Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. (GSBC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Kelly Polonus, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer of Great Southern. Ms. Polonus, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Hillary. Well, good morning. This is Kelly Polonus with Great Southern. Thank you for joining us for the 32nd Great Southern Annual Meeting of Stockholders. We miss having our annual meeting in person, but with the ongoing pandemic, we determined it was best to hold our meeting virtually again this year for everyone's protection. We appreciate your understanding. I believe that we're ready to get started. It's my pleasure to introduce President and CEO, Joe Turner.

Okay. Thank you, Kelly. I also want to welcome you to our annual meeting this morning. I'm pleased to be here representing our nearly 1,200 Great Southern associates to report on our company's performance and activities in 2020, a year that none of us will ever forget. Before we get started with our presentation, I do want to recognize our Board of Directors who are all in virtual attendance this morning. We certainly appreciate their continued guidance, engagement and support. Our First Director is William Turner. Mr. Turner has been Chairman of our Board since 1974. Next, Kevin Ausburn. Kevin is Chairman and CEO of SMC Packaging Group and has been a Board member since 2017. Next is Julie Brown. Julie is a partner with Carnahan, Evans, Cantwell and Brown, an attorney, and she was appointed to our Board in 2002. Next is Tom Carlson, Tom is President of Mid-America Management. Tom was appointed as Director of both boards in 2001. Larry Frazier is retired, former CEO of White River Valley Electrical Co-Op. Larry was appointed to the both boards in 1992. Debbie Hart. Debbie is owner of Housing Plus and sustainable housing solutions. Debbie was appointed to both our boards in 2017. Doug Pitt. Doug is owner of Pitt Technology and Pitt Development Group and is also the founder of Care To Learn. Doug was appointed to both our boards in 2015. And Earl Steinert. Earl is a CPA, is co-owner of EAS Investment Enterprises and was appointed to both our boards in 2004. Joining me today are 3 of my colleagues, our Chief Financial Officer, Rex Copeland; our Chief Communications Officer, Kelly Mark -- Kelly Polonus; and our Chief Retail Banking Officer, Kris Conley. Our agenda for this morning's meeting is straightforward. I will provide a brief summary of our performance and activities in 2020 and then turn the meeting over to my colleagues for their presentation. As I said earlier, we'll never forget 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic as well as social and political unrest created unprecedented challenges and uncertainty in paying for all of us. It was a difficult period in our country's history, and our hearts go out to those directly affected. While 2020 did post unique and dawning challenges, we're extremely proud of how our company and our team of associates responded to the health practice in our community. As has always been the case during our almost 100 years in business, our company was a source of strength for our associates, our customers, stockholders and communities during the last year. We entered the COVID-19 crisis prepared to respond in a position of strength with excess capital, solid earnings power, strong liquidity and excellent credit quality, all supported by an experienced team of associates, dedicated to taking care of our customers and each other. As the pandemic began to unfold in early 2020, we quickly saw the need to connect with our associates, customers and communities on an even deeper level. We're here for you with the message that we sent to offer assurance and support throughout the year. We made it widely known that our top priorities were and still are to ensure the health and well-being of our associates, provide safe and uninterrupted service for our customers, assist our customers facing financial hardships caused by the pandemic, and support the communities in which we live and serve. We have met each challenge head-on, and I believe we are emerging from this crisis an even stronger and more resilient company. I want to publicly thank our associates for their tireless work, courage and resilience during this difficult time. I'm still proud of our team and their response to this crisis. I'm humbled to work with such a remarkable team. Throughout our presentations this morning, we'll touch on some of the ways that we specifically responded to COVID-19, but you'll also see that despite the pandemic, we remain focused on our core strategic objectives, which included attracting and expanding customer relationships, developing our associates managing risk, sustaining a strong credit discipline and driving a culture of continuous improvement. Our hard work and discipline in dealing with the pandemic, while also conducting normal banking activities ultimately resulted in strong financial performance in 2020, and we're seeing this continue into 2021 with our solid first quarter results. I'll now turn the meeting over to Rex Copeland, who will discuss our financial results.

