Operator: Welcome to today's program. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please note today’s call is being recorded.
It is now my pleasure to introduce Kevin Stitt. Please begin sir.
Kevin Stitt - IR: Good morning. Before Bruce Thompson and Brian Moynihan begin their comments, let me remind you that this presentation does contain some forward-looking statements regarding both our financial condition and financial results, and that these statements involve certain risks that may cause actual results in the future to be different from our current expectations. And please see our press release and SEC documents for more reference.
And with that, let me turn it over to Bruce.
Bruce R. Thompson - CFO: Thanks, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. I’m going to start on Slide 4 as we work through the presentation. We earned $0.20 per fully diluted share during the first quarter or $2.6 billion, up significantly from both the first and fourth quarters of last year. The one item we want to highlight upfront, since it only happens once a year is approximately $900 million of expense related to retirement eligible stock-based compensation awards that we have had in the first quarter for the past several years.
We believe first quarter results demonstrate significant progress towards the goals we have discussed over the past several quarters. Global Markets client activity drove improved sales and trading results versus the fourth quarter of 2012, while Investment Banking performance remained strong. Global Wealth & Investment Management reported record earnings post the Merrill Lynch merger. Expenses in most of our businesses continued to decline; although they are partially offset by higher revenue-related incentive compensation and the impact of expense related to annual retirement eligible stock-based compensation awards.
Capital and liquidity both continued to strengthen and are at record levels by most metrics. The interest rate environment continues to be challenging, but moderate loan growth and reduced average long-term debt helped stabilize net interest income versus the fourth quarter.
Credit quality improved in almost all products and both consumer and commercial loss rates were the lowest in several years. And we continue to make strides in resolving legacy issues as we just recently reached an agreement to settle three class action lawsuits involving Countrywide-issued RMBS.
On Slide 5, if we look at the balance sheet, you can see the total balance sheet was down from both the fourth quarter of last year as well as the year ago period, although total loans are up slightly. If we look at commercial loans and leases, they are up 3% relative to the fourth quarter of 2012 and up 17% compared to the year-ago period.
If we move down to deposits, deposits were down slightly from the fourth quarter of '12 to the first quarter of '13, although up approximately $54 billion or 5% from the first quarter of 2012. Tangible common equity ratio was up 20 basis points from the fourth quarter to 6.94%, and tangible book value was up about $0.10 to $13.46 at the end of the first quarter.