BOK Financial Corporation

Greetings and welcome to BOK Financial Corporation fourth quarter 2020 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during a conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the presentation over to Stephen Ngo, Chief Financial Officer for BOK Financial Corporation. Please proceed.

Good morning, and thanks for joining us. Today, our CEO, Steve Bradshaw, will provide opening comments, and Stacey Kimes, Executive Vice President of Corporate Banking, will cover our loan portfolio and credit metrics. Lastly, I'll provide details regarding net interest income, net interest margin, fee revenues, expenses, and our overall balance sheet position from a liquidity and capital standpoint. Joining us for the question and answer session are Mark Maughan, our Chief Credit Officer, who can answer detailed questions regarding credit metrics, and Scott Grauer, Executive Vice President of Wealth Management, who can expand on our wealth management capabilities that have led to another fantastic quarter for the company. PDFs of the slide presentation and fourth quarter press release are available on our website at BOKF.com. We refer you to the disclaimers on slide two pertaining to any forward-looking statements we make during the call. I'll now turn the call over to Steve Bradshaw.

Good morning and thanks for joining us to discuss the fourth quarter and full year 2020 financial results. In summary, despite a year punctuated with hurdles, it would be difficult to overstate the flexibility and persistence our organization demonstrated this past year. A record $786.4 million in pre-tax, pre-provision revenue for 2020 proved once again the strength of our diversified revenue strategy, and the stability it provides during times of economic stress. More importantly, it underscores the breadth of our service capabilities and the value that we provide our customers. Starting on slide four, full year net income was $435 million or $6.19 per diluted share. Looking specifically at the fourth quarter, net income was a record $154.2 million or $2.21 per diluted share represented EPS growth of 1% in a linked quarter basis and up more than 40% from the same quarter a year ago. The key items that drove our success this quarter were starting another outstanding broad-based earnings quarter from our wealth management business, continued elevated production from our mortgage team, though at a decreased level from the last two quarters as seasonality and modest margin compression materialized following the summer's mortgage boom, But mortgage margins remain strong relative to the first half of 2020. No credit loss provision was needed this quarter, and in fact, the improving economic outlook combined with improving credit trends allowed us to release 6.5 million of our reserves. And lastly, the proactive measures we took to control expense levels at the outset of the pandemic in March served us well in the fourth quarter as it did for all of 2020. Turning to slide five, loan growth remained a challenge this quarter as our borrowers understandably reduced leverage in the challenging economic environment. Stacey will cover this in more detail momentarily, but we do believe growth opportunities will resume in 2021 as the economy continues to rebound. Deposit growth remains excellent, up over 3% linked quarter and up over 30% from the same quarter a year ago. Those figures do not include the second wave of stimulus enacted late in 2020, so we anticipate this trend to continue in the near term. Assets under management or in custody were up over 11% for the quarter, topping $90 billion for the first time in our company's history on very strong new client sales and favorable market impact. We'll dive a little deeper into the record year our wealth management team produced in 2020. as well as a shift of some brokerage and trading fee revenue to net interest revenue due to an increase in trading securities balances and settlement timing in the fourth quarter. Needless to say, we are incredibly proud of our Wealth Management Division. I'll provide additional perspective on the results before starting the Q&A session, but now Stacey Kynes will review the loan portfolio and our credit metrics in more detail. I'll turn the call over to Stacey.