined execution. We reported operating net income of $194.5 million and earnings per share of $3.82, driven by contributions from the Evans Bancorp merger, solid balance sheet growth, and improving net interest margin, and record performance in our fee-based businesses.
Together, these factors produced positive operating leverage and reinforced the strength of our diversified business model. Loan and deposit growth in 2025 benefited from both organic activity and the Evans Bancorp merger. Total loans increased 16.3% to $11.6 billion, and deposits grew 16.9% to $13.5 billion. Non-interest income remained a meaningful contributor, with our non-banking businesses delivering record results. Combined revenues for EPIC, NBT Insurance, and NBT Wealth Management increased 8% over the prior year. NBT continues to maintain a strong capital position that gives us the opportunity to support organic growth, dividend improvement, and other strategic opportunities. Last year, we marked our 13th consecutive year of annual dividend increases that demonstrate our ongoing commitment to providing consistent and favorable long-term returns for our shareholders.
We recently reported results for the first quarter of 2026. Our solid operating performance, including net income of $51.1 million and earnings per share of $0.98, was driven by disciplined balance sheet management, the growth of our diversified revenue streams, and the continued benefits of integrating Evans Bancorp into our franchise. Growth in non-interest income continues to be positive, highlighted by a new all-time high in quarterly revenue generation from our retirement plan administration business. Taking a look at our stock performance, this chart shows the past five years. We can see that NBT performed at a level that is meaningfully above the average of our peer group in blue and the KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index in gray. These results illustrate NBT's consistent outperformance of our peers and validate the continued effectiveness of our business model.
Across our franchise, we see meaningful opportunities for continued growth throughout our footprint and in all of our businesses. Our network now spans seven states, and we are expanding in a disciplined and targeted way, building on the momentum from our recent acquisitions of Evans Bank in 2025 and Salisbury Bancorp in 2023, as well as continued organic investment in our markets. Just as importantly, we believe all our markets and business lines are highly investable. Our diversified offerings from core banking to wealth management, insurance, and retirement services allow us to build deeper, more holistic relationships with our customers. As we move forward, we are confident in our ability to continue growing across our footprint, strengthening our presence in communities we serve, and delivering long-term value for our shareholders.
As we look ahead, we remain focused on disciplined execution through thoughtful investment and being a trusted partner to our customers as they plan for what comes next. At the center of our progress is our team, whose commitment to our customers and to one another continues to strengthen our organization every day. With that foundation, we are confident in our ability to continue delivering long-term value for our shareholders. Now that we have completed the business portion of the meeting, we have time to answer questions from our shareholders. No questions have been submitted. Thank you for taking the time to join us here virtually today. We appreciate the support of our shareholders and the confidence you have placed in NBT's Board of Directors, management, and our entire team. This concludes our meeting.
Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.