U.S. Bancorp

and welcome to the U.S. Bancorp Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference call. Following a review of the results, there will be a formal question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, please press star and then one again. This call will be recorded and be available for replay beginning today at approximately 10 a.m. Central Time. I will now turn the conference call over to George Anderson, Senior Vice President and Director of Investor Relations for U.S. Bancorp.

Thank you, Ellie, and good morning, everyone. Today I'm joined by our Chairman and CEO, Andy Cesari, CAO Terry Dolan, President Gunjan Kedija, and CFO John Stern. Together with their prepared remarks, Andy and John will be referencing a slide presentation. A copy of the presentation, our earnings release, and supplemental analyst schedules can be found 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 two of today's presentation, our press release, and in reports on file with the SEC. Following our initial prepared remarks, Andy, Terry, Gunjan, and John will take any questions that you have. I will now turn the call over to Andy.

Thanks, George. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. I'll begin on slide three. In the third quarter, we reported diluted earnings per share of $1.03 and generated total net revenue of $6.9 billion. The quarter was highlighted by strong growth in net interest income, good momentum across several fee business initiatives, and continued expense discipline, which supported modest positive operating leverage on an adjusted basis compared with the third quarter of last year. Our return on tangible common equity was 17.9% this quarter. Turning to slide four, revenue growth on a linked quarter basis was driven by improved spread income from more favorable loan mix, continued fixed asset repricing, proactive and disciplined liability management, as well as strategic actions taken on our investment securities portfolio. John will provide more detail on these actions in his prepared remarks. On the upper right-hand side of the slide, you will see that non-performing assets, the net charge-off ratio, and late-stage delinquency metrics were all relatively stable compared with the second quarter levels. At September 30th, our common equity Tier 1 capital ratio was 10.5%, an increase of 20 basis points from last quarter driven by continued earnings accretion. Our tangible book value per share increased to $24.71, a 6.7% improvement in quarter, and an 18.5% higher than last year. Slide 5 provides key performance metrics. This quarter, our return on average assets increased to 1.03%, the efficiency ratio improved to 60.2%, and net interest margin expanded seven basis points to 2.74%. Turning to slide six, we continue to see good momentum across many of our fee businesses. This quarter, we achieved year-over-year double-digit growth in both commercial and investment products revenue, driven by underlying capital markets activity and wallet share gains across our targeted industry verticals. Additionally, we also saw good year-over-year growth in trust and investment management, payment services, mortgage banking, and treasury management fee revenues as we benefited from a combination of improved underlying market conditions, deepening client relationships, an expanded product set, and expanded distribution channels. Let me now turn the call over to John to provide more detail on the quarter as well as forward-looking guidance.