Robert Reilly
Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead
Great. Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. Our balance sheet is on slide 5 and is presented on a spot basis. While we typically cover our average balance sheet, we're going to focus on our spot balances this quarter due to the substantial increased activity late in the quarter related to the economic impact of COVID-19.On the asset side, loan balances of $265 billion at March 31, were up $25 billion, or 10% compared to December 31, 2019. This growth reflected an increase in commercial loan balances of approximately $24 billion, primarily driven by higher utilization of loan commitments.Investment securities of $91 billion increased $3.7 billion, or 4% linked quarter. Also, our cash balances at the Federal Reserve as of March 31, 2020, were $20 billion, down $3.6 billion from year-end, in part due to the benefits from the regulatory tailoring rules on our liquidity effective January 1, 2020.On the liability side, deposit balances of $305 billion at March 31, were up $17 billion or 6% compared to December 31, 2019. A high proportion of the commercial loan draws were placed back with us in the form of deposits. And as a result, non-interest-bearing deposits grew $8.8 billion or 12% linked quarter. Total borrowed funds increased $13 billion due to higher FHLB borrowings, and increased debt issuance activity during the quarter.As of March 31, 2020, our Basel III Common equity Tier 1 ratio was estimated to be 9.4%, which reflected the impact of the tailoring rules, including our decision to opt out of AOCI, as well as our election to phase in CECL's impact on our estimated regulatory capital.While our capital ratios remained strong, on March 16, 2020, we announced the temporary suspension of our common stock repurchase program in conjunction with the Federal Reserve's effort to support the U.S. economy during this time. It did not impact PNC's dividend policy.Our tangible book value was $84.93 per common share as of March 31, an increase of 9% compared to a year ago. Our loan-to-deposit ratio was 87% at March 31st. And importantly, our liquidity coverage ratio exceeded the regulatory minimum requirement.As you can see on Slide 6, commercial loan and funded commitments declined by approximately $16 billion, as customers grew down lines to bolster their liquidity or replace alternative funding channels. As a result, our utilization rate increased from 55% to 61%.The drawdowns we've experienced are diversified across industries, and more than two-thirds of the increased utilization is from investment-grade borrowers. While drawdowns were well above normal in mid-March, we saw activity begin to slow at the end of the quarter and that's remained the case so far during the second quarter.That said we do expect loan balances to be elevated for some time. Importantly, PNC is well positioned with strong capital and liquidity. And we're committed to putting our resources to work to support our customers and the broader financial system at this critical time.As you can see on the slide, as of March 31, we had approximately $140 billion of readily available liquidity from diverse sources. These sources, along with substantially more availability from the Fed discount window, should it be necessary, provide ample funding to meet the potential needs of our customers.Turning to Slide 7, we're working to provide relief and flexibility to our customers through a variety of solutions during this time. On the commercial side, we're offering emergency relief for small and medium-sized business loans, including those being provided through the federally enacted Cares Act.We have received thousands of applications through the Paycheck protection program and have begun to fund those loans successfully, as Bill just mentioned. Additionally, we're granting loan modifications to commercial clients, primarily in the form of principal and/or interest deferrals.We're analyzing and making decisions on these modifications based on each individual borrower situation. With our consumer customers, we're also granting loan modifications through extensions, deferrals and forbearance.As of April 13, we have completed over 41,000 consumer loan modifications, primarily related to COVID-19. And in addition, we're offering relief in the form of extended grace periods and halting all foreclosures, while waiving certain fees and charges.As you can see on Slide 8, first quarter total revenue was $4.5 billion, down $92 million linked quarter or 2%. Net interest income of $2.5 billion was up $23 million or 1%. And compared to the fourth quarter, as lower funding costs as well as higher loan and security balances were partially offset by lower loan yields and one less day in the quarter.Our net interest margin increased to 2.84%, up 6 basis points linked quarter, in large part due to lower rates paid on deposits. Non-interest income declined $115 million or 5% linked quarter, reflecting stable fee revenue that was offset by, lower other non-interest income.Non-interest expense declined $219 million or 8% compared to the fourth quarter with all categories essentially flat to down. Our efficiency ratio was 56% in the first quarter, improving from 60% in the previous quarter. Provision for credit losses in the first quarter was $914 million, reflecting the adoption of the CECL methodology, including the economic effects of COVID-19 and loan growth. And our effective tax rate in the first quarter was 13.7%.In light of the current economic circumstances related to COVID-19, naturally we're evaluating and monitoring our entire loan portfolio. However, we believe the industry sector is likely to be most impacted are on slide 9.Our outstanding loan balances as of March 31 to these industries are $19.3 billion and represents 7% of our total loan portfolio. Corporate loan balances in these industries totaled $10.6 billion. Within this group, we're most focused on our exposures to retail, restaurants and certain parts of leisure travel. In retail, total loans outstanding are $2.5 billion, 60% of which are asset based. Restaurant loan outstandings are $1.2 billion and cruise lines and commercial airlines together total less than $600 million.In our commercial real estate portfolio, we have $8.7 billion in outstanding in areas most likely to be impacted by COVID-19. This includes CRE properties of $5.1 billion, 60% of which are stabilized and 40% under construction, all with a portfolio LTV of 55%. The remaining $3.5 billion of exposure is to REIT approximately two-thirds of which are investment grade.Turning to slide 10. This is an update on our oil and gas