Up next, we are excited to have Truist joining us once again. Truist has been proactive in managing this challenging environment, including rationalizing costs, exiting lower return businesses, and taking steps to shore up its capital base, which we look forward to hearing more about during the discussion. Here to tell us more about the strategy ahead is Chairman and CEO, Bill Rogers. Today's presentation is going to be a fireside chat. Bill, welcome back, and it's great to see you. Great. I think it's the first fireside chat we've done in a long while. It is, so be careful. I'll try my best. So maybe to just start off, you know, you're out in the market talking to clients a lot. Yeah. Maybe just talk about what you're hearing, what is the overall sentiment in terms of the economy, and what are they most focused on? You know, I think, as with clients, and I think obviously what the Fed's struggling with, is the data are confusing, you know? And, clients are generally—maybe I'll split it into a couple of categories, but on the commercial side, generally more cautious. So no, no, no doubt about that. You can see some of that, you know, cautious reflecting in loan demand. So a little more careful about the, you know, the next addition to the truck fleet or the next warehouse or data center or whatever it may be in terms of, in terms of those decisions. And I'm not so sure it's as much financing- Mm-hmm ... you know, driven as it's just cautionary note about where the economy is. That being said, we'll go to certain markets, and it's all gangbusters, and things are going great, and people are investing. And we have a lot of markets that are, you know, net growers, net in-migration, so you know, different kinds of opportunities. I would say supply chain issues don't seem to be on the table now. Most companies have sort of reconciled- Mm-hmm ... that. There may be the one part from the one place that, you know, is challenging, but supply chain is sort of neutralized. And labor demand is, in some companies, neutralized. Probably the retail side, still a little challenging. Companies seem to be holding on probably to a little bit longer- Mm-hmm ... just sort of in the fear factor of what they've experienced before. And then on the consumer side, you know, that's, it's also bifurcated. And the higher-end consumer is still spending, and still, you know, lots of discretionary activity. And you see that in, you know, hotel and air traffic and, you know, destination experiences, all those type of things. But the lower-end consumer, however we might define that, let's call it 100,000 income and below, you're starting to see some strength. You're starting to see some of the deposit balances or those savings rates that are pre-COVID. They're now sort of normalizing where they were pre-COVID, but the rate of decline is more significant. So I think that consumer is gonna start feeling a little more stress. You're seeing a little more, you know, credit card utilization, a little more delinquency. We saw some of the buy now, pay l ater come into some of the holiday sale, you know, so that consumer's starting to feel that stress, and I think that's gonna manifest itself in some way. To what degree, we can all speculate, but, into next year. So given that as a backdrop, I think you gave guidance for loans to decline in Q4. As you know, you have a targeted strategy to focus on deeper relationships, higher focus on returns. Given that as well as, you know, lower demand, how are you thinking about loan growth? Are you being more defensive given capital re, you know, potential, you know, you know, regulatory changes, which we'll talk about? And where are you looking to be more aggressive? Yeah, not-- I would say rather than defensive, I would say selective. So, you know, we made a couple of important decisions right out of the, right out of the chute as to, you know, like, sell our student loan portfolio. So we said, "Let's actually just reduce the areas of RWA that, you know, don't have the return characteristics that we need." Other examples would be in the correspondent side, auto side, correspondent mortgage side, you know, indirect auto side. So we've been pretty conscious about reducing those portfolios, sort of think about sort of single service type, type clients, lower return, to ensure that we've got the capacity. Because we're still, you know, to my earlier comment, we're still in great markets and there still are opportunities, and we want to make sure that, you know, for those that were in the offensive position- Mm-hmm ... so there are opportunities to, you know, become a left lead. There are opportunities to move into credits where we want. There are opportunities where Truist now is more relevant to those clients in terms of maybe, maybe product, maybe, maybe size, maybe, maybe specialty, whatever it may be. So it's a little bit of a optimization versus defensive. It's sort of lower the places where we're, don't have as much, you know, desire, to create the capacity. But even overall, because of the overall demand, we still think loans will be, you know, will trend down. But that's not to say we're not being opportunistic about certain certain opportunities. So one of the big things that emerged over the course of 2023 was a heavy amount of new regulations, at least that have been proposed, since