Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Fifth Third Bancorp fourth-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)

感謝您的耐心等待，歡迎參加 Fifth Third Bancorp 2025 年第四季財報電話會議。（操作說明）

Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Matt Curoe, Senior Director of Investor Relations. You may begin.

謝謝。現在我將把電話交給投資者關係高級總監 Matt Curoe。你可以開始了。

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Fifth Third's fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call. This morning, our Chairman, CEO, and President Tim Spence; and CFO, Bryan Preston will provide an overview of our fourth quarter results and outlook. Please review the cautionary statements in our materials, which can be found in our earnings release and presentation.

各位早安。歡迎參加 Fifth Third 銀行 2025 年第四季財報電話會議。今天上午，我們的董事長、執行長兼總裁蒂姆·斯賓塞和首席財務長布萊恩·普雷斯頓將概述我們第四季度的業績和展望。請查閱我們資料中的警示聲明，這些資料可以在我們的獲利報告和簡報中找到。

These materials contain information regarding the use of non-GAAP measures and reconciliations to the GAAP results, as well as forward-looking statements about Fifth Third's performance. These statements speak only as of January 20, 2026, and Fifth Third undertakes no obligation to update them.

這些資料包含有關使用非 GAAP 指標和與 GAAP 結果的調節的信息，以及有關 Fifth Third 業績的前瞻性陳述。這些聲明僅代表截至 2026 年 1 月 20 日的情況，第五三銀行不承擔更新這些聲明的義務。

Following prepared remarks by Tim and Bryan, we'll open up the call for questions.

在提姆和布萊恩作完準備好的發言後，我們將開放提問環節。

With that, let me turn it over to Tim.

那麼，接下來就交給提姆吧。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.

各位早安，感謝大家今天收看我們的節目。

At Fifth Third, we believe great banks distinguish themselves not by how they perform in benign environments but rather by how they navigate uncertain ones. Our priorities are stability, profitability, and growth in that order, which we achieve by obsessing over the details in our day-to-day operations while consistently investing for the long-term. This disciplined approach has delivered shareholder returns that rank among the best in our peer group over the last 3, 5, 7, and 10 year timeframes.

在 Fifth Third，我們認為，偉大的銀行之所以能脫穎而出，不是因為它們在有利的環境下表現如何，而是因為它們在不確定的環境下如何應對。我們的首要任務是穩定、獲利和成長，我們透過專注於日常營運的細節，同時持續進行長期投資來實現這一目標。這種嚴謹的方法使我們在過去 3 年、5 年、7 年和 10 年的時間範圍內獲得了同行業中最好的股東回報。

Today, we reported earnings per share of $1.04 or $1.08 excluding certain items outlined on page 2 of the release. We achieved an adjusted return on equity of 14.5%, and adjusted return on assets of 1.41%, and an adjusted efficiency ratio of 54.3%, all among the best of all banks regardless of size who have reported thus far.

今天，我們公佈的每股收益為 1.04 美元，若不計入新聞稿第 2 頁所述的某些項目，則為 1.08 美元。我們實現了 14.5% 的調整後股本回報率、1.41% 的調整後資產回報率和 54.3% 的調整後效率比率，所有這些指標在迄今為止公佈業績的所有銀行中均名列前茅，無論銀行規模大小。

Adjusted fourth quarter revenues rose 5% year over year, driven by 6% growth in net interest income, 8% growth in commercial payments fees, and 13% growth in wealth and asset management fees. Fourth quarter average loans increased 5% year over year, driven by 7% growth in consumer loans and 7% growth in middle market and business banking C&I loans. Average core deposits grew 1% year over year, driven by 5% growth in consumer DDA and 3% growth in commercial DDA.

經調整後的第四季營收年增 5%，主要得益於淨利息收入成長 6%、商業支付費用成長 8% 以及財富和資產管理費用成長 13%。第四季平均貸款年增 5%，主要得益於消費貸款成長 7% 以及中端市場和商業銀行 C&I 貸款成長 7%。平均核心存款年增 1%，其中消費者 DDA 成長 5%，商業 DDA 成長 3%。

Net charge-offs were 40 basis points for the quarter, the lowest level in the past seven quarters, and non-performing assets decreased for the third consecutive quarter. Our CET1 ratio increased to 10.8% and tangible book value per share grew 21% year over year, thanks to strong earnings performance and the continued pull to par of our AFS portfolio.

本季淨沖銷率為 40 個基點，為過去七個季度以來的最低水平，不良資產連續第三個季度下降。由於強勁的獲利表現和 AFS 投資組合持續回升至面值，我們的 CET1 比率上升至 10.8%，每股有形帳面價值年增 21%。

The fourth quarter capped a year of milestones for Fifth Third. In the Southeast, we opened 50 new branches, including our 200th branch in Florida and our 100th branch in the Carolinas. To put this in context, if Fifth Third Florida were a stand-alone bank, it would have the 44th largest branch network in the US, and Fifth Third Carolina's would have the 78th largest.

第四季為 Fifth Third 銀行充滿里程碑意義的一年畫上了圓滿的句號。在東南部，我們開設了 50 家新分行，其中包括我們在佛羅裡達州的第 200 家分行和我們在卡羅來納州的第 100 家分行。舉例來說，如果佛羅裡達州第五三銀行是一家獨立的銀行，它將擁有美國第 44 大分行網絡，而卡羅來納州第五三銀行將擁有美國第 78 大分行網絡。

Our de novo branches continue to deliver deposit growth that is 45% higher than pure de novo branches. Net new consumer households grew 2.5% year over year, with the Southeast growing households by 7%, highlighted by 10% growth in Georgia and 9% in the Carolinas.

我們的新設分行的存款成長率持續高於純粹的新設分支機構，增幅達 45%。淨新增消費家庭數量年增 2.5%，其中東南部地區成長 7%，喬治亞州成長 10%，卡羅來納州成長 9%。

Our sustained investments in digital transformation continue to set Fifth Third apart as well. In 2025, our consumer mobile app was recognized by J.D. Power as the top mobile banking app for user satisfaction among regional banks.

我們對數位轉型的持續投入也使 Fifth Third 銀行脫穎而出。2025年，我們的消費者行動應用程式被J.D. Power評為區域銀行中用戶滿意度最高的行動銀行應用程式。

We shipped over 400 updates to the app during the year, including features such as direct deposit switching, a financial wellness hub with cash flow insights and spending analysis, and free estate planning capabilities through our partnership with fintech Trust and Will.

我們一年內為該應用程式發布了 400 多個更新，包括直接存款切換、提供現金流洞察和支出分析的財務健康中心，以及透過與金融科技公司 Trust and Will 的合作提供的免費遺產規劃功能等。

In small business, a little over a year ago, we asked our fintech, Provide, to lead all of small business for Fifth Third. Since then, Fifth Third has become a top 20 national SBA lender for the first time anyone can remember and finished number two in J.D. Power's 2025 National Small Business Banking satisfaction study ahead of all other regional banks.

在小型企業領域，大約一年多前，我們要求我們的金融科技公司 Provide 負責 Fifth Third 的所有小型企業業務。從那時起，第五三銀行首次躋身全國前 20 名 SBA 貸款機構之列，並在 J.D. Power 2025 年全國小型企業銀行滿意度調查中排名第二，領先於所有其他地區性銀行。

In commercial payments, our software-enabled managed services, Big Data Healthcare, Expert AAR and AP, and DTS Connex, and our embedded payments platform Newline continued to grow rapidly. One in every three commercial clients we added in 2025 was a payments-only client with no credit extension. Newline revenues more than doubled compared to the fourth quarter of last year, and deposits increased by $1.4 billion. Newline's product team also finished the year strong, launching a model context protocol server to enable secure, standardized access to our API and documentation to AI agents. This is a key building block to support future agentic commerce applications and a first among US banks.

在商業支付領域，我們的軟體支援管理服務（大數據醫療保健、專家 AAR 和 AP 以及 DTS Connex）和嵌入式支付平台 Newline 持續快速成長。2025 年我們新增的商業客戶中，每三個就有一位是只付款不提供信用額度的客戶。新線業務的營收比去年第四季成長了一倍多，存款增加了 14 億美元。Newline 的產品團隊也強勢收官，推出了模型上下文協定伺服器，使 AI 代理程式能夠安全、標準化地存取我們的 API 和文件。這是支援未來代理商務應用的關鍵組成部分，也是美國銀行業的首例。

In commercial, we delivered new quality relationships, granular loan growth, and recurring fee revenue in the middle market as we continue to add our own talent in strategic growth markets and to benefit from hiring in prior years. New client acquisition increased 40% across all regions compared to 2024. Our emphasis on the Southeast Texas and California markets led to a 12% increase in RMs, producing 14% growth in C&I loans.

在商業領域，我們透過不斷在策略成長市場中增加人才，並受益於前幾年的招聘，在中端市場實現了新的高品質合作關係、精細化的貸款成長和經常性費用收入。與 2024 年相比，所有地區的新客戶獲取量增加了 40%。我們對德州東南部和加州市場的重視，使 RM 成長了 12%，從而帶動了 C&I 貸款增加了 14%。

In wealth and asset management, fourth quarter wealth fees increased 13%, and assets under management reached $80 billion for the quarter. The strong performance was broad-based. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors AUM and fees increased 50% from a year ago. Fifth Third Securities generated record fees, and our private bank had its second highest level of gross AUM flows in recorded history.

在財富和資產管理領域，第四季財富管理費用成長了 13%，管理資產規模達到 800 億美元。強勁的表現是全方位的。Fifth Third Wealth Advisors 的資產管理規模和費用比一年前增加了 50%。Fifth Third Securities 創造了創紀錄的費用收入，而我們的私人銀行的總資產管理規模也達到了有史以來的第二高水準。

We continue to deploy technology and apply lean manufacturing principles to drive savings and enhance scalability. In 2025, our value streams approached $200 million in annualized run rate savings. Cross-functional teams continue to be focused on reducing waste and improving quality, which strengthens our execution and provides funding for continued investment in our growth strategies.

我們將繼續部署技術並應用精實生產原則，以降低成本並提高可擴展性。到 2025 年，我們的價值流每年可節省近 2 億美元。跨職能團隊持續致力於減少浪費和提高質量，這增強了我們的執行力，並為持續投資於我們的成長策略提供了資金。

We are excited about our momentum as we enter 2026, or as our partners at Kennesaw State like to say, there's a lot of action at the fraction. As we announced last week, we have received all material regulatory and shareholder approvals to complete our merger with Comerica. 99.7% of Fifth Third votes and 97% of Comerica votes cast were in favor of the merger, an overwhelmingly positive result and a recognition of the value this combination will create. We expect to close on February 1.

