Huntington Bancshares Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference Transcript

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

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. And thank you for prepared remarks, Steve. That's great. So maybe, Steve, we'll start off with some high-level questions. You've been able to deliver best-in-class loan growth in a relatively slower growth environment and most of your financial metrics continue to be

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Makes total sense. So Steve, when I think back, you laid out a strategy to expand in Carolinas and Texas at your Investor Day. And obviously, between recent announcements, of expansion. Others have branch expansion plans, there's a lot of banks that are attempting to grow in these areas, right? So how is all this activity changing the competitive dynamics in the markets that you're growing into? Stephen Steinour - Huntington Bancshares Inc - Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer of Huntington and President, Chief Executive Officer of Huntington Bank All of our markets are competitive. We have the big 4 G-SIBs that we overlap in different markets on a combined basis and even the next year. Think of PMC, Truist, USB. So they're very competitive. The opportunity set for us in the South and Texas is one we've never experienced, right? At best, the Midwest markets grow at national average. Now we're in markets that are growing much faster, expecting to grow 35% or more above national average for the back half of the decade. This is a wonderful new dynamic that we'll have to be able to operate in. And we're doing well on these -- in the core Midwest markets. We're growing significantly. We expect to continue to do that and take share. And the strategy of being deep with share -- deep in these markets, establish the brand, get our reputation out and be attractive to colleagues and customers has proven to be a successful track record over the last 1.5 decades. And we'll extend that now into the south in Texas.

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Now so as I said, you've obviously done two deals in relatively short order, expanded the footprint. And maybe just as you think about the potential for further M&A, right, what are your guardrails for future M&A in terms of strategic or financial metrics? And how should investors interpret your appetite for additional deals over the next 12 to 24 months. Stephen Steinour - Huntington Bancshares Inc - Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer of Huntington and President, Chief Executive Officer of Huntington Bank So our approach has always been we must grow organically in order to earn the right to potentially partner. And I come back to that word. If we can't grow organically as we expect to, we won't partner. We'll just put a full stop on it. The core has to perform well. And that will be consistent over years. That's not just a '26 perspective. Secondly, if we do any further M&A, it will be with partners. It's highly unlikely we're going to show up in an auction. We're not interested in MOEs. We're not looking to go beyond the geography that Cadence gives us. The strategy that works so well for us over the years in the Midwest is what we're looking to employ, share of market, share of wallet, go deep, where we are, and we've got plenty to work on. Texas itself is the seventh largest economy in the world. There's plenty for us to do. So we're not going to be trying to go national or West Coast or in Northeast or other stuff. It's just get better and do more where we are in this expanded footprint. And I think, again, because of the partnerships, we're going to have a lot of opportunity going forward. to attract new colleagues and build our customer base. And so this organic thrust is really important to us.

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : So Steve, I noted earlier you've had best-in-class loan and deposit growth, looks like that's continued into the quarter. We'll hit that next act. How will you sustain this organic loan and deposit growth while integrating these deals? Is there any risk that your integration efforts distract you from your organic strategy? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2025 / 3:00PM, HBAN.OQ - Huntington Bancshares Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference Stephen Steinour - Huntington Bancshares Inc - Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer of Huntington and President, Chief Executive Officer of Huntington Bank Short answer is no. They're better not be because I'm holding our team accountable delivering it, and I will hold them accountable. The emphasis we have on organic growth transcends the M&A. And we talk about that as we look to partner -- we're quite clear with our executive team that they have -- we have to deliver the organic growth. And the plans are and the activities are there to support it, as we talked about in the first quarter. Now Veritex and Cadence are sequential, right? So we'll complete Veritex in the middle of January in terms of the conversion activities and then move on in more full scale to Cadence as we go forward. But our playbook in terms of how we operate locally is well established. We will execute that playbook. You'll hear us talk about OCR in the South and in Texas as we go forward, as we've done for the last 15 years. So we're not trying to do something new. We will bring a lot of additional product and service capabilities and business lines into our Cadence and Veritex customer base. We're much deeper in payments, wealth, capital markets than they are. As you'd expect, because we're a multiple of their size. But we have great new colleagues joining us. And there -- many of them have come from environments from Veritex, so they're larger banks, so they know how to sell the capabilities we're going to be bringing. And in Cadence, we just have a terrific group of colleagues. And the fact that we have the leadership aligned the first two weeks after we announced Cadence, we visited 22 markets, we saw almost two-third of the colleagues. This is about hearts and minds and getting our new colleagues to feel embraced to feel welcome and stay with us and deliver the service and support that those customers are looking for and get us through the conversion and then we move on. And we really get after the growth post conversion.