the banking crisis in March. Maybe just talk about how the bank is positioned for this new environment. Do these change the way you operate the bank at all over the longer term? Yeah, you know, remember, because we were merging, you know, so we were doubling the size of, you know, of our respective company, we were sort of already on the, you know, increased regulation track. I mean, that didn't feel like a, you know, abrupt shift to us. Mm-hmm. Now, the acceleration, no doubt, sort of post-march, sort of accelerated in terms of that capacity, but we were already creating that infrastructure and that investment to, to react to a, you know, a different regulatory environment and to make sure that we had the systems, infrastructure, investment capacity to make sure that we're, that we're responding. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, there'll be more capital in the system. Mm-hmm. I mean, sort of however you might want to, you know, think about how that's going to happen, but there'll be more capital in the system, and then that goes to everything we just talked about in terms of RWA. Sure. So we've got to maximize and optimize against an environment where we'll be asked to carry more capital. So maybe let's talk a little bit about deposits. You know, what trends are you expecting to see, you know, from deposit balances in 2024? How are you positioning your offering to meet your clients' needs? And then, you know, just think about the movements that you've seen. Do you expect to see more shift out of non-interest bearing, as we've seen over the past few quarters? Yeah. Maybe, maybe let me just instead of deposits, let me start with our relevance to clients. Sure. So the things that we've done, with product capability, particularly with our, with our rollout of Truist One, things we've done with our digital investments, the things we've done with our onboarding improvements. So we're net growing. So our client acquisition vehicles, you know, the last year have been really, really strong. So when we think about deposits, we also think about net clients. So we're growing net clients and have been, you know, over the, over the last, over the last three quarters. What we're seeing on the deposit side is, you know, deposit betas are, I would say, abating, maybe not abated. You know, but we're in the, you know, we're in the high forties. I think we'll, you know, sort of hit fifty somewhere along the way, although that rate of ascension is, has slowed pretty, pretty demonstrably. And then we're seeing repricing opportunities on the deposit side. So as those repricing opportunities are coming up, we're finding out we're not having to be at the same levels. We're having great conversations with our clients, you know, new product, new capabilities. So the value that we're bringing beyond rate paid is starting to materialize. And then on the mix, you know, we've been, you know, sort of around 30% sort of DDA. I think that'll trend down a little bit lower, somewhere in the 20s, but that's normalizing- Mm-hmm ... sort of where banks were and where we were in the past. So the portfolio of what the deposit mix looks like, I think is starting to trend to more, you know, traditional combination of DDA, MMA, and- Mm-hmm ... and, CDs as part of a, you know, balanced portfolio. So if you think about that outlook for deposits and deposit beta, you know, the outlook for rates has been, we were talking about it last night at dinner- Yeah ... has been widely debated, given the implications for NII and capital. You know, given all the uncertainty out there, maybe just talk about how is Truist balance sheet positioned for different interest rate scenarios? Yeah ... whether it's higher for longer or the forward curve coming to fruition, and what is your latest view on your expectations? Yeah, I mean, we're slightly liability sensitive. But, you know, our goal is to try to stay in sort of the, you know, the middle of the fairway, middle of the road. We don't want to sort of position the balance sheet as being, you know, particularly leaning strongly one way or the other. You know, our own modeling and the work that we're doing has two rate cuts at the end of at the end of next year. I think the forward curve is probably three to three and a half. So, you know, we're probably being maybe a little conservative on that front, but I think that's appropriate. Mm-hmm. And I think that helps us in our planning effort in terms of how we're thinking about that. And for us, it's all related to sort of how we started the conversation. I think the economy is going to slow down in the first part of the year. You know, I think we're probably a little jaded by the fact that we're in really good markets. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, we tend to think probably not as much as maybe the rest of the country, but I think we'll see some slowdown, and I think there'll be some rate response to that over time. Maybe just thinking about it a little bit more near term. I think NII is expected to decline in the fourth quarter- Yeah ... as the margin comes down and loans and securities come down. I think you said at earnings, you do expect some decline in the first half. Right. Maybe just talk about some of the drivers of NII bottoming. Are they shifting at all? And how do we think about growth under those scenarios? Yeah, I think NII, you know, but based on those forecasts, I think NII starts to bottom somewhere in the first half of next year. I think it's... You know, we're not predictors of, you know, it's March 17th or June 14th at four o'clock, or, you know, whatever those times. But I think it's, you'll start seeing that at the latter part of the year. And I think also, we see the opportunity for growth in terms of that component. So you know, some combination of sort of NIM and NII bottoming out, but then some growth in NII. As you start seeing the economy recover, you start seeing a little more stimulus and rates coming in. Again, probably a little clouded by our markets, a little clouded by our opportunity to lean in, put our shoulder against the wheel, against opportunities when they materialize. And you know, we've got our, you know, we've got our sail, you know, pretty taut. And so I think when we get a little bit of tailwind, you know, we've got the opportunity to really take advantage of that. Just sticking with the revenue side of the equation. Obviously, the two big fee drivers for Truist are insurance and investment banking. Right. Maybe just talk broadly about your expectations for fee income growth. Any other areas you think we could see an inflection? Obviously, 2023 has been a slow year for the industry. Yeah. I mean, for us, as you said, the two bigger swing drivers are insurance and investment banking, but also wealth, and we'll talk a little bit about that. Okay. Some market-dependent, but we'll talk about the net, net growth... Starting with the insurance side, I mean, this has been, you know, in favor, you know, favorable insurance environments, you know, inflation, just lots of advice, thinking about cyber. I mean, create any categories of, you know, really desire for increased insurance, increased skill in terms of insurance side. You know, the headwinds part of that is just capacity, you know, so if you think about what catastrophes do with related to capacity, so those are the tailwinds and headwinds, but probably a little more, you know, tailwinds than that. And we've had good single digits, sort of organic growth and, you know, could expect that to continue. On the investment banking side, you know, I don't know when the inflection point comes. I mean, I clearly think next year, you know, would be, let's call it significantly with a small s, you know, better than this year. And, you know, what I see from our dialogues with our clients is our probably not translated into pipelines yet, but our dialogue has never been stronger. I mean, the conversations we're having, the pitches we're having, the conversations we're having with our commercial clients on some of the Business Life cycle Advisory, the number of interactions, so to quote, the at bats we're having, are really, really significantly higher. So again, to that, you know, with a little bit of market tailwind, I don't think we've actually been better positioned ever as a company. We've been able to, you know, acquire a lot of really good talent. Our teams have been through a lot of training, so they've got a really good knowledge. We've got a lot of really good technology, a lot of really good AI, a lot of really good focus on creating opportunities for those conversations and dialogues. Our M&A business has sort of been- Mm-hmm ... strong throughout, and the ability to scale up, you know, so the size and relevance of Truist, you know, our, you know, not only our number of fees, but our average size fee is going up substantially, both in the M&A side and the debt side, just because we're more relevant. I mean, we're more important. We brought the advice or we're on the left side or all those components that help that. May have a follow-up on insurance in a bit. Okay. Um- I suspected you might. So, you would spend a long time talking about, you know, the recently announced organizational realignment and simplification plan. Maybe just walk us through the strategic process behind it, specific examples of the changes you made and why you're making them now, and what you think this will do for, you know, for the franchise over an intermediate time frame. Yeah, maybe Ryan, you know, talked about this. This isn't a pivot, this is an evolution- Mm-hmm ... you know, of sort of where you go. I mean, our merger, you know, was driven by, let's merge and do no harm, and I think that was really the right call. Yeah. Let's because almost by definition, 50% of us didn't understand as well, 50% of the businesses. So let's bring them all together. Let's make sure we merge them well. Let's make sure we go through all the client J curves that we need to go through, the teammate training that we need to go through, and we're at a really good place. So we're at a really good place with our client experience, our OSAT net promoter scores. We're in a really good place with our teammate engagement, training, all the things we need to do. So now the evolution in that, again, versus a pivot, is now defining what the new Truist should look like. Mm-hmm. You know, so we brought all these things over the transom, now, now what does the new Truist look like? And the new Truist is, is more streamlined, you know, so rather than having, you know, a lot of different businesses, we want to orient one around the client. We