U.S. Bancorp

I will now turn the conference call over to George Anderson, Senior Vice President and Director of Investor Relations for U.S. Bancorp. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Sarah, and good morning, everyone. Today I'm joined by our Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Andy Cesari, our Vice Chair and Chief Administration Officer, Terry Dolan, and our Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, John Stern. With their prepared remarks, Andy and John will be referencing a slide presentation. A copy of the presentation, as well as our earnings release and supplemental analyst schedules, are available on our website at usbank.com. Please note that any forward-looking statements made during today's call are subject to risk and uncertainty. Factors that could materially change our current forward-looking assumptions are described on page 2 of today's presentation, our earnings release, our Form 10-K, and in subsequent reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Following our prepared remarks, Andy, Terry, and John will take any questions that you have. I will now turn the call over to Andy.

Thanks, George. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call. I'll begin on slide three. In the fourth quarter, we reported earnings per share of 49 cents, which included 50 cents per share of notable items that John will discuss in more detail. Excluding these notable items, earnings per share totaled 99 cents in the fourth quarter. For the fourth quarter, on an adjusted basis, net revenue totaled $6.9 billion, and for the full year, we generated record net revenue of $28.3 billion. We demonstrated strength across our fee businesses, which helped to offset pressure on net interest income. Turning to slide four, total loans were lower on a linked quarter basis by 1.1%, reflecting slower demand, particularly in corporate lending, and continued focus on lending opportunities that meet our return hurdles. Average deposits declined compared with the third quarter as our strong funding position allowed us to be more disciplined on deposit pricing while maintaining our liquidity profile. Credit quality continued to normalize towards pre-pandemic levels this quarter, and we further strengthened the balance sheet by adding $49 million to our loan loss reserve. As of December 31st, tangible book value per share increased 14.7% from a year ago, and our common equity tier one capital ratio ended the year at 9.9%, an increase of 20 basis points this quarter. This ratio is 150 basis points higher than when we completed the acquisition of Union Bank in the fourth quarter of 2022. Supported by our strong capital accretion this year, the board approved an increase to our quarterly common dividend in December to 49 cents per common share. Slide five provides key performance metrics. On an adjusted basis, we delivered 19.6% return on tangible common equity in the fourth quarter and 21.7% return on tangible common equity for the full year. Let me now turn the call over to John, who will provide more details on the quarter as well as forward-looking guidance.