Good morning and welcome to the Provident Financial Services, Inc. first quarter 2009 conference call. (Operator Instructions) Now I would like to turn the conference over to Paul Pantozzi. Mr. Pantozzi?

Thank you and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with our standard caution as to any forward-looking statements that may be made in the course of our discussion today. A full disclaimer can be found in the text of our earnings release and you can obtain a copy of that as well as our press releases and other SEC filings by accessing our website, providentnj.com, or by calling our Investor Relations area at 2019155344. For today's presentation I'm joined by our Chief Financial Officer, Linda Niro, and by Chris Martin, our President and Chief Operating Officer. Thank you all for being with us this morning. I regret that our first quarter earnings release had to be postponed from its originally scheduled date. The delay was due to the additional time required to calculate and verify the amount of impairment to our goodwill, the recognition of which was triggered by a decline in the market value of our common stock in the first quarter of 2009. The calculation was performed by an independent valuation consultant and the verification was made by our independent registered public accounting firm. I want to emphasize that this goodwill impairment has no impact on our cash flows, liquidity, tangible capital or regulatory capital ratios, nor does it affect our conduct of normal business operations or our ability to generate earnings going forward. The amount of this non-cash accounting charge was $152.5 million, which equates to $2.72 per diluted share. This brings our first quarter earnings results reported on a GAAP basis to a loss of $143.6 million or $2.56 per share. On an operating basis, excluding the goodwill impairment charge, our core net income for the first quarter was $8.9 million or $0.16 per diluted share as compared to $0.19 per share reported in the first quarter…

Thanks, Paul. Turning first to the loan portfolio, total loans decreased $151.4 million or 3.3% during the quarter. The largest decrease in the portfolio was in residential mortgage loans, which decreased $135 million during the quarter primarily as a result of the $85 million in one-to-four family mortgage loans that were securitized and are currently held in the investment portfolio. Commercial loans as a percentage of total loans were 48.1% at March 31st compared to 46.5% of the portfolio at December 31, 2008. The ongoing deterioration in the economy, increases in the unemployment rate and declines in real estate values continued to have an adverse impact on asset quality. Despite these adverse trends, credit quality remained fairly stable and nonperforming loans increased $4.7 million to $63.8 million compared to $59.1 million at December 31st. The increase in nonperforming loans during the first quarter was primarily due to an increase of $4.4 million in commercial loans and an increase of $2.8 million in residential mortgage loans offset by a $1.9 million decrease in commercial mortgages and a $1.3 million decrease in construction loans. The quarterly loan loss provision decreased to $5.8 million for the quarter ended March 31st compared to $8.5 million in the fourth quarter. The provision reflects an increase of $2.3 million in specific reserves for impaired loans and $1 million due to downgrades in risk ratings. The allowance for loan losses increased to 1.2% of total loans at March 31st compared to 1.05% at December 31st. Net charge-offs during the first quarter were $1.2 million compared to net charge-offs of $4.1 million in the trailing quarter. Total nonperforming assets, consisting of nonperforming loans and foreclosed assets, totaled $68.5 million or 1.03% of total assets compared to $62.6 million or 95 basis points of total assets at December 31st.…

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Mark Fitzgibbon - Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP. Mark Fitzgibbon - Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP: Linda, I wondered if you could help us think about the margin as we go forward. As you begin to deploy that excess liquidity you have in cash and fed funds into loans and securities, should that have an immediate benefit to the margin?

Actually, Mark, I think in the second quarter it's going to have an adverse impact. I would estimate that the margin may contract anywhere between 15 to 20 basis points in the quarter. It's going to take some time to deploy those funds. We're not going to just rush out and book assets, but certainly we're looking to see where we can get the best yield and the highest quality assets so it'll take a little time. Mark Fitzgibbon - Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP: So is that because the liquidity came in late in the first quarter?

Yes. It came in really throughout the whole quarter, but primarily towards the end. And we're not seeing any real outflow, so we expect it'll remain somewhat elevated. Mark Fitzgibbon - Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP: And then secondly I wondered if you could share with us what the 30- to 89-day delinquencies are and if there's any areas that you're seeing an uptick in, any particular type of loan or geography of loan?

Thirty to 89, Mark, are $35.2 million and that's up somewhat from year end; there were $27.6 million. Again, the bulk of that was due to the $4.4 million in commercial loans that moved into the delinquency category in the quarter, and we're seeing some residential uptick as well. Mark Fitzgibbon - Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP: And then on the expense front, is it reasonable for us to think that expenses could be stable for the next few quarters or, given some of the higher costs from FDIC insurance and pension costs, etc., that it's going to be hard to hold the line on expenses?