want to orient backwards from the client. So think about our consumer business, rather than thinking about a mortgage business and a LightStream business and an indirect auto business. We want to think about, okay, what does the consumer want? What does a client want? And work backwards from that and organize around that. And that really allows us to allocate capital in the right way. Mm-hmm. It allows our leaders to make decisions that are driven from a, you know, client backwards basis. It allows them to make a more comprehensive decision, it allows them to achieve a lot of efficiency. And we see it, you know, in the, let's, let's take, you know, dozens of examples. LightStream is a good example, where LightStream was sort of a separate business, you know, really good, client experience, but a more outside in. Now we want to take the technology and the capability of LightStream, bring it in-house, make it, rebrand it. It doesn't need to have a separate brand. We have a great brand called Truist, and have it focused on our existing client base. You know, our, our goal is to, you know, win the home game. Mm-hmm. I think, you know, if you look at our franchise and you look at our markets, you just have to conclude we have a home court advantage. Mm-hmm. And we want to win the home game. So we want to reorient, you know, our products and capabilities. LightStream, in that example, probably 80% of its business was outside, 20% was inside. If we fast-forward, you know, two years from now, it'll be 80% inside, expanding relationships, increasing our, you know, relevance to clients- Mm-hmm ... you know, improving our, you know, market penetration, improving our stickiness, helping create deposit relationships. Okay. So it'll be 80% inside- Yeah ... and 20% outside. That would just be one example. Yeah. The same thing as on wholesale is bring our investment banking business and our commercial business and our wealth business all under one umbrella. The bulk of our wealth business growth and new acquisition comes from our commercial franchise, and that's our home court advantage. Mm-hmm. So we don't, you know, if we're thinking about where we want to compete, we want to, we don't want to compete sort of independently. We'll, we'll win those. We'll have products and capabilities, but home court advantage- Mm-hmm ... we want to win with our clients and their assets and their turnover, and while we're helping them create wealth, is actually maintain and manage that wealth. And so that's that sort of singular, you know, focus on our franchise. ... So when you kind of package that together with the cost save program, are you able to achieve these expense reductions while investing where you need? And you talked about the home court advantage- Yeah. and we spent a lot of last night- Yeah talking about going on the offensive. Right. How do all these things impact the long-term growth? Do you feel that you've invested enough that you could actually go out and deliver on these things? Yeah, remember, I mean, for the merger, we invested a lot sort of going into this. So it's not like, you know- Yep ... we started with it from a place of deficiency. And so in terms of product development, digital capabilities, the things that we were, that we're missing. But yes, so the cost save, you know, initiative is a net initiative. So it's really when we talk about, you know, the cost save, we talk about our expense growth for next year sort of being the zero one. Yep. That's a net number. So that, that allows us both to invest, sort of how we started our earlier question, regulatory environment. We've got to make sure we've got really good systems- Mm-hmm ... capability and operational foundation, risk foundation that's really strong. And then similarly, in the places that are important to us, payments might be a really good example, where we need to continue to invest, increase our penetration, increase our relevance. So, the answer is yes. And, and at the end of the day, it's a, it's a net number, which is why we tried to make sure that we combined, when we talked about this, the simplification, because that's the foundation, that's what drives all this. Then the cost saves that sit on top of that, and then the guidance on total expense side, because that's the foundational of the netting of all, of all of those three things. When you put together a lot of the things that we've talked about, obviously, there's still headwinds in the beginning of the year. How important is positive operating leverage to Truist? When do you think the company can begin to see it? And can you deliver better results than the overall peer group? Yeah, I mean, long-term positive operating leverage is critical, and the expectation for us should be, again, back to this home court advantage: we have the best home court, we ought to represent it. So our growth ought to represent that, and we ought to do it against a really, really efficient and strong, stable expense base. So, you know, operating leverage in the first half of the year will be hard. Mm-hmm. I mean, those are tough, those are tough comparables. But I think we come out of next year with a lot of really good momentum. If we come out of the year with, again, a little bit of revenue momentum, a little bit of, like, economic momentum, I think we just start building that