Regions Financial Corporation

Good morning and welcome to Regents Financial Corporation's quarterly earnings call. My name is Natalia and I will be your operator for today's call. I would like to remind everyone that all participant phone lines have been placed on listen only. At the end of the call, there will be a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. I will now turn the call over to Dana Nolan to begin.

Thank you, Natalia. Welcome to region's fourth quarter 2021 earnings call. John and David will provide high-level commentary regarding the quarter. Earnings documents, which include our forward-looking statement disclaimer and non-GAAP information, are available in the investor relations section of our website. These disclosures cover our presentation materials, prepared comments, and Q&A. I'll now turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Dana, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining our call today. We're very pleased with our fourth quarter and full-year results. We achieved a great deal despite a challenging interest rate and operating environment. Earlier this morning, we reported full-year earnings of $2.4 billion and record pre-tax, pre-provision income of $2.7 billion. Despite continued economic uncertainty, we remain focused on what we can control and our efforts are paying off. We grew consumer checking accounts by 3% and small business accounts by 5%. Notably, our 2021 net retail account growth exceeds the previous three years combined and represents an annual growth rate that is three times higher than pre-pandemic levels. We increased new corporate banking group loan production by approximately 30% and generated record capital markets revenues. Through our enhanced risk management framework, we delivered our lowest annual net charge-off ratio since 2006. We made investments in key talent and revenue-facing associates to support strategic growth initiatives. We continue to grow and diversify revenue through our acquisitions of Interbank, Saval Capital Partners, and Clearsight Advisors. We successfully executed our LIBOR transition program. to ensure our clients were ready to move to alternative reference rates. We continue to focus on making banking easier through investments in target markets, technology, and digital capabilities. We surpassed our two-year, $12 million commitment to advance programs and initiatives that promote racial equity and economic empowerment for communities of color. Before closing, we're extremely proud of our achievements in 2021 but none of these would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our nearly 20,000 associates. The past year posed unique challenges as we continue to transition to our new normal, both on a personal and professional level. Despite continued uncertainty, our associates remain steadfast. They continue to bring their best of work every day, providing best-in-class customer service, successfully executing our strategic plan, and maintaining strong risk management practices, all of which contributed to our success. In 2022 and beyond, we'll continue to focus on growing our business by making investments in areas that allow us to make banking easier for our customers, all while continuing to provide our associates with the tools they need to be successful. We will make incremental adjustments to our business by leaning into our strengths and investing in areas where we believe we can consistently win over time. As announced earlier this week, a key priority in 2022 will be additional comprehensive changes to our NSF and overdraft policies, which are detailed in the appendix of our presentation. These changes represent a natural extension of our commitment to making banking easier for our customers and complement the enhanced alerts, time order posting process, as well as our bank loan certified checking product we launched last year. It's important to note that the financial impact of these enhancements have been fully incorporated in our total revenue expectation for 2022. Again, we're pleased with our results and have great momentum as we head into 2022. Now, David will provide you with some select highlights regarding the quarter.