Zions Bancorporation N.A.

Greetings and welcome to the Zions Bancorp Q1 2025 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, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Shannon Drage. Thank you, Shannon. You may begin.

Thank you, Julian. And good evening, everyone. Welcome to our conference call to discuss the first quarter earnings for 2025. My name is Shannon Drage, Senior Director of Investor Relations. I would like to remind you that during this call, we will be making forward-looking statements. Please note that actual results may differ materially. We encourage you to review the disclaimer in the press release or slide two of the presentation dealing with forward-looking information and the presentation of non-GAAP measures, which applies equally to statements made during this call. A copy of the earnings release as well as the presentation are available on zionsbankcorporation.com. For our agenda today, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Harris Dimmons will provide opening remarks. Following Harris' comments, Ryan Richards, our Chief Financial Officer, will review our financial results. Also with us today are Scott McClain, President and Chief Operating Officer, Derek Stewart, Chief Credit Officer, and Chris Kyriakakis, Chief Risk Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will hold a question and answer session. This call is scheduled for one hour. I will now turn the time over to Harris-Simmons.

Thanks very much, Shannon, and good evening, everyone. We are generally pleased with our fundamental performance and the financial results for the first quarter, which reflect meaningful year-over-year improvement. Our ratio of non-performing assets to loans, leases, and other real estate owned remained stable last quarter, though up somewhat from last year. Net loan charge-offs remained low, and our allowance for credit losses is well aligned with the current economic outlook. We feel well-positioned for what could be a period of increased economic uncertainty. I suspect that we'd all agree that prognostication about loan growth, unemployment, the path of interest rates, and other drivers of performance seems especially challenging at the present moment. Consistent with our determination to build an AI-enabled culture, I asked ChatGPT for help in explaining the world we're now living in. I got this. Trump's tariffs have caused quite a fuss, with markets unsure who to trust. Will prices ascend? Will trade wars extend? Or will growth just stall in the dust? That actually seemed to explain the times we're in pretty well, I thought. In our presentation materials and the remarks that Ryan will make, we're providing an outlook for the first quarter of 2026. While the outlook guidance always comes with disclaimers about the limitations of forward-looking statements, it's worth emphasizing the particular difficulty right now for us and everybody else in this industry in forecasting results a year from now. While this heightened uncertainty has led to notable market volatility, the reality is that managing risk and uncertainty is a core part of what we do and it doesn't distract from our commitment to serving our customers and improving customers' experiences with us. On that note, we are pleased to once again be recognized by Coalition Greenwich as one of the top 10 banks in the industry in garnering Best Bank Awards in a variety of categories, including being ranked third nationally and serving middle market clients. All is measured by the results of approximately 25,000 surveys conducted across the country. During a time of increased uncertainty for businesses and consumers, we'll be paying particular attention to staying close to clients and understanding their challenges and helping them in every way we prudently can in the months ahead. We were pleased to welcome new customers to our California Bank and Trust affiliate following the acquisition of four branches in the Coachella Valley of California from First Bank of Denver, Colorado in late March. This acquisition added approximately $630 million of deposits and $420 million in loans, which, when added to our own existing business in that market, gives us a meaningful share of what is really a very attractive market in Southern California. As pleased as we are with the new customers we're serving there, we're equally pleased with the quality of the employees who joined our team as a result of this acquisition. They're absolutely first rate, and we welcome them to our team. Shifting now to financial results for the quarter, key metrics for the quarter are presented on slide three. Net earnings for the quarter were $169 million, or $1.13 per share, representing an 18% improvement compared to the same period last year. Compared to the prior quarter, earnings declined due to the seasonality and share-based compensation and payroll taxes. a reduced day count, a decrease in non-interest income, and a higher effective tax rate, which I'll discuss in a moment. This was somewhat offset by reduced provision expense and reduced preferred dividend costs. The net interest margin increased for the fifth consecutive quarter to 3.10% compared to 3.05% in the previous quarter. Improvement during the quarter reflects the downward repricing of a significant portion of both customer and brokered term deposits and continued discipline in repricing across the other deposit categories, particularly in the highest cost products. The average cost of interest-bearing deposits decreased by 26 basis points compared to the previous quarter and by 55 basis points versus the year-ago period. First quarter adjusted pre-provision net revenue, or PPNR, was $267 million, an increase of 10% from the $242 million achieved a year ago. Efficiency ratio was seasonally higher, though improved over last year's period. Deposits decreased both on an ending and average basis in the first quarter, including the impact of Coachella-related deposits added in late March. Non-interest-bearing deposits remained relatively stable at 33% of total deposits. Average loans experienced modest growth of 0.5% on a linked quarter basis. Net loan losses for the quarter were $16 million or 11 basis points annualized and included an $8 million charge-off of a single commercial and industrial loan. There were no charge-offs in the CRE portfolio, and the non-accrual ratio of CRE loans remained low at 43 basis points. Incidentally, over the past five years, during which there have been CRE-related concerns about the Amazon effect on retail properties, the impact of increased work from home on office properties, and somewhat weaker performance in the multifamily segment of the industry, annual net charge-offs in our $13.6 billion CRE portfolio have averaged a mere one basis point, which by most any measure is really outstanding performance over a five-year period. Moving to slide four, diluted earnings per share again was $1.13 compared to $1.34 in the prior period and $0.96 in the year-ago period. This quarter's results include an $0.11 per share charge to income tax expense related to a required revaluation of our deferred tax assets associated with accumulated other comprehensive income, all resulting from a beneficial Utah tax law change on securities portfolio income. This one-time revaluation will largely accrete back in income over the life of the related securities. The law change is beneficial because apart from the timing difference of the deferred tax asset accounting treatment, The legislative change will serve to reduce the tax on investment income in future periods. Slide 5 provides a five-quarter view of pre-provision net revenue. As previously noted, on an adjusted basis, our first quarter results of $267 million reflect an improvement of 10% over the prior year period. With that high-level overview, I'll turn the time over to our Chief Financial Officer, Ryan Richards, for additional details related to our performance. Ryan?