Ally Financial Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Ally Financial Q3 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require operator assistance during the program, please press star then zero. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Daniel Eller, head of investor relations. You may begin.

Thank you and welcome everyone to Ally Financial's third quarter 2021 earnings call. This morning, our CEO, Jeff Brown, and our CFO, Jen LeClair, will review Ally's results before taking questions. I'll note that the presentation we'll reference on today's call can be found on the investor relations section of our website, ally.com. Forward-looking statements and risk factor language governing today's call can be found on slide two, while GAAP and non-GAAP or core measures pertaining to our operating performance and capital results are on slide three. These metrics are supplemental to and not a substitute for U.S. GAAP measures. Definitions and reconciliations can be found in the appendix. With that, I'll turn the call over to JB.

Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining our call today. We posted another strong quarter of results as all of our businesses continue to be well positioned and benefit from a strong and healthy consumer macro environment. Momentum across our leading businesses reflects disciplined execution underpinned by our do-it-right culture. We're excited to announce the acquisition of Fair Square Financial, a digital-first credit card provider which further enhances our suite of consumer products. This is a company we have been following for quite some time, and we are pleased to bring this important product set and great leadership team into the Ally family. On slide number four, we continued driving long-term value for all of our stakeholders, as was evident in several purpose-driven actions taken during the quarter. On the customer front, the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund certified our BankOn national account status in recognition of our customer-first approach, citing our industry-leading action to eliminate overdraft fees. We also rolled out a Refine Now product, expanding access to underserved populations looking to obtain a mortgage. For our Ally teammates, we increased our minimum wage 18% to $20 per hour and announced all employees will be eligible to receive Ally stock through our third annual Own It grant program, promoting an environment of shared success and an ownership mentality across the company. This is an important program to me and aligns every teammate in advancing our mission. Additionally, earlier this year, we were named a Top 50 Place to Work by Diversity, Inc., recognizing the inclusive environment we've nurtured over many years. Among community efforts, we held our annual Moguls in the Making student-led competition featuring representation from 10 HBCUs and awarded several scholarships and internship offers to the inspiring group of young men and women who participated. The pride I have in our accomplishments is exceeded only in the confidence I have in our ability to continue driving long-term value for all of our stakeholders moving forward. Let's turn to slide number five where I'll touch on third quarter highlights. Adjusted EPS of $2.16, core ROTCE of 24.2% and revenues of 2.1 billion represented record setting third quarter levels powered by diversified revenues and solid credit trends. The credit backdrop remains strong by nearly all measures and the fundamental drivers of Ally's performance reflect well-positioned and dominant auto, insurance, and Ally bank platforms. Our agile, customer-centric businesses provide us the ability to capture market opportunities in real time, evident in our results across the past several years and in our long-term outlook. Within auto, consumer originations of $12.3 billion and 3.3 million decision applications represented our highest third quarter in 15 years at a really impressive 7.1% yield. The strength and adaptability of Ally's platform is clearly seen in our industry-leading comprehensive product offerings and 12 consecutive years of expanding dealers. Our capabilities and scale distribution enhance our ability to deliver as the broader auto ecosystem shifts and evolves in the near and long term. Credit performance remains solid with 27 basis points of retail NCOs, our lowest third quarter on record. We remain well reserved for the eventual and gradual normalization of losses. We've maintained a disciplined approach to underwriting and collections, increasing our use of advanced data, enhanced technology, and innovative self-service tools for dealers and customers. But the true strength of our auto finance business comes back to seasoned, allied teammates that foster great relationships with our dealer partners and a shared sense of pride and winning together. Overall, consumers remain well positioned financially with healthy balance sheets, excess savings, and strong wage and job prospects. These dynamics help mitigate the wind down of assistance programs and ongoing inflationary trends. Impacts of semiconductor shortages and resulting OEM production constraints resulted in new record lows for industry inventories. Given consumer demand remains robust, we expect floor plan levels will remain low through the latter part of next year, which provides ongoing structural support for used vehicle demand and values. Within our insurance business, written premiums of $295 million reflected lower industry sales and floor plan levels. However, Ally insurance customers are now approaching the $3 million mark. The $6.4 billion investment portfolio within our insurance business generated solid revenues and Hurricane Ida claims were minimal. Turning to Ally Bank, growth and expansion trends continued, reinforcing the scalable, nimble nature of our platform. Retail deposit customers grew for the 50th consecutive quarter and balances expanded to $132 billion representing year-to-date growth of $7.2 billion. We continue to deepen customer relationships through our differentiated platform that combines leading, award-winning digital capabilities with deeply integrated, stable, and secure bank platforms. Ally Home originations of $3.6 billion nearly tripled compared to the prior year period. Ally Invest customer assets ended the quarter at $16.3 billion, a 42% increase year-over-year, driven by the combined result of market activity and self-directed and managed account growth, which surpassed half a million. Ally Lending generated $362 million in originations, more than double the prior year level, with growth sourced from the healthcare, and home improvement verticals as we build out the retail channel. Corporate finance posted another solid quarter with HFI balances growing to 6.6 billion and total balance sheet exposure exceeding 11 billion for the first time. Performance across each of our businesses reinforces our ability to deliver as we increasingly meet the needs of our engaged customer base. Turning to slide number six, performance remains solid across each of the measures shown on the page. In the upper right, PPNR surpassed one billion again this quarter, and annual expansion in the years ahead will be generated by leveraging the strength of our balance sheet and growth opportunities across all of our businesses. On the bottom right of the page, tangible book value per share reached an all-time high of $39.72. Since becoming a publicly traded company seven years ago, we've demonstrated a clear ability to build intrinsic and financial value. Specifically, we've expanded revenues over 60%, grown earning assets over 20%, increased book value over 80%, and delivered a transformed return profile, moving from low single digits to mid-teens ROTCE. Turning to slide number seven, our acquisition of Fair Square enhances our ability to continue delivering solid results and expanding our reach to even more customers. Adding a credit card capability has been an important objective for us, and today we're announcing the opportunity to address this key product gap. This transaction fully aligns with our long-term priorities centered around a relentless customer focus solid risk adjusted returns, and long term value enhancement. The mortgage, investing, and point of sale capabilities we've added since 2016 are differentiated through digitally compelling experiences, positioning us to grow within large and attractive addressable markets. By adding credit card capabilities, we're introducing yet another opportunity to expand our presence in consumer wallets and drive enhanced returns. Through ongoing familiarity with their team and our diligence efforts, we are confident in the strong employee culture and values, deep management execution and risk management capabilities, unique product and positioning in an underserved market, and digitally-based tech-forward capabilities that are driving a creative growth. Launched in 2016, This management team has several decades of collective experience in credit card marketing, underwriting, and risk management. The team has successfully executed a strategy to deliver customer-centric, differentiated products to an underserved market segment via nimble, modern platforms. While the credit card industry has experienced a pause in growth over the past two years, FairSquare's all-branded offerings have expanded due to steady customer acquisition and underserved market. I welcome the FairSquare team to the Ally family, and I'm excited for what we will do together in the months and years ahead. And with that, I'll pass it to Jen to walk through a few other details on the transaction and our overall third quarter results.