BGC Partners, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the BGC Partners Inc. first quarter 2020 earnings call. Just so that you know, we will be starting in a couple of moments. Thank you for your patience. We'll be right back. Welcome to the BGC Partners Inc. First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to hand over the conference to your speaker today, Jason Chrysikas, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. We issued BGC's first quarter 2022 financial results press release and the presentation summarizing these results yesterday after the market closed. You can find these at ir.bgcpartners.com. Please note you can find additional details on our quarterly results in yesterday's press release and investor presentation. Unless otherwise stated, the results provided on today's call compare only the first quarter of 2022 with the prior year period and compare revenue excluding insurance due to its sale on November 1st, 2021. We will be referring to our results in this call only on an adjusted earnings basis, unless otherwise stated. We may also refer to adjusted EBITDA. We may refer to our liquidity, which we define as cash and cash equivalents, plus marketable securities that have not been financed, reverse repurchase agreements and securities owned, less securities loaned, and repurchase agreements. We define total capital as redeemable partnership interest, total stockholders' equity, and non-controlling interest in subsidiaries. Please see yesterday's press release for results under generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. Please also see the relevant sections in the back of today's press release for the complete and updated definition of any non-GAAP terms, reconciliations of these items to corresponding GAAP results, and how, when, and why management uses such terms. Additional information with respect to our GAAP and non-GAAP results mentioned on today's call is available on our website at ir.bgcpartners.com and in our investor presentation. We refer to the company's technology-driven business as Fenix. Fenix offerings include Fenix Markets and Fenix Growth Platforms, I also remind you that the information regarding our business on today's call that are not historical are forward-looking statements. These include statements about the effects of COVID-19, the impact on a company's business, results, financial position, liquidity, and outlook. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. And except as required by law, BGC undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements. Any outlook and targets discussed on this call assume no material acquisitions, buybacks, extraordinary transactions, or meaningful changes to the company's stock price. For discussion of additional risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results most contained in the forward-looking statements, see BGC's SEC filings including but not limited to the risk factors and special note on forward-looking information set forth in these filings and any updates to such risk factors and special note on forward-looking information contained in subsequent reports on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, or Form 8-K. I am now happy to turn the call over to Howard Lutnick, Chairman of the Board and CEO of BGC Partners.

Thank you, Jason. Good morning, and thanks for joining us on our first quarter 2022 conference call. I have with me today BGC's Chief Financial Officer, Steve Biscay, and our Chief Operating Officer, Sean Windyatt. BGC's adjusted earnings margins continue to improve, representing the sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year margin expansion, which reflects the increased conversion of our voice hybrid revenue into our higher margin technology-driven FedEx business. FENIX continued to grow at an industry-leading pace and represented 25% of BGC's overall revenue during the first quarter. We continue to make significant progress building out our FMX platform, which combines FENIX UST's leading U.S. Treasury business with a new state-of-the-art U.S. interest rate futures platform. FMX, partnering with the LCH, will deliver a comprehensive and efficient cross-margining platform across U.S. dollar-based futures and interest rate swaps our objective is to create a competitive offering in the enormous and currently monopolistic u.s interest rate futures market we are also progressing on our comprehensive cryptocurrency offering which includes the expansion of lucera's infrastructure across the cryptocurrency ecosystem leveraging our wholesale global electronic trading network to connect the world's largest capital markets participants to the exchanges and market makers of this asset class. Lucera is now connected to 26 of the deepest cryptocurrency liquidity pools with a strong pipeline of additional clients, venues, and digital custodians to be added throughout the year. Additionally, we are expanding our electronic and voice hybrid cryptocurrency execution capabilities globally. During the first quarter, for example, BGC brokered the first ever block trade of micro-Bitcoin options on CME. Case also added new clients to its cryptocurrency options offering, which leverages its award-winning analytics, pricing, and distribution software. Our crypto platform is powered by a multi-billion dollar global infrastructure and state-of-the-art Cenex trading technology. FMX and cryptocurrencies represent extraordinary opportunities for BGC as they scale in 2023. On a personal note, I'm happy to report that I am cancer-free as of March 1st, and I want to say thank you to all of you for your support along the way. It really made a big difference. If you would like more details about my health, my most recent update video is available on our website, on Rumble, or on YouTube. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Steve.