The Toronto-Dominion Bank

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the TD Bank Group Q4 2020 Earnings Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Ms. Jillian Manning. Please go ahead, Ms. Manning.

Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon and welcome to TD Bank Group's fourth quarter 2020 investor presentation. We will begin today's presentation with remarks from Barrett Masrani, the bank's CEO, after which Riaz Ahmed, the bank's CFO, will present our fourth quarter operating results. Ajay Bambawale, Chief Risk Officer, will then offer comments on credit quality, after which we will invite questions from pre-qualified analysts and investors on the phone. Also here to answer your questions today are Terry Currie, Group Head, Canadian Personal Banking, Greg Bracca, President and CEO, TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, and Bob Lawrence, Group Head, Wholesale Banking. Please turn to slide two. At this time, I would like to caution our listeners that this presentation contains forward-looking statements that there are risks that actual results could differ materially from what is discussed, and that certain material factors or assumptions were applied in making these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements contained in this presentation represent the views of management and are presented for the purpose of assisting the bank's shareholders and analysts in understanding the bank's financial position, objectives and priorities, and anticipated financial performance. Forward-looking statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. I would also like to remind listeners that the bank uses non-GAAP financial measures to arrive at adjusted results to assess each of its businesses and to measure overall bank performance. The bank believes that adjusted results provide Reader with a better understanding of how management views the bank's performance. Barrett will be referring to adjusted results in his remarks. Additional information on items of note, the bank's reported results, and factors and assumptions related to forward-looking information are all available in the 2020 MDNA and fourth quarter 2020 earnings news release. With that, let me turn the presentation over to Barrett.

