Northern Trust Corporation

Good day and welcome to the Northern Trust Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mark Betty, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Madison. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Northern Trust Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on our call this morning are Michael Grady, our Chairman and CEO, Jason Tyler, our Chief Financial Officer, Lauren Allnut, our Controller, and Kelly Lernaghan from our investor relations team. Our fourth quarter earnings press release and financial trends report are both available on our website at northerntrust.com. Also on our website, you will find our quarterly earnings review presentation, which we will use to guide today's conference call. This January 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 through February 18th. 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 at a time permit. Thank you again for joining us today.

Let me turn the call over to Michael Grady. Thank you, Mark. Let me join and welcome you to our fourth quarter 2020 earnings call. Amid the ongoing public health crisis, I hope you and your families are healthy and well. At Northern Trust, we continue to operate in what we call resiliency mode, which means we're focused on providing our clients continuity of service while over 90% of our employees worldwide are working remotely. Though challenging, the transition across each of our businesses has been effective. Throughout 2020, despite the environment, we've executed on initiatives to continue to drive organic growth within each of our businesses, one of our key strategic imperatives. Within wealth management, we're steadfast in our commitment to serving the world's most affluent families and family offices in a holistic and integrated manner across their array of financial needs, including planning, investments, fiduciary, banking, and other capabilities. During the turbulent year, our goals-based approach allowed our clients to adhere to their investment strategies and avoid selling into the downturn and realize the recovery within risk assets. We've adjusted our sales approach to execute our growth strategy during the pandemic through our digital marketing efforts, including our Navigate the Now campaign. Through the launch of the Northern Trust Institute, We will continue to leverage our 130 years of experience and depth of subject matter expertise for our clients' needs. Our asset management business is seeing considerable market share gains during 2020 within our liquidity products. Our Northern Institutional Government Select Fund was named the top performing government institutional fund of 2020. Beyond our liquidity funds, our quant active equity mutual funds and factor-based ETFs perform well relative to their peers. We also continue to see growth in ESG mandates, with assets under management of over $125 billion at year end, up 30% from the prior year. Our asset servicing business, which did see a deferral and implementation activity earlier in the year, finished 2020 with strong growth. Recent notable public wins highlight our success globally and across products and include Pershing Square Capital Management, Emerald Technology Ventures, Sands Capital Management, strategic global advisors, First Centener investors, and Westwood Holdings Group. We continue to invest and expand our asset servicing solutions in areas such as our front office solutions, as well as outsourced trading and foreign exchange execution. As we move forward in the current and persistent low interest rate environment, we've accelerated our focus on driving greater efficiencies, as well as continuing to grow organically in a scalable and profitable manner. Finally, I want to express my sincere appreciation for our staff, whose commitment, expertise, and professionalism throughout these extraordinary times has been exceptional. Now, let me turn the call to Jason to review our financial results for the quarter.