First Horizon Corp at Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Great. Well, I'll just start at a high level. Obviously, leading up to the election, there was a lot of optimism. There still is a lot of hope out there, but we've experienced some volatility here in the first couple of months. Can you just give us a broad overview of kind of where customer sentiment is? And if you think you see that hope translating into customer activity as the year progresses?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Got it. Maybe just on the same topic on the regulatory front, the Trump 2.0 presidency is expected to bring pretty substantial deregulatory agenda, whether it be Basel III end game, TLAC scaling back well, maybe the CFPB could be gone at this point, SLR and a host of other changes. In your eyes Hope, what do you see as most and least likely from what we know today? And how does that direct your and Bryan and the whole company's

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : So maybe speaking of those costs because you guys have been building. I know there's a technology program you talked about being halfway through the $100 million of spend. If that were to be pushed back, how would that potentially change the way you guys are kind of operating with free -- I assume it would free up some capital, you wouldn't have to continue to build as aggressively. Just any color you have would be great. .

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : And of that $100 million, I assume some of it has been capitalized versus expense. What is that? And what -- I think you mentioned some of the major pieces, but is there any longer-term projects that you think you're going to need to kind of contemplate as we maybe see some regional consolidation, but certainly, some smaller consolidation just as the industry evolves and becomes more tech-centric?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Seems like the Apple iPhone or (inaudible) behind they make you upgrade.

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Maybe one last question on technology. We'll leave it there, but AI has been a big focus, I think, from a lot of larger financial institutions. And I think you guys are building a team there. It's in the early innings. But if you can just kind of talk about what the objectives are and how that could play out over the next couple of years?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Great. I wanted to switch topics outside of technology. we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but I think one of the most underappreciated aspects of the First Horizon story is the credit culture that you've built coming out of the challenges of the GFC and the actions that had to be taken during that period. But it is one thing that I think is really underappreciated by investors. Can you just help us better understand the processes that you've gone through and the steps you've gone through over the years to kind of create what I think is a durable best-in-class credit culture?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : And maybe just for the benefit of the audience, is there any financial clawback provisions or anything basically holding your feet to the fire for credit just to make sure?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Perfect. Maybe for the benefit of time, I think we're 15 minutes into this, but I wanted to talk about deposits and the opportunity as we move forward. I think, obviously, following the break with TD, there were some rate specials that were put on to keep clients, things like that, trying to rebuild the core deposit base that will come in with as you get loan growth and your companies grow with you. And you can attract some clients from other institutions. But can you just talk about what you guys are working on, on the deposit side and then what the opportunities for repricing are as we think about the next couple of quarters?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Yes. And we did talk about this at dinner last night, that deposit competition seems fairly rational right now, but the expectation would be is loan growth, hopefully, for the industry picks up, and I know we're all rooting for that, that the deposit competition would become more intense. What strategies do you have in place? And do you think you can retain that retention rate that 90-plus percent as things get more competitive?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Great. wanted to dig into some of your hiring efforts. I think you have 7 regional presidents and 42 market presidents. Can you discuss the areas of focus and where you're looking to hire both by geography and lines of business?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Yes. Maybe just sticking on Texas, that covered the market for a long time. There's a lot of insulation there. You got to be from Texas to bank, Texas bankers. I know part of the pickup was from the IBERIA side. Can you just talk about what you'd expect that market to be over the intermediate to longer term for First Horizon? .

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : And maybe just to wrap up on markets. Florida is a pretty big piece for First Horizon now. Some of that has to do again with the IBERIA deal and some of the deals that they did like Sabadell and things like that. But there has been some challenges here recently with the storms, insurance rates, price of housing, things like that, property tax are pretty high. Can you just kind of outline the opportunity here in Florida. There's clearly a lot of big banks, not many small ones anymore. But how do you think that plays out from a growth vertical over the next couple of years?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : How about the competition is fun back and forth. All right. Now that we've talked about some of the longer-term stuff for those, especially on the webcast wanted to get in some of the near-term outlook and what's kind of shaped up this quarter. I think first on mortgage warehouse, and we talked a little bit about this last night, kind of the strength that you saw there in the fourth quarter and then on the fixed income lines of business. How do you see this kind of playing out if we do get a couple of rate cuts or if we actually get no rate cuts, and I think there's a big debate right now. But I just wanted to understand, I know you've talked for a long time about the countercyclicality of the businesses. Maybe you can just describe how we should kind of think about those businesses in both environments?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : I know we talked a little bit about this last night, but we did talk about kind of the -- if the loan growth doesn't come through that, that should still even a kind of higher for longer environment, should still be an opportunity for FHN Financial and ADRs as we think about through the course of the year. So there's that push-pull dynamic? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 03, 2025 / 2:15PM, FHN.N - First Horizon Corp at Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Okay. That's helpful. Maybe from a loan growth perspective, I know you guys have talked about kind of a low single-digit growth rate that could hopefully creep into the mid-single-digit range. Just based on what you've seen so far, what are the push-pull factors that would get you kind of the lower end versus the upper end? And I think we've heard a lot of banks talk about the back half of the year ramp, which I always feel like is somewhat slow from the outside booking in. So I know you guys put a lot of time in your forecast and have a lot of confidence around that, especially the ability to scale revenue and expenses. Can you just talk about the loan growth dynamics?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Got it. Okay. Maybe one last one, and I kind of touched on this, but you guys have talked about positive PPNR growth this year and the ability to lever both revenues and expenses. Can you just describe what some of those levers are?

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : Appreciate the correction.

Question: Michael Rose - Raymond James - Analyst : $325 million for those...