U.S. Bancorp

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

Thank you, Audra, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'm joined by our Chairman and CEO, Andy Cesari, President Gunjan Ketia, Vice Chair and CAO, Terry Dolan, and Senior Executive Vice President and CFO, John Stern. In a moment, Andy and John will be referencing a slide presentation together with their prepared remarks. A copy of the presentation, our press release, and all supplemental consolidated schedules can be found on our website at ir.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 earnings release, press presentation, our press release, and in reports on file with the SEC. Following our prepared remarks this morning, we will be happy to 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 fourth quarter, we reported $1.01 per diluted share, or $1.07 after adjusting for notable items. John will discuss these one-time charges in his prepared remarks. Net revenue totaled $7 billion for the quarter and $27.5 billion for the year, as we saw both sequential and year-over-year quarterly growth in net interest income and non-interest income driven by effective balance sheet management earning asset repricing and mix, and our highly diversified fee business offerings. Overall, the quarter was highlighted by top-line revenue growth and continued expense discipline, which resulted in 190 basis points of positive operating leverage on an adjusted basis year over year. Turning to slide four, we had slight balance sheet growth this quarter with average earning assets increasing 1.2%, driven by higher on-balance sheet liquidity. This quarter, we had modest loan loss reserve release, largely reflective of improved credit quality and a more favorable portfolio mix. On the bottom right of the slide, you can see that our CET1 capital ratio increased 10 basis points from the prior quarter to 10.6%. Our tangible book value per share totaled $24.63 at December 31st, an increase of 10.4% compared to the end of last year. During the quarter, we effectively balanced continued capital accretion with an initial $100 million of share repurchases. Slide five provides key performance metrics. On an adjusted basis, we delivered an 18.3% return on tangible common equity and an improved efficiency ratio of 59.9% in the fourth quarter. Turning aside six, fee income represented over 40% of total net revenue in the fourth quarter. Results this quarter were driven by double-digit year-over-year fee growth in commercial products, trust in investment management, and investment product revenues. Slide 7 highlights a few of our key selected initiatives on interconnectedness across the franchise. Let me now turn over to call to John, who will provide more detail on the quarter as well as forward-looking guidance.