U.S. Bancorp

Welcome to U.S. Bancorp's first quarter 2026 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 then one on your phone. If you wish to withdraw your question, please press star then one again. This call will be recorded and available for replay beginning today at approximately 10 o'clock a.m. Central Time. I will now turn the conference call over to Jen Thompson.

Thank you, Regina, and good morning, everyone. In our boardroom today, I'm joined by Chief Executive Officer Gunjan Kedia and Vice Chair and CFO John Stern. In a moment, Gunjan and John will be referencing a slide presentation together with their prepared remarks. A copy of the presentation, our press release, and supplemental analyst 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 presentation, our press release, and in reports on file with the SEC. Following our prepared remarks, Gunjan and John will be happy to take questions that you have. I will now turn the call over to Gunjan.

Thank you, Jen, and good morning, everyone. I will begin on slide three. This quarter, we delivered earnings per share of $1.18, a year-over-year increase of approximately 15%. Total net revenue of $7.3 billion increased 4.7% year-over-year with broad-based growth across each of our three major business lines. Net interest income on a taxable equivalent basis increased 4.1% year-over-year, supported by robust core loan growth in commercial and credit cards and a second consecutive quarter of record consumer deposits. Fee income grew 6.9% year-over-year, reflecting improved payments performance, and momentum across capital markets and investment services businesses. Capital markets performance was particularly strong as new product penetration with longstanding clients and favorable market volatility combined to drive strong revenue growth. We delivered positive operating leverage of 440 basis points in the quarter. strong revenue growth and continued expense discipline improved our efficiency ratio by 260 basis points year over year. John will provide more details on our financial performance in his opening remarks. On slide four, we are spotlighting our business banking franchise. This segment contributes approximately 9% of our revenues and represents compelling long-term opportunity for us. We've been building out new products and operational capabilities for this segment. We have also expanded our client teams to build deep multi-serve relationships that are served in branches with direct bankers and exceptional digital experiences. That approach has driven high single-digit compound annual growth in both clients and fees over the past two years. Looking ahead, we are investing in integrated solutions, collectively branded business essentials. These solutions offer banking, card, spend management, and merchant solutions that support small businesses at every stage of their life cycle. Our recently announced partnership with Amazon is significant in size and will meaningfully expand our small business reach. This partnership is unique from traditional co-brand card arrangements in anticipating a clear pathway to broader banking relationships over time. On slide five, we highlight strong momentum in California where we increased our scale and density with our union bank acquisition at the end of 2022. As previously reported, we realized merger-related expense savings of approximately $1 billion and are now focused on capturing the considerable revenue synergies offered by this acquisition. The map on the left illustrates our strong positioning in markets with a high concentration of small businesses. California is a powerful growth engine for us and is outperforming the broader franchise across multiple key dimensions. Moving to slide six, within payments, we continue to see fee revenue growth consistently strengthening across all segments. In our credit card business, new products aimed at affluent transactors along with significant increases in marketing have resulted in double-digit growth in account acquisitions over the past four quarters and a strong start to the year. Merchant processing fee growth remains steady in the mid-single digits, reflecting disciplined execution across three core strategies. Software-led products focus on five verticals and expanding direct distribution. And in corporate payments and prepaid, we are beginning to see growth rebound as spend levels normalize, and installations of last year's strong business wins start to show through in results. I'll close on slide seven. In capital markets, our organic product expansion, as well as our pending BTIG acquisition, are expected to drive sustained revenue growth. In payments, the Amazon partnership will meaningfully accelerate credit card revenue growth by the end of the year and expand our banking opportunity with the small business segments in the future. And in our consumer franchise, we look forward to building Financial Edge, a program to better serve the needs of NFL athletes and their families and to build our brand nationally, both in partnership with the NFL. Let me now turn the call over to John.