capacity, and growing that, you know, significantly over the course of the next several years. And everybody has that, and that's also the real benefit of the simplification effort also as well. Because today, you know, what we're trying to do is a lot, we're adding a lot of positive operating leverages components, and some people have a different definition of that. Now we're able to sort of do that in two really strong towers. Yeah. And so, you know, those leaders- Mm-hmm ... can pull the levers in order to achieve those. And they know that if I—you know, save on this side, of the efficiency side, I can overcome this with this level- Mm-hmm ... on the revenue side and create that, not only positive operating leverage, but more importantly, momentum to continue- Right ... positive operating leverage. You talked a little bit earlier about, you know, what you were seeing in deposit betas. I think at earnings, you gave a 4Q guide, revenue slotted down a little, expenses to fall 3.5, and credit losses to be in the mid- to high 50s. Any updates on how the quarter is progressing and any observations that you've seen that you want to share with us over the last two months? Yeah, I think we're on track to those. I mean, you know, we've got, you know, a few weeks left, and there's always little puts and takes to all those things, but certainly philosophically, we're on track to both of those. And that's good momentum, particularly on the expense side. I mean, we had said very specifically, you know, we needed to not only change the curve, but bend the curve significantly, and that needed to start demonstrably in the fourth quarter. So, not only I think we're on good track for that guidance, I think we're building the right momentum headed into next year on both those angles, both those sides. Just coming back to something that you said, you know, we're going to have relatively stable costs next year. Given the cost, the timing of the cost-saving program, does that momentum continue into 2025? I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but do you have continued momentum on the expense side from this program and, and the way you, you're going to be running the company? Yeah, I do. And I, again, I don't want to give 25- Sure, yeah ... you know, expense guidance on where we are. But yeah, I mean, you know, the cost saves that we put in place are tangible, achievable, and time-bound. The investments that we're making, you know, in the areas of, you know, AI, your machine learning, robotics, all those are things that'll be on this, you know, defined platform. So they'll all be things that continue to improve and continue to create, you know, efficiency opportunities on an ongoing basis. But we're also gonna want to - we're also gonna invest. Sure. So, you know, I want to be careful about giving that guidance because we might, you know, we'll see opportunities. And as I said before, you know, we're in great markets. We want to make sure that we not only protect those markets, but that we dominate in those markets. And so, you know, we're gonna make sure we've got the right opportunities to do that as well. Maybe let's spend a couple of minutes just talking about credit. You know, we've obviously- Yeah ... seen, you know, normalization happening- Right ... across the industry. I think you're looking at around 50 bips of losses for the year. Talk about what's been driving it, and how are you thinking about credit performance, revisions, charge-offs, and criticized assets over the next few quarters? Yeah. I think, you know, if you get on the spectrum of normalizing to normalized, you know, there are certain things that have normalized. I mean, if we look at sort of, near prime and subprime auto side, I think that's normalized. I mean, we're sort of- Yeah. where we were, and we're there. We talked a little bit about the, you know, the challenges that sort of the lower-income consumers starting to feel. And then if you go back to the CRE side, I mean, in the last, you know, couple of quarters, I mean, we took some pretty big moves on the CRE side. We wanted to really get in front of that. You know, not only did we take some charge-offs, we, you know, sold some assets and looked at some of our larger exposures and said, you know, let's try to get some of that behind us, and that was reflected in some of our numbers. So I think you'll, you know, see then on balance, things start to normalize. You know, I don't think charge-offs go down from here necessarily over the next couple of quarters, but I don't think they sort of shoot up dramatically. I think we sort of see a continuation of that, incremental normalization. And then, you know, you talked about low-end consumer CRE. Any other areas of the portfolio you're watching closely from a credit perspective? And where do you see, after the actions you've taken in CRE, the remaining big risks for the company? I mean, you know, we're stressing everything in our portfolio, so we want to make sure, you know, the strength of our balance sheet is our diversity, but we want to make sure that we're stressing everything. So let's just take an example, our leverage lending portfolio. Similarly, smaller portfolio, $5 billion, you know, generally underwritten to, you know, sort of higher rates. A lot of those are fixed. A lot of that portfolio is over the