Thank you, Joe, and good morning. I'm pleased to highlight our historical results for you. As Joe said earlier, despite the many headwinds created by the pandemic, our overall financial performance in 2020 was strong, and we've gotten off to a good start in 2021. This slide provides a summary of the company's performance on several profitability metrics over the last 5 years and the first quarter of this year. It's important to note that our 2020 financial results were somewhat muted when compared to our results in 2019, when we achieved the highest annual net income and earnings per share in the history of our company. In the full year 2020, we earned $59.3 million or $4.21 per diluted common share. Net income for 2020 decreased compared to 2019, mainly due to increased loan loss provisions to build our reserve for potential loan losses in anticipation of a difficult economic environment and higher noninterest expenses, some related to COVID-19. Our earnings in the first quarter of 2021 were $18.9 million or $1.36 per diluted common share, driven by higher net gains on mortgage loan sales, lower credit loss provisions and general expense containment. At the bottom of the slide are profitability ratios generally used as measurements in the banking industry. Our ROATCE, or return on average tangible common equity ratio, has in recent years been between the 11% and 13% range. We saw a decline in this ratio in 2020 because of decreased earnings for the reasons I just mentioned. For the first quarter of 2021, the annualized ratio returned to more normal levels based on the first quarter's strong net income. The ROAA, or the return on average assets, is an important profitability ratio, indicating the profit of company earns related to its assets. Since bank assets largely consist of outstanding loans, the return is an important metric of bank management. An ROAA above 1% is considered favorable in the banking industry. Over the last 5 years, our return on assets has been good, with especially stronger ratios in 2018 and 2019. The ROAA declined in 2020 due to decreased earnings but has strengthened again in the first quarter of 2021. We continue to focus on our efficiency ratio, which is noninterest expense divided by the sum of net interest income and noninterest income. Before 2020, the ratio had been migrating down nicely over the 3 previous years, as a result of increased loans and investments without commensurate growth in overhead expenses. We saw an increase in the efficiency ratio in 2020 due to an increase in noninterest expense, partially offset by an increase in total revenue. The efficiency ratio during the first quarter of 2021 improved, reflecting an increase in noninterest income and a decrease in noninterest expense. This slide summarizes our growth trends in assets, loans and deposits. First, I'll talk about assets. During the first quarter of 2021, the company's total assets increased by about $78 million to $5.6 billion. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in available for sale investment securities and cash equivalents. Next, we'll talk about loans. The net loans increased $159 million from the end of 2019 to $4.4 billion. This increase was primarily in other residential or multifamily loans, commercial business loans, owner-occupied one- to four-family residential loans and commercial real estate loans. And this was partially offset by decreases in outstanding construction loans and consumer auto loans. Since the end of 2020, loan growth has been relatively flat, with loan payoffs creating significant headwinds. In the first quarter of 2021, we experienced decreases in the construction and consumer auto loan segments, but had increases in multifamily and commercial real estate categories. Loan origination activity was vigorous during the first quarter, and our pipeline of commitments and unfunded loans remained steady and strong. Lastly, deposits. You can see the significant increase in deposits from the end of 2019 through the first quarter of 2021. This is indicative of the entire banking industry during the pandemic. Our deposits have increased by about $667 million since the end of 2019, with transaction accounts receiving the majority of those deposit inflows. Government stimulus programs and customers parking their cash in accounts due to economic uncertainty have flooded banks with cash over the last 18 months. This slide looks at our common stockholders' equity, which includes our small amount of intangible assets and our book value per outstanding share over the last 5 years and first quarter of 2021. Strong capital is a priority for our company. Winners in banking are those that have strong capital and are thus able to take advantage of the opportunities that may arise. We recognize that our common equity level of capital is generally high compared to the industry averages. Today's environment underscores the reason why we follow conservative capital management strategies and how important we think that is. Total stockholders' equity continues to be very strong, totaling nearly $612 million or 10.9% of total assets at March 31, 2021. As you can see, we have seen nice steady growth in our capital