Thank you, Jillian, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. 2020 has been a year without parallel. Whoever you are, wherever you live, each one of us has felt the impact of COVID-19 in our personal and professional lives. Once again, we extend our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the tens of thousands of healthcare workers, first responders, and others on the front lines, including TD Bankers, still working tirelessly to provide essential services throughout this crisis. COVID has also been a transformative experience for TD. It has showcased our greatest strengths as we came together in force to support our customers, colleagues, and communities. and it has tested our resilience as the pandemic and the recession it unleashed had a profound impact on our financial performance and operations. This year, we delivered earnings of $10 billion, an EPS of $5.36, both down 20% from last year, a good result given the extraordinary circumstances and helped by a strong finish in Q4. Our personal and commercial banking businesses showed results the expected pressures from a downturn that affected households and businesses so deeply. But our wealth, insurance, and wholesale businesses had their best years ever with record revenue and earnings. Our balance sheet also ended the year in robust form with CET1 ratio of 13.1% and a liquidity coverage ratio of 145%. These results demonstrate the strength of our proven business model and customer-centric strategy. I couldn't be more proud of how we showed up for our customers, how thousands of TD bankers adapted and pushed forward, providing advice, delivering bank relief programs, and facilitating access to the government support that has been a lifeline for so many. And in turn, our customers trusted us to help them meet their financial needs. This fall, we conducted our annual colleague survey and logged the highest engagement scores in our history. I've often said that our people are our greatest asset. Colleagues across TD remain committed to the bank and our purpose. This year, we provided additional financial support to recognize their contributions, including a special bonus for non-executive employees. We've also redeployed several thousand TD bankers across the organization meeting urgent needs in our business and opening up new career paths for our people. And because we are only as strong as our communities, we launched the TD Community Resilience Initiative, part of the TD Ready commitment to bring the bank's resources and capabilities to those communities most affected by the pandemic. Amidst this year's unprecedented disruption and the enormous work effort it has required, I'm especially proud of the climate action plan we launched last month, including our target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in our operations and financing activities by 2050. We all recognize the urgent need for businesses of all sizes and in every industry to find new paths to sustainable growth. TD is positioned to play a central role in this effort, building on our long history of environmental leadership. Clients, shareholders, and other stakeholders have responded very positively to our announcement, and we look forward to working with them on our shared journey to a lower carbon future. We also took steps this year to reinforce a cornerstone of our culture, an inclusive workplace where all can thrive. We continue to increase the number of women in leadership roles, make new commitments to grow minority executive representation, and launch bank and community-wide efforts to tackle the impacts of anti-Black racism. It is a hallmark of our purpose-driven, forward-focused strategy that we have continued our work to build more sustainable, inclusive futures, even as we transform our day-to-day operations to meet the COVID challenge. Like all great crises in history, COVID will not last forever. As stewards of this 165-year-old growth organization, It is our responsibility to manage for today and plan and build for tomorrow. We have been and are continuing to build our operations for the digital age, increasing our agility and customer centricity. We continue to scale our ability to execute with speed and impact for customers, helping strengthen and deepen relationships with the 26 million customers we have today and the new customers we are adding every day. We are also continuing to improve our platforms and technology infrastructures. These investments were critical in enabling a rapid response to COVID, equipping 60,000 colleagues, including many contact center employees, to support our customers while working remotely, absorbing surging mobile volumes and service volumes, and introducing new digital advice and support capabilities overnight. We are accelerating these investments to further improve the stability, security, and agility of our operations and enhance our enterprise capabilities to better serve our customers. Alongside these enterprise-wide innovations, we continue to create new sources of value in each of our businesses. In Canadian retail, we grew market share and personal deposits, maintained our leadership position in payments, and continue to differentiate our offering with the launch of TD Global Transfer this quarter. a best-in-class money movement capability. We achieved record real estate-secured lending originations and built on our leadership in cards, announcing our refreshed suite of TD Aeroplane credit cards and crossing the 100,000 customer mark with our Amazon NDNA co-brand card. And we continue to support millions of customers through the SEBA and CERB programs, as well as through our TD Ready Advice Center. A wealth business at a banner year with record earnings, assets, and trading volumes. We added more than 120 new investment advisors, private bankers, and financial planners in our advice businesses. Launched new sustainability funds and ETFs in TD Asset Management and built on our leading direct investing capabilities with the introduction of TD Goal Assist, a new mobile self-directed investing app. And our insurance business at record earnings while delivering substantial COVID-related relief for customers. Our new general insurance platform and enhanced digital self-serve and advice capabilities drove a second consecutive year of double-digit premium growth. In U.S. retail, we continue to build the next generation of customer service and advice excellence with BeLegendary, helping our people get closer to our customers and meet their challenging needs. And we've complemented this with enhanced digital capabilities, including a new customer financial assessment tool, as well as the capability to order replacement debit cards for curbside pickup. We ranked number one in SBA lending in our Maine to Florida footprint for a fourth consecutive year. And we were the number six PPP lender nationwide, funding approximately 86,000 loans with over $8 billion U.S., for small business customers, the bedrock of our community banking strategy. And we were delighted to support the TD Ameritrade Schwab transaction, which closed this quarter, bookending our fiscal year with this transformative deal. TD is now the largest shareholder in a preeminent U.S. wealth services forum with U.S. $6 trillion in client assets. Our wholesale banks earned a record $1.4 billion in 2020, reflecting a strong year for our Canadian franchise and the multi-year investments we've made in U.S. dollar origination across corporate, government, and pension clients, as well as growing product capabilities in our global markets business. With a diversified global product base we've built over the last several years, we were able to actively participate in constructive market conditions, and continue to grow and deepen client relationships. We are also proud to launch our Sustainable Finance and Corporate Transitions Group, through which we will continue providing clients with advisory services in transition and sustainability-focused financing globally, aligned with the bank's Climate Action Plan. We recently exceeded the U.S. $100 billion mark for international bond underwriting, which includes all bonds that are registered to be sold internationally during the year. This is a significant milestone for the dealer. It represents a more than doubling of volume and a 60% increase in market share over the last five years. And just last month, TD Securities was the lead manager of the European Union's second social bond financing of the SURE program. At 14 billion euros, This offering was the second largest social bond ever issued in the debt capital markets, representing a historic milestone for our entire global franchise. Overall, fiscal 2020 was a year of unprecedented challenge, during which we rallied together to deliver on our highest purpose, enriching the lives of our customers, colleagues, and communities, while making foundational investments to power our next leg of growth. Last quarter, I said a measure of cautious optimism was warranted. That continues to be true today. While a second wave of infections has forced some jurisdictions to pause on reopening measures, each day brings more promising news about potential vaccines. And we can see the impact in improving customer confidence and activity levels. The outlook remains uncertain. The pandemic could bring new setbacks. and we expect the recovery in earnings to be uneven. But we emerged from fiscal 2020 with momentum in our businesses. As we move through 2021, we expect to benefit from lower PCL, as well as an ongoing recovery in customer activity. Together with continued expense discipline, this should help offset some further deposit margin pressure and a potential moderation in volumes and capital markets activity. Overall, We feel positive about the power of our franchise. As the economy recovers, we are confident that our strong customer base and the continued investments we've made in our businesses position us well to execute on our growth opportunities. As ever, we will stay true to our long-term strategy and continue to focus on our strengths, a diversified business mix, a deep customer base, a powerful brand, and the very best people. I'll finish by thanking them again for their steadfast commitment and dedication in this most extraordinary year. With that, I'll turn it over to Riaz to review the numbers in more detail. Riaz?