next five-seven years. We want to continue to stress that. We're stressing multifamily. You know, we want to look at sort of, you know, individual markets, while as a whole, that portfolio probably looks pretty strong for us. There are markets that, you know, even in our strong markets, that, you know, have a lot of in-migration, have got some areas that are overbuilt. So we want to make sure we look at that and where are we positioned, and are we at the right place, and are we with the right, you know, long-term, strong, stable capital, you know, capital providers? We stress the, you know, subprime part of the portfolio. We'll look at Service Finance. We'll look at Sheffield. We'll look at all the places that we do a lot of the consumer and some of the unsecured businesses and make sure that we've got the right profiles. Look at all the vintages that come through there. So it's hard to, you know, pick one thing that you sort of say... I mean, we've all got CRE in office in our sights. I mean, I think we've done a good job of, you know, for us, that's, you know, well under 2% of our portfolio. As I said, we've taken a lot of early actions on that front, but it has potential contagion impacts for municipalities, markets, you know, knock-on effects that we want to make sure we're paying attention to and looking at. And I think that's the, that's the part of, you know, credit cycles that we, you know, you learn through a variety of experiences, is look at the secondary and tertiary, not just even if you have a low concentration in the primary, what are the impacts on the general markets from some of these? Maybe switching gears to capital. Yeah. So, you know, your capital is approaching 10%. You talked about- Right ... targeting 10 at year-end. You know, obviously, the adjusted capital ratios, given the regulatory changes, are lower. Maybe just talk broadly, how are you thinking about managing capital levels through this phase-in period that we're going to have here? Yeah. You know, we'll, you know, as you noted, we'll get to a 10% CET1, and we'll- and we're going to operate above 10%. So we, we can generate, you know, 100 basis points or so organically of CET1. I think we have a really good flight path on the phase-in period, you know, that we can, you know, through our organic generation, the phase in, the roll-off of our, you know, securities portfolio, that we've got a, you know, a strong and defensible landing spot as we, as we get through that. But we're going to be sensitive to that and any changes that happen, you know, from that. We want to make sure that we don't sort of, you know, rest on our laurels and just be really, you know, confident and conscious of the changes that can happen, because that's a long time. Yeah. That's, you know, that's several years for that phase-in period. Hey, you know, given your comments that you are in capital building mode, maybe just expand on what, you know, your top capital priorities are. I'm assuming the appetite today to buy, to do acquisitions, whether in bank or non-bank, such as insurance, would be pretty low right now. But maybe just talk about the capital priorities and how you're thinking about using the capital. Yeah, I mean, given our current capital profile, you know, our capital priorities are, you know, investing in our, you know, in our business, protecting our dividend, you know, in terms of our capital profile, so having the earnings profile, that'll ensure that we're able to do that. You know, and then M&A is sort of that third of that category. If you sit here today, you know, you'd say large-scale M&A for us is not a priority at this particular juncture. But all that factors into the capital decisions we make and what changes over the next few years, and does that become a bigger priority in the future? Yeah. Is that something that we want to make sure we create capacity for? I know that you're excited to talk about TIH. Sure. I figured I'd save some time. Sure ... for us to dig into that. Obviously, this is a topic that is getting a lot of attention. You know, the sale would clearly help your adjusted capital- Right ... in a meaningful way. You've highlighted in the slides. Can you maybe just go over your current thoughts and plans for the business, and then what scenarios would you consider a majority sale of the insurance business? Yeah. So, you know, I don't want to sort of venture too much into the hypothetical, but the reason we sold 20% of the business was to do a couple of things. One is just to create this strategic and financial flexibility. So we wanted to not be constrained. We wanted to have an ability to, you know, bob and weave and react to, you know, different situations. We wanted to be able to fund the growth in the insurance business. So that's, you know, that's a business that has been consolidating. We have been a consolidator, and we wanted to make sure that we had capacity to do that. We wanted to create currency for our, you know, for our insurance teammates. You know, so and that's been—that's really had the positive impact. So, you know, there are, you know, investors in their business, and we've been able to acquire and retain really, really good talent that reflects on the productivity and the growth that we've had in the insurance side. But, you know, you fast-forward, and there are lots of