First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (FCNCA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the First Citizens BancShares, Inc. Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I would now like to turn the conference over to Frank Holding. Please go ahead.

Good morning. My name is Frank Holding, and I'm Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of First Citizens Bancshares. On behalf of the entire Board, our leadership team, our officers and associates, it's my pleasure to welcome each of you today for the Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We're pleased to have the option to conduct this meeting virtually in light of COVID-19 to protect the health and well-being of our shareholders, associates and customers. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and we appreciate your support now as ever. I hereby call our meeting to order. First, I'd like to introduce the members of the Board of Directors, senior management and guests who have joined us today. I'll begin with our Board members: Hope Bryant, our Vice Chairman; Peter Bristow, who's President of Bancshares; John Alexander, Vic Bell, Lee Durham, Dan Heavner; Robert Hoppe, Floyd Keels, Robert Mason and Robert Newcomb. Members of our executive leadership team who have joined us today in addition to Ms. Bryant and Mr. Bristow, are Craig Nix, our Chief Financial Officer; Lorie Rupp, our Chief Risk Officer; and Jeff Ward, our Chief Strategy Officer. We're also pleased to have with us Heather Cozart, representing Dixon Hughes Goodman, the company's independent accounting firm. The rules of conduct and order of business for this meeting are posted in the shareholder web portal. During the formal meeting, shareholders may submit questions or comments related to each proposal using the Q&A field on the web portal. And after the formal meeting has been adjourned, we will provide time for general questions from shareholders. Next, I'll provide a report on the quorum for the meeting. The Board of Directors fixed February 28, 2020 as the record date for determining shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting, and I've been informed by the Inspector of Elections that there are present at the meeting in person or by proxy, shares representing an aggregate of more than 50% of the total number of votes entitled to be cast at the meeting. This confirms the presence of a quorum necessary to conduct business at the meeting today, and the polls are now open. At this time, any shareholder who hasn't voted or given their voting instructions or wishes to change their vote or voting instructions may do so by clicking on the bottom button on the web portal and following the instructions there. Shareholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote, do not need to take any further action. Now I will present the matters to be voted upon. Proposal one is the election of directors. Based on the recommendation of its Compensation Nominations and Governance Committee, our Board of Directors has nominated the 11 incumbent directors named in the proxy statement for election as directors for 1 year terms or until their successors are duly elected and qualified. The nominees are: John Alexander; Vic Bell, Peter Bristow, Hope Bryant, Lee Durham, Dan Heavner, Frank Holding, Jr.; Robert Hoppe, Floyd Keels, Robert Mason and Robert Newcomb. Proposal 2 is the nonbinding advisory vote to approve our executive compensation programs and compensation paid to our named executive officers. Proposal 3 is ratification of the appointment of Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP as the company's independent accountants for 2020. I will now pause for a moment to see if there are any questions related to these 3 proposals, and our inspector says there are none. As we didn't receive any notice of any other proposals, there are no other matters to come before the meeting for a vote. [Voting]

And now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare that the voting polls are closed, and I've received a voting report from the inspector. And I further declare that each of the Board's 11 nominees has been elected. The proposals 2 and 3 have been approved by the shareholders by their requisite number of votes. There being no other further business to come before the meeting, the 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of First Citizens Bank is now adjourned. But at this time, I'd like to give some brief remarks, followed by a general question-and-answer session. Last year was another in a long line marked by growth and progress at First Citizens. We recorded record earnings, completed multiple mergers, acquisitions and conversions, made a host of enhancements to First Citizens' digital banking, introduced new business and other products, achieved significant growth in our wealth management segment and celebrated our very first dedicated Teen Cancer America unit at Bon Secours St. Francis Health system in Greenville, South Carolina. We also launched what is -- what seems now an almost prophetic advertising campaign themed Forever Strong, Forever Stable, Forever First. It characterizes how we've always approached our business and how we're now able to respond so well to the COVID-19 global health crisis. To help keep our associates and customers safe while continuing to operate the bank, we've transitioned in March to branch service via drive-thru and lobby by appointment. And the majority of our corporate staff is actually working from home. We're helping our customers during this unique time of need in a myriad of ways, including offering loan deferrals, participating in the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program and extending needs-based fee waivers. Our financial position remains strong, and I'd like to thank our dedicated associates for their efforts during this unprecedented time, and I'm exceedingly proud of them, and we thank you for your continued support. Though these times are difficult, I'm confident the future remains bright for First Citizens. And I'll now pause to see if there are any questions or comments from our shareholders and hearing that there are none, that concludes the formal presentation of the annual meeting of shareholders. Thank you very much for being here today. Have a great day. Bye-bye.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.