Stephen D. Steinour
Analyst · Morgan Stanley
Thank you, Dan. Turning to Slide 22. Our Fair Play banking philosophy coupled with our optimal customer relationship, or OCR, continues to drive new customer growth and strength in product penetration. This slide recaps the continued strong upward trend in consumer checking account households. For the quarter, consumer checking account households grew at an annualized rate of 8% and have increased 11% in the last year. Since launching this strategy in the third quarter of 2010, we've increased our consumer customer households by over 330,000. In less than 3 years, we've added the equivalent of the entire population of Cincinnati. At the same time, we've meaningfully increased the number of products and services we provide to those customers. In the last year alone, we've increased the number of customers that use 6 or more products, from over 43% to nearly 47%. As we mentioned last quarter, we are beginning to breakout the percentage of customers with 6-plus products because that is the level we've adjusted our internal targets to focus upon. For the last few years, our 4-plus targets are aimed at increasing customer retention, which is important, as it costs less to keep an existing customer longer than it does to bring another customer in the door. To that end, as we think about incremental customers and revenue generation, consumer checking household revenue increased $3 million since the second quarter of 2012. That's net of an $8 million negative impact related to last quarter's change in posting order. Turning to Slide 23. Commercial relationships grew at an annualized rate of over 6% and have increased by over 33,000 commercial customers since the second quarter of 2010. At the end of the quarter, 36% of our commercial relationships utilized 4 or more products or services, which is 3% higher than this time last year. Related commercial revenue of $179 million, while down $11 million from a year ago, is up $3 million from prior quarter, as we began to see commercial activity pick back up from below normal levels in the first quarter. The pipeline continue to rebuild and the third quarter is off to a solid start. Turning to Slide 24 and 2013 expectations, we do have a few changes to our expectations and I will call these out as we go through the slides. We continue to benefit from the strength in the Midwest economy, and believe our strategies will continue to drive growth and improve profitability. With regard to interest rates, while the long end has seen a high level of volatility, the shorter end of the curve remains low. With our on-balance sheet loans averaging about 3 years in duration, the movement in the long end does not help us all that much, but we expect the low short end to provide continued opportunity for deposit repricing and continued shift in our deposit mix. We expect net interest margin to remain fairly stable, and for the full year, we do not expect it to fall below the mid 3.30s, as a percent. Modest total loan growth is expected to continue, and know that we will remain disciplined. The C&I pipeline is robust, and we continue to expect stronger growth in the second half of the year when compared to the first half. Auto loan originations remain strong. As we've moved through the quarter, there were several items that we continued to watch carefully. First was the relative attractiveness of incremental securities reinvestment versus auto loans. Auto loans, with their short duration, 3.25% effective yield and very clean credit quality are the compelling asset class in that comparison. The second factor we've been watching is the securitization market itself. And over the last month, rising rates and widening spreads on the senior subordinate tranches leave less excess spread for residual holders and, in turn, results in a smaller gain. And that gain could be reduced by 30% to 40% lower than our last securitization. For those reasons, we do not expect any auto securitization in 2013. This is a change from past expectations, and the net change you should expect is more auto loans and a steady decline of the available-for-sale securities portfolio. Commercial Real Estate balances should stabilize around the current $5 billion level, and all other consumer loan categories should reflect modest growth. Deposit balances will continue -- will reflect continued growth in low cost deposits, resulting in total deposit growth in line with or slightly less than loan growth. The other change in expectations this quarter is related to non-interest income. When compared to the 2012 full year, excluding any impact from securitizations, net change in MSR or one-time gains, 2013's expected to be flat to slightly down, as the expected slowdown in mortgage banking should be mostly offset by the benefit of our growth in new relationships with increased cross-sell, and the continued maturation of our past strategic investments. It's worth noting that, yesterday, the board approved the curtailment of pension benefits. This is expected to result in a one-time noncash gain to be recognized in the third quarter. And we'll have more information on this subsequent event in this quarter's 10-Q. Noninterest expense is expected to increase slightly due to higher commission expense, driven by higher expected fee revenue and the impact of the continued build-out of our in-store branches. The change in pension should lower expense modestly, and we'll continue to evaluate additional cost-save opportunities, as we remain committed to positive operating leverage for the full year. We will deliver positive operating leverage for the full year. If the revenue doesn't materialize, we will deliver offsetting expense saves. On the credit front, nonperforming assets are expected to experience continued improvement, net charge-offs and provisions are below the long -- the low end of our long term expected range, and we're several quarters earlier than we expected in achieving these results. So very pleased with the work that Dan and all of his team and other lenders throughout the bank, who have been working diligently for years now to improve credit quality and get us to a normal level, and we believe we've achieved that now. The risk on the balance sheet today is very different than when I arrived in 2009. We've completely overhauled not just credit, but the entire enterprise risk management throughout the organization. We have a much stronger set of practices that we're working from, and a terrific group of colleagues. In summary, the environment remains challenging, but we have put a few good quarters together, and the year's off to a solid start. The second quarter had some very strong areas, continued household and commercial growth, several times that of the region. That growth and improving customer activity drove improvements in many fee income areas, namely: Service charges on deposits, electronic banking and capital markets, amongst others; nearly flat expenses when compared to linked quarter and last year; increased cross-sell across the board; and net charge-offs reaching normal levels. As with all banks, there were some challenges. Pricing is tight, and structure is loosening, but I think you're seeing some separation between banks. Discipline, during this time of the cycle, we believe is crucial. Decisions now are what impact the balance sheet and credit during the next cycle. The few of us that have continued to invest are just starting to see the long-term benefits of these multi-year investments. And our differentiated strategies are working. We will grow where we have relationship advantages and competitive advantages. And above all else, we will remain disciplined in the use of our capital and deliver appropriate returns. Thank you for your interest in Huntington. Operator, we'll now take questions.