Zions Bancorporation N.A.

Greetings and welcome to the Zions Bank Corp 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 you require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce you to your host, Shannon Drates, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you, Shannon. You may begin.

Thank you, Alicia, and good evening, everyone. Welcome to our conference call to discuss the second 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 our 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 at zionsbankcorporation.com. For our agenda today, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Harris Simmons will provide opening remarks. Following Harris's 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 Kiriakakis, Chief Risk Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will hold a question and answer session. This call is scheduled for one hour. I'll now turn the time over to Harris Simmons.

Thanks very much, Shannon, and good evening, everyone. As you've seen, we reported second quarter net earnings of $243 million, which reflects a 28% improvement over the prior year period. We were pleased with the momentum in core earnings, which includes continued expansion of the net interest margin, customer fee growth, and well-managed expenses. While we see some signs of economic slowing, the magnitude and imminence of tariff-related risks noted in our first quarter call feel like they've abated somewhat. As a result, we are incrementally more sanguine about potential growth in our outlook, which Ryan will elaborate on in his remarks. We continue to focus on growing customers and customer relationships with a particular emphasis on small business banking that brings with it the kinds of deposits and ancillary services that we find to be very valuable and that build strong relationships. For example, our effort to grow loans made through the SBA 7A program has led to a 91% increase in the number of deals booked in the first nine months of the SBA's 2025 fiscal year relative to the same period last year. In mid-May, we began the rollout of our consumer gold account offering in the Nevada market. We'll be launching the product in other markets later this quarter. This product provides customers with a variety of high-value benefits. It's designed for a mass-affluent market and pairs well with our existing wealth offerings, which are also tailored to clients beginning kind of in the mass-affluent stage of wealth accumulation. We're really pleased by the enthusiastic response we've seen so far from customers in Nevada with respect to this offering. It was launched May 12th, and through early July, we had a 78% increase in sales of this product versus the product in its predecessor, with average balances in these accounts of around $30,000. And this is before we really started in late June to... through paid marketing, so we're really excited about the prospects for this as we roll this out across the entire enterprise. Turning now to key financial metrics for the quarter, slide three presents the net earnings for the quarter of $243 million is noted, up 28% from the same period last year, and up 44% compared to the first quarter. The efficiency ratio improved to 62.2%. The net interest margin continued to increase for the sixth consecutive quarter to 3.17% due to lower funding costs and the benefit from an improved earning asset mix and fixed rate asset repricing. Net loan losses for the quarter were $10 million or seven basis points annualized. Average customer deposits in the second quarter were up 0.5% relative to last year's number and down 1.4% annualized on a linked quarter basis. Non-interest bearing deposits reflect continued stability at 34% of total deposits. Average loans experienced modest growth at 5.6% on an annualized linked quarter basis and were up 3.7% year over year. Moving to slide four, diluted earnings per share was $1.63 compared to $1.13 in the prior period and $1.28 in the year-ago period. This quarter's results include a $0.05 per share benefit related to the successful public offering of an investment in our SBIC portfolio. This investment net of fees will be marked to market until our shares, which are subject to a minimum 180-day lockup period from the IPO, are fully divested. Slide five provides a five-quarter view of pre-provision net revenue. On an adjusted basis, our second quarter results of $316 million reflect an improvement of 18% compared to the prior quarter and 14% compared to the prior year period, as revenue growth has outpaced expense growth. 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.