Our underlying Q4 earnings per share was $1.04, our ROTCE was 12.9%.
Both are up from a year ago quarter, and we delivered 2% operating leverage year-on-year.
Note that the full-year operating leverage was 4% and our PPNR growth was 12%.
Q4 credit provision was $124 million versus $110 million a year ago on a pre-CECL basis as the normalization of provision to more front book origination levels helped drive our strong returns.
On the capital front, we maintained a strong ACL ratio of 2.24%, ex-PPP loans and our CET1 ratio was 10%.
We announced a $750 million share purchase authorization today and we will commence activity during the quarter.
With respect to our guidance for 2021, we assume a steadily improving economy and GDP growth of around 5%.
We see NCOs at 50 basis points to 65 basis points for 2021 which is relative to 56 basis points in 2020.
For the full year, we delivered record underlying PPNR, up 12% against the challenging backdrop, driven by record fee income, up 24% with record results across mortgage, capital markets and wealth.
We achieved the ambitious TOP6 goal to deliver approximately $225 million of run rate expense savings, including approximately $140 million of in year benefits which supported our ongoing investments in strategic initiatives and financial performance targets.
To this end, we improved our efficiency ratio over 200 basis points to 56% by delivering 4% positive operating leverage for the year.
We expect further expense benefit of approximately $205 million to $225 million in 2021, which puts the program on track to deliver our total pre-tax run-rate benefit of $400 million to $425 million by the end of 2021.
Strong loan growth of around 6% reflects increased demand in education and point-of-sale financing as well as PPP loans.
Average deposits grew even faster at 13%, a result of government stimulus impact on consumers and commercial clients building liquidity.
ROTCE for the full year was 7.5%, which includes a negative 5.4% impact associated with our reserve build under CECL.
Our ACL at year-end 2020 more than doubled compared with last year, but our year-end CET1 ratio of 10% was unchanged on the year.
Strong PPNR funded the ACL bill 6% loan growth and stable dividends.
And finally, our tangible book value per share was $32.72 at quarter end, up 2% compared with a year ago.
We reported underlying net income of $480 million, earnings per share of $1.04 and revenue of $1.7 billion.
Our underlying ROTCE was 12.9%, up around 400 basis points as a result of our strong revenue performance, expense discipline and improvements in credit as the economy recovers.
Net interest income on Slide 6 was down only 1% linked quarter due to lower commercial loan balances and lower NIM.
However, despite the challenging rate backdrop, our margin held up well with the 8 basis point decline in linked quarter, driven by 9 basis point impact from elevated cash balances and strong deposit flows.
Lower asset yields were offset by our improved funding mix as we grew low-cost deposits with DDA up 4% and we continue to lower interest bearing deposit costs down 8 basis points to 27 basis points.
On Slide 7 and 8, we delivered solid fee results again this quarter reflecting our ongoing efforts to invest in and diversify our revenue streams.
Mortgage fees were down approximately 30% this quarter due to declines in margins and volumes from exceptional levels last quarter.
Capital market fees hit record levels, up 52% linked quarter and 33% year-on-year, driven by strong results from M&A advisory and accelerating activity in loan syndications.
Foreign exchange and interest rate products revenue is also strong, up 30% linked-quarter with higher customer activity levels tied to increased variable rate loan originations.
We delivered positive operating leverage of 2% year-over-year and improved our efficiency ratio to 56.8% as expenses were well controlled.
Average core loans on Slide 10 were down 1% linked quarter reflecting commercial payoffs and decline in loan yields -- line utilization to about 32% versus a historical average of roughly 37%.
Looking at year-over-year trends core loans were up approximately 4% due to PPP education and mortgage.
Average deposits were up 3% linked quarter and 16% year-over-year as consumers and small businesses benefited from government stimulus and clients built liquidity.
We are very pleased with our progress on deposit costs, which declined 24% or 6 basis points to 19 basis points during the quarter.
Interest-bearing deposit costs were down 8 basis points to 27 basis points.
We continue to drive a shift toward lower-cost categories with average DDA growth of 4% on a linked quarter basis and 42% year-over-year.
Net charge-offs were down 9 basis points to 61 basis points linked quarter.
Nonaccrual loans decreased 20% linked quarter with a $302 million decrease in commercial driven by charge offs, returns to accrual and repayment activity.
In addition, our commercial criticized loans decreased 18% from $5.7 billion in 3Q to $4.6 billion in 4Q.
Given the performance of the portfolio and improvement in the macroeconomic outlook, our reserves came down slightly, but remain robust ending the quarter at 2.24% excluding PPP loans compared with 2.29% at the end of the third quarter.
But I'll note that our reserve coverage for commercial excluding PPP was 2.5% at the end of the year, slightly up from the third quarter.
And within that our coverage for identified sectors of concern increased to a prudent 8.2% at the end of the year from 7.7% at the end of the third quarter.
Increasing our CET1 ratio from 9.8% in 3Q to 10% at the end of the year, which is at the top of our target operating range.
Given positive credit trends in capital strength, our Board of Directors has authorized the company to repurchase up to $750 million of common stock beginning in first quarter of 2021.
We've seen our Active Mobile Households increased 15% year-over-year and the majority of our deposit transactions, continue to be executed outside of the branch.
Loans should be up mid to high single-digits on a spot basis with acceleration in the back half of the year with average loans, up approximately 2%.
Overall, interest earning assets should be up about 1.5% to 2%.
Non-interest expense is expected to be up just 1.5% to 2% given benefits from our TOP program, partly offset by higher volume related expenses in mortgage and reinvestment in strategic initiatives.
We expect net charge-offs will be in the range of 50 basis points to 65 basis points of average loans with a meaningful reserve release to provision.
Non-interest expense is expected to be up 2% to 3%, reflecting seasonality and compensation.
We expect net charge-offs to be in the range of 50 basis points to 60 basis points of average loans.

Summary:
Q4 credit provision was $124 million versus $110 million a year ago on a pre-CECL basis as the normalization of provision to more front book origination levels helped drive our strong returns.
We announced a $750 million share purchase authorization today and we will commence activity during the quarter.
Average core loans on Slide 10 were down 1% linked quarter reflecting commercial payoffs and decline in loan yields -- line utilization to about 32% versus a historical average of roughly 37%.
Given positive credit trends in capital strength, our Board of Directors has authorized the company to repurchase up to $750 million of common stock beginning in first quarter of 2021.