我們對進入 2026 年的發展勢頭感到興奮，或者正如我們在肯尼索州立大學的合作夥伴喜歡說的那樣，這一年裡有很多事情正在發生。正如我們上周宣布的那樣，我們已獲得所有重要的監管機構和股東批准，可以完成與Comerica的合併。在Fifth Third銀行的投票中，99.7%的人贊成合併，Comerica的投票中，97%的人贊成合併，這是一個壓倒性的積極結果，也體現了對此次合併將創造的價值的認可。我們預計將於2月1日完成交易。

2026 will be a busy year as we focus on successful conversion and delivering $850 million in expense synergies. Looking ahead, I'm even more confident in our ability to realize the benefits of the combination, which will support continued tier-leading returns and efficiency in 2027 and beyond.

2026 年將是忙碌的一年，我們將專注於成功轉型並實現 8.5 億美元的費用綜效。展望未來，我對我們實現合併帶來的益處更有信心，這將有助於我們在 2027 年及以後繼續保持領先的回報和效率。

I'm also excited to get to work delivering more than $0.5 billion in revenue synergies over the next five years across four areas of focus. First, scaling Comerica's middle market platform and vertical expertise. Second, deepening Comerica's commercial and wealth management-client relationships to reach Fifth Third levels of client wallet share. Third, building out Comerica's retail banking business with the Fifth Third playbook and 150 Texas de novo branches. And fourth, creating a differentiated innovation banking business by combining Comerica's Tech and Life Sciences Vertical and Fifth Third's Newline platform.

我也很興奮能著手在未來五年內在四個重點領域實現超過 5 億美元的收入綜效。首先，擴大 Comerica 的中階市場平台和垂直領域專業知識。第二，深化 Comerica 的商業和財富管理客戶關係，以達到 Fifth Third 的客戶錢包份額水準。第三，透過借鑒 Fifth Third 的成功經驗，發展 Comerica 的零售銀行業務，並在德州開設 150 家新分行。第四，透過結合 Comerica 的科技和生命科學垂直業務以及 Fifth Third 的 Newline 平台，打造差異化的創新銀行業務。

Before I turn it over to Bryan, I want to say thank you to our team, both at Fifth Third and our new Comerica colleagues, for the way you support our customers and our communities and for your commitment to getting 1% better every day. I'm grateful to everyone who will work so hard in the coming months to ensure that 2026 is a success for the bank and its clients.

在把發言權交給布萊恩之前，我想感謝我們團隊的每一位成員，包括 Fifth Third 銀行的同事和 Comerica 銀行的新同事，感謝你們對客戶和社區的支持，感謝你們致力於每天進步 1%。我衷心感謝所有將在未來幾個月辛勤工作的人，以確保2026年對銀行及其客戶來說都是一個成功的一年。

I also want to say thank you to those individuals from both companies whose hard work brought us to this point, but who will not be continuing with us on this journey. All of you combined are what has made our company the special place that it is.

我還要感謝兩家公司中那些辛勤工作使我們走到今天這一步的人，但他們將不會繼續與我們一起走下去。正是你們所有人的共同努力，才使我們公司成為如今這樣特別的地方。

With that, I'll turn it over to Bryan, who will provide more detail on the quarter and on our outlook for 2026.

接下來，我將把發言權交給布萊恩，他將詳細介紹本季業績以及我們對 2026 年的展望。

Thanks, Tim, and good morning. Our results show what disciplined execution delivers in an uncertain environment, record full year NII of $6 billion and $9 billion in total revenue, improving asset quality and top quartile returns and efficiency. With a resilient balance sheet and an operating model built to deliver repeatable, organic growth and scale benefits, we are positioned to generate growth and shareholder value as we integrate Comerica.

謝謝你，提姆，早安。我們的業績表明，在不確定的環境中，嚴謹的執行能帶來怎樣的成果：全年淨利息收入創下 60 億美元的歷史新高，總收入達到 90 億美元，資產品質得到改善，回報率和效率均位居前四分之一。憑藉穩健的資產負債表和旨在實現可重複的內生成長和規模效益的營運模式，我們在整合 Comerica 的過程中，有能力創造成長和股東價值。

Diving into our fourth quarter performance, we achieved an adjusted return on assets of 1.41%, our highest level since 2022, and a return on average tangible common equity excluding AOCI of 16.2%. Disciplined expense management resulted in an adjusted efficiency ratio of 54.3%, a 50 basis point improvement from the fourth quarter of 2024.

深入分析我們第四季度的業績，我們實現了 1.41% 的調整後資產回報率，這是自 2022 年以來的最高水平；不計 AOCI 的平均有形普通股回報率為 16.2%。嚴格的費用管理使調整後的效率比率達到 54.3%，比 2024 年第四季提高了 50 個基點。

Adjusted PPNR for the quarter was over $1 billion, a 6% increase from the prior year. Our strong profitability enabled us to return $1.6 billion of capital to our shareholders in 2025, while also growing our tangible book value per share, including the impact of AOCI, 21% compared to the previous year.

本季調整後淨利超過 10 億美元，比上年同期成長 6%。我們強勁的獲利能力使我們能夠在 2025 年向股東返還 16 億美元的資本，同時，包括 AOCI 的影響在內，我們的每股有形帳面價值也比上一年增長了 21%。

Looking at the balance sheet and NII, net interest income was 1.5 billion for the quarter, a 6% increase over last year, as net interest margin expanded 16 basis points, finishing the year at 3.13%. Loan growth, proactive liability management, and repricing benefits on fixed rate assets contributed to the strong NII performance throughout the year.

從資產負債表和淨利息收入來看，本季淨利息收入為 15 億，比去年同期成長 6%，淨利差擴大 16 個基點，全年淨利差達 3.13%。貸款成長、積極的負債管理以及固定利率資產的重新定價收益，共同促成了全年強勁的淨利息收入表現。

Average loans grew 5% year over year. In commercial, average loans grew 4%, and excluding CRE categories increased 5% year over year. Improving the granularity of our loan portfolio remains a priority. In middle market, we continue to add relationship managers and high growth markets which contributed to the 7% year-over-year increase in average middle market loans.

平均貸款額較去年同期成長5%。商業貸款平均成長 4%，若不包括商業房地產類別，則年增 5%。提高貸款組合的精細化程度仍然是我們的首要任務。在中端市場，我們不斷增加客戶經理和高成長市場，這使得中端市場貸款平均年增了 7%。

In small business, we have extended the technology of Provide to all of small business lending. This expansion, combined with its core practice finance activities, drove a $1 billion increase in balances over last year.

在小型企業領域，我們已將 Provide 的技術推廣到所有小型企業貸款業務。這一擴張，加上其核心業務財務活動，使得餘額比去年增加了 10 億美元。

While on a sequential basis, commercial average balances were flat due to a decrease in utilization, commercial production accelerated during the fourth quarter, rising 20% sequentially to a multi-year high. Indiana and the Carolinas led regional growth, and in our verticals, production was strongest in technology, healthcare, and metals, material, and construction.

雖然由於利用率下降，商業平均餘額環比持平，但第四季度商業生產加速增長，環比增長 20%，達到多年來的最高水平。印第安納州和卡羅來納州引領了區域成長，在我們的垂直行業中，技術、醫療保健以及金屬、材料和建築行業的產量最高。

The utilization decrease coincided with the government shutdown during October and November, but stabilized in December at 35%, down from 36.7% in the third quarter. Corporate banking and CRE were the primary drivers of this decrease in utilization.

利用率下降與 10 月和 11 月的政府停擺同時發生，但在 12 月穩定在 35%，低於第三季的 36.7%。企業銀行和商業房地產是導致使用率下降的主要原因。

Industry loan growth continues to be concentrated in lending to non-depository financial institutions, which represented approximately 60% of total industry loan growth and virtually all non-real estate and non-consumer-related loan growth in the second half of 2025. We continue to prioritize granular, relationship-based middle market and small business lending.

產業貸款成長持續集中在向非存款金融機構的貸款上，這約佔產業貸款成長總量的 60%，並且在 2025 年下半年幾乎佔所有非房地產和非消費相關貸款成長。我們將繼續優先考慮以客戶關係為基礎的、細緻的中型市場和小型企業貸款。

Shifting to consumer, loans grew by 6% on an average basis compared to last year. Auto and home equity lending accelerated in 2025, growing 11% and 16%, respectively. In the fourth quarter, we achieved the number two origination market share in HELOC within our footprint, up from number four in the prior year, driven by improved branch performance and digital engagement. We expect home equity production to remain robust due to the strength of home prices, lower front-end interest rates, and low housing turnover.

轉向消費貸款，與去年相比平均成長了 6%。2025年汽車貸款和房屋淨值貸款成長加快，分別成長11%和16%。第四季度，在分行業績和數位化參與度提高的推動下，我們在業務覆蓋範圍內實現了房屋淨值信用額度貸款（HELOC）市場第二的份額，高於上年的第四名。我們預計，由於房價堅挺、前端利率較低以及房屋週轉率低，房屋淨值貸款的發放將保持強勁勢頭。

Turning to deposits, average core deposits increased 1% over last year, driven by 4% DDA growth partially offset by slower growth in interest-bearing products as we've managed funding costs in 2025.

再來看存款，平均核心存款比去年增長了 1%，這主要得益於 4% 的 DDA 增長，但部分被計息產品增長放緩所抵消，因為我們控制了 2025 年的融資成本。

Interest-bearing deposit costs were 2.28% in the fourth quarter, down 40 basis points year over year, representing a 50% beta during 2025. As I mentioned on last quarter's call, we are focused on strong deposit growth as we prepare for the close of Comerica merger. This resulted in a 3% sequential increase in average transaction deposits due to our growth bias and normal seasonality.

第四季計息存款成本為 2.28%，年減 40 個基點，2025 年的 beta 值為 50%。正如我在上個季度電話會議上提到的，隨著我們為完成 Comerica 合併做準備，我們正專注於強勁的存款成長。由於我們的成長偏好和正常的季節性因素，平均交易存款較上季增加了 3%。

As Tim highlighted, consumer household growth remained robust at 2.5% and continues to translate into strong consumer DDA performance, which increased 5% in 2025. Our proactive balance sheet management has enabled us to maintain a strong liquidity position and reduce overall funding costs as we prepare to integrate Comerica's balance sheet, which has a lower concentration of retail deposits. Growth in granular insured deposits provided flexibility to reduce wholesale funding, which declined 14% sequentially. This favorable mixed shift lowered the cost of interest-bearing liabilities by 17 basis points.

