Regions Financial Corporation (RF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Regions Financial Corporation Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Turner. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you all for participating in Regions' 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us, along with most other public companies holding their annual meetings during this time, to hold meetings virtually to protect the health and safety of Regions' shareholders, associates and other meeting attendees. I want to take this opportunity to provide you with an update on the actions we're taking during these unprecedented times. The last few weeks have certainly been challenging. However, our top priority is the health and well-being of our associates and customers. In order to do our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19, we were one of the first U.S. banks to limit in-person branch activity to our drive-throughs and convert in-office services to appointment only. We also reopened previously closed locations to better serve our customers. Fortunately, due to our footprint, the majority of our branches have high drive-through capabilities. And I'm proud that we've been able to keep 97% of our branches open during this time. Additionally, almost half of our associates are now working remotely. Our teams remain committed to delivering the financial advice and guidance our customers have come to expect from their Regions banker. Collectively, these changes will help us continue to do so in a way that minimizes the associated health risks. We're offering special financial assistance to support our customers who are experiencing financial hardships related to the pandemic. As we shared last week during our first quarter earnings call, we've processed over 30,000 customer payment deferral request. Also, as a certified SBA lender, we've been working very hard to help customers through the new Paycheck Protection Program. And I'm proud to say that through last Thursday, we have facilitated assistance to our business customers, totaling approximately $2.8 billion. We recognize the importance to our customers and their employees of access to fund through this program. In the span of 8 days, we established a cross-functional team to create an end-to-end digital application, build automation around every feasible point in the process, reassigned several hundred staff from other departments and trained them to accept and process loan applications for small business owners. Importantly, the bank has also continued to win the customers outside these stimulus programs. During the first quarter, new and renewed loan originations to business customers totaled just over $10 billion. Further, through the bank and our foundation, we've committed approximately $5 million toward consumer and small business recovery efforts. We're also donating advertising time, originally purchased for promoting bank products and services to food banks across our footprint. These advertisements encourage viewers to financially support food banks as they strive to help those in need. As we navigate through this crisis, our teams will continue to come together to identify innovative and meaningful ways to better connect with and serve our customers. I'd like to take a minute to reflect on accomplishments from 2019. We concluded the decade with another very successful year. We are proud of our 168-year history and the foundation we continue to build to generate consistent, sustainable long-term performance. Our 2019 accomplishments set the stage for us to achieve sustainable success through every business cycle. Despite significant changes in the operating environment during the year, we delivered strong net income available to common shareholders of $1.5 billion. We achieved a 10% year-over-year increase in diluted earnings per share. Notably, our pretax preprovision income was at its highest level since 2007. We generated positive operating leverage, and our adjusted efficiency ratio improved 130 basis points. Because of our solid performance in 2019 and the deliberate steps we have taken, we enter these challenging times from a position of strength, underpinned by robust capital and liquidity. This will allow us to better support our customers as we work together to get through this unprecedented time in our history. We will incur some stress. That's just the result of the economy we're in as we combat this public health crisis. But unlike the crisis the financial services industry experienced a decade ago, we are in a position to provide solutions to meet the needs of our customers during this extraordinary time. We spent a decade strengthening our capital position and risk management framework through an intense focus on risk-adjusted returns, client selectivity and robust concentration risk management. We have built a more balanced and diverse portfolio. Our strong capital and liquidity positions, combined with extensive derisking efforts, give us confidence that we can weather the pressure from the abrupt economic slowdown. In addition, 2 years ago, we initiated a significant hedging strategy to reduce net interest income variability and protect us from the impacts of a lower interest rate environment. The benefit from our hedging strategy provides us with a substantial competitive advantage in the current low rate environment. All of this allows us to move forward confidently and remain focused on the things we can control, providing support to our associates and communities and offering first-class advice, guidance and education to our customers. Although we're in a time of significant economic stress, it is too soon to estimate its duration or severity. We are encouraged by the actions taken by government and bank regulators to provide relief to individuals and small businesses, while also supporting the smooth functioning of the financial markets. In light of this uncertainty, during last week's earnings call, we rescinded our financial targets for this year along with our 3-year targets previously announced in 2019. We remain committed to our strategic plan, but acknowledge the need to remain flexible during this time of unprecedented and historic uncertainty. We will provide updates with respect to our financial targets once conditions stabilize and we have better visibility. We adopted a concept of shared value several years ago, whereby what we do as a business must create long-term value for our customers, communities, associates and shareholders. Frankly, I'm convinced that this has never been more important as we work through the current health crisis, together with our customers and communities. Before I close, I'd be remiss if I did not thank our 19,000-plus associates for their dedication and hard work, especially over the past several weeks. Their selflessness throughout this crisis has been nothing short of remarkable and makes me incredibly proud to be part of this organization. With that, I'm going to stop and turn things over to our Chairman of the Board, Charles McCrary. Charles?

