First Horizon Corporation

Good morning and welcome to the First Horizon Corporation Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Release Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star, then zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Brian Jordan, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. First, it's Ellen Taylor. I've got to do a little housekeeping. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. We really greatly appreciate your support and interest. To start things off, our CEO, Brian Jordan, and CFO, BJ Loesch, will provide opening comments and an overview of our results. And then, of course, we'll be happy to take your questions. We're also pleased to have with us today our Chief Operating Officer, Anthony Ristel, who will be taking on the role of Interim CFO, and our Chief Credit Officer, Susan Springfield. Our remarks today are going to reference the earnings presentation, which you may find at ir.fhnc.com. As always, I need to remind you that we will make forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, And we ask that you review the factors that may cause our results to differ from our expectations, which you can find on page two of our presentation and in our SEC filings. We also will address adjusted results, which exclude the impact of notable items. You should understand that these are non-GAAP measures, so it's really important for you to review the GAAP information in our earnings release and on page three of our presentation. And then, of course, last but not least, our comments reflect our current views. And you should understand that we aren't obligated to update them. And now with that, I'll give it to Brian.

Thank you, Ellen. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. I'm proud of the First Horizon team as we continue to deliver solid performance. The economy continues to strengthen. Loan demand and activity is continuing to build, and our strong credit quality is performing well. Liquidity and cash levels are strong broadly in the economy. which is leading to higher loan payoffs, more competition for new lending opportunities, and compressing loan spreads. Our diversified business model, including mortgage banking, mortgage warehouse lending, and FHM Financial, continue to provide an effective offset to some of these headwinds. We delivered adjusted EPS of 58 cents with a return on tangible common equity of 22% in the quarter. Our capital levels remain healthy with a common equity tier one ratio at 10.33%, and we grew tangible book value per share by 4% in the quarter to $10.74. Our revenues this quarter were down from strong first quarter levels. FHN financial and mortgage remained strong, but also extraordinarily strong first quarter levels. Our results this quarter were bolstered by the impact of continued rapid improvement in the overall economy and asset quality, which resulted in a provision credit of $115 million. We're encouraged by the uptick in activity across the franchise as markets and sectors reopen. Our associates are having lots of constructive dialogue with clients and prospects, and we feel we are in a relatively strong position benefit from further economic improvement. Loan pipelines certainly continue to reflect a strengthening economy in May and June. Still, near term, the industry is confronting continued lower rates, high levels of excess liquidity, and very little incremental loan demand. Clients are still cautious about new investments and are still facing supply chain and labor force constraints that are problematic. We are also starting to see PPP loan forgiveness pick up. All of this translates to a fiercely competitive landscape for loan outstanding. We're continuing to focus on controlling the things that we can control, driving toward completing our merger integration, capturing revenue synergies, being good risk managers, all while focusing on serving our clients and anticipating their needs. We continue to do a great job of capturing revenue synergies across the markets and product lines by leveraging our expanded suite of products, services, and expertise, all instrumental in retaining and growing our client relationships. At the same time, we are committed to continuing to drive enhanced efficiency by delivering $200 million in cost savings. and controlling costs while still making prudent investments in technology and products to drive future revenue growth. We also continued to opportunistically deploy capital through share repurchases. We bought back 3.1 million shares this quarter. Including dividends, we returned a total of $141 million of capital to our common shareholders. We continue to be optimistic about the path of the economic recovery and the increased activity levels we are seeing across our footprint as our markets continue to reopen. But like many, we are keeping a watchful eye on supply chain and labor constraints, as well as signs of inflation. I continue to be highly confident that our business model and benefits of the merger of equals position us well to deliver top quartile return over the medium term. And now, I'll turn it over to BJ for some comments on the results. BJ?