正如蒂姆所強調的那樣，消費者家庭成長保持強勁，達到 2.5%，並繼續轉化為強勁的消費者 DDA 表現，預計到 2025 年將成長 5%。我們積極主動的資產負債表管理使我們能夠保持強勁的流動性，並在準備整合零售存款集中度較低的 Comerica 資產負債表時降低整體融資成本。分散式保險存款的成長為減少批發融資提供了靈活性，批發融資環比下降了 14%。這種有利的混合變化使計息負債的成本降低了 17 個基點。

Our Southeast de novo Investments continue to deliver high-quality, low cost retail deposits. Southeast consumer deposits increased by 4% sequentially, accounting for over 50% of the total consumer deposit growth for the quarter. Overall, our total cost of deposits in the Southeast is below 2% and generates a spread of more than 175 basis points relative to the Fed funds rate. We opened 50 Southeast branches in 2025, including 27 branches in the fourth quarter. Additionally, we have now secured all locations for our Southeast de novo program.

我們在東南地區的全新投資項目持續提供高品質、低成本的零售存款。東南地區消費者存款年增 4%，佔本季消費者存款總成長的 50% 以上。整體而言，我們在東南部的存款總成本低於 2%，與聯邦基金利率相比，利差超過 175 個基點。2025年，我們在東南地區開設了50家分行，其中第四季開設了27家分行。此外，我們現在已經確定了東南地區新建案的所有地點。

We also have 43 locations in Texas with letters of intent either complete or in process as we begin to transition our de novo program to these new high growth markets. We ended the quarter with full Category 1 LCR compliance at 123%, and our loan to core deposit ratio was 72%, down 3% from the prior quarter.

我們在德克薩斯州也有 43 個地點，意向書已經完成或正在辦理中，因為我們開始將我們的全新項目過渡到這些新的高成長市場。本季末，我們完全達到了 123% 的一級 LCR 合規標準，貸款與核心存款比率為 72%，比上一季下降了 3%。

Now on to fees. Adjusted non-interest income, excluding security gains and the other items listed on page 4 of our release, grew 3% sequentially and year over year. Wealth fees increased by 13% over last year, driven by $11 billion in AUM growth and strong retail brokerage activity. Capital market fees increased 5% sequentially, reflecting seasonal strength in M&A advisory. Commercial payment fees increase 8% year over year and 6% sequentially. This fee performance was driven by core treasury management activity and Newline-related fees.

接下來談談費用。經調整的非利息收入（不包括證券收益和我們在新聞稿第 4 頁列出的其他項目）環比和同比增長 3%。受資產管理規模成長 110 億美元和零售經紀業務強勁成長的推動，財富管理費用較前一年成長 13%。資本市場費用較上季成長 5%，反映出併購顧問業務的季節性強勁成長。商業支付費用較去年同期成長 8%，較上季成長 6%。這項費用表現主要由核心資金管理活動和與 Newline 相關的費用所驅動。

Newline-related deposits reached $4.3 billion, up $1.4 billion from a year ago. The securities losses of $5 million were from the mark-to-market impact of a non-qualified deferred compensation plan, which is offset in compensation expense.

與新線相關的存款達到 43 億美元，比一年前增加了 14 億美元。500 萬美元的證券損失是由於非合格遞延補償計劃的市值調整所致，這部分損失已在補償費用中抵消。

Moving to expenses. Page 5 of our release details certain items that had a larger impact on our non-interest expenses this quarter, including a $50 million contribution to the Fifth Third Foundation, $13 million in merger-related expenses, and a $25 million benefit from the adjustment to the FDIC special assessment during the fourth quarter.

轉到費用部分。我們在新聞稿第 5 頁詳細介紹了本季對我們的非利息支出產生較大影響的某些項目，包括向 Fifth Third 基金會捐贈 5000 萬美元、與合併相關的 1300 萬美元支出，以及第四季度 FDIC 特別評估調整帶來的 2500 萬美元收益。

The larger contribution to the foundation this year relates to increased community investments we will make as part of the Comerica merger and tax planning in response to tax law changes impacting 2026. Adjusting for these items, non-interest expense increased 4% compared to the year ago quarter and 2% sequentially, reflecting ongoing strategic investments in technology, branches, marketing, and sales personnel.

今年對基金會的較大貢獻與我們作為 Comerica 合併的一部分而增加的社區投資以及為應對影響 2026 年的稅法變化而進行的稅務規劃有關。在剔除這些項目後，非利息支出較上年同期成長 4%，較上季成長 2%，反映了公司在科技、分公司、行銷和銷售人員方面的持續策略投資。

Savings from our value stream programs through automation and process redesign continue to help fund these investments. As Tim mentioned, our value streams reached $200 million in annualized run rate savings. Our normal course daily focus on these operating disciplines has resulted in a 54.3% adjusted efficiency ratio in the fourth quarter and a 55.9% efficiency ratio for the full year, while still investing for growth and maintaining strong regulatory standing.

透過自動化和流程重新設計，我們的價值流計畫所節省的成本將繼續為這些投資提供資金。正如提姆所提到的，我們的價值流實現了每年 2 億美元的運行率節約。我們日常專注於這些營運規範，使得第四季度調整後效率比率達到 54.3%，全年效率比率達到 55.9%，同時我們仍在投資成長並維持良好的監管地位。

Shifting to credit, the net charge off ratio was 40 basis points for the quarter, in line with our expectations and an improvement of 6 basis points from the fourth quarter of last year. Portfolio NPAs were down $4 million sequentially, and the NPA ratio remained at 65 basis points.

轉而關注信貸方面，本季淨沖銷率為 40 個基點，符合我們的預期，比去年第四季改善了 6 個基點。投資組合不良資產季減 400 萬美元，不良資產率維持在 65 個基點。

Since the first quarter of last year, portfolio NPAs are down 20% and commercial NPLs are down 30%, consistent with our expectations from early 2025. Commercial charge-offs were 27 basis points, down 5 basis points from the prior year. Overall, we are seeing stable trends across industries and geographies in our commercial portfolio.

自去年第一季以來，投資組合不良貸款下降了 20%，商業不良貸款下降了 30%，與我們對 2025 年初的預期一致。商業壞帳核銷率為 27 個基點，較上年下降 5 個基點。整體而言，我們的商業投資組合在各個產業和地區都呈現出穩定的趨勢。

Consumer charge-offs were 59 basis points, down 9 basis points from the prior year, with improvements across nearly all asset classes. The overall consumer portfolio remains healthy with non-accrual and over 90 delinquency rates stable to improving across all loan categories.

消費者貸款註銷率為 59 個基點，比前一年下降 9 個基點，幾乎所有資產類別均有所改善。整體消費者貸款組合保持健康，所有貸款類別的非應計貸款和超過 90% 的逾期貸款率均保持穩定或改善。

ACL as a percentage of portfolio loans and leases, remained at 1.96%, and the ACL as a percentage of non-performing assets was also stable at 302%. Provision expense included a $6 million reduction in our allowance for credit losses, primarily reflecting the small decrease in end-of-period loan balances. Our baseline and downside cases assume unemployment reaching 4.7% and 8.4% in 2026. We made no changes to our scenario ratings during the quarter.

不良貸款佔投資組合貸款和租賃的比例維持在 1.96%，不良貸款佔不良資產的比例也穩定在 302%。撥備支出包括信貸損失準備金減少 600 萬美元，主要反映了期末貸款餘額的小幅下降。我們的基準情境和下行情境假設 2026 年失業率分別達到 4.7% 和 8.4%。本季我們沒有對情境評級做出任何調整。

Moving to capital, CET1 ended at 10.8%, up 20 basis points, reflecting the strength of our capital generation and our decision to pause share repurchases until the Comerica transaction closes.

從資本角度來看，CET1 收在 10.8%，上漲 20 個基點，這反映了我們強勁的資本累積以及我們決定暫停股票回購，直到 Comerica 交易完成。

The pro forma CET1 ratio, including the AOCI impact of the securities portfolio, stands at 9.1%. Since the first quarter, our unrealized loss on the AFS portfolio has decreased by 20% despite only a 4 basis point decrease in the 10-year treasury rate.

包括證券組合的 AOCI 影響在內的備考 CET1 比率為 9.1%。自第一季以來，儘管 10 年期公債利率僅下降了 4 個基點，但我們 AFS 投資組合的未實現損失已減少了 20%。

This outcome is the result of our strategy to invest in bullet or locked out structures, which represent 60% of the fixed rate securities in our AFS portfolio. We expect continued improvement in the unrealized losses given the high degree of certainty to our principal cash flow expectations as a result of our investment portfolio strategy.

這一結果是我們投資於一次性到期或鎖定結構證券的策略的結果，這些證券占我們 AFS 投資組合中固定利率證券的 60%。由於我們的投資組合策略，我們的主要現金流量預期具有高度確定性，因此我們預計未實現損失將持續改善。

While 2025 was a more eventful year from a macroeconomic and policy uncertainty perspective than we expected, we are pleased with our disciplined operating performance and our ability to deliver on our financial commitments. Our full year net interest income of $6 billion is 2.5% above our prior record, and our full year operating leverage of 230 basis points is above the range we projected entering the year. We open 2026 with strong business momentum and a clear focus on the critical actions necessary to deliver a successful integration of Comerica.

儘管從宏觀經濟和政策不確定性的角度來看，2025 年比我們預期的要多變，但我們對我們嚴謹的經營業績以及履行財務承諾的能力感到滿意。我們全年淨利息收入為 60 億美元，比之前的歷史最高紀錄高出 2.5%；全年營運槓桿率為 230 個基點，高於我們年初預測的範圍。2026 年伊始，我們擁有強勁的業務發展勢頭，並明確專注於成功整合 Comerica 所需的關鍵行動。

Now moving to our current outlook, as we announced last week, we expect to close the Comerica transaction on February 1 with systems conversion anticipated around the end of the third quarter. Additionally, our outlook uses the forward curve at the start of January, which assumed 25 basis point rate cuts in March and July. We expect full year NII to range between $8.6 billion and $8.8 billion.

現在來看看我們目前的展望，正如我們上周宣布的那樣，我們預計將於 2 月 1 日完成對 Comerica 的交易，系統轉換預計將在第三季末左右完成。此外，我們的展望採用了 1 月初的遠期曲線，該曲線假設 3 月和 7 月將降息 25 個基點。我們預計全年淨利息收入將在 86 億美元至 88 億美元之間。

As part of the integration, we expect to take actions to better position the combined balance sheet within our rate risk appetite, including investment portfolio and hedge repositioning. We do not expect material one-time charges related to these actions. Based on the current rate outlook and our planned balance sheet actions, we expect them to increase approximately 15 basis points upon the close of the transaction.

作為整合的一部分，我們預計將採取措施，使合併後的資產負債表更符合我們的利率風險承受能力，包括投資組合和避險調整。我們預計不會產生與這些行為相關的重大一次性費用。根據目前的利率前景和我們計劃的資產負債表措施，我們預計交易完成後利率將上升約 15 個基點。

That increase is driven by 4 to 5 basis points of pick up from discount accretion on marked investment securities we will retain. Another 4 to 5 basis points from repositioning the remaining securities with new positions, and 3 to 4 basis points from cash flow hedge repositioning. The remaining 2 to 3 basis points of improvement is driven by a combination of funding synergies and balance sheet mix.