through 2020. At the end of the first quarter of 2021, we experienced a decrease in stockholders' equity of about $18 million, primarily as a result of the decline in market value of the company's available-for-sale securities portfolio and impacts in the initial adoption of the current expected credit loss, or CECL, accounting standard for credit losses. In the 2021 first quarter, the company adopted the CECL accounting standard, requiring an adjustment to the allowance for credit losses and the creation of a liability for potential losses for the unfunded portion of the loan portfolio. Ultimately, the adoption of CECL resulted in a modest impact to capital, which reduced retained earnings by about $14 million net of taxes. From the regulatory side, the capital position of the company continues to be strong, significantly exceeding the well-capitalized thresholds established by regulatory guidelines. The company has been in various buyback programs since May of 1990. The company has historically utilized stock buyback programs from time to time, as long as management believe that the repurchasing of the stock would contribute to the overall growth of shareholder value. And in keeping with that during 2020, the company repurchased about 530,000 shares of our common stock at an average price of $41.71 per share. During the first quarter of 2021, we bought back nearly 75,000 shares of common stock at an average price of $50.50 per share. This slide provides a historic view of our tangible common equity, or TCE, and the TCE ratio since 2016. TCE is a measure of the company's total capital less intangible assets and preferred stock, which is used to evaluate a financial institution's ability to handle potential losses. Some believe that TCE is one of the best measures of an institution's actual financial strength. The TCE ratio, represented by the orange line, measures tangible common equity as a percentage of tangible assets. At March 31, 2021, we saw a decrease in both these metrics as a result of what we discussed earlier with the market value decline and available-for-sale securities and the CECL adoption impact along with higher asset balances from increased levels of cash equivalents and investment securities. At March 31, 2021, the company's tangible common equity to tangible assets ratio was 10.8% compared to 11.3% at December 31, 2020. This ratio is still considered to be at high level by industry standards and an example of our strong financial position. We're all shareholders of Great Southern and understand the importance of our dividend. Since 1989 through good and bad business cycles, Great Southern has paid consecutive quarterly cash dividends to our common shareholders. Quarterly dividend declarations are approved by our Board of Directors and are determined by, among other things, quarterly earnings levels, current strategic priorities and capital needs of the company. In 2020, we declared a total regular cash dividend of $1.36 per common share. During the first quarter of 2020, we -- I'm sorry, first quarter of 2021, we declared a regular cash dividend of $0.34 per common share. Reflecting the company's operating performance, solid financial condition and commitment to delivering long-term shareholder value, the company recently declared 2 special cash dividends about a year apart. In January 2019, the company declared a special cash dividend of $0.75 per common share. And in January 2020, the company declared another special cash dividend of $1 per common share. We talked a little bit earlier about the significant increase in deposits we experienced over the last 18 months. Here's a look at our deposit mix, which is a source of strength, with check-in and savings accounts representing about 73% of the total deposit portfolio and retail certificates of deposits making up about 24%. Brokered deposits and CDARS deposits make up a small share of about 3% and are used to supplement funding in times where loan growth may outpace deposit growth. Our deposits by region is also shown on this slide with our roots in the Springfield area, our largest share of deposits in the region, is expected and appreciated. However, our deposit concentration in our other markets is very important, providing high-quality funding sources and giving us flexibility in our product offerings. We continue to experience deposit growth in several of these other market areas. Our core net interest margin, which excludes the impact of the additional yield accretion from FDIC-acquired loans, was relatively stable from 2016 through 2019. We experienced some core margin compression in 2020 as market interest rates declined dramatically. The core margin stabilized in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. As the virus was spreading in March 2020, the Federal Reserve dramatically cut its benchmark interest rate, totaling 150 basis points, down to 0.25%, where it remains today. Because the Federal Reserve's rate cuts were so significant and still rapid, the company's yield on loans and other earning assets declined more rapidly at that time than its rate paid on deposits. As a result, we experienced a small decrease in net interest income in 2020. The