Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call January 25, 2023 9:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Joel Jeffrey - Senior Vice President of Investor Relations

Ronald Kruszewski - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

James Marischen - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Devin Ryan - JMP Securities LLC

Michael Anagnostakis - Wolfe Research, LLC

Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Brennan Hawken - UBS

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Stifel Financial Fourth Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded.

At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Joel Jeffrey. Please go ahead.

Joel Jeffrey

Thank you, Justin. I'd like to welcome everyone to Stifel Financial's fourth quarter and full-year financial results conference call. I'm joined on the call today by our Chairman and CEO, Ron Kruszewski; our Co-Presidents, Victor Nesi and Jim Zemlyak; and our CFO, Jim Marischen.

Earlier this morning, we issued an earnings release and posted a slide deck and financial supplement to our website, which can be found on the Investor Relations page at www.stifel.com.

I would note that some of the numbers that we state throughout our presentation are presented on a non-GAAP basis. I would refer to our reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP as disclosed in our press release. I would also remind listeners to refer to our earnings release, financial supplement and our slide presentation for information on forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures.

This audio cast is copyrighted material of Stifel Financial and may not be duplicated, reproduced or rebroadcast without the consent of Stifel Financial Corp.

I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Ron Kruszewski.

Ronald Kruszewski

Thanks, Joel. To our guests, good morning, and thank you for taking the time to listen to our fourth quarter and full-year results conference call. 2022 represented Stifel's 132nd year in business, and represented our second best annual results as our balanced business model enabled us to deliver return-on-tangible common equity of 22%. Simply stated, Stifel performed as we expected with our more stable Global Wealth Management business, offsetting declines in our institutional segment.

As is well reported, 2022 represented a difficult operating environment characterized by persistent inflation and rapid central bank tightening, which put pressure on equity valuations illustrated by a 19% decline in the S&P 500. The pressure on asset valuations was broad-based and in the case of high-growth technology companies, dramatic. The complex and volatile environment, including the highest inflation in 40 years and significant geopolitical turmoil had a chilling effect on capital raising and related strategic activity, impacting our institutional business worldwide.