Good day and welcome to the Enterprise Financial Services Corp earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Peter Benoist. Please go ahead sir.

Thank you, Stephanie, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our Q3 earnings call. I would like to remind all listeners that during this call, we will be making forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from results contemplated in our forward statements, as a result of various important factors, including those described in our 2013 Annual Report, on Form 10-K and in subsequent filings with the SEC. Forward-looking statements speak only as of today Thursday, October 23, 2014, and the company undertakes no obligation to update them in light of new information or future events. I would also like to remind you that you can find a copy of our third quarter press release, which includes reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures referred to on our conference call in the Investor Relations section of our website. We are pleased with the overall results for the company for this quarter with reported earnings of $0.41 per fully diluted share, compared to $0.36 in the prior quarter. More importantly, our continued focus on core performance, net of the accounting effects of the current book showed strong results again as core pretax earnings increased 39% over the prior quarter and are up 5% year-over-year, and now represents 87% of reported earnings for the quarter. Performance drivers during the quarter included continued strong loan growth. Total new loans and advances were $350 million in the quarter, consistent with production levels in the prior quarter. C&I loans, commercial and industrial loans, were up 13% annualized during the quarter and 16% on a year-over-year basis. Total portfolio of loans increased at an 8% annualized rate and had increased 9% from the year ago period. We were encouraged to see an uptick in line utilization this quarter and very early signs of core loan yields…

Thank you, Peter. During the third quarter, we experienced a continued trend of strong new loan activity with originations up solidly from the second quarter in both the C&I and commercial real estate sectors. A large portion of the net growth in the quarter was in the C&I portfolio, most notably from the niche lines of business. Our consumer and residential real estate sectors also contributed to the growth. And while new loan activity was solid for commercial real estate, the portfolio in this sector was flat for the quarter as our number of larger real estate loans paid off due to sale of properties, project completions, permanent market refinancing and continued competitive pressures in this sector. As I mentioned, our niche lines of business had favorable quarter with all sectors growing at low to moderate double-digit growth rates. Enterprise value lending, our senior debt offering to private equity for M&A transactions grew nicely and seems to be gaining momentum compared to the first half of 2014. The activity in the M&A space for lower middle market companies is robust and we are starting to see some increase in higher multiples and leverage. However, our strategy to choose disciplined investors has enabled us to maintain salient asset quality on the book. As we expand our EVL strategy within the Midwest region outside of our current footprint, we are developing new private equity relationships and our opportunity pipeline is growing nicely in this sector. Insurance premium finance tax credit lending and asset based lending also double-digit annualized growth as well. The niche sectors now combined represent roughly 25% of our total loan book. On a market level, all regions posted loan growth for the period. Kansas City, in particular, had a strong quarter with annualized growth of 16%. Activity in Kansas…

Thank you, Scott. We reported $0.41 of earnings per diluted common share for the current quarter, which resulted in a return on average assets slightly above 1% and a return on average equity of 10.6%. During the third quarter, our financial performance continues to reflect the progress we are making by executing on our strategy, particularly as it relates to the performance of the core bank. Core pretax income totaled $10.9 million, which was a $3 million or 39% increase when compared to the linked quarter. There were several moving pieces to the increase and I want to highlight the items driving the growth. Peter and Scott discussed the loan growth we experienced and we are pleased with the $158 million of net loan growth during 2014. The 10% annualized growth rate has reflected gains in market share and we expect to target a similar level of growth on average to continue for the remainder of 2014 and beyond. Our loan growth over the last five quarters has resulted in measurable improvement in the run rate of core net interest income. Additionally net interest margin held up well as yields on portfolio loans experienced less compression than in prior quarters and credit results continue to be favorable, as we experienced net recoveries during the third quarter. Fee income was stable during the quarter. However, our success fee on a transaction that we expected to be nonrecurring improved core earnings by approximately $0.03 per diluted common share. Also our reported expenses for the quarter was slightly higher than the linked quarter at $21 million. However, the reported amounts included $1 million expense for FDIC clawback which I will discuss in further detail later and $200,000 of severance related expenses. Without these items, expenses would have been below $20 million for the…

(Operator Instructions). And we will go first to Chris McGratty with KBW.

Hi, good afternoon, everybody.

Hi, Chris.

Hi, Chris.

Hi, Peter. You guys generate quite a bit of capital organically. Given the volatility of earnings, you are just accreting capital from the purchase impaired [ph] book fairly quickly, yet your stock did, kind of, $1.25 (inaudible). How do you guys feel about a buyback at some point to get the stock a little bit higher? And can you talk to us about, maybe, expectations for, maybe, a dividend?