decrease in core margin for both periods was primarily due to changes in the asset mix, with significant increases in average cash equivalents and investment securities, which have a significantly lower yield than the average yield on the company's total interest-earning assets. Also, the additional subordinated notes issued in June 2020 resulted in 8 basis points of margin compression. Overall, funding costs continued to decline during the first quarter of 2021, which also helped stabilize net interest margin. This slide provides a look at our legacy loan, excluding the FDIC-acquired loans by loan type at the end of March 2021. As noted previously, we continue to see most loan activity in commercial real estate, commercial business, single-family and multifamily real estate loans. The largest segments of our loan portfolio are commercial real estate loans at 36% and multifamily loans at 24%, both of which are areas of focus and expertise for decades for our company. The company's overall loan portfolio is also diverse by type and represents a wide array of commercial and consumer, customer relationships across many geographic areas, as you can see. My final slide shows the company's asset quality trends. Credit quality metrics remain strong with historically low levels of nonperforming assets, but we always anticipate that nonperforming asset totals will fluctuate from time to time. Our underwriting criteria remains conservative, and we strive to grow the loan portfolio one quality relationship at a time. The balance of our nonperforming assets at the end of March 2021 was $10.9 million. The slight increase you see in the nonperforming asset ratio in the first quarter of 2021 reflects loans to 2 unrelated customers, both of whom have lengthy relationships with us. Net recoveries of $64,000 were recorded during the first quarter of 2021. With the likelihood of difficult economic conditions with the onset of the pandemic, we increased the allowance for credit losses by about $15 million in 2020, as indicated in the allowance for credit losses graph on this slide. The allowance in the first quarter of 2021 was increased by $11.6 million with the adoption of CECL, as I mentioned earlier. In addition to increasing the allowance for credit losses, we also created a CECL-required liability at approximately $8.7 million for potential losses related to the unfunded portion of our loans and commitments. That concludes my remarks today. It's now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Chief Retail Banking Officer, Kris Conley.

Thank you, Rex. The challenges of 2020 impacted all businesses in unique ways, and our company was no exception. At the onset of the pandemic, the well-being of our customers, associates and communities was our top priority. To get ahead of the customer concerns, we proactively communicated with our customers early on through e-mails, advertisements, social media posts with a simple, "We're here for you" message. Our goal with these communications was to keep our customers informed of our response to the pandemic, let them know that we're here to help and assure them that they have uninterrupted access to their money. In response to the spread of the virus throughout our communities, several precautions were implemented to protect our customers and associates. We installed clear protective barriers on our teller lines, purchased cloth masks for every associate, provided masks and hand sanitizer at our entrances for our customers, and when the decision was made to temporarily limit access to our banking center lobbies, we expanded our drive-thru services so customers could complete all their banking needs from the safety of their vehicle. To remain connected with customers we hadn't seen in person, many banking center associates reached out by phone to offer assistance. Overall, 2020 was a success for our banking centers. Our net new deposit accounts was positive and total deposits grew by more than 23%. Following positive news related to the vaccines and a decrease in spread, we reopened our banking center lobbies earlier this year. The protective barriers at the teller line remain in place and masks and sanitizers are still available for customers to use. Again, the well-being of our customers, associates and communities remain our top priority. While adoption of our self-sufficient digital banking services grew as a result of the pandemic, our banking center network remained a very relevant piece of the banking experience. When our customers have questions about their financial needs, we know they still want the option to sit down and speak with their banker in person. Despite the changes to the availability of our lobbies, monthly banking center transaction volume remained steady as our customers adapted and took advantage of the expanded services in our drive-thrus, a testament to the importance of our banking center network. We continue to strategically analyze the performance of our banking centers and markets, investing resources and opening new locations based on customer demand. And from time to time, making the difficult decision to consolidate a banking center. As part of our acquisition of the formal