KeyCorp

Good morning and welcome to KeyCorp's second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Monning, KeyCorp Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank you for joining Key Corp's second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. I'm here with Chris Gorman, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Clark Kyatt, our Chief Financial Officer. As usual, we will reference our earnings presentation slides, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of the Key.com website. In the back of the presentation, you will find our statement on forward-looking disclosures and certain financial measures, including non-GAAP measures. This covers our earnings materials as well as remarks made on this morning's call. Actual results may differ materially from forward-looking statements, and those statements speak only as of today, July 22, 2025, and will not be updated. With that, I will turn it over to you, Chris.

Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Today, we've reported strong second quarter results in what can be described as a dynamic and complex macro environment. Earnings per share were $0.35, even while we added $36 million to our loan loss reserves and elected to pre-fund our charitable foundation this quarter. Revenues were up 21% from a year ago, while expenses were up about 6%, excluding the charitable contribution. Our pre-provision net revenue increased by $44 million sequentially, marking the fifth straight quarter that our PPNR has increased. In the aggregate, our PPNR has grown over 60% since the first quarter of 2024. We continue to demonstrate strong commercial loan growth. As of June 30th, we have already achieved our full-year plan to grow commercial loans by about $3 billion in 2025, and our backlogs in both institutional and middle markets continue to build as we look to the second half of the year. We also continue to drive incremental value from our high-quality deposit franchise. Entering the year with a historically low loan-to-deposit ratio of 70%, combined with the runoff of low-yielding consumer mortgages, has afforded us the flexibility to prioritize beta management in the first half of the year. As a result, we have been able to manage down our deposit costs, which are now below 2%. Additionally, our cumulative down beta has reached the mid-50% range, which matches our terminal beta from the rising rate cycle. With respect to fees, which grew 10% from a year ago, our priority fee-based businesses all continue to perform very well. Investment banking had its second-best first half of the year in history as debt and equity issuance normalized after pausing in April, particularly as we approached the end of the quarter. We raised over $30 billion of capital for our clients in the quarter, retaining 22% on our balance sheet. Commercial payments fee-equivalent revenue grew high single digits year over year. Assets under management reached a record $64 billion. Additionally, sales production in our mass affluence segment was a record in the first half of the year. Finally, commercial mortgage servicing continued its strong performance, as NAMED special servicing balances reached record levels, and active special servicing balances remained near record levels. While top-line momentum remains robust, concurrently, all of our credit metrics continue to migrate in the right direction. Net charge-offs, criticized loans, and delinquencies all declined from the first quarter, while NPAs were essentially stable. Our overall credit migration improved for the sixth consecutive quarter, with commercial upgrades exceeding downgrades this quarter. Our strong first-half results, combined with our healthy pipelines and active client engagement, drive our optimism that we will meet or exceed all of the full-year and exit-rate financial targets that we detailed for you at the beginning of the year. As Clark will discuss in more depth shortly, we are increasing our net interest income and loan growth guide, Based on the rebound in client activity, we continue to feel good about our ability to deliver 5% or better fee growth this year. Investment banking pipelines remain at historically elevated levels, essentially flat on a linked quarter basis. Concurrently, we remain committed to holding expense growth in the low to mid-single-digit range, even while investing meaningfully in our frontline bankers and increasing our tech spend by nearly $100 million this year. On the hiring front, we are on track to increase our frontline bankers and client advisors by roughly 10% this year. We have successfully recruited highly skilled investment bankers, middle market relationship managers, wealth managers, and payments advisors to our platform, and our active recruiting pipelines remain strong. I'm also encouraged by our strong retention rates. which are reflective of our highly engaged sales force. As a reminder, we accelerated investments in people and technology late last year, and we are already seeing returns on those investments. For example, in the case of our middle market banking, the teams that we onboarded in Chicago and Southern California this last November have already driven new client growth, loan volumes, payments, and investment banking business. Our platform is very attractive to bankers with specific expertise that aligns to our industry verticals. Our new teammates can join the key team and be more impactful to both their clients and their prospects. To wrap up, we had a solid first half of the year. We remained vigilant in a dynamic environment and are well-positioned for a wide range of scenarios, We are operating from a position of strength. We have a leading capital position among our peers and ample liquidity that gives us flexibility to take advantage of the inevitable market dislocations. Our clearly defined structural net interest income tailwind is materializing as expected. We are enjoying significant success in the marketplace while concurrently making investments in people and technology that will drive our future growth. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Clark.