Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call October 19, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Chris Doll - Director-Investor Relations

Timothy Spence - President and Chief Executive Officer

James Leonard - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Greg Schroeck - Chief Credit Officer

Bryan Preston - Treasurer

Conference Call Participants

Scott Siefers - Piper Sandler

Erika Najarian - UBS

Gerard Cassidy - RBC Capital Markets

Ebrahim Poonawala - Bank of America

Kenneth Usdin - Jefferies

Michael Mayo - Wells Fargo Securities

John Pancari - Evercore ISI

Manan Gosalia - Morgan Stanley

Christopher Marinac - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Operator

Good morning. My name is Rob and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Fifth Third Bancorp Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Chris Doll, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Chris Doll

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Fifth Third's third quarter 2023 earnings call. This morning, our President and CEO, Tim Spence; and CFO, Jamie Leonard, will provide an overview of our third quarter results and outlook. Our Treasurer, Bryan Preston; and Chief Credit Officer, Greg Schroeck, have also joined us for the Q&A portion of the call.

Please review the cautionary statements on our materials, which can be found in our earnings release and presentation. These materials contain information regarding the use of non-GAAP measures and reconciliations to the GAAP results as well as forward-looking statements about Fifth Third's performance. These statements speak only as of October 19, 2023, and Fifth Third undertakes no obligation to update them. Following prepared remarks by Tim and Jamie, we will open the call up for questions.

With that, let me turn it over to Tim.

Timothy Spence

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. We believe that great banks distinguish themselves not by how they perform in benign environments, but rather by how they navigate challenging ones. That is why we focus on stability, profitability, and growth in that order. It is also why I am so pleased that our key return and profitability metrics remain resilient despite the market-related headwinds that all banks are facing.

Earlier today, we reported earnings per share of $0.91 or $0.92 excluding a one set impact from our Visa swap, reflecting strong PPNR results and favorable credit outcomes. We generated an adjusted return on tangible common equity ex-AOCI of nearly 16%, which increased 50 basis points sequentially, and a return on assets of 1.26%. We generated strong fee growth compared to the year ago quarter, supported by a more diverse range of fee income streams than peers, and our investments in treasury management, capital markets, and wealth management.