這一增長是由我們將繼續持有的標記投資證券的折價增值帶來的 4 到 5 個基點的收益所推動的。透過對剩餘證券進行新部位調整，可再增加 4 至 5 個基點；透過現金流避險調整，可再增加 3 至 4 個基點。剩餘的 2 到 3 個基點的改善是由資金協同效應和資產負債表結構的組合所驅動的。

We also aim to accelerate retail deposit growth with targeted, analytical marketing in the legacy Comerica branches to improve the combined company's funding profile. We expect full year average total loans to be in the mid-$170 billion dollar range. This increase is primarily driven by broad-based improvement in C&I. Our outlook assumes that commercial revolver utilization remains relatively stable throughout 2026.

我們也計劃透過在原 Comerica 分公司進行有針對性的分析行銷，加速零售存款成長，以改善合併後公司的融資狀況。我們預計全年平均貸款總額將在 1700 億美元左右。這一成長主要得益於工商業領域的全面改善。我們的預測假設到 2026 年，商用左輪手槍的使用量將保持相對穩定。

Full year adjusted non-interest income is expected to be between $4 billion and $4.4 billion, reflecting continued revenue growth in commercial payments, capital markets, and wealth and asset management. We expect full year non-interest expense to be between $7 billion and $7.3 billion excluding the impact of anticipated CDI amortization and the $1.3 billion in estimated acquisition-related charges. This guidance assumes the realization of 37.5% of the $850 million of annualized run rate expense synergies in 2026.

預計全年調整後非利息收入將在 40 億美元至 44 億美元之間，反映出商業支付、資本市場以及財富和資產管理業務收入的持續成長。我們預計全年非利息支出將在 70 億美元至 73 億美元之間，不包括預期 CDI 攤銷的影響以及 13 億美元的預期收購相關費用。該指導意見假設 2026 年 8.5 億美元的年度運行率費用綜效達到 37.5%。

In total, our guide implies full year adjusted revenue and adjusted PPNR, excluding CDI amortization to be up 40% to 45% over 2025 and another 1 to 200 basis points of positive operating leverage. We expect to exit 2026 at or near the profitability and efficiency levels consistent with the 2027 targets we announced with the acquisition.

總的來說，我們的指導意見意味著，2025 年全年調整後收入和調整後淨利潤（不包括 CDI 攤銷）將增長 40% 至 45%，並且經營槓桿將再提高 1 至 200 個基點。我們預計到 2026 年底，獲利能力和效率將達到或接近我們在收購時宣布的 2027 年目標水準。

Moving to credit, we expect 2026 net charge-offs to range between 30 and 40 basis points, reflecting ongoing normalization of credit trends and the impact of the incorporation of Comerica's loan portfolio.

就信貸而言，我們預計 2026 年淨沖銷額將在 30 至 40 個基點之間，反映出信貸趨勢的持續正常化以及 Comerica 貸款組合併入的影響。

Finally, turning to capital, we currently expect CET1 capital post close of the Comerica acquisition to remain near our 10.5% target, subject to final purchase accounting marks and the timing of one-time merger-related charges. We continue to believe 10.5% is an appropriate target for our CET1 ratio for the combined company.

最後，關於資本，我們目前預計，在完成對 Comerica 的收購後，CET1 資本將保持在我們 10.5% 的目標附近，但需根據最終的購買會計標記和一次性合併相關費用的發生時間而定。我們仍認為，合併後公司的 CET1 比率目標為 10.5%。

Our capital return priorities remain paying a strong, stable dividend, organic growth, and then share repurchases. We expect to resume regular quarterly share repurchases in the second half of 2026, with the amount and timing dependent on balance sheet growth, final purchase accounting marks, and the timing of merger-related charges. Given the magnitude of the impact of the merger on the first quarter, we are not providing first quarter guidance at this time. We will provide our customary outlook on our first quarter results in early March.

我們的資本回報優先事項仍然是支付強勁、穩定的股息、實現內生成長，然後是股票回購。我們預計將於 2026 年下半年恢復定期季度股票回購，具體金額和時間取決於資產負債表增長、最終購買會計標記以及與合併相關的費用的時間。鑑於此次合併對第一季的影響巨大，我們目前不提供第一季業績指引。我們將於三月初按慣例發布第一季業績展望。

In summary, we are excited about the opportunities to drive growth and profitability in 2026 as we continue our strategic investments and successfully integrate Comerica. These actions position us to deliver best-in-class performance in 2027 and beyond, creating lasting value for our shareholders and our clients.

總而言之，我們非常期待在 2026 年透過繼續策略投資和成功整合 Comerica 來推動成長和獲利。這些措施使我們能夠在 2027 年及以後提供一流的業績，為我們的股東和客戶創造持久價值。

With that, let me turn it over to Matt to open up the call for Q&A.

接下來，我將把發言權交給馬特，讓他開始問答環節。

Thanks, Bryan. Before we start Q&A, given the time we have this morning, we ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up and then return to the queue if you have additional questions. Operator, please open the call for Q&A.

謝謝你，布萊恩。在開始問答環節之前，鑑於今天上午時間有限，我們請您盡量只提一個問題和一個後續問題，如果您還有其他問題，請返回隊列。操作員，請開啟問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Ebrahim Poonawala, Bank of America.

（操作員說明）Ebrahim Poonawala，美國銀行。

Hey. Good morning.

嘿。早安.

Good morning.

早安.

I guess, Tim, maybe just going back to Comerica. From the outside in, it feels like there are three or four areas of optionality for Fifth Third, and you can choose to answer whatever you think is most impactful. But when we stack rank, being able to do more with Comerica clients, the Texas expansion, and then leaning into their tech and life science practice, just give us a sense of where's the biggest opportunity, what's more near term versus longer-term. Thank you.

我想，提姆，也許就回科梅里卡吧。從外部來看，Fifth Third 似乎有三到四個可選領域，你可以選擇回答你認為最有影響力的問題。但當我們進行排序時，能夠為 Comerica 的客戶做更多的事情、在德克薩斯州的擴張，以及加強他們的科技和生命科學業務，都讓我們感受到最大的機會在哪裡，哪些是近期的，哪些是長期的。謝謝。

Yeah. Great question, Ebrahim, and thanks for it. I think you have to think about these things in terms of timeframes, right? Because, what I would say the most immediate near term opportunity is going to come from some of the things we can do tactically and both leaning into Comerica's existing customer base as well as what our deposit marketing -- analytically driven deposit marketing and product strategies will allow us to do in Comerica's branch network, followed by this medium-term opportunity here which is the build out of the Texas markets from a retail distribution perspective.

是的。伊布拉欣，你問得好，謝謝你的提問。我認為你應該從時間角度來考慮這些問題，對吧？因為我認為，近期最直接的機會將來自於我們可以採取的一些戰術措施，包括充分利用 Comerica 現有的客戶群，以及我們以分析為導向的存款行銷和產品策略，這些策略將使我們能夠在 Comerica 的分公司網路中開展業務。其次是中期機會，即從零售分銷的角度拓展德州市場。

And then what I'll say is a medium to long-term opportunity but a very exciting one which is the ramp up of the innovation banking business

接下來我要談的是一個中長期機遇，也是一個令人振奮的機遇，那就是創新銀行業務的快速發展。

So I had the opportunity in the fourth quarter to do five different in-person town halls with Curt Farmer, and at those town halls we saw probably 25% of Comerica's total employees, and then Curt, and Peter Sefzik, and the other business leaders were kind enough to make certain that I had the opportunity to meet several of the top client coverage people in each of the markets.

因此，在第四季度，我有機會與 Curt Farmer 一起舉辦了五場不同的面對面市政廳會議。在這些市政廳會議上，我們見到了 Comerica 大約 25% 的員工。 Curt、Peter Sefzik 和其他業務領導人非常友好地確保我有機會與每個市場中的幾位頂級客戶服務人員見面。

And I will tell you in every conversation, there was an example of a place where, either funding constraints or competition for investment dollars on the technology front or otherwise had inhibited the ability of Comerica to get the natural growth that they're capable of generating.

而且我會告訴你，在每一次談話中，都會出現這樣的例子：資金限製或在技術或其他方面爭奪投資資金，阻礙了 Comerica 實現其本應實現的自然增長。

You actually see that when you look back at the period prior to March Madness. They were generating pretty solid top-line growth and C&I balance growth, when they were not in a period where they were making some of these investments to get to be a Category 4 bank, or in a position where they were making hard trade-offs as it related to balance sheet size and margin and otherwise.

回顧「瘋狂三月」之前的時期，你會發現這一點。當時，他們的營收成長和工商業餘額成長都相當穩健。但同時，他們卻在進行一些投資以成為第四類銀行，或是在資產負債表規模、利潤率等方面做出艱難的權衡。

So day one when we get -- when we get through legal day one on February 1, we are literally doing a bottoms up review name by name to say where are there places that the broader balance sheet capacity or the ADL and equipment leasing product capability will allow Comerica to lean more? Where are there places where there are investment committee policies at Comerica's clients that were inhibiting the amount of corporate cash that could come onto the balance sheet? Where there are places where there were technology investments that Fifth Third have been able to make that support commercial payments that we'll be able to get near-term growth? And as we go through that first annual renewal cycle, that natural renewal cycle that happens in C&I, I expect we'll see that unlocked.

因此，在 2 月 1 日法律程序啟動後的第一天，我們將逐一進行自下而上的審查，以確定 Comerica 更廣泛的資產負債表能力或 ADL 和設備租賃產品能力可以在哪些方面進行更深入的調整？Comerica的客戶中，哪些地方的投資委員會政策限制了可以進入資產負債表的企業現金數量？在某些領域，Fifth Third 進行了技術投資，以支持商業支付，從而實現了近期成長？隨著我們進入第一個年度更新周期，也就是工商業領域自然更新周期，我預計我們將看到這種情況得到解決。

Second thing, the branch distribution is an important part of the strategy at Fifth Third obviously, but it's one of three legs of the stool, the other two being the disruptive product offerings that we have in the digital marketing -- digital and direct, marketing, excuse me, because mail continues to play a prominent role in what we do.

其次，分公司分銷顯然是 Fifth Third 策略的重要組成部分，但它只是三大支柱之一，另外兩個支柱是我們數位行銷（數位行銷和直接行銷）中顛覆性的產品，抱歉，因為郵件在我們所做的工作中仍然發揮著重要作用。

But we're going to drop 1 million pieces of mail within the first two weeks of legal day one to support consumer deposit marketing across Comerica's western markets, and it'll be what the first million of what'll probably be 13 million or 14 million pieces of mail that will go out over the course of the year. That'll be the first consumer deposit marketing campaign that the Comerica branches have seen in more than a decade, okay?

