Huntington Bancshares Incorporated

Greetings. Welcome to the Huntington Bank Share's third quarter earnings call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Tim Sedavris, Director of Investor Relations.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome, everyone, and good morning. Copies of the slides we will be reviewing today can be found on the investor relations section of our website, www.honeyton.com. As a reminder, this call is being recorded, and a replay will be available starting about one hour from the close of the call. Our presenters today are Steve Steinauer, Chairman, President, and CEO, and Zach Wasserman, Chief Financial Officer. Rich Poli, Chief Credit Officer, and Brennan Lawler, Deputy Chief Credit Officer, will join us for the Q&A. Earnings documents, which include our forward-looking statements disclaimer and non-GAAP information, are available on the Investor Relations section of our website. With that, let me now turn it over to Steve.

Thanks, Tim. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Thank you for joining the call today. We're pleased to announce our third quarter results, which Zach will detail later. Our approach to both our colleagues and customers continues to be grounded in our purpose – Our colleagues again demonstrated that we make people's lives better, help businesses thrive, and strengthen the communities we serve. Now on to slide four. There are five key messages we want to leave you with today. First, Huntington is extraordinarily well positioned to manage through the evolving landscape for banks. The near-term environment includes higher for longer interest rates and uncertain economic outlook, expected new capital regulations, as well as heightened regulatory requirements. Huntington operates in this dynamic period from a position of substantial strength. Our balance sheet and risk profile were intentionally built over more than a decade, explicitly for these times. Our market position, digital leadership, and momentum in core growth strategies put us in the top of the peer set. We intend to lean into this position of strength to drive incremental growth through existing and new capabilities. Second, we've managed top quartile CET1 inclusive of AOCI. We will continue to drive additional capital expansion for the remainder of this year and over the course of 2024. Third, we benefit from a cultivated, granular deposit franchise and have delivered consistent core deposit growth. Our balanced deposit base forms the foundation of our robust liquidity framework and has been a driving factor in our well-managed beta over-the-rate cycle to date. Fourth, credit quality remains strong across our portfolios, driven by our disciplined customer selection, underwriting, and rigorous portfolio management. This approach is unwavering, starting with our tone at the top as we maintain our aggregate moderate to low risk appetite. Finally, we remain intently focused on our core strategy. We are executing with discipline while expanding with existing and new capabilities to support our long-term growth. And very importantly, we are remaining steadfast in our commitment to drive operating efficiency over time with continued execution of proactive expense management programs. We expect a level of uncertainty in the near term and some level of higher expenses to manage through the realities of the current operating environment. However, these investments will also be accompanied by sustained revenue growth and the net result will be a Huntington that continues to be a strong regional bank with significant growth opportunities ahead. I will move us on to slide five to further illustrate our position of strength. Our adjusted CET1 ratio is strong and near the top of the peer group. We intend to drive this ratio higher throughout this year and 2024. This plan extends our position of strength, supports continued execution of core growth strategies, and puts us well ahead of the proposed Basel III endgame and other requirements. Deposit growth has also outperformed our peers by nearly 10 percentage points since the end of 2021. We've built one of the most granular deposit bases with a leading insured deposit percentage, and we continue to drive the expansion of primary bank customer relationships. Our liquidity is best in class for coverage of uninsured deposits, representing nearly twice the level of peers, and we already meet the liquidity coverage ratio on an unmodified basis. Credit metrics are also a differentiator for Huntington, with top quartile net charge-offs compared to peers, and our credit reserves are top tier. Our management team has a long track record of disciplined execution. For example, we were recently named the number one SBA lender nationally for the sixth consecutive year, and we continue to expand the reach of this business and our support of access to capital for small businesses. Interest rates continue on a path towards the higher for longer scenario, which we've been anticipating for some time. As rates remain higher, the potential for economic activity to be negatively impacted has increased. However, thus far in the cycle, overall, our customers are effectively managing through it. We remain highly vigilant and are proactively managing all loan portfolios. Our top-tier credit reserves and expanding capital support our approach to be front-footed to take advantage of opportunities to win new customers and grow our businesses. Zach, over to you to provide more detail on our financial performance.