Good morning. Welcome to the 2026 Provident Financial Services Annual Meeting of Stockholders. This meeting is being held virtually, and at this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Chris Martin, Executive Chairman of the Board of Provident Financial Services. Mr. Martin, please go ahead.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is Chris Martin, the Executive Chairman of the Board of Provident Financial Services. On behalf of your board of directors, I'd like to welcome you to our 24th Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which is once again being held virtually this year. We appreciate everyone who has joined us this morning. Before beginning the business portion of today's meeting, allow me to introduce the other members of our board of directors who are participating in today's meeting. James P. Dunigan, Brian M. Flynn, Ursuline Foley, Brian A. Gragnolati, James E. Hanson II, Matthew K. Harding, Edward J. Leppert, Nadine Leslie, Robert E. McCracken, John Pugliese, Thomas J. Shara, and Anthony J. Labozzetta, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Let me also introduce the officers of Provident Financial Services who are also participating in today's meeting. Bennett MacDougall, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Thomas M. Lyons, our Chief Financial Officer, and Michael A. Perito, our Investor Relations Officer.
Also with us remotely today is John Gorman and Marc Levy of Luse Gorman, our outside securities law counsel. We'll now turn to the business portion of today's meeting. As of March 27th, 2026, the record date fixed by the board of directors for determining stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting, the company had 130,313,684 shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote. Commencing on April 8th, 2026, notices of this meeting and the availability of proxy materials were mailed to all stockholders of record as of the record date. The corporate secretary will file a copy of those notices and proof of the original mailing with the minutes of this meeting. Before calling the meeting to order, I'd like to mention two administrative items. First, the board has appointed Peter Deskovich of Broadridge Financial Solutions as Inspector of Election to tabulate the votes at this meeting.
Mr. Deskovich 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 proxy for at least 84% 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 now proceed to the items being voted upon at 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 question by entering in the field provided on the landing page 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, four directors are to be elected to the class of directors whose terms expire in 2029 or until their successors are elected and qualified. The nominees for directors are Brian A. Gragnolati, Edward J. Leppert, Nadine Leslie, and Thomas J. Shara. If any stockholder wishes to submit a question relating to the election of the directors, now is the time to do so. You can submit your question by entering it in the field provided on the landing page for today's meeting.
Seeing no questions, our second item of business is a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation. Your board of directors is asking stockholders to cast a non-binding advisory vote to approve the compensation paid to the company's named executive officers. If any stockholder wishes to submit a question related 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 ending December 31st, 2026. Our stockholders are now being asked to ratify that appointment. Representing KPMG virtually at today's meeting are Brian Reddington, a Partner in the firm, and Andrew Welborn, 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, this is the time to do so. We'll now vote on the matters before the meeting. Please remember that if you 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 voting button provided on the landing page for today's meeting and vote your shares promptly. 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. We will announce the results in a Form 8-K filing.
I'll ask Tony Labozzetta, our President and Chief Executive Officer, for a few thoughts about the company and the opportunities that lie ahead. Tony?
Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. Provident produced strong financial results in 2025, expanding our profitability, generating record revenues, organically growing our balance sheet, and driving meaningful positive operating leverage. The benefits of our increased scale, risk management, and diversified revenue streams all contributed to these favorable results, and most importantly, position us well to sustain the momentum through 2026. The bank has now produced higher pre-provision net revenue year-over-year for seven consecutive quarters, making considerable progress on our goal of delivering top quartile risk-adjusted returns to our shareholders. Beyond Provident's strong financial performance was the notable progress made on our key strategic initiatives, in addition to our consistent focus on customer and employee experiences. During the last 12 months, we saw our loan pipeline steadily build, reaching record levels in the first quarter of 2026 at $3.1 billion.
This was the first time in the bank's history that both our commercial real estate and commercial industrial pipelines exceeded $1 billion. While we also see strong activity in the specialty lending and middle market verticals. Of utmost importance, we have maintained our risk management discipline even as our growth has accelerated, which is evidenced by our strong and sustained credit performance, including relatively low levels of net charge-offs. While geopolitical uncertainty remains difficult to predict, we are confident that the bank's credit outlook and believe Provident is well-positioned from a liquidity, capital, and risk management perspective to continue growing and enhancing profitability. In an increasing competitive environment, we believe the progress we've made on diversifying our revenue stream will be a differentiator to our future earnings performance. Our insurance agency, Provident Protection Plus, has maintained its double-digit revenue and earnings growth trajectory.
While our wealth management platform, Beacon Trust, is beginning to see early tangible returns on investments made in 2025 to accelerate AUM growth. Our ability to deepen customer relationships and provide a best-in-class experience should continue to fortify Provident's strong position in the marketplace and help us maintain our historical cost of funding advantage versus peers as we grow. We also continue to make the necessary investments to enhance our digital and enterprise infrastructure. Notably, our team is working hard to complete our previously disclosed core systems conversion, which will occur in September of 2026, while also making progress on our digital AI and data infrastructure roadmaps, which will be critical to our long-term success. I would like to thank our employees for their dedication, our board of directors for their strategic guidance, and you, our stockholders, for your continued trust and partnership.
2025 was a record year for Provident in many ways. We continue to advance our strategy, deepen our community ties, and emerged stronger. We are honored to serve as the preferred financial partner for our customers, and we are confident in our ability to create long-term value for all stakeholders. Thank you. Chris?
Thank you, Tony. With that, we will open the meeting to questions from our stockholders. Please click on the Q&A button provided on the landing page to submit your questions. Seeing no questions, I'll now ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Motion.
Second. The 2026 annual meeting of stockholders is now adjourned. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for participating in today's meeting. We appreciate your confidence in PFS, and hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend. Thank you.
This concludes the 2026 annual meeting of stockholders for Provident Financial Services. Thank you for joining us, and have a great day. You may now disconnect.