但我們將在法律生效後的前兩週內投放 100 萬份郵件，以支持 Comerica 在西部市場的消費者存款行銷，而這只是全年可能投放的 1,300 萬或 1,400 萬份郵件中的第一百萬份。這將是 Comerica 各分公司十多年來首次進行消費者存款行銷活動，好嗎？

And we've demonstrated the ability that we have to use rate as a mechanism to drive early connectivity with new households and then to be able to manage margin over time across the Southeast, and that is going to happen quickly.

我們已經證明，我們有能力利用費率作為機制，推動新家庭儘早接入網絡，然後隨著時間的推移在整個東南部地區管理利潤率，而這將很快發生。

I think the third thing I just would highlight here is the point Bryan made in his script, which is we have over 40 of the 150 locations we intend to build already secured because the development partners who have been such a big part of the Southeast build out, people who are doing the strip center developments that are anchored by grocers like Publix as an example, are also doing the new strip centers that are being anchored by high-end grocers like H-E-B and others across Texas.

我想強調的第三點是布萊恩在他的腳本中提到的一點，那就是我們計劃建造的 150 個地點中，已經有超過 40 個地點得到了落實，因為那些在東南部地區建設中發揮了重要作用的開發合作夥伴，例如那些開發以 Publix 等超市為核心的商業街的合作夥伴，也在德克薩斯州各地開發以 H-E-B 等新超市為核心的商業街的合作夥伴，也在德克薩斯州各地開發以 H-E-B 等商業街為新型的商業街。

And because of the success we've had with them in the Southeast, they came to us after the announcement and gave us a lot of early opportunities so that the brick and mortar will actually come out of the ground faster in Texas than it than it did when we started the Southeast expansion, and it's all the same models, the same selection criteria, the same discipline around what we're willing to pay relative to what we think we can generate over the first five to six years that the branches are open that are driving all of those decisions. So that's going to be the early stuff.

由於我們在東南地區與他們合作取得了成功，他們在宣布合作後主動聯繫我們，給了我們很多早期機會，因此在德克薩斯州，實體店的建設速度實際上會比我們在東南地區擴張時更快。所有這些決策都遵循相同的模式、相同的選擇標準，以及相同的原則，即我們願意支付的價格與我們認為在分支機構開業後的前五到六年內能夠產生的收益之間的關係。以上就是早期階段的內容。

But the blue sky opportunity here is innovation banking because that will continue whether it's tech -- technology AI, software, the things that are coming out of the Valley, or life sciences and the transformation that's going to go on in healthcare over the course of the next decade. Those sectors really are the driver of the American economy. We think we have a unique value proposition there because of the payments capabilities and the broader balance sheet's going to allow us to grow that business, without creating a concentration risk issue.

但這裡真正的機會在於創新銀行業，因為無論是科技（人工智慧、軟體、矽谷湧現的創新成果），還是生命科學以及未來十年醫療保健領域的變革，創新都將持續發展。這些產業才是美國經濟的真正驅動力。我們認為，由於支付能力和更廣泛的資產負債表，我們在該領域擁有獨特的價值主張，這將使我們能夠發展這項業務，而不會造成集中風險問題。

So I wouldn't be surprised to see that business become materially larger than it is today. We just have a little bit of work that we've got to do to ensure that we have the right guard rails around it, the right product offerings, and the right level of coverage.

所以，如果這家企業規模大幅擴大，我不會感到驚訝。我們還需要做一些工作，以確保我們為其設定合適的防護措施、提供合適的產品以及提供適當的保障。

Thank you. That was an in-depth answer. I'll step off. Thank you.

謝謝。這是一個非常詳盡的回答。我先退出。謝謝。

Gerard Cassidy, RBC.

Gerard Cassidy，RBC。

Hi, Tim. Hi, Bryan.

嗨，提姆。你好，布萊恩。

Hey. Good morning.

嘿。早安.

Tim, following up on your Comerica comments, can you give us an update on the integration? How is it progressing and when will the customer conversion occur now that the legal closing has occurred, I think it was two months ahead of schedule, just what the timeline is?

Tim，關於你之前提到的 Comerica，可以為我們介紹一下整合的最新進展嗎？目前進展如何？既然法律手續已經辦完，客戶轉換何時會發生？我記得比原計畫提早了兩個月，請問具體時間表是什麼？

Yeah. Great question. Thanks, George. We are way ahead of where I think we had hoped to be at this stage, and frankly, way ahead of where we were at the same time with MB. The big driver here obviously is that we received all the critical regulatory approvals less than 70 days after filing our applications, so that is what is making it possible for us to get to legal day one at the beginning of February.

是的。問得好。謝謝你，喬治。我們現在的進展遠遠超過了我們原本希望達到的水平，坦白說，也遠遠超過了我們當時與 MB 合作時的水平。顯然，最大的推動因素是我們在提交申請後不到 70 天就獲得了所有關鍵的監管批准，因此我們才能在 2 月初正式啟動。

There really haven't been any surprises that have come out, which I think is, you would hope that given the thoroughness of the diligence that was done. But we feel really good on that.

目前為止還沒有什麼令人意外的消息傳出，考慮到調查工作的徹底性，這也在情理之中。但我們對此感覺非常好。

And then the other thing that I don't know that I appreciated would have the impact that it's had is the First Republic process was a sobering one for us because it came together so quickly. And when First Republic didn't work out for Fifth Third, we decided we were going to make sure that in the event that another opportunity materialized that we'd be ready.

還有一件事，我之前沒有意識到它會產生如此大的影響，那就是第一共和國的進程對我們來說是一個令人警醒的過程，因為它發生得太快了。當 First Republic 無法為 Fifth Third 帶來成功時，我們決定要確保，如果我們再次出現機會，我們能夠做好準備。

So we did some work on what we called 2x in the bank, which focused on both systems capacity, but also manual processes with the real question being would anything break if the bank doubled in size. And then also just started the work -- to close the GAAP assessment that we had done on Category 3 readiness. And, obviously, Comerica doesn't double us, but it's a big step larger and the things that we needed to make sure that we got done in order to support that were already done.

因此，我們對銀行的「2倍成長」專案進行了一些研究，該專案不僅關注系統容量，還關注人工流程，真正的問題是，如果銀行規模翻倍，是否會出問題。然後，我們也開始了另一項工作——完成我們對第三類準備的 GAAP 評估。顯然，Comerica 的規模不會是我們的兩倍，但它確實大了一大步，為了支持它，我們需要確保完成的事情已經完成了。

So that's a long way of saying we're going to get closed earlier, we're in a good position from a systems and processes perspective. I think we're going to move the conversion up to Labor Day from what would have otherwise been a mid-October timeframe.

所以說，我的意思是，我們會提前完成交易，從系統和流程的角度來看，我們處於有利地位。我認為我們將把轉換時間從原定的 10 月中旬提前到勞動節。

That's going to be super -- a, it's important because we just want to be able to get the benefit of all Fifth Third's technology in both revenue and expense synergies, but it's also I think going to be really useful for you all because the same way that the fourth quarter at '25 was like the last clean look that you were going to get at what the old Fifth Third was capable of delivering, the fourth quarter at '26 should give you a very clear look at what the new Fifth Third is capable of delivering.

這將非常棒——首先，這很重要，因為我們希望能夠充分利用 Fifth Third 的所有技術，實現收入和支出的協同效應。但我認為這對你們所有人來說也非常有用，因為就像 2025 年第四季是你們最後一次清晰了解原 Fifth Third 的能力一樣，2026 年第四季應該能讓你們非常清楚地了解新的 Fifth Third 的能力。

And in fact, as Bryan referenced, I think we're confident we can hit the return targets that we laid out in the deal model for full year '27 in the fourth quarter at 26, in terms of the return on tangible common equity of 19% and efficiency ratio that was 53%-ish or maybe a little better given seasonality.

事實上，正如布萊恩所提到的，我認為我們有信心在 2026 年第四季度實現我們在 2027 年全年交易模型中設定的回報目標，即有形普通股回報率達到 19%，效率比率達到 53% 左右，考慮到季節性因素，可能會略好一些。

Very helpful. Thank you.

很有幫助。謝謝。

Yeah. And Gerard, if this gives you any more perspective, I think the only thing that Jamie's more excited about than Miami Red Hawk basketball being undefeated in the top 25 is the progress that we've been making on the integration. So things are going really well right now.

是的。傑拉德，如果這能讓你更清楚地了解情況的話，我認為傑米唯一比邁阿密紅鷹籃球隊在前 25 名中保持不敗更興奮的事情，就是我們在融合方面取得的進展。所以目前一切進展都很順利。

That's good. That's good to hear. Good. And then as a follow-up, but maybe going back to the existing business, Tim, you guys talked about, the success you're having in the middle market commercial area, hiring new managers in growth markets, new technology. You also pointed out I think you said one out of thre three of the payments customers, the commercial customers, don't have commercial lines of credit with them.

那挺好的。聽到這個消息真好。好的。然後，作為後續，也許可以回到你們之前討論的現有業務，蒂姆，你們談到了你們在中端市場商業領域取得的成功，在增長市場招聘新經理，以及新技術。我想你也指出，三個付款客戶（商業客戶）中有一個沒有在該銀行獲得商業信用額度。

Can you give us a view on the C&I loan growth? I think you said also that the average balances were flattened in the quarter due to decreased utilization. What do you see? When does the utilization turn more favorable, and what do you see for the C&I loan growth?

您能否談談您對工商業貸款成長的看法？我想你也說過，由於利用率下降，本季平均餘額趨於平穩。你看到了什麼？利用率何時會變得更有利？您認為工商業貸款的成長前景如何？

Yeah, that's right. They're the puts and the takes in this one, right? The good news is production's been great, and middle market utilization dipped during the government shutdown but rebounded nicely through the end of the quarter. I consider the fact that people are actively seeking to take us out of CRE exposure to be a mark of strength. It's just reflective of the quality of what we've originated there.

是的，沒錯。它們就是這場比賽的投球和接球，對吧？好消息是生產情況良好，雖然政府停擺期間中端市場利用率下降，但在本季末已明顯反彈。我認為，人們積極尋求讓我們擺脫商業房地產投資，這本身就是一種力量的體現。這正反映了我們在那裡生產的產品的品質。

The big decline in utilization, as Bryan mentioned, came from the corporate banking portfolio. What we're hearing anecdotally, which is supported by the early returns this year, is that a lot of that was cleaning up balance sheets in an effort to get into a position where you could get the -- our corporate banking clients could get borrowing costs down in anticipation of either making big capital investments this year because of the tax reform or even more prominently, to be able to support M&A activity.

