Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) executives used the company’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call to emphasize momentum from organic growth, expanding fee-based businesses, and ongoing integration work tied to its Veritex and Cadence partnerships. Management also provided detailed 2026 guidance on a standalone basis, while offering an initial view of Cadence’s expected contribution following a closing anticipated on February 1.
Management frames 2025 as a strong year, with expansion into faster-growing markets
Chairman, President and CEO Steve Steinour said the company is entering 2026—Huntington’s 160th anniversary year—with “powerful momentum,” pointing to a “differentiated operating model” and an expanding consumer and regional banking footprint. He said Huntington’s consumer and regional bank will have a presence in 21 states beginning next month, including several fast-growing states, and characterized the franchise as “local delivery of national capabilities.”
For full-year 2025, Steinour cited:
- 11% revenue growth
- 16% adjusted EPS growth
- 290 basis points of positive operating leverage
- Strong credit performance
He also pointed to growth in primary bank relationships, up 4% year over year in consumer banking and 7% in business banking during the quarter.
Partnership integration: Veritex conversion completed; Cadence migration targeted mid-year
President of Consumer and Regional Banking Brent Standridge described Huntington’s approach to acquisitions as “partnerships,” emphasizing a collaborative process designed to move quickly on leadership alignment, talent decisions, and platform migration while minimizing disruption to customers. He said Huntington’s model includes a “people-first” and “white-glove” approach to customer product migration—internally called the “green-glove process.”
Standridge said key integration milestones include:
- Veritex systems integration substantially completed over the prior weekend, 187 days after announcement; “Veritex is now integrated into Huntington.”
- Cadence systems migration expected mid-year, with product and data mapping already advanced.
- Veritex cost synergies already being realized, with a full run-rate expected by the second quarter.
- Cadence cost synergies expected to begin immediately upon close, reaching full run-rate in the fourth quarter.
Standridge said revenue synergies are already emerging at Veritex and are expected to accelerate now that teams are on Huntington’s platform. For Cadence, he expects some revenue synergies early after close, with acceleration in the second half of 2026 and into 2027 after systems migration.
Fourth-quarter results: loan and deposit growth, margin expansion, strong fee performance
Chief Financial Officer Zach Wasserman reported fourth-quarter earnings per common share of $0.30 and adjusted EPS of $0.37, up 9% year over year excluding acquisition-related expenses and other notable items.
Wasserman said average loans rose 14.4% year over year; excluding Veritex, average loans increased $10.9 billion, or 8.6%. He noted that “new initiatives” contributed $1.8 billion in the period and nearly half of total organic loan growth for the year, citing expansion into Texas and the Carolinas and strength in funds finance and financial institutions verticals. For 2025, he said Huntington generated $10.1 billion of organic loan growth, exceeding the $9.5 billion of loans added through Veritex.
On deposits, Wasserman said average deposits increased 5.1% sequentially and 8.6% year over year. Excluding Veritex, core deposits grew $5.5 billion year over year, or 3.4%. He said disciplined pricing contributed to a 35% cycle-to-date down beta, and noted Huntington achieved a 40% down beta in the last two weeks of the quarter following the December Fed rate reduction.
Net interest income increased $86 million, or 5.6% sequentially, representing over 14% year-over-year growth. Net interest margin was 3.15%, up two basis points from the prior quarter and “aligned to our outlook,” with contributions from Veritex.
Fee income growth was broad-based, according to Wasserman:
- Payments revenue rose 5% year over year, led by commercial payments up 8%.
- Wealth management grew 10%; adjusted for the prior-quarter sale of part of an institutional custody and trust business, growth was 16%.
- Capital markets delivered its second-strongest revenue quarter ever, trailing only fourth-quarter 2024; some advisory deals shifted into early 2026.
- Loan and deposit fees were up over 20%, driven by loan commitment fees, which management expects to remain supported by commercial lending pipelines.
Expenses, capital, and credit: operating leverage, CET1 trajectory, and stable loss outlook
Wasserman said that on a core basis—excluding one-time costs and the impact of absorbing Veritex’s expense base—Huntington’s operating expenses increased $7 million sequentially, or about 0.5%. He reiterated that 2025 operating leverage of 290 basis points exceeded the company’s initial planning target of about 100 basis points.
In Q&A, Wasserman provided additional detail on 2026 expenses and investment priorities, stating underlying Huntington expense growth is expected to be in the mid-single digits and aligned to generate 150–200 basis points of operating leverage. He also said the company expects to grow investments “around 20%” in 2026, focused on:
- Digital and technology capabilities (including AI use cases, which he said are increasing across the organization)
- Marketing and digital acquisition
- People to build out growth areas such as specialty verticals and expansion geographies
Wasserman said the starting point for 2025 baseline core expenses was $4.871 billion. He added that two small capital markets businesses added January 1 contribute about one point of expense growth and are expected to bring $80–$90 million of revenue.
On capital, Wasserman said Huntington intends to continue moving adjusted CET1 toward the midpoint of its 9%–10% operating range. Following the Cadence close, he said the company expects capacity to add approximately $50 million per quarter of share repurchases in 2026. He also said Huntington grew tangible book value 19% year over year while returning 40% of earnings via dividends.
Credit metrics were described as stable, with net charge-offs of 24 basis points in the quarter. Wasserman said the criticized asset ratio rose to 4.2% primarily due to Veritex commercial real estate loans identified during diligence, and the non-performing asset ratio was 63 basis points. For 2026, management guided to net charge-offs of 25–35 basis points, with an expectation that losses may start near the lower end of the range and normalize over time.
2026 guidance: standalone growth outlook and initial Cadence contribution estimates
For 2026 on a standalone basis, Wasserman guided to:
- Net interest income growth of 10%–13%
- Loan growth of 11%–12%
- Deposit growth of 8%–9%
- Fee revenue growth of 13%–16%
- Core expense growth of 10%–11%
- Operating leverage of 150–200 basis points
- Effective tax rate of 19%–20%
- Net charge-offs of 25–35 basis points
He said Huntington expects further net interest margin expansion in 2026, driven by lower hedge drag and fixed-asset repricing. He also noted that Cadence’s NII contribution in 2026 is expected to be approximately $1.85–$1.9 billion, including PAA, with an update planned later in the first quarter after post-close analysis. In Q&A, he said PAA embedded in the NII guidance equates to roughly 7–10 basis points of net interest margin.
On fees, Wasserman said Cadence is expected to add about $300 million. He said “very little” revenue synergy is included in current guidance, with a deeper dive expected later in the quarter. On expenses, he estimated Cadence will increase the expense base by approximately $1.1 billion (11 months), with cost synergies beginning immediately after close and reaching full run-rate in the fourth quarter.
CEO Steve Steinour said the company’s priority remains “organic growth” while executing integrations, and reiterated the company’s stance on additional M&A: Huntington is not pursuing mergers of equals or auctions, and would only consider opportunities that are strategic and meet financial and risk metrics.
About Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN)
Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ: HBAN) is a bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, that provides a broad range of banking and financial services through its principal subsidiary, Huntington National Bank. The company’s operations are centered on retail and commercial banking, and it serves individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses, and institutional customers.
Huntington’s product offerings include traditional deposit and lending products, consumer and commercial loans, mortgage origination and servicing, auto financing, and business banking solutions.
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