Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call December 5, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Christine Viau - Head, Investor Relations
Darryl White - Chief Executive Officer
Tayfun Tuzun - Chief Financial Officer
Piyush Agrawal - Chief Risk Officer
Ernie Johannson - Head, BMO North American Personal & Business Banking
Nadim Hirji - Head, BMO Commercial Banking
Alan Tannenbaum - Head, BMO Capital Markets

Conference Call Participants

Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial
Doug Young - Desjardins Capital Markets
Matthew Lee - Canaccord Genuity
John Aiken - Jefferies
Paul Holden - CIBC
Ebrahim Poonawala - Bank of America
Meny Grauman - Scotiabank
Darko Mihelic - RBC Capital Markets
Lemar Persaud - Cormark

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to BMO Financial Group's Q4 2024 Earnings Release and Conference Call for December 5, 2024.

Your host for today is Christine Viau. Please go ahead.

Christine Viau

Thank you, and good morning.

We will begin with remarks from Darryl White, BMO's CEO; followed by Tayfun Tuzun, our Chief Financial Officer; and Piyush Agrawal, our Chief Risk Officer. Also present today to take questions are Ernie Johannson, Head of BMO North American Personal & Business Banking; Nadim Hirji, Head of BMO Commercial Banking; Alan Tannenbaum, Head of BMO Capital Markets; Deland Kamanga, Head of BMO Wealth Management; and Darrel Hackett, BMO U.S. CEO.

As our call will end at 9:30, I would ask you to limit to one question during the Q&A to give everyone a chance to participate.

As noted on Slide 2, forward-looking statements may be made during this call, which involve assumptions that have inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from these statements.

I would also remind listeners that the bank uses non-GAAP financial measures to arrive at adjusted results. Management measures performance on a reported and adjusted basis and considers both to be useful in assessing underlying business performance. Darryl and Tayfun will be referring to adjusted results in their remarks, unless otherwise noted.

I'll now turn the call over to Darryl.

Darryl White

Thank you, Christine, and good morning, everyone.

A year ago, we anticipated that higher interest rates and a slowing economy would present a more challenging environment for business activity, loan demand and credit provisions. In response, we outlined a clear plan and took early action to dynamically manage our businesses, including controlling expenses, while continuing to invest and support our customers.