正如布萊恩所提到的，利用率的大幅下降主要來自企業銀行業務組合。我們從一些非正式管道了解到，今年的早期回報也印證了這一點，那就是許多企業都在清理資產負債表，以便降低借貸成本，從而為企業銀行客戶做好準備，以應對今年因稅改而可能進行的大規模資本投資，或者更重要的是，為支持併購活動提供支持。

And it's probably worth mentioning in the first couple of weeks here, we've seen C&I loan balances come up, call it $800 million or $900 million already since January 1, which really is being driven by utilization and some of the fourth quarter production funding up.

值得一提的是，在最初的幾周里，我們看到工商業貸款餘額有所上升，自 1 月 1 日以來已經上升了 8 億或 9 億美元，這主要是由於信貸利用率上升和第四季度生產資金增加所致。

The wild card here, at the end of the day, is going to be what -- for lack of a better term, we're calling chronic postponement syndrome internally, which is the tendency for our clients to postpone really large capital investments in the face of uncertainty. So they all feel, I think, in on balance. I don't think they feel the same or better about '26 than they did about '25. And I think they're all excited about tax reform.

歸根究底，最大的變數在於——暫且稱之為「慢性延遲症候群」——我們的客戶在面對不確定性時傾向於推遲真正的大型資本投資。所以我覺得，總的來說，他們都覺得很滿意。我不認為他們對 2026 年的感覺比對 2025 年的感覺更好。我認為他們都對稅制改革感到興奮。

Rates have been helpful, but they really have been a south to the accumulated increase in costs more than anything else in terms of the business. But they want to believe that they're making multi-year investments into an environment where the rules of the road are going to be stable. And so the question really is going to be, do they feel like they have that stability or do they feel like there's a risk that the window closes to make those investments, or do we just continue to deal with this chronic postponement syndrome as a drag on broader utilization and C&I activity?

利率雖然有所幫助，但就業務而言，它對成本的累積成長造成的負面影響遠大於其他因素。但他們希望相信，他們正在進行多年投資，而投資的環境將保持穩定，規則也將保持穩定。因此，真正的問題是，他們是否覺得自己擁有這種穩定性，或者他們是否覺得存在投資窗口關閉的風險，或者我們是否將繼續應對這種長期的推遲綜合症，因為它會拖累更廣泛的利用和工商業活動？

So that's where we are. And you didn't ask it, but normally you do. I think the other drag for us was the NDFI balances were actually down. $600 million or $700 million in the fourth quarter where they were the principal driver of growth for C&I across the banking sector. So we started with low exposure actually declined, as opposed to getting growth from that category.

這就是我們目前的處境。雖然你沒問，但通常你會問。我認為另一個拖累我們的因素是非金融機構（NDFI）的餘額實際上有所下降。第四季下降了6億至7億美元，而它們原本是銀行業工商業成長的主要驅動力。所以，我們一開始的低敞口實際上有所下降，而不是從該類別中獲得成長。

I appreciate all those insights. Thank you, Tim.

我非常感謝您提供的所有見解。謝謝你，提姆。

Yeah.

是的。

Scott Siefers, Piper Sandler.

斯科特·西弗斯，派珀·桑德勒。

Morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Hey, Bryan, thank you for all the detail on the actions you're going to be taking with the balance sheet at the close. Maybe could you talk about what the company's rate sensitivity is going to look like after you complete those actions you discussed around the close?

早上好，各位。感謝您回答這個問題。嘿，布萊恩，謝謝你詳細解釋了你將在收盤時對資產負債表採取的行動。您能否談談在您完成收盤前後討論的那些措施之後，公司的利率敏感度會是什麼樣子？

And then I guess just as a follow-up, will those immediate post close actions get you to 100% of where you'd like the balance sheet to be, or would it take a little more time from there just given the need to more fully transform Comerica's deposit base? In other words, how does that all evolve in your mind?

那麼，我想作為後續問題，這些立即採取的後續措施能否讓您 100% 達到您希望的資產負債表目標，還是需要更多時間，因為需要更徹底地改造 Comerica 的存款基礎？換句話說，這一切在你腦海中是如何演變的？

Yeah. Thanks, Scott. We're always targeting to be relatively rate neutral, especially in a normal environment. We're just not in a position where we feel like we want to make big bets. Certainly the balance sheet becomes -- the natural balance sheet becomes a lot more asset sensitive, given the merger. You think about our C&I loans, we're going to go from about two-thirds of our C&I portfolio floating rate to closer to 80% of our commercial portfolio floating rate.

是的。謝謝你，斯科特。我們始終致力於保持相對的利率中性，尤其是在正常情況下。我們目前的情況並不適合進行大手筆的投資。合併後，資產負債表自然會變得更加敏感。想想我們的工商業貸款，我們將把工商業貸款組合中約三分之二的浮動利率提高到接近 80% 的浮動利率。

So we are going to take some action through some swaps and some hedges. We'll probably still be a little bit asset sensitive when all is said and done, but we'll be in a good, manageable position that'll be in line with our rate outlook.

所以我們將透過一些互換和對沖交易來採取一些行動。最終我們可能仍然會對資產價格有些敏感，但我們會處於一個良好且可控的境地，這與我們的利率預期相符。

The work clearly won't be done at that point. We've talked a lot about the balance sheet mix that we've been striving for over the last couple of years. We talked about a 60/40 commercial to consumer mix from a loan perspective and a 60/40 consumer to commercial mix perspective on the deposit front. Both of those areas are going to continue to take a lot of investment to get us back to those levels, and that'll be a multi-year journey for us, and it's part of the reason you hear us talking, in particular, on the deposit front around the investments in marketing and in the buildout of the Texas franchise because those will be big drivers for us.

顯然，這項工作到那時還遠遠沒有完成。過去幾年，我們一直在努力實現資產負債表結構，對此我們已經進行了很多討論。我們從貸款角度討論了 60/40 的商業貸款與消費貸款比例，從存款角度討論了 60/40 的消費貸款與商業貸款比例。這兩個領域都需要持續大量的投資才能使我們恢復到之前的水平，這將是一個多年的過程，這也是為什麼你們會聽到我們特別談論存款方面，以及對市場營銷和德州特許經營店建設的投資，因為這些將是我們的重大驅動力。

Today, the Southeast is contributing to almost half of our consumer deposit growth, and we're confident that Texas is going to be able to deliver a lot of long-term consumer deposit growth for the franchise. So we feel good about the positioning, the balance sheet is going to continue to grow, and put us in a stable position that gives us a lot of optionality to manage the rate environment.

如今，東南部地區貢獻了我們近一半的消費者存款成長，我們相信德州將能夠為該特許經營業務帶來大量的長期消費者存款成長。因此，我們對目前的市場定位感到滿意，資產負債表將繼續成長，使我們處於穩定的狀態，從而在應對利率環境方面擁有很大的選擇餘地。

Yeah. I just -- so Bryan and I were talking before the call. Like our expectation going in is we're going to grow Texas households at north of 10% on an annualized basis. It may take a couple of quarters post-conversion to get the ramp, but there is no reason why we can't grow Texas at at least the rate that we've grown in the Southeast, given the starting points are remarkably similar if you look back in time at where Fifth Third started, so there's -- the power of the DDA growth in our company between the Southeast and Texas and Direct Express, and what we can get done on commercial payments is going to be huge in terms of managing the balance sheet for strong, strong. profitability.

是的。我當時正在和布萊恩通話，通話前我們聊了一會兒。我們預計德州的家庭數量將以每年 10% 以上的速度成長。轉換後可能需要幾個季度才能達到成長高峰，但鑑於起點非常相似（回顧第五三銀行的起步階段），我們沒有理由不能以至少與東南部相同的速度發展德州的業務。因此，我們公司在東南部、德克薩斯州和Direct Express之間的DDA成長潛力巨大，我們在商業支付方面所能取得的成就，對於管理資產負債表以實現強勁的盈利能力將產生巨大的影響。

Yes. Okay. Perfect. Tim and Bryan, thank you both very much.

是的。好的。完美的。提姆和布萊恩，非常感謝你們兩位。

Thank you.

謝謝。

John Pancari, Evercore ISI.

John Pancari，Evercore ISI。

Good morning.

早安.

Morning.

早晨。

Just on the deal, just want to see if there's -- have you made any changes to your initial assumptions tied to the Comerica transaction outside of timing, but any changes to the assumptions that you provided the announcement, the cost-save expectation, the restructuring charges, or the related marks or P&L impacts?

關於這筆交易，我想確認一下——除了時間安排之外，您是否對與 Comerica 交易相關的初始假設做了任何更改，例如您在公告中提供的假設、成本節約預期、重組費用或相關標記或損益影響？

Yeah. No material changes to any of the assumptions inherent in the transaction. I'd say the only major items was the timing of close, pulling forward the conversion date. We do think that ultimately we're going to likely be able to deliver a little bit better than the 37.5% of the $850 million in 2026 given some of those timing changes.

是的。交易中所有固有假設均未發生實質變化。我認為唯一的主要問題是交割時間，也就是提前轉換日期。考慮到一些時間上的變化，我們認為最終我們可能會比 2026 年 8.5 億美元的 37.5% 做得更好一些。

But we also do intend to invest a little bit more in growth as well, so we might be approaching $400 million of in-year expense saves in '26 if all goes well, but we're hoping to reinvest maybe $40 million of that. The original expectation was going to be around $320 million of expense saves in 2026. So we're obviously very -- feeling very good about what we're seeing from a progress perspective on the integration, and beyond that, the loan marks and the balance sheet marks are all very similar from what we would have expected.

但我們也打算在成長方面投入更多資金，所以如果一切順利，我們到 2026 年可能會節省近 4 億美元的年度支出，但我們希望將其中的 4,000 萬美元進行再投資。最初預計到 2026 年將節省約 3.2 億美元的開支。所以，從整合進展的角度來看，我們顯然感到非常滿意，除此之外，貸款標記和資產負債表標記都與我們預期的非常相似。

Got it. All right, thank you for that, Bryan. And then separately on the loan growth side, I appreciate the color you gave on the decline in the line utilization in the quarter. That decline seems more pronounced than many of your peers, and I hear you on the shutdown and some of the balance sheet clean up, but anything company-specific that you'd say that exacerbated that?

知道了。好的，謝謝你，布萊恩。另外，關於貸款成長方面，我很欣賞您對本季信貸額度使用率下降的分析。這種下滑似乎比你們很多同業都要明顯，我理解你們提到的停工和一些資產負債表清理工作，但是你們認為公司本身有哪些因素加劇了這種情況呢？

And then just separately also on the loan growth front, if you could maybe give us a little more color around the greatest drivers of growth that you see in the commercial portfolio after the combination is completed with Comerica?