Yes, I think you're going to see them uptick a little bit maybe more towards $34 million, mostly because of the increase in FDIC insurance expenses. Mark Fitzgibbon - Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP: And then the last question, the normalized tax rate, it sounds like you have a little bit more tax-exempt income; 25%, is that a good [inaudible]?

Yes, between 25% and 26% we're estimating for the year.

Your next question comes from Richard Weiss - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC.

I was wondering if you could just talk briefly about what are you seeing in terms of lending opportunities in your markets?

Well, I think we have a nice pipeline of commercial, C&I; we're seeing a lot of opportunities. But we're again trying to keep the credit hand close to the vest and making sure we're not going and reaching. So we're seeing a lot because of the dislocation of some of the regional and national players and that continues.

Chris, are you doing any construction lending? What's happening in that category?

A little, Rick. We're seeing it. There are opportunities there also, but people that we've banked in the past and have been very successful and are finding things at a very low rate to get in, so we're very happy. Most of it has been in the multifamily type arena right now, certainly not in the one-to-four family area.

Your next question comes from Jason O'Donnell - Boenning & Scattergood Inc. Jason O'Donnell - Boenning & Scattergood Inc.: You mentioned that you expect yet that the expenses will continue to rise. Is that a function of an increase in the regular rate in the second quarter from 12 basis points in the first to something higher or are you alluding to the special assessment?

Really a little bit of both. The special assessment, I don't think we still know exactly what it's going to be, and also an increase in deposits. So that'll translate into higher expenses as well. Jason O'Donnell - Boenning & Scattergood Inc.: And in terms of the special FDIC assessment, do you intend to take all that in the second quarter if we get clarity on the amount of the charge or do you intend to spread that across the second and the third quarter [inaudible] payment?

It's probably going to be in the second half of the year because I believe it's going to be due on September 30th. So we'll know a little bit more about what that might look like in the second half. Jason O'Donnell - Boenning & Scattergood Inc.: And then just finally, in terms of the severance expenses - $541,000 gross - I'm just wondering does that reflect a particular cost-cutting initiative and also what was that number in the fourth quarter?

We didn't have anything in the fourth quarter along those lines, but we did have several voluntary situations that were effective in the first quarter resulting in that number.

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from Matthew Kelley - Sterne, Agee & Leach. Matthew Kelley - Sterne, Agee & Leach: Just getting back to Rick's question about the construction portfolio, could you just talk about the existing portfolio and how things are progressing there as you work down the credits or those projects get completed. It stands about $280 million. How are you feeling about the credit quality of that existing portfolio?

Well, it's slow in the way of sales and you work with your borrowers as much as you can. It's paying down. We're seeing our exposure certainly coming down from where we were a year ago and two years ago. I think you have to be patient and let the sales try to continue. The entry points for our borrowers are certainly they have room to drop prices and still make some money, and so we've just been working with them. But it hasn't been to the point of a stress level that can't be handled. Some of them we're working on that will go ahead and try to do it on a rental basis, sort of save on the carry. So it's been moving along slowly. Matthew Kelley - Sterne, Agee & Leach: The degree of restructuring, has that increased over the last quarter or two on that portfolio?

No. Matthew Kelley - Sterne, Agee & Leach: And then what about just on the commercial real estate portfolio - $1.3 billion there - how much of that is going to contractually mature this year and then what are those discussions like as loans come due?

We'll get back to you on that, Matt. I don't think we have that, you know, what contractually - I think we always kind of try to get cash flows to be consistent and look at everything and not [inaudible] period in time. But we can get more data. We'd have to do a little bit of work on that. Matthew Kelley - Sterne, Agee & Leach: Any just broad commentary on the commercial real estate market in terms of vacancies, income production, NOI and price points, just on the ground what you're seeing?

Well, I think New Jersey is kind of like any other market, but not as bad as Florida and Arizona and California. You're seeing some leases coming up. You're seeing some strip centers that are new having problems filling. The seasoned players are still doing okay. Overall, performance has been fairly good, I think, but absent the economy I don't know what else you could say except the fact that you lend to people at good price points and they seem to be able to carry the debt and they have other sources of cash flow. Matthew Kelley - Sterne, Agee & Leach: And then just a last question - any sense of what portion of the commercial real estate portfolio that's secured by retail-type collateral?

We'll probably get back to you on that as well, Matt. We have those breakdowns. We don't have that detail right with us.

(Operator Instructions) At this time I'm showing no further questions. I would like to turn the call back over to our conductors for any closing remarks.

Well, we thank you very much for participating in this call and we look forward to hearing from you at the next quarterly call. And obviously we continue to work and remain focused at our core business, and we expect things to improve for us certainly over the next several quarters. So we thank you very much.