First Citizens BancShares, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the First Citizens Bank Shares Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference School. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one on your telephone keypad. If you require operator assistance during the programme, please press star then zero. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce the host of this conference call, Miss Deanna Hart, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to First Citizen's second quarter earnings call. Joining me on the call today are our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frank Holding and Chief Financial Officer Craig Nix. They will provide second quarter business and financial updates referencing our earnings call presentation, which you can find on our website. Our comments today will include forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. We assume no obligation to update such statements. These risks are outlined on page three of the presentation. We will also reference non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures against the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in Section 5 of the presentation. Finally, First Citizens is not responsible for and does not edit nor guarantee the accuracy of earnings transcripts provided by third parties. I will now turn it over to Frank.

Thank you, Deanna. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our quarterly earnings call, and thank you for joining us this morning. I will start by providing brief comments on our second quarter results before turning it over to Craig Nix to review our performance in more detail. Starting on page five, our key earnings metrics were solid, marked by net interest income growth, net charge-offs at their lowest level since the second quarter of 2024, and adjusted non-interest expense at the low end of our guidance range. We reported adjusted earnings per share of $44.78, or an adjusted ROE of 11.00% and an ROA of 1.07%. We maintained strong capital and liquidity positions supporting balance sheet growth and allowing us to return another $613 million to our shareholders through share repurchases during the second quarter. Upon the successful completion of our annual capital planning activities, this week our board approved a new $4 billion share repurchase plan to commence upon completion of the current plan. Craig will address additional details regarding the new plan and his comments on the quarter. But first I'd like to take a moment to highlight progress on our 2025 strategic priorities and the positive results we are seeing in our business segments. During the quarter, we continued consolidating platforms and relationship teams to ensure a seamless client experience. And we're beginning to see positive momentum from these activities. We're also seeing tangible benefits from the way our teams are working together, resulting in new business and deepening existing relationships. Whether it's a middle market company needing capital markets expertise, a high net worth client looking for integrated advice, or a multinational company navigating complex treasury needs, we're not just delivering solutions, we're listening to our clients' needs and helping them succeed. We were recently excited to announce the appointment of Di Murray to our board of directors. Di is a distinguished leader and executive with more than 30 years financial services experience, and most recently served as president of consumer and commercial banking at Ally Bank. Over the course of her distinguished career, Di has become known as a results-oriented executive, with a customer-centric vision, which aligns nicely with the relationship-based long-term focus at First Citizens. Her knowledge and experience compliment our board, and we're excited to have her on our team. Looking at page six, our strategic priorities are unchanged from the prior quarter and are outlined for you on this slide. We continue to demonstrate the strength of our diversified lines of business and remain dedicated to our client first focus. I like our positioning to capitalize on growth opportunities while continuing to optimize our balance sheet and enhance our processes and systems to maximize efficiency and productivity. As always, we remain vigilant on the macro and geopolitical landscape, which remains somewhat uncertain due to tariff policy and negotiations, interest rates, and regulatory change. While we recognize some elements of the landscape could represent tailwinds while others contribute to headwinds, we are pleased that our capital and liquidity positions allow us to operate from a position of strength. To close, I'm very optimistic about our future as we remain committed to our customers and clients investing for the long term and delivering sustained shareholder value. With that, Craig, please take us through the financial results for the quarter and forward-looking guidance for the remainder of the year. Craig?