另外，關於貸款成長方面，您能否再詳細介紹一下，在與 Comerica 合併完成後，您認為商業貸款組合中最大的成長驅動因素是什麼？

Yeah. Good question. I mean, John, it's got to be a little bit idiosyncratic and a little bit compositional, right? Like because at this time last year, we had a big uptick in line utilization in the fourth quarter when other people didn't have it and we tried to talk down enthusiasm on what that meant for '25 and we gave back a little bit of the utilization in the first quarter and other people got it.

是的。問得好。我的意思是，約翰，它必須有點個性，有點創作性，對吧？就像去年這個時候，我們在第四季度的生產線利用率大幅上升，而其他人卻沒有，我們試圖降低人們對這在 2025 年意味著什麼的熱情，我們在第一季度稍微回落了一些利用率，而其他人則得到了。

I think there are two visible things. one, NDFI is a percentage of total commercial loans is way lower here than it is for most of our peers. And the NDFI loans tend to fund, and stay funded at a level that's higher than what -- standard working capital or revolving lines of credit.

我認為有兩點顯而易見。第一，這裡的非金融機構貸款佔商業貸款總額的比例遠低於大多數同業。而 NDFI 貸款的資金水準往往高於標準營運資金或循環信貸額度，且資金水準也往往高於標準營運資金或循環信貸額度。

It would be, secondarily, leverage lending here has continued to decline over time, and that's funded term debt principally for most of the industry and a smaller share of the overall balance sheet.

其次，槓桿貸款在這裡持續下降，這主要為行業內的大部分企業提供了定期債務融資，並且在整個資產負債表中佔比較小。

And then I think lastly, when we've talked about this, but we're clearly we're believers in the value of technology to transform the business. It's transformed the way Fifth Third operated. But we're also very aware of the fact that there's literally never been a tech infrastructure build out where there was an overbuilding, whether it was cell towers or fiber, or e-commerce distribution centers during COVID, and so we've been a little bit more cautious about just how broadly we were willing to play in data center and data center-linked activity and there again that's that that's funded up pretty quickly in places where the loans are being made.

最後，我想說的是，雖然我們已經討論過這個問題，但我們顯然相信科技對改變業務的價值。它改變了第五三銀行的運作方式。但我們也清楚意識到，科技基礎建設從未出現過過度建設的情況，無論是手機訊號塔、光纖，或是新冠疫情期間的電子商務配送中心。因此，我們對在資料中心和資料中心相關活動中的參與規模一直比較謹慎，而且在貸款發放的地方，這些資金也很快就能到位。

So I think there's a possibility there's some of that, but one way or the other, utilization is not a thing we control. What we can control is originating high-quality credit and making sure we have the right team on the field. So that's the thing that we've been focused on.

所以我覺得有可能有​​這種情況，但無論如何，利用率是我們無法控制的。我們能夠控制的是發放高品質的信貸，並確保我們擁有合適的團隊負責這項工作。所以，這就是我們一直在關注的重點。

And then, John --

然後，約翰--

Okay. Great. Thanks.

好的。偉大的。謝謝。

And yeah, as we think about where do we see the growth coming from with the Comerica acquisition, it really is an extension of the middle market play that has been driving success for us for the last couple years. We've been growing middle market loans consistently and even this year grew middle market 7% as we highlighted in our prepared remarks.

是的，當我們思考收購 Comerica 後成長的動力來自哪裡時，它實際上是對我們過去幾年在中端市場策略的延伸。我們一直在穩步成長中端市場貸款，正如我們在準備好的發言稿中所強調的那樣，今年中階市場貸款也成長了 7%。

And we just see so much opportunity there as well as leaning into the specialty verticals where Comerica has just had so much success historically. There's just some great synergies there between their core business and our core business on the things that we're good at. That's going to create a lot of opportunity for us as we think about what loan growth could look like going forward from here.

我們看到了許多機會，同時也看到了進軍專業垂直領域的巨大潛力，而 Comerica 在過去一直在這些領域取得了巨大的成功。他們的核心業務和我們的核心業務在我們擅長的領域存在著巨大的協同效應。這將為我們創造許多機會，讓我們思考未來貸款成長的趨勢。

Got it. All right. Thanks, Bryan. And thanks for the color, Tim, as well.

知道了。好的。謝謝你，布萊恩。也謝謝你提供的色彩，提姆。

Mike Mayo, Wells Fargo.

麥克梅奧，富國銀行。

Hey, Mike.

嘿，麥克。

Hi. Hey. So it sounds like you're all board up on your merger prospect. Now it's just a matter of executing, I guess. But just to clarify, you said you look to get your 2027 targets in the fourth quarter of '26 now. Is that right?

你好。嘿。聽起來你們的合併計畫已經徹底擱淺了。現在看來，剩下的就是執行的問題了。但為了澄清一下，您剛才說您希望在 2026 年第四季實現 2027 年的目標。是這樣嗎？

Yeah. Yes.

是的。是的。

Okay. So you have earlier closing, earlier targeted conversion, earlier metrics. So is there any change in your targeted EPS accretion for this year? I think you just said, maybe just a little bit of creative, and then you get the big accretion in 2027. Any changes to those numbers it would seem like that would be implied to go higher?

好的。這樣一來，你就能更早完成交易，更早實現目標轉化，並更早地獲得各項指標。那麼，您今年的每股盈餘成長目標是否有任何變化？我想你剛才說的是，也許只需要一點創意，然後在 2027 年就能獲得巨大的成長。這些數字若有任何變化，似乎都代表數值會更高？

It would be -- it would basically be achieving the accretion earlier, so we are expecting we talked about 9% EPS accretion in 2027. We would expect to be able to deliver 9% EPS accretion from the deal in the fourth quarter of 2026.

基本上，這將提前實現成長，因此我們預計到 2027 年每股收益將成長 9%。我們預計該交易將在 2026 年第四季帶來 9% 的每股盈餘成長。

Okay. And then I'm just, it's maybe your middle name is, Tim Digital Spence. Tim, I think of you as like the digital banker. Then I hear you talk about 13 million pieces of mail. I mean that sounds very last century of you. You're going to -- you got billboards, too, and it sounds very old school, so does that still work? It's just intriguing.

好的。然後我就想，也許你的中間名是提姆·迪吉特·史賓塞。提姆，我覺得你就像數位銀行家。然後我聽說你提到了1300萬件郵件。我的意思是，你這話聽起來很像上個世紀的人。你們也打算──你們也有廣告牌，這聽起來很老套，那麼這種方式現在還管用嗎？這真令人好奇。

There may be a billboard or two out there, Mike. I -- the -- the benefit of direct mail is that you can literally pick down to the individual household who receives the offer and who doesn't, right? And whereas in a digital environment, you have a lot more data on that folks, but you are still at the end of the day optimizing around the segments of the population, and to some extent, some path dependency around traffic.

麥克，那裡可能有一兩塊廣告牌。直接郵寄的好處在於，你可以精確到每個家庭，選擇接收優惠資訊的家庭，對吧？而在數位環境中，雖然你擁有更多的數據，但最終你仍然是在圍繞人口細分進行優化，並且在某種程度上，流量路徑也存在一些依賴性。

So we actually have a JV that we have been running with one of the leading digital marketing firms to help us think through the way that we deliver a best-in-class digital acquisition funnel. It's a significant share of new household origination. Like if you look at marketing-linked household origination, it's probably 50-50 digital and direct mail today.

因此，我們實際上與一家領先的數位行銷公司成立了一家合資企業，以幫助我們思考如何提供一流的數位獲客管道。這佔新增家庭貸款的很大一部分。例如，如果你看一下與行銷相關的家庭客戶來源，目前數位行銷和直效行銷的比例大概是 50/50。

But when it comes to rate offers, you want to basically get in front of the people that you want to communicate with, and not necessarily just the rate shoppers, which is what you tend to find at the affiliate marketing websites when you're leading purely with rate and not a broader value proposition. And we can't, frankly, go digital, until we get through commer conversion with Comerica because they don't have the ability to open digital accounts online, so there's nothing we can do with the Comerica brand until we get there.

但說到價格優惠，你基本上是想接觸到你想與之溝通的人，而不僅僅是那些只專注於價格的人。當你只專注於價格而忽略更廣泛的價值主張時，你往往會在聯盟行銷網站上看到這種情況。坦白說，在我們完成與 Comerica 的商業轉換之前，我們無法實現數位轉型，因為他們沒有能力在線上開設數位帳戶，所以在我們完成轉換之前，我們對 Comerica 品牌無能為力。

But mail still works. It works in credit cards, it works in checking. It's the reason that you see the JPMorgans of the world continuing to use it in addition to folks like Fifth Third. And there may be a billboard or two somewhere, but I promise you if we have one it'll be a digital billboard. How about that?

但郵件功能仍然正常。它在信用卡中適用，在支票帳戶中也適用。這就是為什麼你會看到像摩根大通這樣的銀行以及像第五三銀行這樣的公司繼續使用它的原因。或許某處會有一兩塊廣告牌，但我向你保證，如果有的話，那一定是電子廣告牌。怎麼樣？

No. I mean, whatever works. I mean, I guess you're saying it's mail, it's digital, it's branches, so for the last 110 branches that you need to secure, seems like you telegraph that and maybe I don't know how long will that take to get your other 110 or the 150 de novo branches?

不。我的意思是，只要有效就好。我的意思是，我猜你的意思是說，這涉及到郵件、數位管道和分支機構，那麼對於你需要確保的最後 110 個分支機構，你似乎已經暗示過了，也許我不知道你需要多長時間才能獲得另外 110 個或 150 個新分支機構？

It's the opposite of the slowly but suddenly. I think in this case it's suddenly and then slowly because what we -- the benefit we have here is we have been building for so long in the Southeast with strip center developers who are also doing a lot of building in Texas that we were going to see a lot of the low hanging fruit fast because we have these development partners who saw the announcement and picked up the phone and said, hey, I'm doing four of these in Dallas, and two in Austin, and one in Houston, and otherwise.

這與緩慢但突然的情況正好相反。我認為在這種情況下，進展是先突然後緩慢的，因為我們——我們在這裡的優勢在於，我們已經在東南部與商業街開發商合作建設了很長時間，而這些開發商也在德克薩斯州進行了大量建設，所以我們很快就能看到很多唾手可得的成果，因為我們的這些開發合作夥伴看到了公告，拿起電話說，嘿，我要在達拉斯建四個，在當地建一個其他地方。

And you guys want the out lot. So they know our specifications, they know what we expect from a zoning perspective. They know how well we perform as a strip center tenant, and what we expect in our contracts for ground leases or purchases, and therefore, we were always going to get more locations earlier.

