Western Alliance Bancorporation Common Stock (DE)

Good day, everyone. Welcome to Western Alliance Bank Corporation's fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. You may also view the presentation today via webcast through the company's website at www.westernalliancebankcorporation.com. I'd now like to turn the call over to Myles Bundelic, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead.

Thank you and welcome to the Western Alliance Bank's fourth quarter 2023 conference call. Our speakers today are Ken Beccione, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dale Gibbons, Chief Financial Officer, and Tim Bruckner, Chief Banking Officer. We'll join for Q&A. Before I hand the call over to Ken, please note that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements which are subject to risk, uncertainty, and assumptions, except as required by law, the company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. For more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties that cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements, please refer to the company's SEC filing, including the form I gave out yesterday, which are available on the company's website. Now, for opening remarks, I'd like to turn the call over to Ken Becchione.

Thank you, Miles, and good morning, everyone. I'll make some brief comments about our fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings before turning the call over to Dale, who will review our financial results in more detail after I discuss our 2020 24 Outlook, Tim Bruckner will join us as usual for Q&A. Western Alliance's diversified national commercial business strategy continued to drive strong momentum in the fourth quarter as we generated earnings per share of $1.33 or $1.91, excluding 58 cents of one-time notable items. The quarter featured both healthy balance sheet growth and additional balance sheet repositioning actions to further optimize our funding base. Looking past these notable items, which Dale will explain shortly, highlights for the quarter included solid loan and deposit growth, ongoing capital and liquidity accumulation, and continued stable asset quality. Deposit growth of $1 billion allowed us to continue to selectively reduce debt and borrowings. In Q4, we fully repaid $1.3 billion of advances from the bank term funding program, as well as a $300 million, 6.5% AmeriHome senior notes, which were not replaced with new borrowings. Regarding the AmeriHome notes, we seized an opportunity to repay this higher cost debt at a discount. Additionally, our portion of the industry-wide FDIC special assessment to replenish the deposit insurance fund totaled $66.3 million. Loans rose $850 million in the quarter bolstered by CNI growth within our regional footprint. West Alliance begins 2024 supported by a strong capital base and liquidity position. CDT-1 expanded approximately 150 basis points during the year to 10.8%, which equates to 9.8% when including AOCI. 80% of our deposits are either insured or collateralized, which ranks among the highest levels of the 50 largest U.S. banks. Despite the industry's challenges, our total deposits increased 3% year-over-year. Asset quality also remains in very good shape, with limited net charge-offs of only six basis points of average loans in 2023. Limited realized losses amidst a normalized credit backdrop is indicative, in our view, of the merits of lending with low advance rates, adhering to conservative underwriting standards, and approaching credit mitigation proactively. Continuing to shift our funding base from borrowings to core deposits better positions us to grow loans in a rate environment and flux likely to decline later this year. We have made investments and leadership additions in order to drive increased C&I growth in our regional footprint, expand fee income opportunities across client relationships, and complement the growth in our national business lines, particularly our leading deposit-focused vertical. Overall, in 2024, we look forward to consistent balance sheet and BPNR growth with higher liquidity and improving capital. This will empower Western Alliance to continue partnering with our clients on their most important projects. Dale will now take you through the financial performance. Afterwards, I will provide you with our 2024 outlook.