Discover Financial Services

Good morning. My name is Chelsea, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the first quarter 2023 Discover Financial Services Earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you should need operator assistance, Please press star zero. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Eric Wasserstrom, head of investor relations. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chelsea, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to this morning's call. I'll begin on slide two of our earnings presentation, which you can find in the financial section of our investor relations website, investorrelations.discover.com. Our discussion today contains certain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our notices regarding forward-looking statements that appear in our first quarter earnings press release and presentation. Our call today will include remarks from our CEO, Roger Hochschild, and John Green, our Chief Financial Officer. After we conclude our formal comments, there will be time for a question and answer session. During the Q&A session, you will be permitted to ask one question followed by one follow-up question. After your follow-up question, please return to the queue. Now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Roger.

Thanks, Eric, and thanks to our listeners for joining today's call. I'll begin by commenting on some of the recent events in the banking industry, review our highlights for the quarter, and then John will take you through the details of our first quarter results and our updated perspectives on 2023. This past quarter included the failure of two large banks, an event that catalyzed more widespread stress in some segments of the banking system and raised questions about the funding models and embedded portfolio losses of multiple banks. In contrast, our strong results underscore how our model, with its diversified funding, trusted brand, focus on prime consumer lending, and conservative risk management, positions us to succeed through a range of operating conditions. I want to call out a few results in particular that highlight our performance in this challenging environment. We reported first quarter net income of $1 billion, or $3.58 per share. We had an all-time record quarter in terms of consumer deposit inflows, leveraging our award-winning digital experience and our leading customer service. And we're improving key elements of our guidance. As we look to the remainder of 2023, we may adjust our outlook as conditions evolve. We believe there is the potential for more stringent regulation. We believe we're well-positioned for more rigorous regulatory capital and liquidity requirements, given our strong internal standards. And we also continue to focus on enhancing our compliance management systems. This past quarter also included an important milestone with respect to our investment in human capital. We're honored to have been recognized as one of Fortune's 100 best companies to work for in 2023. This is the first time we've earned this distinction. It builds upon recognition we received last year, ranking us among the best workplaces for parents and Fortune's best workplaces for women. In conclusion, we believe our earnings power, balance sheet strength, investments in people, and advancements in capabilities support our strategy of becoming the leading consumer digital bank. I'll now turn the call over to John to review our results in more detail.