EQB Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to EQB's earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2022 being held on Friday, February 17th, 2023. At this time, you are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a Q&A session for analysts and instructions will be provided at that time on how to queue up. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Richard Gill, Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations at EQB. Please go ahead, sir.

Thanks, Michelle. Your hosts today are Andrew Moore, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chadwick Westlake, Chief Financial Officer, and Ron Trach, Chief Risk Officer. For those on the phone lines only, we encourage you to log on to our webcast as well to review our accompanying quarterly investor presentation. The presentation includes on slide two, EQB's caution regarding forward-looking statements, as well as slide three outlining the use of non-IFRS measures on this call. All figures referenced today are adjusted where applicable or otherwise noted. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Andrew.

Thanks, Richard, and good morning, everyone. Given the accounting complexities involved in reporting on an acquisition, I'm going to keep my remarks very brief. to allow Chadwick to help investors and analysts on our call assess the various one-time impacts adjusted in our Q4 results. That said, a lot of great things have happened since our Q3 results call in November, and we'll cover those highlights today. To my mind, it is the long-term consistency of performance that really matters to us and to fellow shareholders, and it's what EQB has proudly delivered for the past 18 years. Each and every year during that period, we've grown EPS, including in 2010-22, with an ROE average over that period of 16.4%. EQB's value creation method, which we have again outlined in our MD&A, applied with discipline and executed with excellence, provided these differentiated and industry-leading results. Speaking to the here and now, What EQB demonstrated in Q4 is solid margin expansion year over year and very low realized loan losses. Based on our consistent and effective risk management processes and practices, we should emerge from this period of central bank tightening without unusual credit losses. You can see our confidence reflected in the 2023 guidance we released in November and are reaffirming today. As for the addition of Concentra Bank, the acquisition added complementary asset growth. diversified our sources of revenue and funding, and provided greater distribution capabilities across Canada. But for me, the takeaways this quarter are, with the substantially increased scale and our integration plans taking flight, we're on track to realize the synergies we projected. Our engagement with credit union partners are getting off to a good start with progress across a number of initiatives. And we've succeeded in bringing great talent to Equitable Bank. It's been an absolute pleasure seeing teams come together and collaborations take shape. Best of all, we know we have much more to accomplish and we have the people to do it. With underlying momentum as well as the advantages of enhanced scale and business positioning, I feel more optimistic about our future than ever for three reasons. Our opportunities to grow with diversification, the market presence and capabilities of EQ Bank, and third, our bench strength. Taking each in turn, we have a wide range of incredibly valuable opportunities ready to serve Canadians across our diversified commercial and personal banking operations. It's important when I make that statement for everyone to appreciate the level of diversification, scale, and significance of our commercial banking business lines, which collectively represent about half of the bank's earnings. I encourage you to consult our updated MD&A for details. In our personal banking operations, there are many reasons for optimism, as well as including with EQ Bank, which to my mind has reached a tipping point in broader consumer acceptance. I think the Globe and Mail's Rob Carrick captured in his recent column about the EQ Bank's card offering entitled, This Practical New Spin on a Savings Account Might Just Peel You Away from Your Big Bank. Frankly, I see no reason why it shouldn't peel you away from your traditional bank Old Line Bank Now, and our team is certainly focused on making that headline a reality for more and more Canadians. It's taken seven years of immense progress to establish our market presence as the top digital bank in Canada. We've done that by enriching people's lives with innovative digital solutions at every turn. The story continued in December with the launch of EQ Bank in Quebec, and in January with the introduction of the EQ Bank Card. Both are game changers. and we are seeing this in new account sign-ups and product usage as more Canadians choose to make bank with us. If you're not one of the nearly 35,000 customers who have already subscribed to the No Fee EQ Bank card over the past month, I encourage you to do so as it translates all of the Savings Plus Accounts benefits into an everyday payment solution that works on a fee-free basis from any ATM with no charges on foreign exchange purchases whatsoever. plus cash back on all purchases. If you're traveling internationally this year, there is simply no better way to pay and save than with the EQBank card. We have a deep understanding of how technology is changing banking, and EQB is uniquely positioned to take advantage of that in the Canadian market with a true cloud-native digital platform. This platform positions us to wow customers with faster delivery of new services. You will see us capitalize on and accelerate our investment in this advantage as we move forward. A team of us recently visited Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, to understand how we can best utilize that technology stack for comparative advantage. We all came away confident that we were on the right track with many opportunities for value creation ahead. Most of all, my optimism comes from working with almost 1,700 challengers across Canada who not only delivered in 2022, but are absolutely capable of tackling even more ambitious challenges in the year ahead. We've recruited great talent, nurtured great talent within, and have dedicated programs in place to develop our raw talent. As a consequence, EQB has both tremendous bench strength and the means to advance next-generation thinking and innovation. Together, we will approach all of our opportunities with a clear-eyed focus on customer service and in full alignment to our value creation method. Speaking of great talent, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Chadwick, whose contributions to our success have been many and include developing a first-rate team of professionals who worked incredibly hard to bring you today's integrated financial information. I think our shareholders deserve to know how good that team is, and I sincerely thank them for their efforts. Chadwick? Thanks so much, Andrew.