Good morning and welcome to all of our attendees this morning. I would like to call the 2024 Annual Shareholders' Meeting to order. I'm Kevin Blair, Chairman of the Board, CEO, and President, and I'd like to welcome all of our shareholders to our virtual shareholders' meeting. On today's call, I'd like to acknowledge some special guests, including the members of our Synovus Board of Directors, our executive management team, and bank leadership group, along with representatives from KPMG, our independent auditor. At this time, I would like to introduce our Corporate Secretary, Mary Maurice Young. Mary Maurice will be reporting on the business items of the meeting. Thanks, Kevin. Before we begin the business of the meeting, I would like to review a few housekeeping items. On our virtual meeting platform, you should see the agenda for the meeting and an explanation of our rules of conduct and meeting procedures, including procedures for shareholder questions. As you can see from the rules of conduct, questions related to the proposals being voted on today will be addressed after all the proposals are introduced. We will have a separate question-and-answer session that will follow adjournment of the business meeting. This is a time for shareholders to ask questions pertaining to the general business matters of Synovus. This year's meeting format allowed for shareholders to ask questions ahead of time. We will address those questions that are not otherwise answered during the presentation during the Q&A section of the meeting today. If you have a question related to a matter of individual concern, we are happy to answer that at a later time with you. Please see the rules of conduct for the contact information of our investor relations group. Only validated shareholders may ask questions. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to two questions. The Board has appointed Jill Hurley to act as inspector of elections for the meeting. Ms. Hurley is present today and has taken the oath of office, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. We have a list of the company's shareholders of record as of February 22nd, 2024, the record date for this meeting, available for inspection during the meeting. The minutes of the 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are also available for your inspection during the meeting. Both the shareholder list and these minutes may be found via a link on the web portal. The notice of the meeting and the notice of internet availability of proxy materials were mailed by Broadridge, the company's tabulation agent, beginning on March 12th, 2024, to all shareholders of record as of February 22nd, 2024. As such, the meeting is being held pursuant to proper notice. An affidavit from Broadridge as to the mailing of the notice to all record shareholders of the company will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The affidavit is available for inspection by any shareholder. Proxies representing over 91% of the votes entitled to be cast by the holders of the outstanding shares of Synovus Common Stock are present at today's meeting. As such, the inspector of elections has confirmed the quorum is represented and the meeting is duly constituted and should proceed. I now declare the polls open. We have three proposals to vote on this morning: one, to elect as Directors the 11 nominees named in the proxy statement, second, to approve an advisory vote on the compensation of Synovus's named Executive Officers as determined by the Compensation and Human Capital Committee of the Board of Directors, and third, to ratify the appointment of KPMG as the company's independent auditor for the year 2024. The Board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote for each of the foregoing proposals. Under our bylaws, the deadline for submitting a nominee for Director or any other shareholder proposal has passed, and no other nominations for Director or shareholder proposals were submitted. Therefore, these three items of business are the only matters we will consider at today's meeting. We will now address any questions specifically related to the foregoing proposals. If you have a question related to a proposal, you may submit it at this time by clicking the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen, followed by typing your question in the text box. Are there any questions related to these proposals? Seeing no questions on the proposals, we'll now proceed with the voting. Shareholders who have already voted do not need to vote at this time unless they want to change their vote. If you have not already voted and would like to vote now, please do so by selecting the voting button on the meeting platform and following the instructions there. The polls are now closed to voting. At this time, the preliminary vote has been verified and tabulated, and I will report the preliminary results of the three matters voted upon at the meeting. Each of the 11 nominees for director has received votes cast for election ranging from approximately 96%-100%. Since each of the 11 nominees received more votes cast for than against, each of the nominees is hereby elected to serve until the next Annual Shareholders' Meeting and until his or her successor is elected and qualified. The advisory vote on the compensation of Synovus's named executive officers as determined by the Compensation and Human Capital Committee has been approved by over 97% of the votes cast. This proposal requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast, and as such, it is hereby approved. The appointment of KPMG as Synovus's independent auditor for 2024 has been ratified by the shareholders by over 98% of the votes cast. Since this proposal requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast, the proposal to ratify KPMG as Synovus's independent auditor for 2024 has been approved. These preliminary voting results are subject to final tabulation and to verification by the inspector of elections. The vote will become part of the record of this meeting. We will report the voting results in a current report on Form 8-K no later than April 30th, 2024. This concludes the formal business of our meeting, and today's shareholder meeting is now officially adjourned. Before I turn the meeting over to Kevin, I would like to remind you that Kevin may be making forward-looking statements about the future of Synovus. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risk, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially. We will also reference non-GAAP financial measures related to the company's performance. Please refer to our website for more information and for a reconciliation of these measures. Kevin? Thank you, Mary Maurice. Before I transition to our first quarter earnings and a look at our strategic priorities, I would like to share an overview of our company's 2023 performance. Higher funding costs and loan losses were headwinds for the banking industry last year, but Synovus grew net interest income, core deposits, core non-interest revenue, and maintained disciplined expense control in 2023. In the midst of executing on our 2023 strategic plan, we were presented with unforeseen challenges, and our Synovus team acted quickly and decisively in order to mitigate risks and better position the bank for a more challenging year, which was exacerbated by the three bank failures that placed regional banks in the headlines in the first half of the year. Our balance sheet was strengthened in 2023 from solid core deposit growth as well as a reduction of office commercial real estate loans and higher-cost wholesale funding. We also increased our Common Equity Tier 1 ratio to over 10% through solid earnings accretion and prudent balance sheet optimization. Moreover, the business mix was streamlined with the sale of our asset management firm, Globalt, which enables us to reallocate investment into higher-returning business lines. Earnings per share for the year declined, primarily driven by the increase in the provision for loan losses as credit metrics normalized due to the significant increase in interest rates in 2022 and 2023 and less economic stimulus. Our allowance for credit losses ended the year at 1.24%, reflecting continued health and the strong performance of our core loan portfolio, offset by a more uncertain economic outlook. Net interest income increased modestly as deposit cost rose for the banking industry. Despite the media narrative that deposit outflows were rampant in regional banks earlier last year, our core deposit balances were higher in the first quarter of 2023 and up 3% for the full year. Meanwhile, excluding strategic loan sales of $1.6 billion last year, period-end loans increased about 3%, led by commercial and industrial business lines. Non-interest revenue declined on a year-over-year basis, primarily driven by strategic repositioning of the investment securities portfolio, an industry-wide reduction in mortgage fee income, as well as lower service charges. However, our adjusted non-interest revenue rose 11%, driven by growth in core areas such as Treasury and Payment Solutions, capital markets, wealth management, and commercial sponsorships. Because of our disciplined expense approach, we effectively managed expense growth year- over- year while investing in new business initiatives. We ended the year with Common Equity Tier 1 capital, or CET1, ratio of 10.22%, which is our highest level in recent years and within our targeted range of 10%-10.5%. We effectively deployed capital in support of our organic growth and strategic growth initiatives over the course of the year. I'm extremely proud of our entire team for executing on our strategic growth plan throughout the year. Our Wholesale Banking team delivered record results representing the largest growth engine for the company. We generated 12% growth in commercial business lines like middle market, CIB, and Specialty Lending. Our wealth management units grew fee income by 11% in 2023. Treasury and Payment Solutions increased production and fees significantly, driven by success in core cash management solutions, commercial card, and international services. Our Community Bank launched a Business Owner Wealth Strategy and successfully referred almost 200 new relationships to our Private Wealth Advisor team. It also began the path forward towards modernization of our mortgage lending operation. At the same time, our consumer line of business continues to be a key source of funding for the company. Of course, none of this would be possible without our dedicated support of our corporate services support teams. Coalition Greenwich awards Synovus with 25 Excellence and Best in Banking Awards for our excellent service to middle market and small business clients in 2023, which was the fourth highest among the over 500 financial institutions that are evaluated. We also continue to perform very well against our Southeastern peers in the recently released J.D. Power survey for consumer satisfaction and trust. Our Voice of Team Member survey shows that our employees remain engaged, with an industry-leading engagement score of 91%. In fact, about 31% of our open positions are being filled by existing team members, while approximately 67% of women and 36% of the persons of color received a promotion last year. I'm