Yes. Good question. It's a topic, I think from the Board's perspective, that we will have some discussion on. I think our current view right now is the focus was on generating capital. In terms of capital deployment, we have talked a lot about M&A vis–à–vis a primary opportunity. I don't have any new comments as it relates to our position on M&A relative to updates beyond what I said last quarter. In that context, obviously, our currency in terms of where it's currently trading gives us some pause from an M&A perspective in terms of timing, but we still look at it as a primary opportunity to deploy capital. But beyond that, to the extent that those opportunities don't come to the fore, I think it's accurate to say that the Board will have some discussion around your two questions.

All right. Fair enough. Thanks. Keene, on the earning assets, how should we be thinking about the securities book on a dollar basis? It's not large, but should we be thinking earning asset growth trailed loan growth as you remix?

Yes. I think some of that will have to do with where deposit levels go. I think right now it's going to trail a little bit, but I would say, over the next two quarters, you will see us reinvesting a little bit more. But for right now, I think we are expected to trend down in the near-term and then we will have to maintain a level for 2015 as we fund more assets and loan growth.

Great and just one last one and then I will hop out. Interest rate sensitivity is obviously a hot topic. You guys are asset-sensitive, as you described. Can you talk about the proportion of your C&I book that's currently with floors?

It's a pretty small proportion. I think it's less than 20%. We would still benefit when you look at our asset sensitivity with rates up just modestly. So I think that really helps us. That is a pretty small proportion. We have seen a lot of competition drive the floors out of most of our deals.

All right. Thank you very much.

And we now go to Jeff Rulis with D. A. Davidson.

Thanks. Good afternoon. It seems like the operating expense guidance range has lowered over time, now in the $19 million to $21 million a quarter. I guess, has something structural changed in allowing that to be lowered?

Jeff, this is Peter. No. I wouldn't say anything structural has changed. I think I have indicated in prior quarters that we sort of view or discipline our expenses as a process, not an event. A structural change would be an event. We just continue to be very focused on looking for opportunities to drive greater efficiencies. You are seeing the results of that now in terms of the numbers and in that context. That's why we are revising our guidance down. I think we feel pretty good about our efforts to-date. We have indicated in our comments that we continue to focus on the cost side of the business. What we are intending not to do though is impair our revenue momentum or our growth momentum, which we feel very good about right now. So in that context, we will continue to focus on the cost side. Some of that relating to application of technology in ways that perhaps we haven't done as consistently or as thoroughly as we do now, which again is an efficiency move, but again designed to also to enhance the revenue side of the equation, not just the cost side of business.

Right, and not to belabor this too much, but I guess if you are at the low-end of that range, does that mean growth opportunities haven't necessarily transpired? And then if you are at the high-end, it's that you have, I guess, acted upon some opportunities that you do see. Would that correlation be correct?

I don't know that I follow your thinking there.

Well, if it's at the low-end, in other words, if growth doesn't play out as you foresee, we would see lower expenses, but if you are seeing greater opportunities and room for investment, it might be at the high-end. Or is that just simply not growth-dependent? It's just a range that you feel comfortable operating in?

Maybe dividing the two. We will continue to invest in greater opportunities. And in that regard, a lot of that, I think does relate to some of the comments we have made from a recruiting and hiring perspective, particularly (inaudible) both the wealth business and commercial banking business. In that context, you have seen the results of some of that over the last two quarters, given loan growth. We have seen that now really play through in Kansas City. Scott has commented on that in past quarters. We are beginning to see origination activity and funding activity in Arizona as a result of investments in talent out there. So we have never change our position in that regard in terms of investing for growth from an HR perspective. Where we tend to focus more in terms of the cost side of the business, or what I call the back-end of the business where we can drive greater operating efficiencies by looking at processes that we can hopefully apply technology to and overtime take labor out of. That wouldn't necessarily impair growth. To your point, if we saw growth rates slowing or the opportunity to continue to grow diminished, I suspect we look at the cost side of the business just the same way we are looking at it right now.

Great, thanks and maybe just a quick housekeeping. The tax rate, bounce around but in the same range, I guess that mid-34 is still a good number to use, going forward?

Yes. We think that that's a good rate.

Okay. I appreciate it. Thanks.

Thank you.

(Operator Instructions). And we go next to Andrew Leisch with Sandler O'Neill.

Hi, guys. Good afternoon.

Hi, Andrew.

Hi, Andrew.

I am curious, was there much of a contribution from the mortgage banking business this quarter?

We saw a little bit of revenue from it, but the contribution was relatively muted.

Okay. You guys covered rest of my question. So I am going to hop back. Thanks.

Thank you.

Thanks, Andrew.

We will go now to Daniel Cardenas with Raymond James.

Good afternoon, guys.

Hi, Dan.

Hi, Dan.

Could you give us some guidance as to what loan to deposit ratio you would be comfortable operating at?

