OTC Markets Group Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to OTC Markets Group fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over to Dan Zinn, General Counsel. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and welcome to the OTC Markets Group fourth quarter and year-end 2023 earnings conference call. With me today are Cromwell Coulson, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Antonia Georgieva, our Chief Financial Officer. Today's call will be accompanied by a slide presentation. Our earnings press release and the presentation are each available on our website. Certain statements during this call and in our presentation may relate to future events or expectations, and as such, may constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Information concerning risks and uncertainties that may impact our actual results is contained in the Risk Factor section of our 2023 Annual Report, which is also available on our website. For more information, please refer to the Safe Harbor Statement on slide three of the earnings presentation. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Cromwell Coulson.

Thank you, Dan. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I will begin by discussing our year-end 2023 results at a high level and I will review how we performed against our strategic initiatives. I will then discuss our priorities for 2024. Our business achieved record gross revenues of over $109 million for the year. Our results highlight the resilience of our business model as our company-wide performance was supported by a strong revenue increase in our market data licensing business, offset by declines in corporate services and OTC link revenues. The 19% revenue increase in market data reflects the full year impact of our Blue Sky Data Corp and Edgar Online acquisitions during the prior year. The onboarding of the Edgar Online technology stack and data set involved a large scale effort during 2023. We recognize that we will need to continue integrating and optimizing this business. We view this as a multi-year project. Our team is focused on improving operational efficiency and developing differentiated data products and digital disclosure distribution services. While the corporate services and OTC Link businesses did not meet their high watermarks in a year of lower overall activity across global financial markets, the work we did to expand our global relationships provides for growth in the years to come. The trend towards international activity continued, with trading in non-U.S. companies encompassing the overwhelming majority of dollar volume across our OTCQX, OTCQB, and pink markets. In part, Due to the increased costs associated with the Edgar Online integration and operation, our overall expenses rose 15% during the year. Our expenses were also impacted by a one-time regulatory accrual. These increases in expenses led to decreases in our operating margin and net income. As commercial operators, we are committed to sustainable growth over the long term. And that focus remains stronger than ever following the results from the past year. Antonia will cover the details of our financial results in a few moments. Throughout our history, we have made significant investments in market integrity initiatives. We have built out our market surveillance to publicly flag risks to investors based on disclosure, stock promotion, bankruptcy, and other potential public interest concerns. We believe in the value of well-lit financial markets to inform investors, shine a light on risks that could impact prices and empower our regulators, both to oversee markets and enforce rules. We provide data and actively make referrals to SEC, FINRA, and other state and federal agencies. When companies fail to meet our OTCQX rules and OTCQB standards, we remove them from those markets on a timely basis. While these initiatives are not revenue generating, we believe they protect investors, incentivize compliance with securities laws, and ultimately add value to the overall integrity of the market. Operating regulated financial markets subjects us to oversight from the SEC, FINRA, and other government agencies. As described further in our 2023 Annual Report, we have been in discussions with the SEC's Division of Enforcement regarding certain OTC-linked policies and procedures related to the filing of suspicious activity reports. We have taken an accrual with the expectation of reaching a settlement with the SEC. Being a well-regulated market operator makes us a stronger, more resilient organization. We benefit from our interactions with regulators. All the associated inspections, inquiries, and reviews ultimately helps us better serve our clients and the industry as a whole. We have an obligation to stay ahead of evolving expectations as we build our compliance programs and supervisory procedures to follow the letter and principles of applicable regulations. As we look back at 2023, several themes emerge. We spent a good portion of the year onboarding personnel, technology, and data from our EOL acquisitions the previous year. This data fuels our compliance engines and allows us to fulfill our role as a qualified interdealer quotation system under SEC Rule 15 . The acquired data sets also support compliance, risk management, and market oversight systems at broker-dealers and SROs. Our results last year showed a good top-line increase. However, the corresponding growth in expenses kept us from reaching our overall goals. Throughout 2024, we will pursue the projects and operational improvements that create sustainable revenue growth. Meeting this goal requires building scalable processes to provide competitive value and share the benefits of scale with our subscribers, thus driving long term earnings per share. During 2024, we will pursue the following strategic priorities. One team One platform driving results to build the value of one share. Continue to integrate our teams and consolidate our technology platforms to drive operational efficiencies, client value, and ultimately revenue growth. Increase the number of securities on our markets. Continue to grow the size of our markets by adding securities, new asset classes, and trading functionality for our broker-dealers subscribers. Transform the client connection and improve the quality of information. Enhance the client experience through modernized interfaces and enrich data for external and internal users. Mitigate operational risk and strengthen regulatory compliance. Invest in our core trading infrastructure, operational processes, and risk management systems to strengthen our resilience, and invest in our regulatory procedures to enhance their reliability and compliance with securities laws and regulations. And finally, grow revenue across business lines and align resources with long-term value creation. Continue to deliver long-term, meaningful shareholder value. In closing, I'm pleased to announce two important outcomes for our March 4th board meeting. First, I'm delighted to welcome Julia Sears as the fifth independent director on our board. Julia is the chief digital officer at Altus Power, where she oversees the company's digital and technology strategy and operations and innovation initiatives. Prior to Altus, Julia held leadership positions at NASDAQ and TIAA, working with leading technology companies on strategic product launches. We're thrilled to have Julia join us and look forward to her contribution. I'm also happy to announce that our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 18 cents per share payable later this month. This dividend reflects our ongoing commitments to providing superior shareholder returns. With that, I will turn the call over to Antonia.