iA Financial Corporation Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Industrial Alliance Second Quarter Earnings Results 2023 conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star 0. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded on Friday, August 4th, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Maddy-Annick Bonneau, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to our 2023 second quarter conference call. All our Q2 documents, including press release, slides for this conference call, MD&A, and supplementary information package are posted in the investor relations section of our website at ia.ca. The conference call is open to the financial community, the media, and the public. I remind you that the question period is reserved for financial analysts. A recording of this call will be available for one week starting this evening. The archived webcast will be available for 90 days, and a transcript will be available on our website in the next week. I draw your attention to the forward-looking statements information on slide two, as well as the non-IFRS and additional financial measures information, and the notes regarding 2022 restated results under IFRS 17 and IFRS 9 on slide three. Also, please note that the detailed discussion of the company's risk is provided in our 2022 MDMA available on CDAR and on our website with an update in our Q2 2023 MDMA released earlier today. Sorry, released yesterday. My apologies. I will now turn the call over to Denis Ricard, President and CEO.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call today. As usual, I will start by introducing everyone attending on behalf of IE. First, Mike Stickney, Chief Growth Officer and responsible, among other things, for our U.S. operations. Alain Bergeron, Chief Investment Officer. Stéphane Bourbonnet, Executive VP, responsible for our mutual fund business and wealth management distribution affiliates. Rani Laflamme, in charge of individual insurance and NVIDIAs. Pierre Mirand, responsible for Dealer Services Canada and IE Auto and Home. Sean O'Brien, in charge of our group businesses. And also attending his last earnings call today is Jacques Padmin, our chief actuary and CFO. As you know, Jacques will be retiring at the end of this year after 33 years of dedicated service, for which I thank him on behalf of the board and the management team. Over the years, in addition to leading several strategic projects, including most recently the transition to IFRS 17, In our flexible work-from-anywhere working model, Jacques developed strong and genuine connections with his teams and had a positive, lasting effect on their professional development. Our incoming chief actuary and CFO, Eric Jobin, has been with AIE for more than 29 years. Eric has occupied roles of increasing responsibility over the years, including in corporate actuarial services, group benefits and retirement solution, and most recently, operational efficiency. I wish them both all the best for the years to come. Now, for the results. Yesterday, we reported our results for the second quarter. I refer you to slide eight while I comment on the main KPIs. Core EPS is $2.39, which is 3% higher than a year earlier, a quarter in which our results were particularly strong. and 15% higher than in the first quarter of 2023. Car ROE of 14.5% is close to our medium-term target. Our capital position continues to be very robust, with a solvency ratio of 154% as of June 30th. Our strong organic capital generation contributes to this solid result. In Q2, it amounted to $150 million, keeping us in line to meet our 2023 organic capital generation target of at least $600 million. Business growth also remained strong, with very good sales in almost all business units. This performance led to a solid 12% year-over-year growth in premium and deposits and a 10% year-over-year growth in AUA and AUM. Finally, following a smooth transition to the new accounting standard without any impact on our book value, the latter continued to grow during the quarter, reaching 4% growth year-to-date. Overall, our second quarter results confirm a very robust capital position along with continued sales momentum from almost all business units and increased profitability year-over-year. Moving to slide 9 to look at our year-to-date results, I will comment briefly on the first six months of the year. Since the beginning of the year, our core profit has grown by 7% compared with last year IFRS 4 core EPS. This is a good result, given a slower recovery in our U.S. Dealer Services Division and the economic context. However, Following recent developments in the environment, such as higher mortality and P&C claims, as well as the worsening of the yield curve inversion, unless positive changes occur during the second half of the year, it now seems less likely that core EPS will grow by at least 13% over the 2022 IFRS 4 results in 2023. Building on the robust company's fundamentals, business model, growth potential, and strategy, we continue to be fully committed to creating value for our shareholders and delivering average core EPS growth of 10% plus per annum in line with our midterm market guidance. Looking at the other metrics, our solvency ratio is well above target, core ROE is near midterm target, and our dividend payout ratio is well within target. As for organic capital generation, we expect to reach our $600 million target in 2023. In conclusion, our strategy is, and has always been, based on the long-term vision for sustainable growth. On the strength of our solid capital position, we continue to invest organically in our future growth, particularly in our digital transformation, while looking for acquisition opportunities that meet our criteria. With this in mind, and in keeping with our purpose of making our clients feel confident and secure about their future, we'll be able to continue to deliver average and real core EPS growth of 10% plus and to reach our core ROE target of 15% plus. This concludes my remarks. I will now turn it over to Mike, who will comment on business growth. And following Mike, Jacques will provide more information about future results and our capital strength, and we will then take questions. Mike?