Iowa-based Valley Bank in 2014, we operated 2 banking centers inside Hy-Vee grocery stores in the Quad Cities market. We were notified by Hy-Vee that the space that both of our banking centers occupied was needed for store remodels, and our leases for these locations would not be renewed. We provided notice to all of our customers in the Quad Cities market and consolidated these locations into our nearby banking centers in July of 2020. The remodel of our Downtown Parsons, Kansas banking center and construction of a drive-thru was completed last September. With the addition of a drive-thru at the Downtown banking center, we consolidated our separate stand-alone drive-thru location and now operate 1 full-service banking center in Parsons. As part of our ongoing evaluation of our banking center network, we partnered with a strategic consultant focused on optimizing financial institutions and their physical locations for the future. The consultant's branch refresh program is a multiphase approach that includes an in-depth market analysis of demographics, trends, competitors, auditing and grading of our existing locations and much more. We are currently building our first branch of the future in Joplin, Missouri. Once this banking center is complete, we will relocate 1 of our existing Joplin locations to this updated building. In addition to the Joplin office, we are tentatively planned for offices in other metropolitan markets to receive future enhancements, which will be completed in a phased approach. We look forward to introducing this updated in-person banking experience to our customers later this year. It remains important that our bank be accessible to our customers when and how they prefer. Younger generations who have grown up in the digital age want the ability to bank easily from anywhere when it aligns with their schedule. They often consider it a necessity when choosing a bank. The availability of convenient, online and mobile banking services has enabled us to reach a new population of potential customers, who want to bank with us, whether or not we have physical locations in their area and retain current customers who are moving out of our markets. Many customers enrolled in online banking for the first time, downloaded our mobile banking app and signed up for mobile check deposit, bill pay, text banking and spend money because of the pandemic. For our customers who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus, our digital banking options allowed them to remain connected to their bank and finances while conducting their business safely. As we look ahead, we will continue to seek out new digital banking services to meet the needs of our customers who prefer this banking channel. In 2020, we enrolled 4,600 new online banking users, grew our mobile check deposit users by 24% and averaged more than 2 million monthly online and mobile banking app log-ins. Our commercial lending team had a successful year despite the challenges of the pandemic. They produced more than $1.2 billion in new loans, their fifth year in a row exceeding $1 billion in production. Growth in our portfolio was strongest in commercial real estate, single-family and multifamily real estate. Following the passage of the CARES Act in March, which established the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, we assisted our small business customers with obtaining these important loans. The economic impact of the pandemic generated overwhelming interest in demand for this loan program. Various Great Southern departments worked together to assist with entering data and submitting PPP applications. And together, we helped more than 1,600 Great Southern's small business customers secure loans totaling approximately $120 million. These loans provided the financial resources our customers needed to maintain employment of more than 16,000 employees. In January 2021, we began accepting applications for the additional PPP funding that was appropriated in December of 2020. We processed an additional 1,600 loans and helped Great Southern small business customers secure additional loans totaling $56 million. The personal and professional impacts of the pandemic could be felt by all. Each of us spent a great deal of time at home in 2020 and for many, home became a workplace and a school. The need for home office space was more necessary than ever before, and those living in multifamily dwellings sought out the additional space and comfort that a single-family home could offer. Throughout our 98-year history, we have taken great pride in helping families purchase homes and establish roots in our communities. In spite of the pandemic, 2020 was our most successful year-to-date, driven by historically low mortgage interest rates, our residential lending team achieved a record year of production originating approximately 2,200 home purchase and refinance loans, totaling more than $540 million. That's an increase of 72% compared to the previous year. In 2021, home loan production is off to a very strong start. In the first 4 months of the year, our team has originated more than 700 loans, totaling an additional $192 million. And with that, I'll turn it back to Kelly.

