Thank you, Ken. And good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. On behalf of AFSA, let me also welcome you to the Thirteenth Annual Finance Industry Conference for Fixed-Income Investors.

I'd first like to recognize Ken Fischbach (pronounced FISH-bock) and the other fifteen members of the conference's advisory board. Despite their demanding schedules, they somehow managed to find time to assemble a top-quality program with impressive speakers and timely topics. My congratulations to the advisory board for its outstanding work.

As AFSA's Chairman, I also have the opportunity to present special awards to members who have gone "above and beyond" to help the association and industry. I have this pleasure again this morning.

As most of you know, Wells Fargo bank has changed the funding program for Wells Fargo Financial that takes them out of the arena as a presenter at this conference. What you probably don't know is that without the foresight and initiative of their Executive Vice President and CFO, this conference would never exist. Denny Young and the late Gene Girard (JEER-ard) took an event that was floundering under other sponsorship and convinced AFSA that the association under the leadership of it's Financial Relations Committee, was the proper vehicle for hosting this event. The rest is history!

AFSA is the national trade association for finance companies and other consumer and commercial lenders that raise funds in the capital markets. Membership ranges from the types of large, national financial services companies that are here today—to independently owned consumer finance companies like my own.

The association has nearly 400 active, commercial, associate and affiliate member companies with over 10,000 offices in the U.S. Active members account for an estimated 25% to 30% of all consumer credit outstanding—That's about $350 billion.

Obviously, one of AFSA's activities is to host conferences like this one. But in serving the interests of its members, the association plays many other roles—such as representing us in Washington and in the state capitals, conducting public affairs programs and participating in legal and regulatory matters.

In the end, all of these functions have the same objective: to create and maintain a competitive marketplace that allows AFSA's companies to serve their customers. Now that you have a sense of what AFSA is all about, let me touch upon two or three key issues and what the association is doing about them.

Of particular concern are political responses to allegations of abusive mortgage lending. Spurred by consumer activist groups, states and a number of municipalities are considering ill-conceived proposals that don't get at abuses but do affect credit availability for large numbers of consumers. Many of these proposals are modeled after Georgia's bad statute that was recently modified to cure problems for lenders and rating agencies.

New Mexico and New Jersey just enacted requirements that are even more restrictive than those that were originally adopted in Georgia. Cities like Oakland, Los Angeles, New York, Dayton, Toledo, Cleveland and Atlanta also have leaped into the fray.

AFSA has filed suit against these cities and, in the case of New York City, has joined the suit brought by Mayor Bloomberg against the City Council. All of our litigation focuses on one single issue: whether a municipality has the legal authority to supersede state authority and set regulations governing mortgage lending. With the exception of Cleveland, we've had success in all these cities—and have deterred other cities from contemplating similar action.

Two years ago, we adopted a voluntary standard that spells out specific mortgage lending guidelines for our members. We are also very strong proponents of consumer education for current and future users of financial services—with AFSA's Education Foundation preparing to roll out MoneySkill, an electronic personal finance textbook for high school students, sometime this fall.

In other legislative areas, AFSA belongs to a broad coalition of organizations seeking to extend certain provisions in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) set to expire at the beginning of next year. The coalition, called the Partnership for Protecting Consumer Credit, launched an advertising campaign this spring that highlights the importance of maintaining a national credit reporting system.

Bankruptcy reform remains a priority, even though it's among many key issues that have taken a back seat to the war. On March 19, the House passed its Bankruptcy Reform bill, HR975, by a margin of 315-113. AFSA is now focused on passing a bill in the Senate.

Before I turn the program back over to Ken, let me quickly mention two things. The first is an AFSA initiative underway to develop standards for electronic contracts. These standards will provide guidance on the transmission, storage, service and certification of e-contracts, allowing member companies and other financial services institutions to obtain enormous cost savings and benefits.

Auto finance electronic contracting will be the first consumer finance sector for which the AFSA standards will be developed. It will serve as the "backbone" standard to allow overlay standards to be developed for all other industry segments, including mortgage and home equity credit, credit cards and personal loans.

Secondly, membership recruitment is—and will remain—a top priority for AFSA. I am pleased to welcome iStar Financial, PHH Corporation and Sallie Mae as AFSA's newest members and presenters at this conference. We'll continue to bring new companies into the fold—enabling the association to maintain a strong presence in representation of the industry.

I sincerely hope you find the 2003 Finance Industry Investors Conference to be beneficial. Financial services businesses have their share of challenges. But with AFSA in our corner, maintaining a level competitive playing field, we'll be ready to meet them.

Thank you for coming and enjoy the conference.