portfolio given the continued pressures on the energy industry. At the end of the first quarter, we had total outstandings of $4.6 billion in oil and gas loans, or just less than 2% of our total outstanding loans. We last updated you on this portfolio in the fourth quarter of 2016, while we were relatively pleased with the performance of this portfolio through the last oil and gas downturn of 2016, especially with respect to reserve-based lending structures.Accordingly, the growth in our portfolio since 2016 has been primarily in the upstream segment, which carry these structures as well as the midstream segments, which tend to perform relatively well under stress. Nearly all of our losses from the 2016 downturn occurred in our services book, which has declined as a percentage of total loans from the fourth quarter of 2016 and notably, approximately $900 million or 74% of the $1.2 billion of this sector is asset based. We will continue to monitor market conditions and actively manage our energy portfolio.Our credit quality metrics are presented on Slide 11. Net charge-offs for loans and leases were stable with the fourth quarter, increasing slightly by $3 million. Annualized net charge-offs to total loans was also stable with the fourth quarter at 35 basis points.Non-performing loans increased $9 million or 1% compared to December 31, 2019, and total delinquencies declined $21 million linked quarter or 1%. The ratios for both non-performing loans to total loans and delinquencies to total loans decreased in the quarter.As you can see, our provision for first quarter 2020 increased substantially to $914 million, reflecting the adoption of the CECL methodology, including the economic effects of COVID-19 and loan growth. Since the adoption of CECL on January 1, 2020, we've increased our reserves by approximately $1.3 billion. As a result, at March 31, our allowance for credit losses, including unfunded balances to total loans was 1.66%, and our allowance to non-performing loans was 240%.Slide 12 shows the drivers of the increase to our allowance for credit losses and ultimately our provision under CECL. Our attribution shows the increase in reserves for the CECL day one transition adjustment of $642 million, as well as portfolio changes and economic factors.Portfolio changes represent the impact of shifts in loan balances, age and mix as well as credit quality and net charge-off activity. These factors accounted for $196 million of the change in our reserves for the first quarter of 2020.Economic factors represent our evaluation and determination of an economic forecast applied to our loan portfolios. To accomplish this, we use a three-year reasonable and supportable forecast period and a weighted average of four different economic scenarios at quarter end.Importantly, each of these scenarios, were designed to address at the time the emerging COVID-19 crisis. This approach provided a blended scenario as of March 31, which when compared to the scenarios used for our transition calculation, resulted in an increase in reserves of $496 million for the first quarter.For this blended approach, we used a number of economic variables with the largest driver being GDP. In this scenario, annualized GDP contracted 11.2% in the second quarter of 2020 and finishes the year down 2.3% with recovery of the pre recession peak levels occurring by the fourth quarter of 2021.Since the end of the first quarter, when we finalized our CECL estimate, the macroeconomic backdrop has worsened, suggesting a deeper decline in GDP and other economic factors than what our March 31 scenario contemplated.Should these macroeconomic factors persist, we'll adjust our blended scenario accordingly, which would likely result in a material build to our reserves during the second quarter.Additionally, for our own stress informational purposes, we consider our most extreme adverse scenario in isolation to determine a hypothetical year-end 2020 capital and liquidity impact.This scenario is even more severe than the 2020 CCAR severely adverse scenario. It assumes a 30% annualized contraction in GDP in the second quarter of 2020, followed by another 20% annualized contraction in the third quarter, leading to a peak to trough decline of 14%. This compares to the CCAR severely adverse scenario, peak to trough decline of 8.5%.To be clear, this scenario is not our expectation nor does this exercise attempt to capture all the potential unknown variables that would likely arise, but simply provides an approximation of outcome under these circumstances. This results in an approximately 8.5% CET1 ratio at year-end 2020, and we believe would allow us to continue to support our current dividend.In summary, looking at the remainder of the year, we expect a challenging environment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect a significant contraction in GDP and we expect the Fed funds rate to remain in its current range of zero to 25 basis points throughout 2020.Clearly, the biggest variables impacting the economy will be the length of the crisis and the efficacy of the massive U.S. government support and stimulus programs. While we're hopeful the duration will be short and the government programs prove highly effective, at this time, we naturally have no way of knowing these outcomes.Accordingly, our visibility is low. However, based on what we think now, we can provide a second quarter guidance and some directional thoughts for the full year.For the second quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2020, we expect growth in average loans to be in the high-single-digit range as a result of the increased spot level at quarter end as well as additional anticipated funding needs of our commercial and consumer customers.We expect NII to be stable. We expect total noninterest income to be down approximately 15% to 20%, mostly reflecting the elevated MSRs and security gains that we generated amidst the volatility during the first quarter. We also expect some general softening in fee categories as well, particularly service charges on deposits, while we continue to weigh fees for our customers during this crisis.We expect total non-interest expense to be flat to down. And in regard to net charge-offs, we expect second quarter levels to be between $250 million and $350 million, up quarter-over-quarter as we begin to experience the economic effects of the crisis. For the full year and for the reasons previously stated, our visibility is substantially limited. But with that in mind, we now expect both full year revenue and non-interest expense to each be down between 5% and 10%.And with that, Bill and I are ready to take your questions.