Thank you, Kris. In 2020, with and despite the pandemic, we continued with initiatives to be an even better bank for our customers, to be a better workplace for our associates and to help make our communities better and more enriching places to live. In Kris's presentation, he shared how we responded and assisted our customers during the pandemic. I also want to provide a few details about our support of our associates and our communities during this unprecedented time. As Joe said earlier, and it definitely bears repeating, we are extremely proud of our 1,200 associates in how they have responded to this crisis. Their flexibility and compassion are very much appreciated and so evident each and every day. Understanding that this was an uncertain and difficult time for our associates and their families, we offered support in several ways, including increased benefits in sick times, 2 special bonuses during the year, we enhanced our mental health support services for our associates, and just in the last week -- in the few last weeks, we have provided an on-site vaccine clinic for our most populous market here in Springfield. We continue to have nearly 30% of non-frontline staff working from alternate sites, including working from home or at disaster recovery sites to facilitate social distancing and to ensure continued operations. For our communities, we significantly increased our support to address the critical needs caused by the pandemic. Very early on, we committed $300,000 to address food insecurity and other urgent health and human service needs in all of our markets across the 11 state franchise. These funds were distributed to Feeding America food banks and local United Way agencies, which have been tireless in mobilizing resources to help those in need. Our support didn't stop there, though. All year long, we continued to monitor and respond in the best way we could to the ongoing challenges caused by the health crisis. To help with the vaccine rollout, we underwrote a COVID-19 call center at a regional health care system here in Springfield, to help break down barriers for individuals trying to understand the vaccine process and how to participate. This proved to be especially beneficial for the elderly population, who may not have been comfortable with the online process to sign up for the vaccine. As a company, we know that we can only be as strong as the communities we serve. Through our Community Matters program, we're engaged in our local cities and towns, providing services and capital to help them grow, encouraging our associates to be personally involved in financially supporting nonprofit agencies and their much needed services. Each year, we combine our service efforts with more than $1.5 million in funding, to help bolster nonprofit, civic and recreational efforts. To ensure we're meeting the unique needs in each of our local markets, our regional Community Matters teams are instrumental in targeting support so that we get the best use of our philanthropic and public relations dollars in each community that we serve. Great Southern has a strong history of supporting diverse communities and organizations. In response to the tragic events that occurred last summer, we saw an opportunity to strengthen our existing efforts in combating social injustice and systemic inequities. Over the summer, we committed an additional $150,000 to support nonprofits that promote diversity, equity and inclusion and to support rebuilding efforts in our communities impacted by riots and violence. We recognize in the scope of things, we're a small company with a small voice that we firmly believe that we can be a part of the solution. We commit that we will do all that we do to support diverse communities and foster a company culture that deeply values and respects DEI principles. One example of our most recent efforts is the development of a future banker scholarship fund at Missouri State University here in Springfield. As an employer, we are challenged that the applicant pool of underrepresented populations for many lending-related positions is very weak. We reached out to Missouri State to understand who is pursuing these banking-related degrees, such as accounting and finance, and we learned quickly that there's a significant deficiency of minorities majoring in these degree fields. We immediately saw this as an opportunity, and we worked with the university to develop an endowed scholarship program that would encourage underrepresented groups to seek out degrees that would prepare them for a career in banking. Beginning this fall, students can apply for the first round of $1,000 scholarships and the first recipients to receive those scholarships will be selected in the spring of 2022. We really hope that this effort is just the beginning to increase diversity in these fields of study and will in turn increase future candidates for career opportunities with Great Southern. As bankers, we know that understanding and managing money is the key to financial stability, and we are in a unique position to help our existing and future customers. Through our customer research efforts and data collected with organizations like J.D. Power, we've learned