Hello and welcome to the Independent Bank Corp. first quarter 2008 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Now I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Denis Sheahan.

Thank you Amy. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us on the call. This afternoon’s agenda will include a brief review of our first quarter 2008 earnings and then guidance for the remainder of 2008. We will have some comments from our Chief Executive Officer, Chris Oddleifson , and we will then end the call with a Q&A period. Before I review our first quarter 2008 performance I will read the cautionary statements. This conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, and business of Independent Bank Corp. Actual results may differ from those contemplated by these statements. Independent Bank Corp. wishes to caution listeners not to place undue reliance in any forward-looking statements and disclaims any intent to update publically any forward-looking statements, whether in response to new information, future events, or otherwise. I will now review our first quarter 2008 performance. Independent Bank Corp. reported GAAP diluted earnings per share of $.44 for the first quarter of 2008 as compared to $.45 in the same period last year, representing a decrease of 2%. There are a number of non-core items in both first quarter periods, particularly in this first quarter of 2008 associated with the acquisition of Slade’s Ferry Bank Corp. which closed in the first quarter of this year. These and other non-core items are detailed in a table in the earnings release. Excluding these non-core items diluted earnings per share on an operating basis was $.48 for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, an increase of 2% from the $.47 per share recorded in the prior year period. Key take-aways from the first quarter. The Slade’s Ferry Bank Corp. integration is on track. The acquisition closed on March 1 and is the primary reason why we…

Good afternoon. Thank you, Denis. Denis did a thorough job reviewing our performance. I would like to make a few points of emphasis. I will not review the state of the industry in which you operate; you are as or more familiar with the facts as I am. It is a difficult period for many financial institutions. Fortunately our disciplined approach to banking and new business development over the last decade has put us into a position we are guiding out very slight earnings improvement year over year. We have said in the past that we are very careful and disciplined about how we manage our balance sheet and we believe we are making decisions in the best interest of long-term shareholder value creation. We have avoided asset classes that we know do not meet our hurdle rates or we did not completely understand. Our energies are now focused on opportunities and building relationships rather than on sort of problem resolution that many financial institutions find themselves facing. Let me just jump to credit right away. It is probably the most important focus area. While non-performing assets grew from $8.3 million at the end of ’07 to $11.9, or to a modest 36 basis points of total assets at the end of the first quarter, a few points are worth noting. First of all, the Slade’s loan portfolio has been thoroughly reviewed and we are very comfortable with the quality and it has met our expectations. All of the numbers, of course, recording including the Slade’s loan portfolios. The ARMs to loan loss, the total loan stands at 129 basis points and our coverage is about 300%. Overall this includes stands just over a percent and we feel very very strong, good that these are strong numbers. As Denis said…

Thank you Chris. This concludes the formal presentation. We will now open the call for questions.

(Operator instructions) Our first question comes from Tim Rozilla [ph 19:54] from KBW. [Tim Rozilla - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods]: Hello, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my call. Just one quick question for you. It seems as though before you had guided that non-interest expenses were going to be growing about 6% on an annualized basis. When I look at the number for this quarter, excluding the one-off items, it seems significantly higher than that. Can you spike out the seasonality incurred this quarter and perhaps give a run rate going forward?

Yes, we will give you a number now in a moment just what we expect it to be for a year. I mean we do have advertising was up in the first quarter. We do have some level of seasonality, particularly in the salary and benefits line, payroll taxes are very heavy at the beginning of the year because that is typically when our incentive program is paid out. But give us a moment here and we will give you a revised number for the full year. And of course, keep in mind that the 11% includes the impact of Slade’s Bank Corp. acquisition. Okay, the total impact in 2008 is 13%, including Slade’s, we expect a 13% increase. [Tim Rozilla – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods]: Okay, great. And just one more question if I could. Can you please provide a little bit more information on the sale and lease back? Where is that $.02 accretion coming from?

Well, the gain on sale of the facilities is actually a cash flow benefit, it is not an earnings benefit. In other words the entire gain does not fall to the bottom line immediately. It is amortized in over the lease period. So I guess the different consequences you have is you have the depreciation on that real estate being removed. It is replaced by market based rent on all of those facilities. It is then offset by, to some degree, the amortization of the gain in addition to the reinvestment of the proceeds from the sale. All of that amounts to .03 to $.04 on an annualized basis but for the remainder of 2008 we say that is about $.02. [Tim Rozilla – Keefe, Bruyette & Woods]: Okay perfect. Thank you very much.

(Operator Instructions) And it seems we show no further questions. I would like to turn the conference call over to management for any closing remarks.

Great. Thank you everybody for joining us on the call. We look forward to speaking to you in July after our second quarter earnings.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s session. You may now disconnect.