First Horizon Corporation

Welcome to the First Horizon First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Carla, and I will be coordinating your call today. During the presentation, you can register to ask a question by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. I will now hand you over to your host, Natalie Flanders, Head of Investors Relations, to begin. Natalie, please go ahead.

Thank you, Carla. Good morning. Welcome to our first quarter 2024 results conference call. Thank you for joining us. Today, our Chairman, President, and CEO, Brian Jordan, and Chief Financial Officer, Hope Demchowski, will provide prepared remarks, and then we'll be happy to take your questions. We're also pleased to have our Chief Credit Officer, Susan Springfield, here to assist with questions as well. Our remarks today will reference our earnings presentation, which is available on our website at ir.firsthorizon.com. As always, I need to remind you that we will make forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and therefore we ask you to review the factors that may cause our results to differ from our expectations on page two of our presentation and in our SEC filing. Additionally, please be aware that our comments will refer to adjusted results which exclude the impact of notable items. These are non-GAAP measures, so it's important for you to review the GAAP information in our earnings release and on page three of our presentation. And last but not least, our comments reflect our current views, and you should understand that we are not obligated to update them. And with that, I'll turn things over to Brian.

Thank you, Natalie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. The first quarter of 2024 was another strong quarter for First Horizon, demonstrating our ability to produce consistent returns for our shareholders. We grew revenue both through expanding our margin and improvement in our countercyclical businesses while simultaneously reducing expenses and maintaining strong credit performance. In March, we celebrated our 160th year in business and took the opportunity to celebrate the strength and resiliency of our company, which has been driven by a dedicated and talented associate base. In honor of our 160th anniversary, we recently announced our Grants for Good campaign, which will award $1.6 million in grants to nonprofit organizations within our 12-state footprint. We believe that the communities where we do business are the foundation of First Horizons' long record of success, and we are proud to continue to support the clients and communities in our markets. On slide five, we have shared some of the financial highlights for the quarter. We delivered adjusted EPS of 35 cents per share, up 9% from the prior quarter, with pre-provision net revenue up $25 million. Adjusted return on tangible common equity improved to 11.6%, driven by positive operating leverage, as well as the benefit of returning excess capital to shareholders. Our improved returns resulted from our ability to drive higher revenue in both our core banking franchise and our countercyclical businesses. We grew the net interest margin 10 basis points from the fourth quarter from improved pricing on both loans and deposits, driving a $7 million increase in net interest income. FHM Financial had a stronger quarter as well. with a $15 million increase in fixed income fees. In January, our Board approved a $650 million share repurchase authorization. We began to return capital to shareholders this quarter, repurchasing over $150 million of stock, ending the quarter with a common equity Tier 1 ratio of 11.3%. we will continue to opportunistically deploy capital above our 11% near-term target. As I look forward to the rest of 2024, I remain incredibly optimistic that First Horizon will continue to deliver strong results quarter after quarter while serving our customers and communities just as we have over the past 160 years. We have an attractive footprint, a competitive product set, and a strong credit culture that will allow us to profitably navigate the ever-changing economic outlook of the upcoming year. With that, I'll hand the call over to Hope to run through our financial results in more detail. Hope?