Wells Fargo (WFC) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2023

April 14, 2023 10:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Welcome, and thank you for joining the Wells Fargo First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Please note that today's call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to John Campbell, Director of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin the conference.

John Campbell - Director, IRl

Good morning. Thank you for joining our call today where our CEO, Charlie Scharf; and our CFO, Mike Santomassimo, will discuss first quarter results and answer your questions. This call is being recorded.

Before we get started, I would like to remind you that our first quarter earnings materials, including the release, financial supplement and presentation deck are available on our website at wellsfargo.com. I'd also like to caution you that we may make forward-looking statements during today's call that are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations are detailed in our SEC filings, including the Form 8-K filed today containing our earnings materials. Information about any non-GAAP financial measures referenced, including a reconciliation of those measures to GAAP measures, can also be found in our SEC filings and the earnings materials available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Charlie.

Charlie Scharf - CEO

Thanks, John. I'll make some brief comments about our first quarter results and update you on our priorities. I'll then turn the call over to Mike to review first quarter results in more detail before we take your questions. Let me start with some first quarter highlights. Our results in the quarter were strong and reflected the continued progress we're making to improve returns.

We grew revenue from both the fourth quarter and a year ago. We continue to make progress on our efficiency initiatives and expenses declined from both the fourth quarter and the year ago, driven by lower operating losses, but we continue to be focused on controlling other expenses as well. The consumer and majority of our businesses remain strong. Delinquencies and net charge-offs have continued to slowly increase as expected. We're looking for signs of accelerated deterioration in asset classes or segments of our customers. And broadly speaking, we saw a little change in the trends from the prior quarter.