Northern Trust Corporation

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Northern Trust Corporation First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Mark Betty, for opening remarks and introductions. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you, Katie. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Northern Trust Corporation's First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on our call this morning are Michael Grady, our Chairman and CEO of Jason Tyler, our chief financial officer, and Lauren Alnutt, our controller. Our first quarter earnings press release and financial trends report are both available on our website at northerntrust.com. Also on the website, you will find our quarterly earnings review presentation, which we will use to guide today's conference call. This April 21st call is being webcast live on northerntrust.com. The only authorized rebroadcast of this call is the replay that will be available on our website at through May 19th. Northern Trust disclaims any continuing accuracy of the information provided in this call after today. Now for our safe harbor statement. What we say during today's conference call may include forward-looking statements which are Northern Trust's current estimates and expectations of future events or future results. Actual results, of course, could differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements because the realization of those results is subject to many risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. I urge you to read our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for detailed information about factors that could affect actual results. During today's question and answer session, please limit your initial query to one question and one related follow-up. This will allow us to move through the queue and enable as many people as possible the opportunity to ask questions as time permits. Thank you again for joining us today. Let me turn the call over to Michael Grady. Thank you, Mark.

Let me join Mark in welcoming you to our first quarter 2020 earnings call. Amidst this crisis, I hope you and your families are healthy and well. I also want to acknowledge and thank all the healthcare workers, other first responders, and the entire community of essential workers for their heroic efforts during this pandemic. Inside Northern Trust, we often speak of our four key stakeholders, clients, employees, community, and shareholders. I know we'll devote a lot of this call to discussing the impact of the crisis on shareholders, but I'd like to take a moment to describe our actions and how they relate to the other stakeholders. We've been engaging with our clients more than ever. Despite the pandemic, markets have remained open, and our clients have needed to make investment decisions and complete important transactions. Turbulent times such as these show the importance of a strong capital base and liquidity profile, as well as robust technology and resiliency plans. We've been able to provide support to our clients and the exceptional service they have come to expect from us. We saw global transaction volumes increase 70% in March compared to February and 60% compared to one year ago. We were able to utilize our global operating model to transfer work around the globe to manage peak volumes. During the first quarter, in support of our clients, we saw a deposit growth of over $22 billion and funded loan balances increase by over $6 billion. In a short amount of time, our team also created a solution to provide access to the Paycheck Protection Program, and we began processing applications. Whether it's through video conferencing or phone calls and into boardrooms or living rooms, our clients want the advice and counsel of Northern Trust. The vast majority of our employees, who we call partners, made a significant shift to working away from our offices, with over 90% regularly working remotely. For the critical functions that require a small number of our staff to be in our offices, we are taking extra measures to ensure their safety throughout the duration of the crisis. For certain eligible partners, we are providing supplemental compensation to support them and their families during this difficult time. We are also offering increased flexibility for alternative work options due to mandated school closures and other impacts of the pandemic. The commitment, expertise, and professionalism of our staff has been extraordinary, so I'm pleased we've been able to provide this support. Northern's Trust businesses, and therefore the communities we reach, are truly global, with over 20,000 partners across North America, EMEA, and APAC. We announced philanthropic support to several nonprofit organizations around the world, and created a COVID-19 matching gift program to support the efforts of our partners. Our guiding principles of service, expertise, and integrity have guided our actions over the last several weeks and will continue to focus our efforts as we navigate the difficult environment we all face. Northern Trust has endured crises before, and we are extremely confident in the resiliency of our business and our staff. My sincere appreciation to everyone working so hard throughout this crisis and our sympathies to everyone impacted by this disease. Our annual meeting is taking place later this morning, so I'll have another opportunity to speak to our performance and strategy. But for now, I'll turn the call to Jason to review our results for the quarter and discuss the financial implications of this pandemic.