Citizens Financial Group, Inc.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Citizens Financial Group first quarter earnings conference call. My name is Alan, and I'll be your operator today. Currently, all participants are in the listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a brief question and answer session. As a reminder, this event is being recorded. Now I'll turn the call over to Kristen Silberberg, Executive Vice President, Investor Relations. Kristen, you may begin.

Thank you, Alan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. First, this morning, our chairman and CEO, Bruce Van Saan, and CFO John Woods will provide an overview of our first quarter results. Brendan Coughlin, head of consumer banking, and Don McCree, head of commercial banking, are also here to provide additional colour. We will be referencing our first quarter earnings presentation located on our investor relations website. After the presentation, we will be happy to take questions. Our comments today will include forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause our results to differ materially from expectations. These are outlined for your review on page two of the presentation. We also reference non-GAAP financial measures, so it's important to review our GAAP results on page three of the presentation and the reconciliations in the appendix. With that, I will hand over to you, Bruce.

Thank you, Kristen. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our call today. We were pleased to start the year with a solid quarter. We continue to play strong defense to an uncertain environment with a CET1 ratio at 10.6%, our LDR at 81%, our allowance for loan loss ratio at 161%, and general office reserves now at 10.6%. On the P&L, we are still seeing a modest decline in NII, though our NIM was stable at 2.91%. Fees picked up by 3 percent sequential quarter, led by capital markets and CARD, and expenses were flat. Our credit trends are in line with expectations. We repurchased $300 million of shares during the quarter as we free up capital from our non-core rundown. Our guide for Q2 and full year remain consistent with our expectations at the outset of the year. Our strategic initiatives are making good progress. The private bank is off to a good start, reaching $2.4 billion in deposits at quarter end. We expect momentum to accelerate further over the course of the year. We are also focused on building out private wealth management through further investment in Klarfeld plus several imminent team liftouts. Our New York City Metro initiative continues to go well with the fastest growth of any of our regions and really strong net promoter scores. Our focus in the commercial bank of serving the middle market, private capital, and key growth verticals has put us in great position to benefit from a pickup and deal activity, which we expect to build further over the course of the year. And our top nine program is being executed well, allowing us to self-fund our growth investments while keeping overall expense growth rate muted. While there are still many uncertainties in the external environment, we feel we are in good position to navigate the challenges that may arise, and we maintain a positive outlook for citizens over the balance of the year, as well as the medium term. Over the past decade, we have undertaken a major transformation of citizens. Our consumer and commercial banking segments are positioned for success, and we are now looking to build the premier bank-owned private bank and wealth franchise. Our balance sheet has been repositioned with an exceptionally strong capital liquidity and funding profile, and we are deploying our loan capital more selectively to achieve better risk-adjusted returns. Our expense base has been tightly managed, with AI offering the potential for further breakthroughs. Lots accomplished with more to do. Clearly exciting times for citizens. With that, let me turn it over to John.