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : I'm always ready. So maybe just to start off, you guys obviously gave loan to deposit growth updates. You gave some commentary on full year. Maybe just give a little bit of color on, one, what you're seeing in the quarter? And then two, how is it setting Huntington up for 2023?

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : So maybe just to dig in back to some of the pieces. Deposit growth and yet another outstanding quarter of growth. You're now saying high end of the full year range. Maybe just talk about what is driving that? And how sustainable do you think it is given competition and pricing pressure across all the banks?

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Got it. That's super helpful. You reiterated the 7% fee income guidance, including Veritex, you gave a specific number. So even I could understand what that means. But maybe just help us understand some of the moving pieces within there. Obviously, there was tougher comps because capital markets was so strong last year. Maybe just walk us through some of the moving pieces within there.

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : So Steve didn't make it easy on you into 2026 with one deal closing and then converting another deal closing and then converting. So obviously, there's going to be -- it's going to be a messy year. Well, I know we'll get formal guidance early next year and revisions once cap closes. Just any broad strokes on your expectations or how we should think about into 2026. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2025 / 3:00PM, HBAN.OQ - Huntington Bancshares Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : So Zach, when I think about Huntington has had tremendous success in terms of managing your funding cost even while growing at a really fast pace. As you think about optimizing your overall funding cost, how do you expect to leverage Cadence and Veritex deposit franchises to both improve the funding mix? And obviously reduce the cost of funding.

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : So Steve, sort of a hallmark of your tenure as CEO has been the ability to generate positive operating leverage almost every single year that you've been in charge. How do you guys maintain positive operating leverage and expense flexibility during this integration. Obviously, lots of different moving pieces going on. Maybe just talk through that and Steve, if you have any comments. Go ahead Zach.

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : And slide 12 talks about your ability to unlock revenue synergies. You've outlined the potential for these. Maybe just talk a little bit about when will these begin to contribute? And is there any investment needed to start to see these revenue synergies kicking in?

Question: Ryan M. Nash - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Whenever we see deals like this, I think investors worry what could happen in terms of customer retention. And maybe just talk a little bit about what assumptions you made about customer attrition post merger? And what actions are you taking to outperform these assumptions? Stephen Steinour - Huntington Bancshares Inc - Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer of Huntington and President, Chief Executive Officer of Huntington Bank So there's always a risk of customer attrition. And so that's a focal point from diligence on and the planning builds on the prior experiences and plans, and we just try to keep getting better and better with it. But it starts with, can we get the hearts and minds, can met the engagement of our new colleagues. And that's why the partnership is so important. The message is that Malcolm and Dan said right from the start with us and the management team, we're incredibly positive, and we're seeing that by interim surveys. So it's up to us now to continue to build that trust, the transparency. The reason we did the notification to all the colleagues now as we wanted them to know their status before Christmas and the holiday season versus after. So they had assurances where that's appropriate, 80%, roughly 80% got those assurances. So we're trying to do things that are sensitive and build, again, trust show the care and concern and therefore, the allegiance to us that they, in turn, will bring about the customer base. So we're going to have good conversions. We have to have good conversions. And again, this is where the partnering is so helpful. The tech teams at Cadence are working very closely with our tech teams now on making sure we get good conversions with Cadence. So we're in an execution mode. We build -- we build on -- we learn and build and get better, hopefully, as we go forward and do things better for both our new colleagues and customers.