Good morning, and I would also like to extend my warmest welcome to Regions 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. My name is Charles McCrary and as Independent Chair of the Board, I will be presiding over today's meeting. At this time, I call the meeting to order. The polls are open for shareholders who have not yet voted or would like to change their vote. The proxy statement and rules of conduct for today's meeting are available on the Meeting Materials box displayed on your screen. I would like to now introduce the members of your Board of Directors who are standing for reelection, each of whom is participating in today's meeting. In addition to myself, we have Carolyn Byrd, Don DeFosset, Sam Di Piazza, Zhanna Golodryga, Johnny Johns, Ruth Ann Marshall, Jim Prokopanko, Lee Styslinger, José Suquet, John Turner, and Tim Vines. I want to thank you all for your continued leadership, dedication and willingness to serve, particularly during these extraordinary times. I'd also like to take a moment to recognize Eric Fast. He is retiring from the Board this year. All of us on the Board and at Regions want to extend our deep gratitude to Eric for his leadership over the last decade and to thank him for his contributions to Regions and this Board. Eric will be greatly missed. Next, representing E&Y, our independent accounting firm for the 2019 audit, are Grant Haines and Lori Goodson. We appreciate your participation today. Broadridge Financial Solutions, who has been appointed by the Board to act as inspector of election and to count the votes for this meeting, is represented today by [ Sid Rodri ]. Thank you. I will now turn the meeting over to Hope Mehlman, Regions' Chief Governance Officer and Corporate Secretary for the official business of the meeting.

Thank you, Charles. Notice of this meeting was duly given and a quorum is present for purposes of transacting our shareholder business. Reports of such will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The record date for voting at this meeting was the close of business on February 24. This year, there are 3 proposals to be considered and acted upon. As detailed in this year's proxy statement, your Board recommended that you vote for the election of 12 directors, for the ratification of EY as auditors for 2020 and for the Say-on-Pay proposal. No other business has been properly brought before the meeting. Therefore, I now declare the polls for voting closed. We have been informed by the inspector of election that the preliminary votes have been counted and that proposals 1, 2 and 3, as recommended by the Board, passed. The final vote tabulation will be certified by the inspector of election and filed with the minutes of this meeting. No other matters were properly brought to the company's attention by our shareholders within the notification period provided by our bylaws. I will now turn the meeting back over to Mr. McCrary.

On behalf of your Board, I'd like to personally extend our gratitude for your continued trust and support. Thank you for allowing us, particularly during these unprecedented and extraordinary times, to continue overseeing your investment in Regions. The formal meeting now stands adjourned. We will now conclude with a shareholder question-and-answer session.

Thank you, Charles. At this time, we will open up the floor for questions from shareholders. Shareholders may submit questions through the ask-a-question box appearing on your screen. Dana Nolan, Head of Investor Relations for Regions, will be reading questions on behalf of shareholders.

For those questions not answered today, either directly or as part of a bundled question, we will seek to respond directly to the submitting shareholder. John, looks as though we do not have any questions submitted either before or during today's meeting.

Thanks, Dana. I want to thank everyone for joining us online for Regions 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We appreciate your participation and support of our company. Thank you.

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