Mariner Kemper
Analyst · Bank of America
Thank you, Kay, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. I hope you and your families remain safe and healthy. First quarter was a great start to 2021. We had strong balance sheet growth supported by stable diverse funding sources, continued fee income momentum and solid asset quality metrics, all core elements of our investment thesis delivered on a consistent basis. Consumer sentiment is slowly returning to more normalized levels, and our customers remain cautiously optimistic. Modified loan balances are now close to 0, and we've seen debit and credit card spend returning to pre-pandemic levels. Operationally, it's status quo, as most of our nonbranch associates remain remote. The majority of our branches reopened with regular hours earlier this month and traffic continues to be normal as expected. Turning to our first quarter results. Net income was $92.6 million or $1.91 per share. And pretax pre-provision income on an FTE basis was $108.7 million or $2.24 per share. You may have noticed our quarterly deck has been updated with a refreshed look and additional information. We listened to the feedback from many of you and have a concise quarterly financial section, followed by more detail on our various businesses, showing metrics and drivers in each. And a longer-term view of metrics supporting our investment thesis is included for those who may not know our story as well. Slide 17 shows the primary drivers behind our results. And I'll provide some high-level comments, then turn it over to Ram for more detail. Net interest income was essentially flat from the fourth quarter as the positive impact from strong balance sheet growth was mitigated by lower loan fees and PPP income as well as the day count in the quarter. On a year-over-year basis, net interest income increased 11.6% despite a challenging interest rate environment. Our track record of relative outperformance and asset growth and the opportunities we see to continue bodes well for our ability to grow net interest income over time as we gain market share in many of our unpenetrated markets and verticals. Fee income for the quarter was impacted largely by swings in investment security gains and losses. In the first quarter, the valuation of our position in Tattooed Chef drove a $16.1 million mark-to-market unrealized loss compared to the $108.8 million fourth quarter gain. Excluding market fluctuations, there were some bright spots as we continue to focus on growth in fee income. Trust and Securities Processing income increased 8% from the fourth quarter and nearly 17% on a year-over-year basis. The businesses that drive that line have experienced solid growth, benefiting from both market appreciation and new sales activity. In fund services, assets under administration now stand at $345 billion compared to $252 billion a year ago. Specialty Corporate Trust launched internationally during the quarter, opening an office in Dublin, which is a top economic center for structured finance. We're excited about the potential for growth this adds to our aviation trust business as well as opportunities to expand our offerings in other business lines. We are also eagerly anticipating the potential for increased spending related to the proposed infrastructure bill, which could be a great opportunity for both our underwriting and corporate trustee business. Our Investor Solutions team continues to focus on growth in fintech clients with opportunities to provide FDIC suite and passive custody services, among others. We added 4 fintech relationships in 2020 and have an active pipeline. And we're seeing some traction from recent investments in our private wealth space, where we've added reporting and trading capabilities for a variety of investment types. During the quarter, we brought on a new CIO for our family office business and look forward to developments there. On the digital front, we've seen increasing use of our online account opening and mobile offering. 20% of nonmortgage loan applications and 22% of new retail deposit accounts were initiated online in the first quarter. General engagement with online banking is up nearly 16% from first quarter last year, which shows that people are using our digital tools to track, monitor and transact their accounts. After several years of investing in customer-facing applications, our digital capabilities are competitive, and we are now focusing on growth and penetration. And while we've add new delivery channels as industry dynamics have shifted, we haven't forgotten the importance of connecting with our customers. Moving to the balance sheet. We once again posted strong loan growth with an 8.4% linked-quarter annualized increase in average balances, excluding PPP. Slide 23 is a snapshot of our diverse loan portfolio, followed by quarterly loan activity. In CRE, we're seeing traction in our expansion markets. Growth in C&I came from a variety of industries this quarter, including materials and commodities, technology and commercial services. Additionally, our success in building our mortgage capabilities has continued as evidenced by the nearly 7% increase in average residential mortgage loans from the fourth quarter of 2020, which are included in the consumer real estate line on the balance sheet. New originations for the quarter were $689 million outside of PPP balance changes with payoffs and paydowns of 3% of loans. Looking into the second quarter, we see a robust pipeline in both C&I and CRE despite some uncertainty related to the COVID trends and the status of reopening in various markets. Given what we know today, it's reasonable to expect our strong momentum and market opportunities should continue. Our core deposit growth continued, driven by our institutional business, along with the seasonal buildup of public funds and the impact of the recent stimulus payments. Average balances increased 7.5% on a linked-quarter basis and 28.8% compared to the first quarter of 2020. DDA growth helped drive the cost of total deposits to just 10 basis points, leading to a total funding cost of 16 basis points. Our average loan-to-deposit ratio, while typically much lower than our peers, was 61% for the quarter. Our differentiated customer base, which drives diverse sources of funding and revenue, comes with larger deposit balances. Ram will provide more detail about how we're managing our liquidity position in this environment. On Slide 25, we've updated our exposure to sensitive industries. As we've moved further through the pandemic, we've adjusted this list to reflect both the characteristics of our portfolio and the evolving outlook for various categories. Changes this quarter include the removal of oil and gas based on our borrower performance and stabilizing oil prices and of student housing CRE where industry occupancy levels are improving. Loans in the 3 remaining categories totaled $1.4 billion or 9.2% of loans, excluding PPP. After our typical analysis of mitigating factors, including strong sponsors and guarantors, we feel that approximately $765 million or 5.1% of loans could possibly carry more risk in a prolonged crisis. As always, we remain in close contact with these borrowers. At the bottom of the page, you'll see that our modified loan balances have continued to decline, ending the quarter at just $14 million, under 0.5% of loans. On the credit front, net charge-offs averaged just 13 basis points of loans, while levels of nonperforming assets improved from the end of the prior period. As we noted last quarter, improving macroeconomic conditions and the continued quality of our loan portfolio drove the $7.5 million negative provision. As the economic backdrop continues to normalize and business conditions improve, additional releases may be warranted. Total allowance for credit losses on loans stand at $202.8 million with an allowance to loan coverage of 1.23%. Excluding PPP loans, that coverage is 1.34%. To wrap up, I'm pleased with our first quarter performance, and I'm excited about the opportunity we see in the remainder of 2021 and beyond. Our 2020 corporate citizenship report has just been published and is available on our website. It highlights our continued efforts and actions related to the environmental, social and corporate governance issues. We continually adapt to find the right balance of implementing sustainable business practices, building diverse teams, meeting obligations and using our resources to do good. This balance has helped guide our response to the COVID-19 crisis. Now I'll turn it over to Ram for a few comments. Ram?