Well, I think right now, we are getting to the 95% to100%. I think we are looking at moving it down from there from 100%. So that would be on a short-term basis. We wouldn't let it move up or down within a range depending on what our expectations are for particular deposit levels or funding. Typically we see some elevated deposit levels at the end of the year and I think this year is no exception to that. So right now, we would probably be at our highest loan to deposit ratio and we expect that to come down over the next several quarters and then maybe loop back up in the next year or so. So we are certainly focused on deposit gathering and deposit generation and the reason I think you seen some of the positive level, for the loan to deposit move the way you have is, we try to fund the liability side as efficiently and cheaply and it's driven that ratio up just slightly for us, but we have the ability to manage that down if we need to.

Okay and then, is there any particular market that shows, perhaps, greater promise than others in terms of deposit gathering?

Dan, this is Scott. I can handle that one. I think our base of C&I business really gives us some good flexibility to continue to grow deposits. We have got a strong treasury management team in Kansas City and in St. Louis and intend to use them proactively to go after deposit-only type relationships. So I think both Kansas City and St. Louis have promised there, in terms of deposit development.

And are you seeing a pickup in competition in of your markets on the deposit side?

I wouldn't say necessarily that we have seen more intense competition. I think there are several smaller banks that tend to be a little more focused on it. So I haven't seen anything from a competitive standpoint.

Okay, great. Thanks for all the color, guys.

Thank you.

And we will go now to Brian Martin with FIG Partners.

Good afternoon, guys.

Hi, Brian.

Maybe can you talk a little bit about the loan yield stabilizing? Is that kind of consistent across all the markets? Do you feel like we have kind of reached the bottom here on the loan yield compression? Or are you still holding your own?

Brian, this is Keene. I am not sure we are seeing the bottom. But we have certainly seen a much greater stabilization, I would say, when you look at rates coming on. We see that rate holding up much more generally. I think our volume has been pretty stable, by market and by type. So we haven't seen real big repositioning of the balance sheet like we did over the last few quarters from fixed to variable. So that's helped us a little bit in that regard. And then there is still going to be a little bit of net yield compression from some higher rates still coming off, but as you pointed out, it does look better and we are seeing a little of little bit of light there. We will continue to get a little bit of yield and net interest margin compression as it varies by quarter depending on how some of that activity plays out over the course of next year, but we certainly feel a lot better about it sitting here today than we did early in the year.

Okay. Well, can you just talk a little bit about, you have talked about these expense initiatives you guys have done. Maybe kind of what specifically you have taken on? And then the guidance range, whatever the $19 million to $21 million-ish, does that include or exclude any impact of the FDIC clawback potentially?

Well, I would say that the guidance range is exclusive of any FDIC clawback. That includes any operating costs for that book, but not necessarily any clawback and I don't think we currently anticipate any additional clawback. If we did, we would have reported it. So from that perspective, and also to, I would just point out, I know we have got a lot of focus here on the lower expense run rate, by and large, if you look back a year, we have improved credit costs and we have improved legal costs along associated with reduced levels of OREO and classified loans, et cetera. So a fair part of that reduction to the lower end of our $20 million to $22 million run rate is really just from improved position and cleanliness of the balance sheet. And then a little bit of the rest of it is just some modest areas of efficiency improvement that we have been able to drive out of the business and challenged ourselves on. So there really isn't a big model shift there or anything like that and we look at it a little bit differently, maybe an terms of, it's an opportunity for us to redeploy, if we do have an investment opportunity in talent or customer facing books.

Yes. I guess, and just to that point, I mean, other areas you are reinvesting in currently? Or has it been more just the former at this point?

Can you clarify your question, Brian? I am not sure I gathered that.

The areas you are investing in the business to grow the business. You have talked about the savings and expense kind of cuts you have made, but anything you are currently investing whether it be new initiatives or anything to grow the business? Were you seeing opportunities?

Well, Brian, this is Scott. I think talent certainly is the area I mentioned where we are starting to see some traction in Kansas City from the talent we have added there. We continue to have our eyes open in all our markets. We did in fact add an additional experience C&I to lender recently, another one in Kansas City that had experience with UMB and bank hold interest. So w are opportunistic there where we could pickup some talent that can add. We would have our eyes open, it there were team opportunities as well. So those are ongoing discussions.

Okay, All right. That's all I had. Thanks very much.

We have no further questions in queue at this time.

I would just wrap up. Hi, this is Peter Benoist, saying we feel great about our momentum at this point. We are sort of heading into 2015,. I think with a great positioning in all our markets. We expect, as we have indicated relative to loan growth will continue. So we feel very hood about where we are. And we look forward to meeting with you again at the end of the year. Thank you for joining the call. Thanks very much.

This concludes our conference. Thank you for your participation.