other variables now, you know? So, you know, our cost of funds went up by, you know, 500%, you know. Regulatory capital, you know, constraints or demands or opportunities went up, went up significantly. So we have to put all that back into the- Mm-hmm. into the mix now and say, "Okay, you know, how do we ensure that we can continue to support the insurance business?" It would be hard, as you mentioned, to do a large-scale insurance deal right now. How do we make sure that we've got the capital flexibility and support that we need for Truist long term? If we were to raise capital, how would we use it? Would we—what would be the offensive opportunities? What would be the growth opportunities in our business? So, you know, we've got all that in the mix, and there is no, you know, one variable. You know, the 10-year hits X, and we do Y. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's not as... That's just not how we plan. You know, so this is, you know, ensuring that we continue to maintain the strategic and financial flexibility, and how and when we use that will be determined by, you know, changes in market conditions and our opportunities to maximize shareholder value for the Truist overall shareholder. Because I know how much you enjoy talking about, you know, speculation on these things. You referenced, you know, using capital in an offensive manner. Yeah. One thing that has been debated in the investor community has been, you know, whether a large or small sale securities portfolio restructuring- Right would make sense. Maybe just talk about where that fits on... You know, you talked about investing in, in the franchise- Right. maintaining the dividend. Where would this fit in terms of offensive uses of capital? Yeah, I think that's in the mix. I mean, some could argue, in fairness, that's defensive. Some could argue it's offensive. Yeah. So you could, you know, sort of pick your, you know, your poison in terms of where you come out on that. But that would be one of the other variables that we would have to consider, and it would be a separate variable, by the way. I think those are distinctive. I think those are two separate things, and we want to make sure that we're thinking about them. But they are two separate things on a parallel path that we have to factor in and consider, and all of them would, again, be in the category of not wanting to do something that would be viewed as a sort of a short-term, you know, reaction or a short-term fix. But other things that we could or should do to position Truist even better, I mean, well-positioned today, but even better to take advantage of, you know, of a market and an opportunity that we would see long term. my last hypothetical on- Okay On hypothetical, you talked about positioning the company even better. I know over the years we've talked about areas where you guys have invested a lot. Right - and others where you're continuing to invest, such as payments. If we were to see some sort of sale to generate significant amounts of capital, how do you think about the need or desire to accelerate investments to help drive that long-term performance, that home court advantage even further- Yeah - that you talked about? Yeah, I think we're on a good path. So again, it's not, I don't think we're in a deficiency- Yeah you know, category. I think we've got the capacity to invest. We're creating more capacity to invest. We have invested and got good momentum, and we actually need to, you know, materialize the return on some of the investments that we've already made. So I think, well, not to get hypothetical again, but I think it'd just be another factor that you'd throw in of, you know, how do we maximize the home court advantage, the opportunity that's Truist? I mean, I think inarguably, we've got the best- Mm-hmm franchise in banking, and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to optimize that franchise for the benefit of our shareholders. Maybe just to wrap it up, you know, when do we start to see the idiosyncratic growth or performance elements that you laid out as part of the Truist merger? Yeah. And, you know, today, you see, we do see them. They're masked by a lot of the other things that we talked about. They're, you know, the, securities portfolio, pick your category, interest rate environment where we are. But the things that, you know, the things that we look for, you know, the, the net new account growth as an app, so client acquisition. So we're acquiring clients in our franchise. It's an in-migration market, so we're reflecting that. You know, the growth in our wealth business, net asset growth, you know, nine out of ten quarters. Mm-hmm. You know, the investment banking, we've increased our share, you know, in the last couple of quarters- Mm-hmm - and all those things. So you sort of see it in the, you know, the parts, but it's all against a backdrop of a tougher, tougher economy. That's sort of my comment of the... You know, we're getting the sail in pretty tight and a little bit of tailwind. I think you'll really start to see the impact of those investments, and they materialize over a, you know, a larger scale and more, you know, more of a larger denominator- Mm-hmm - in which our numerator increases, faster. Great. Well, unfortunately, we're in overtime, so with that, please join me in thanking Truist.