also very proud of our efforts to build and strengthen our communities we serve. In 2023, the company donated almost $3 million to over 300 nonprofit and other organizations such as Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Our team members volunteered for approximately 31,000 hours in their communities across the Southeast, which was up 27% from 2020 and up 6% from last year. In fact, over 4,000 of those volunteer hours were dedicated to increasing financial education and literacy in our metropolitan and rural communities with organizations such as Junior Achievement. I'll now transition to our first quarter earnings. Our first quarter earnings demonstrate tangible progress on the strategic priorities that we have outlined over the last several quarters. Synovus produced steady loan portfolio growth in key commercial categories such as middle market, CIB, and Specialty Lending, as well as continued rationalization in loan portfolios where we have little to no deposit or fee relationship. We generated modest core deposit growth in what is seasonally weaker quarter and are seeing improving trends in non-interest bearing deposit attrition, as well as continued contraction in higher-cost brokered deposits. Core non-interest revenue categories continue to grow on a year-over-year basis while operating expense control remains excellent. Our quarterly loan losses remain relatively stable and very manageable, and our balance sheet continues to strengthen with further improvement in our capital ratios, liquidity profile, and the allowance for credit losses. We're pleased with the strong momentum that has carried us into 2024, and we're confident in our strategic plan, our resiliency, and our adaptability as we maneuver through an uncertain economic climate. In 2024, our emphasis is in three areas: growing the bank, deepening relationships, and enhancing profitability and our overall risk profile. Our 2024 fundamental guidance incorporates the following: period-end loan growth is expected to be between 0% and 3% for the year. Growth should be fueled by continued success in middle market, specialty lines, and Corporate and Investment Banking, offset by continued rationalization in non-relationship credits and payoffs and paydown activity. Our current forecast for deposit shows the growth at the midpoint of our 2%-6% range for the year, aided by continued focus on new core funding deposit initiatives. Under this forecast for deposit cost, our current outlook points to revenue growth at the low end of our -3% to 1% range. Net interest income should improve in the second half of this year as fixed-rate asset repricing overcomes deposit repricing and remixing. Relative to the first quarter, non-interest revenue should experience growth in the remaining quarters as pipelines for capital market-related fees remain strong and continue to execute on our core growth in Treasury and Payment Solutions. We continue to exhibit strong operating expense discipline. Excluding the FDIC special assessments for the 2023 bank failures that were incurred in fourth quarter 2023 and first quarter of 2024, we anticipate our adjusted non-interest expense will be relatively stable this year. We continue to closely monitor our loan portfolio for potential credit losses. In the first half of the year, net charge-offs are expected to be relatively stable at approximately 40 basis points. Given what we see in the loan portfolio and considering the impact of certain large individual losses in the first half of the year, we expect net charge-offs to be flat to down in the second half. Our current forecast points to a tax rate at the upper half of our 21%-22% range. Moving to capital, our Common Equity Tier 1 ratio is at the high end of our targeted range of 10%-10.5%, and we will remain opportunistic with measured amounts of share repurchases to manage overall capital levels. A risk-weighted asset optimization program is currently underway and is expected to result in a subset of our loan portfolio being eligible for a reduced risk rating. When completed, this should support our capital ratios and provide additional flexibility for incremental capital deployment. Prudent capital management remains a top priority to ensure we have a strong and liquid balance sheet for all economic environments. Through the actions we have taken over the past several quarters, Synovus is better positioned to overcome short-term headwinds and to strengthen the bank's foundation for a return to growth as we proceed throughout 2024. Even as the industry continues to face unexpected challenges, we expect it to deliver on our well-designed and resilient growth plan by our incredibly talented and passionate team members. Of course, our nearly 135-year history, attractive position in a thriving footprint, and loyal client base give us confidence in the strength and future growth of our company. We are honored to be a trusted partner that offers tailored solutions to our clients, and we're committed more than ever to delivering the best service and unleashing the potential of this company through our purpose, enabling people to reach their full potential. And now, let's open the meeting for questions. Seeing no questions, I would like to thank our entire Board, our clients, and our shareholders, and especially our executive leadership team. Again, I'm incredibly proud of Synovus and our dedicated team members who serve our clients with excellence every day. And with that, operator, we'll close out today's meeting. Thank you. The meeting is now concluded. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.
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