that our customers, especially our younger adult customers want us to provide them with readily available and meaningful financial education. To address this need, we have partnered with EVERFI, a leader in financial education technology, to develop the Great Southern Financial Education Center. Customers now have direct access through our website to customize interactive modules designed to connect them with the financial information that they need. We strongly believe that open access to comprehensive financial education can be a catalyst for positive change, and we are excited to make this free service available. Great Southern's annual Bill and Ann Turner Distinguished Community Service Award was created to emphasize the importance placed on volunteerism by honoring one outstanding associate each year, who demonstrates excellence in volunteer service in their community. Associates throughout the company have the opportunity to nominate coworkers they believe are worthy of this great honor. A committee comprised of external community leaders review all these nominations and select an annual recipient. On the winner's behalf, Great Southern also donates $1,500 to their -- the winner's charity of choice. The 2021 award recipient is Avi Suri from our St. Louis metro market. Avi is a dedicated volunteer for many causes, and she puts her actions where her heart is. Those who know of Avi are inspired by her desire to help and her ability to lead and motivate others to help too. The COVID-19 pandemic created quite a strain on many local nonprofits as fundraising events were suddenly canceled, while the demand for their service significantly increased. Avi quickly jumped into action using her abilities to help however she could. Through her involvement with Sikhs at St. Louis, whose mission is to promote Sikhism awareness, while providing emergency response relief, Avi helped prepare meals, made masks, collected and packaged personal care items and delivered these to families and first responders throughout the St. Louis area. Avi is an inspiration to all of us here at Great Southern, and we applaud her for her tireless work. Experience Matters is our customer experience initiative that helps us better understand our customers' desires and their perceptions of our service quality through all of our delivery channels. Through electronic surveying and other techniques, we have established a dialogue with our customers by asking for candid feedback in several critical areas surrounding their banking experience. Using analytics, we can predict customer behavior and guide future enhancements to improve overall customer experience. Our continued partnership with J.D. Power has played an instrumental role in this initiative. On an annual basis, we send J.D. Power's retail banking satisfaction study to our full customer base. Our results from last year's survey were very positive and encouraging with our customers ranking us well above the regional average in many categories, including the ease of our account opening process, the availability of our online and mobile banking services, and most importantly, their trust in our bank. Recent responses include feedback about the support we provided during the pandemic. We learned that about 98% of our customers indicated that they felt fully supported or satisfied by the bank's efforts during this difficult time. Our 2021 J.D. Power survey is being mailed to our customers just this week, and we look forward to reviewing the results soon after that. In addition to reviewing direct feedback about our bank, the J.D. Power platform also allows us to compare our results with those of our local and regional competitors, which helps us start strategy as we look ahead. Our associates are passionate about taking care of our customers. And when we get recognized for it, it is both exhilarating and humbling. Just a few short weeks ago, Forbes announced its 2021 World's Best Banks list and Great Southern was ranked as the #1 best bank in the United States and second overall. We are honored to be recognized with the award because it is the result of our customers' feedback in ratings on such things as general satisfaction with our bank, trust, our terms and conditions, digital services and financial advice. Nearly 500 banks worldwide were awarded by consumers as being among the world's best banks with 75 in the United States alone. We thank our customers for this honor, and we commend our associates for their great work. At the risk of being boastful, I want to share just one more award we recently received, which was from the Kansas City Business Journal. The journal studied 44 large banks operating in the Kansas City area with assets of more than $1 billion. The ranking was determined and using 6 financial performance categories using FDIC data at the end of 2020, Great Southern was ranked the strongest large bank in the Kansas City market area. Our asset quality was ranked the best in the market for large banks and our robust capital level supported our distinction as the strongest. With that, I want to thank you for your attention during my presentation. I'll turn the meeting back over to Joe Turner for closing remarks.

