Synovus Financial Corp.

Good morning and welcome to the Synovus third 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 will now turn the call over to Kevin Brown, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning. During today's call, we will reference the slides and press release that are available within the Investor Relations section of our website, synovus.com. Kevin Blair, President and Chief Executive Officer, will begin the call. He will be followed by Jamie Gregory, Chief Financial Officer, and we will be available to answer your questions at the end of the call. Our comments 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 in our SEC filings, which are available on our website. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements because 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, Kevin Blair will provide an overview of the quarter.

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our third quarter earnings call. Before I begin my remarks regarding this quarter's earnings, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the recent and tragic deaths of our Specialty Lending Division CEO, Jonathan Rosen, his assistant, Lauren Harrington, his 14-year-old daughter, Allie, and Allie's friend, Julia. All four were killed in a plane crash on October 8th, shortly after takeoff from a private airport in Atlanta. Many of you have likely heard us mention Jonathan's name or may have even met him. And you've certainly heard us talk about the extensive impact he has made on our company since we acquired his life insurance premium finance company, Ontair Global One, in 2016. In addition to exceeding expectations in growing his premium finance division, He also oversaw our asset-based lending team and built out a world-class structured lending business. But as successful as he was in his work, he was even more passionate about his family and helping others, especially evident through his Rosen Family Foundation that promotes financial empowerment across the socioeconomic spectrum. His assistant, Lauren, was equally dedicated to her work and to impacting others. As you can imagine, our entire work family is dealing with tremendous shock and sadness over this unimaginable loss, but Jonathan built an amazingly talented team that is doing a remarkable job of carrying on under difficult circumstances. Jonathan would have wanted it no other way and would have been the first to acknowledge that all of his business success was more of a product of his team rather than himself. I am not sure I agree, but I am confident in the team he has built to carry his vision forward. Please join us in keeping the families, friends, and colleagues of all lost in your thoughts and prayers. Now, let's shift to our third quarter results. We are delivering on our growth objectives as evidenced by the period end loans, core operating deposits, and broad base fee income growth. At the same time, we have maintained good expense discipline while continuing to invest in longer term initiatives and have managed through the challenging interest rate environment by strategically investing excess liquidity while continuing to lower the overall cost of deposits. Loan growth was extremely strong for the quarter as funded commercial loan production increased almost 70% versus the previous quarter, which more than offset the ongoing elevated levels of payoffs and paydowns. Fee income was up $8 million, or 8% versus the second quarter, with wealth and capital markets income posting strong growth as well as core banking fees returning to more normalized levels post-COVID. Our Treasury and Payments team set a new high bar in terms of new production at $10.6 million year-to-date, surpassing its full-year 2020 totals during the month of September. We also continue to deliver on our Synovus Forward initiatives, which reached a pre-tax run rate benefit of approximately $100 million by quarter-end. And we're making great progress in planning for the additional $75 million worth of benefits to be delivered by the end of 2022. Synovus Fort represents our ongoing innovation and profitable growth mindset, but it will also drive our efficiency efforts in order to ensure we deliver on our sustainable top quartile financial performance objectives. On the efficiency front, additional branch consolidation is underway. with four additional branches scheduled for closure by year end, and we will continue to rationalize the branch network as we reinvent the retail delivery model. The efficiency efforts will enhance returns, but also allow us to further our investment in specialized talent to build out new businesses and product lines. Through strategic hires this quarter, we have expanded our specialty lending coverage to restaurant services, strengthened our middle market Florida presence, and announce our expansion into the corporate and investment banking segment. We continue to make progress on our efforts to digitize our business. Through the third quarter, we have migrated 90% of our clients onto Synovus Gateway, our commercial portal, and usage of MySynovus, our consumer platform, indicates that digital usage continues to expand with an additional 10% increase in enrollment and active users. Moreover, a concerted effort has led to a 43% increase in paperless enrollment in 2021. We recognize that many of these advancements are table stakes in our industry, and therefore we are focusing additional resources on more transformational opportunities. Efforts are underway to expand our digital engagement through insights. We are also expanding the solutions we offer our ISO and ISV clients and are working on the next generation of fully integrated treasury solutions. These and other initiatives are all focused on delivering new sources of revenue in the coming quarters and years ahead. Our strategic plan forward balances our investments in both core and transformational initiatives in order to generate both short and long-term returns while building on our core differentiation principles. Now, let's take a look at the financials for the quarter. On slide three, we've included some key financial highlights for the quarter. I'd like to begin with loan growth, which increased $923 million, excluding changes in P3 balances. As mentioned previously, record levels of funded commercial production drove the growth for the quarter. We expect this momentum to carry into the fourth quarter as commercial pipelines remain robust. Quality deposit growth continued in the third quarter, including an increase in core transaction deposits of $1 billion. We continue to take advantage of this liquidity environment to focus on remixing our deposit base, and along with strategic repricing, this has helped lower the overall cost of deposits by an additional three basis points to 0.13%. We continue to experience balance augmentation, but a core focus on operating accounts has led to DDA and now production to increase 34% versus the prior quarter. Jamie will provide additional details regarding the balance sheet, but our goal remains consistent in this environment, attracting and deepening core relationships. Total adjusted revenue of $500 million increased 2% from the prior quarter, while adjusted expenses declined $1 million to $267 million. This resulted in a 6% increase in adjusted pre-provision net revenue quarter on quarter. An $8 million reversal of provision for credit losses resulted from the provision expense associated with strong loan growth being more than offset by a reduction in life of loan loss estimates. Adjusted net income was $178 million or $1.20 diluted earnings per share. As we have returned to a position of growth, we have done so with strong credit, liquidity, and capital metrics. The net charge-off ratio declined six basis points this quarter to 0.22%, while the NPL and NPA ratios each fell one basis point. The ACL ratio was down 12 basis points, excluding P3 loans, ending the quarter at 1.42%. And the CET1 ratio declined 12 basis points to 9.63%, and remain slightly above our stated range. At this point, I'll turn it over to Jamie to provide more details on the financials. Jamie?