Huntington Bancshares Inc at RBC Capital Markets Global Financial Institutions Conference Transcript

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

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : All right. Thanks, Zach. I appreciate it. I'm going to feel liberated. I don't have to walk through the balance sheet and the P&L, we just get to talk about a business line.

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : I appreciate you being up here. Walk us through a couple of the most important payment strategies at Huntington? What do you want to highlight?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : You received a call from Steve congratulating you?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. And you've talked about a 9% plus revenue growth goal. You brought that out at Investor Day for payments. What are the key drivers to achieving that target?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. Good. Zach will bring you into the mix. Sounds good. We're going to pivot a little bit, but I do want to come back to the partnerships and merchant as well. But just economic activity, what are you seeing in terms of economic activity? Every other bank, we've talked about tariffs and that potential impact. How are you feeling about that in general?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. Anything on the -- in terms of guidance updates you provided pretty strong guidance with your fourth quarter earnings. Also, you talked a little bit about 1Q, you provided a little bit more at Investor Day. Any tweaks or anything you want to talk about?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. That's great. What -- if you had to point to a couple of things on margin, on the margin potential outperformance, what would that be?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Do you have a preference in terms of whether the long end is up or the short end is down?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. And on the fee, the fee expectations, I think that sounds positive as well. But what are some of the key drivers there. And this is probably an opportunity to pass it back to Amit at the end of this, but...

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : I wanted to ask you that, which is great. I thought Tim would start twitching or something sort of asking you for payments trends, but that's good.

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. So that's positive trends. You talked about partnerships early, partnerships and payments. What does an ideal partnership look like for you? How do you think about the economics of it? What determine success? Just talk a little bit more about that.

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. And can you talk a little bit more about the merchant -- bringing the merchant business in-house and some of the decision-making behind that?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. Good. Just one more for you. It's payments, it's -- sometimes it's a little bit opaque what it exactly means, but it feels like it's very competitive. You're running this inside of Huntington a Bank. Talk about maybe your right to win or advantages, disadvantages you have operating inside of a bank?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. Great. Zach to you. I know you guys have hit the road and you've seen a lot of investors after Investor Day. Talk a little bit about the feedback that you've received in kind of key takeaways.

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. One of the interesting comments at Investor Day was the branch expansion in the Carolinas, we could get to Texas in a second. But potential to accelerate it, it sounds like revenues are maybe a little bit better. It sounds like expenses are well under control or are in variable comp. What's the potential for maybe accelerating some of that? And how do you balance it? 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 05, 2025 / 3:40PM, HBAN.OQ - Huntington Bancshares Inc at RBC Capital Markets Global Financial Institutions Conference

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. Great. And then in Texas, can you talk about the decision kind of if or win to add new branches in Texas?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : I know Steve loves that market. It's a terrific market. There's a couple of minutes left, by the way, if anybody has anything? Okay. You hinted at this earlier, but you talked about the potential to exceed the longer-term margin averages at Investor Day, maybe over time. What kind of an environment do you need to see to have that happen?

Question: Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. It seems like a great message. Thank you.