Okay. Thanks very much, Kelly. As we look to the remainder of 2021, we will capitalize on our strength and be ready for the challenges and opportunities that will likely come our way. With the widespread distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and expected continued economic recovery, we are guardedly optimistic about the outlook for the rest of the year. The impact of the pandemic and its aftermath will be present for the foreseeable future. We anticipate that this will be a rebuilding year for many of our customers and communities, and we will be there to help them get back on course in whatever way we can. Our priorities for 2021 are straightforward and familiar. While we recover from the pandemic, we will maintain a sharp focus on taking care of our associates, developing and expanding customer relationships, closely managing interest rate risk, sustaining a strong credit discipline and driving operational efficiencies and continuous improvement throughout our company. We also recognize that banking is evolving rapidly and especially with technological advances. Our focus must stay on being responsive to the ever-changing demands and expectations of our customers. In addition, we are also dedicated to inspire and develop our talent pool to ensure that we have our next generation of bankers ready to lead the company in years to come. In 2021, we will have 2 key executive management team members entering retirement. Both announced their retirements at least a year in advance to promote an orderly leadership transition and as great leaders, they're focused on leaving our company positioned to thrive and grow as they pass the torch to their successors. Chief Operations Officer, Doug Marrs, is going to retire in July; and CIO, Lin Thomason, plans to retire at the end of 2021. Doug and Lin, who have banking career spanning more than 40 years, have been integral in Great Southern's growth and success for the last 25 years. During that time period, our company has gone from a primarily Southwest Missouri company with $700 million in assets to now a company with $5.5 billion in assets spread across 11 states. We thank Doug and Lin for their dedication and service to Great Southern. They both will leave a lasting legacy in the history of our company and will be greatly missed when they retire. In closing, we believe that we are well positioned for a successful 2021 and beyond. We will continue to build on our strengths that enable us to meaningfully connect with all our constituencies. As we do this, we pledge to keep in mind the long-term interest of those we serve. For our associates, we want to make our company a great place to work and grow professionally. For our customers, it is our mission to build winning and lasting relationships with you by providing the right products and services with your preferred access channels. For many communities, we strive to support causes and address needs to help them be even better places to live and work. And finally, for our stockholders, we desire to provide a superior long-term return on your investment in our company. We go to work every day recognizing the big responsibility that we have to perform for you, our stockholders. That concludes our formal presentation. At this time, operator, if we have any questions, we'd be glad to try to answer those. If there are no questions, then we'll proceed with the business portion of our meeting. So I'll turn it over to our Secretary, Kelly Polonus.

Thank you, Joe. Turning to the business portion of this meeting, we have determined that a quorum is present, so voting on the proposals before this meeting may occur. The first item of business is to vote on the proposals set forth in the notice of this meeting and the proxy statement, which were made available to our stockholders, commencing on or about April 1, 2021. No other proposals may properly come before this meeting. Only stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 3, 2021, are entitled to notice of and to vote at this meeting. If you are a stockholder entitled to vote and have not yet voted or if you want to change your vote previously cast by proxy, please do so now via the website used to access this meeting. Please remember that if you have already voted by proxy, it is not necessary to vote again. After voting has been completed on all matters, we will provide a preliminary report as a result. The polls for voting will remain open for a short time as I formally present the proposals. The first proposal is the election of 3 directors. The Board of Directors is divided into 3 classes, the terms of which are staggered to expire in different years. Mr. Thomas J. Carlson, Ms. Debra Shantz Hart and Mr. Joseph W. Turner are in the class of Directors whose term expires this year. Mr. Carlson, Ms. Hart and Mr. Turner are willing to serve the 3-year term for which they have been nominated. Since no other nominations may be made at this meeting, I declare the nominations closed. Are there any questions regarding the election of directors? I see no questions. The second proposal for your consideration is a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation as described in the company's proxy statement for the annual meeting through the adoption of a resolution in the form stated on Page 27 of the proxy statement. Are there any questions on this proposal? I see no questions. Our final proposal for your consideration is a resolution to ratify the Audit Committee's selection of BKD, LLP to serve as Great Southern's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021. Are there any questions on this proposal? Again, I see no questions. The polls are about to close. So if you're a stockholder of record and wish to vote during this meeting but have not yet done so, please do so now. As previously noted, if you have already voted by proxy, it is not necessary to vote again. I'll pause for just one moment. [Voting]

The proposals have been presented to you in the notice and proxy statement and at this meeting. Proxies have been made available and returned, and any stockholders of record wishing to vote during this meeting have had an opportunity to do so. The polls are now closed. The preliminary results are as follows: Mr. Thomas J. Carlson, Ms. Debra Shantz Hart and Mr. Joseph W. Turner have been elected as directors, each for a 3-year term to expire in 2024; the advisory vote on executive compensation has been approved; and the appointment of BKD, LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2021, has been ratified. The final results will be contained in a Form 8-K to be filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Are there any other further questions before we adjourn? I don't see any other questions. I declare the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders is now adjourned. We thank you for attending and for your continued interest in Great Southern.

This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.