Synovus Financial Corp.

Good morning and welcome to the Synovus first quarter 2021 earnings call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by 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'd now like to turn the conference over to Kevin Brown, Senior Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning. During today's call, we will be referencing the slides and press release that are available within the Investor Relations section of our website, synovus.com. Kessel Stelling, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, will begin the call. He will be followed by Jamie Gregory, Chief Financial Officer, and Kevin Blair, President and Chief Operating Officer. Our executive management team is available to answer your questions at the end of the call. We ask that you limit yourselves to one question and one follow-up. Let me remind you that our comments may include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and the actual results could vary materially. We list these factors that might cause results to differ materially in our press release and on our SEC filings, which are available on our website. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information. Early developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law. During the call, we will reference non-GAAP financial measures related to the company's performance. You may see the reconciliation of these measures in the appendix to our presentation. And now, here's Kessel Stelling.

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our first quarter 2021 earnings call and my last call as CEO. This is the 45th quarterly earnings call I've participated in with this great company, my 44th as CEO, and I can tell you with great certainty that despite the lingering challenges for our company and the industry, these calls are ending for me on a much more positive note than when they started. My very first call was in April 2010, 11 years ago to the day, as Chief Operating Officer. We were weeks away from completing the consolidation of 30 bank charters into one, and still very much in the early stages of recovering from the financial crisis. I won't take you back through every high and low of the last 10 plus years, but before we move into today's update, I want to take a moment to thank our shareholders for their trust and support. I'm also grateful to those of you on this call, many of whom have followed our company as long as I've been around, some even longer. Our team looks forward to these calls every quarter, in part because of the relationships we've built with you. While we don't always agree, we appreciate your commitment to and usually your delivery of fair assessments of our opportunities and our strengths. I also want to thank our executive team, with whom I've had the privilege of leading this company through the good times and the really tough ones as well. Above all, I want to thank our team members, many of whom are listening in today. This team has a passion, a drive, an incredible depth of talent. They simply won't take no for an answer. They're time-tested and battle-worn. They dig deep and always find new ways to win. I truly believe I work alongside the best team in the industry, and I'm regularly in awe of their dedication to each other, our customers, communities, and shareholders. On Thursday... I'll confidently pass the CEO baton to Kevin Blair, who I strongly believe is more than capable and ready to take the helm. I am so proud of all we've done and beyond excited about what's still ahead, and that's where I'd like to focus the remainder of my comments. In a presentation last month, Kevin identified three tenets that are core to our delivering sustainable top quartile performance. The first is being positioned for success. which includes capturing the growth in our southeastern footprint and capitalizing on our strong reputation with customers and communities. Second is providing an exceptional customer experience in which we continue to invest aggressively through efficiencies generated by Synovus Forward. And third is delivering core organic growth, which remains our top priority for capital deployment. with expectations for core customer loan growth this year consistent with our guidance of two to four percent excluding P3 loans. Our results in the first quarter demonstrated our ability to deliver in these areas. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $1.21 compared to $1.08 last quarter and 21 cents a year ago. Total adjusted revenue of $488 million Adjusted expenses of $267 million and a $19 million reversal of provision for credit losses led to strong earnings that further increased capital levels. Core transaction deposits grew $2 billion, helping reduce the total cost of deposits by six basis points to 0.22%. Commercial loans, excluding those under the Paycheck Protection Program, increased $212 million or 1% from the end of the year. Through mid-April, we processed 10,000 new Phase II applications for $1.1 billion and have funded approximately $950 million for our customers. Net charge-offs remain low at 21 basis points. NPA, NPL, and past-due ratios all remain near historical lows, and we remain confident in the credit performance of our portfolio. We continue to be pleased with the progress in our Synovus Forward initiatives. By the end of the quarter, we've achieved a pre-tax run rate benefit of approximately $50 million of the $175 million expected by the end of 2022. Kevin will provide more detail later on the call. Again, our team did an outstanding job delivering strong results for the quarter, and I look forward to continued progress throughout the year. And with that overview, I'll now turn the call over to Jamie for the more detailed financial update, beginning with loans, on slide four.