Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Rich Pohle: Erika, it’s Rich. Let me take that. I’ll go — I’ll answer your second question first with respect to auto. So we are seeing delinquencies in our portfolio. And again, remember, this is a prime and super prime portfolio. And as we talked about at Investor Day, we’ve been in this business for decades, and we’ve got very sophisticated custom scorecards that we use in our client selection process. So we feel very good about where this business is today and spend through numerous cycles and it’s proven itself that it can outperform peers from a loss content through various cycles. So we feel good about that. The delinquencies right now are right where we would expect them to be from a seasonal standpoint. If you go back and you look at where would have been in that 2018 and 2019 area.

We’re still trending below those pre-COVID levels. So we feel good there. And we’ve been very proactive as it relates to how we’re managing our loan to values in that space as well. So I don’t have any real concerns about our indirect auto space. I feel very comfortable with how that business is growing. With respect to the overall comfort that we have in our net charge-off forecast. I think it goes back to our customer makeup. As I talked about at Investor Day, on the consumer side, we are overwhelmingly a secured creditor. 95% of our loans are secured. And again, we’ve got that prime focus and high FICOs of origination around 770. So it is a very strong book and throughout all of that back I just talked about auto, but even RV Marine resi, all of those portfolios are showing very well from a delinquency standpoint.

So we feel good there. On the commercial side, we have taken a lot of steps to reposition this book over the last several years going through into more specialty businesses, more larger companies, public companies so we feel that we’ve mitigated the loss content in that portfolio as well. So even though, as Zach pointed out, we’re looking at more of a mild recession than a severe landing that’s why we feel comfortable with where we are from a charge-off forecast at that low end. Now clearly, if the economy worsens, where we land within that range is going to depend on where the economy goes and how the Fed reacts. But at this point, we’re comfortable with where we put that guidance.

Steve Steinour: Erika, this is Steve. A number of the guidance is through the cycle, and we’ve been well below the through-the-cycle average. And at this point, we’re guiding to the lowest end of the range. And we’ve been strategic on how we position the lending activities now for a dozen years. We’ve been very disciplined Richard team, along with the lending teams that have adhere to the discipline, didn’t open up in some of the areas of my benefit to frothy and recent vintages. So we’ve got a really good core book on both the commercial side. And as a super prime and secured lender generally on the consumer side, we actually think of that as a lower risk book. So our aggregate out low risk profile and discipline over many years will serve us well, certainly in auto and frankly, the entire portfolio.

Erika Najarian: And my second question is on that 6% to 9% PPNR growth, medium-term target. Clearly, you expect to hit that this year. And I’m wondering, obviously, it gets more difficult if the Fed is cutting which a lot of investors expect for 2024. And maybe the question is I know we’ll hear more from you on this expense management actions that you’re taking for which you will incur a restructuring charge. But is that an example of the commitment that Huntington has to deliver this PPNR growth range with consistency over the medium term on an annual basis, even if the revenue tailwinds dissipate, like rates?