你們想要外面的那塊地。所以他們了解我們的規格，也知道我們從分區規劃的角度提出的要求。他們知道我們作為商業街租戶的經營狀況如何，也知道我們在土地租賃或購買合約中提出的要求，因此，我們總是會更早獲得更多的店面位置。

We're not going to compromise the selectivity and as we fill in hot spots on the map, by definition, it just takes a little bit longer to get the last handful of these locations. But it's a robust market. It's just stunning to think that an MSA, the size of Dallas or Houston could be growing at the rate that they are, and all that new development creates lots of opportunities like to build branches where you would want to have them today versus where they were built 30 years ago.

我們不會降低選擇性，隨著我們在地圖上填補熱點區域，根據定義，獲取最後幾個位置所需的時間會稍微長一些。但這是一個強勁的市場。想到像達拉斯或休士頓這樣規模的大都會統計區 (MSA) 能夠以這樣的速度成長，真是令人震驚。所有這些新的發展創造了許多機會，例如，現在可以在你想設立分支機構的地方設立分支機構，而不是像 30 年前那樣在其他地方設立分支機構。

I look forward to the investor day in Dallas in a year or two.

我期待著一兩年後在達拉斯舉行的投資者日活動。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Erika Najarian, UBS Financial.

納賈里安 (Erika Najarian)，瑞銀金融集團。

Hey, Erika.

嗨，艾麗卡。

Hey. Just one follow-up question for me, and I really want to know what Jamie's middle name is if yours is digital Tim.

嘿。我還有一個後續問題，如果你的名字是數字提姆，那我真的很想知道傑米的中間名是什麼。

Right now, it's Red Hawk. That's Red Hawk's Red Hawk at the moment.

現在是紅鷹隊。這就是紅鷹目前的紅鷹隊。

So Bryan, I'll make yours liquidity then. And speaking of, we heard a lot about the longer-term and medium-term deposit plans, but just wondering what we should -- how we should think about average deposits that's underpinning your net interest income outlook for the year and how we should think about -- given Tim's comments about targeted rate offers, how we should think about deposit cost underpinning the 2026 outlook?

那麼布萊恩，我會幫你實現流動性。說到存款，我們聽到了很多關於長期和中期存款計劃的消息，但我想知道我們應該如何看待支撐你們今年淨利息收入預期的平均存款，以及考慮到蒂姆關於定向利率優惠的評論，我們應該如何看待支撐2026年前景的存款成本？

Yeah. I would tell you that 2026 is really going to be a remixing year for the combined company. I think you're going to see something that looks very similar to what we've been able to deliver on the Fifth Third franchise, which is targeted growth from a DDA and an IBT perspective, in particular, consumer IBT.

是的。我可以告訴你，2026 年對於合併後的公司來說，將會是徹底重組的一年。我認為你會看到一些與我們在 Fifth Third 特許經營權上所取得的成果非常相似的東西，那就是從 DDA 和 IBT 的角度進行有針對性的增長，特別是消費者 IBT。

And what we'll be looking to do is balance sheet optimization, funding cost optimization from the Comerica balance sheet as it comes on. There's a number of things that they've had to do since March 2023 when they had more significant liquidity stress that we will be looking to clean up as it comes on board.

我們將著手進行資產負債表優化，並根據 Comerica 的資產負債表狀況優化融資成本。自 2023 年 3 月以來，由於流動性壓力較大，他們不得不採取一些措施，我們將在公司成立後著手解決這些問題。

For us, on a stand-alone basis, what it's going to mean is a continuation of what we saw in fourth quarter, which is our betas look a little bit lower for the Fifth Third legacy markets than it would have been in the past as we're more balanced oriented. But what it's going to do is bring down overall funding costs for the combined franchise as we put the things together.

對我們來說，就獨立而言，這意味著我們將延續第四季度看到的情況，即由於我們更加註重平衡，第五三銀行傳統市場的貝塔係數看起來比過去要低一些。但這樣做會降低合併後特許經營權的整體融資成本，因為我們需要把所有東西整合起來。

So we do think as I touched on in my NIM discussion that there's a couple of basis points of NIM pickup, that's just going to be attributable to the funding synergies as well as some overall balance sheet mix changes.

正如我在淨利差討論中提到的那樣，我們認為淨利差會提高幾個基點，這主要歸功於資金協同效應以及整體資產負債表結構的變化。

Got it. Thank you.

知道了。謝謝。

Ken Usdin, Autonomous Research.

Ken Usdin，自主研究。

Hey, guys. I know this is going to get cleaned up over the course of time. But just on the overall guidance, you gave the PAA in the revenue side. Can you just -- if you have it, can you give us what the CDI add from the deal is on the Comerica side, so we can just square the total overall? Thanks.

嘿，夥計們。我知道隨著時間的推移，這件事最終會被清理乾淨。但就整體指導而言，您在收入方面給予了 PAA 指導。如果您有相關數據，能否告知我們 Comerica 在這筆交易中 CDI 的增值部分是多少，以便我們計算出總金額？謝謝。

Yeah. Sure, Ken. It should be about $20 million a month in 2026 when the deal closes. And then, it will be a sum of the year digit approach. So you should expect to see a $20 million to $30 million reduction as you roll into year two of the amortization.

是的。當然可以，肯。到 2026 年交易完成時，每月收入應該約為 2000 萬美元。然後，將採用年份數字總和法。因此，隨著攤銷進入第二年，您應該會看到 2000 萬至 3000 萬美元的減少。

Perfect. Thank you. And just to step back question, also. I know it's all in the total guide, but how would -- if you step back before you look at pro forma, how would you think just like stand-alone Fifth Third momentum is as you just think about last year's results on the stand-alone side versus the momentum on the stand-alone Fifth Third side, and whatever way you can put it into context, revenue momentum, loan deposit momentum, et cetera? Thanks.

完美的。謝謝。再補充一個問題。我知道所有內容都在總指南裡，但是——如果你在查看預測數據之前先退一步思考，你會如何看待獨立運營的 Fifth Third 銀行的發展勢頭，比如你去年獨立運營的業績與獨立運營的 Fifth Third 銀行的發展勢頭，以及你能想到的任何能夠將其置於特定背景下的因素，例如收入勢頭、貸款勢頭等等？謝謝。

Yeah. Absolutely. We continue to feel good about what we were seeing from the core Fifth Third franchise. We would have been talking about mid-single-digit loan growth. If you were to look fourth quarter '26 to fourth quarter '25 comparison in terms of what our core business is driving and that's really a continuation of continued strength in middle market that would drive mid-single-digit C&I growth as well as continued strength out of the home equity in the auto businesses being big drivers from the loan front.

是的。絕對地。我們對第五三銀行核心業務的發展依然感到滿意。我們原本以為貸款成長率會達到個位數中段。如果將 2026 年第四季與 2025 年第四季進行比較，就會發現我們的核心業務驅動力主要來自中端市場的持續強勁增長，這將推動 C&I 業務實現個位數中段的增長，同時，汽車貸款業務中房屋淨值貸款的持續強勁增長也是貸款方面的主要驅動力。

We would have still been talking about revenue growth in that mid-single digit, mid- to upper single-digit growth rate perspective and another 100 to 200 basis points of positive operating leverage, which would have taken our efficiency ratio down into the low 55s on a full year basis.

我們原本仍會談論收入成長，預計成長率將達到個位數中段，甚至接近個位數中段，並且營運槓桿還將提高 100 到 200 個基點，這將使我們的全年效率比率降至 55 左右。

So overall, I feel very good about what the core trend is for our company, which was already one of the more -- one of the most profitable amongst the peers. And as Tim highlighted, amongst basically banks of any size this quarter, so we felt really strongly about that momentum.

總的來說，我對我們公司的核心發展趨勢感到非常滿意，而我們公司本身已經是同業中最賺錢的公司之一。正如蒂姆所強調的那樣，本季基本上所有規模的銀行都出現了這種情況，所以我們對這種勢頭感到非常振奮。

And then on top of that now, the 200 basis points of pickup that we were expecting from an ROTCE perspective, an efficiency ratio perspective, we're going to deliver those balance even faster now given the timing being able to pull forward the close and the conversion associated with the Comerica transaction. So a lot of things that are stacking up that are really going to drive a nice financial outcome for 2026 and beyond.

此外，從 ROTCE 和效率比率的角度來看，我們原本預期會有 200 個基點的成長，現在由於能夠提前完成與 Comerica 交易相關的交割和轉換，我們將更快地實現這些成長。因此，許多因素正在累積，這將真正推動 2026 年及以後取得良好的財務成果。

Thanks, Bryan.

謝謝你，布萊恩。

Manan Gosalia, Morgan Stanley.

馬南‧戈薩利亞，摩根士丹利。

Hey. Good morning. I wanted to ask about the 19%-plus ROTCE target. I mean, it looks like you're already at 19.6% as of 4Q. Are there any areas that you think you're over earning here? It seems that the core business is delivering nicely. The Comerica acquisition should be accretive in '27, you're going to resume buybacks in the second half of this year. At this stage, it looks like you can come in nicely above that 19%-plus number in 2027, but just wanted to see if there's any offsets that we should be thinking about?

嘿。早安.我想問一下 19% 以上的 ROTCE 目標是什麼。我的意思是，截至第四季度，你們的成長率似乎已經達到了 19.6%。你覺得你在這裡的收入在哪些方面過高了？核心業務似乎運作良好。收購 Comerica 應該會在 2027 年帶來收益成長，你們將在今年下半年恢復股票回購。現階段看來，到 2027 年，你們有望輕鬆超過 19% 的目標，但我想看看是否有任何我們應該考慮的抵銷因素？

Yeah. The two things that I would point out is just; one, the normal seasonality of our profitability. So one, the first quarter tends to be a seasonally low quarter for us from a profitability perspective because of seasonal compensation items. And the fourth quarter tends to be a seasonally high quarter for us from a profitability perspective. So that's just one thing to keep in mind as you're looking at those numbers.

是的。我想指出兩點：第一，我們獲利能力的正常季節性波動。首先，由於季節性薪資項目，從獲利能力的角度來看，第一季通常是我們的淡季。從獲利角度來看，第四季通常是我們的季節性旺季。所以，在查看這些數字時，請記住這一點。

And the second component was we did have a small release this quarter from an ACL perspective. In a normal environment where we would expect to see continued loan growth, we would expect to see a little bit of a build every quarter. So those two items have an impact on that comparison that you're looking at.

第二個方面是，從 ACL 的角度來看，我們本季確實發布了一個小版本。在正常的市場環境下，我們預期貸款會持續成長，每季都會略有成長。所以，這兩個因素會對你所看到的比較結果產生影響。

All right. Perfect. And then just on Direct Express, can you tell us what's in the numbers for Direct Express in 2026? And does that hit full run rate by the fourth quarter? Or is there more growth that you expect as you get out into 2027?

好的。完美的。那麼，關於Direct Express，您能告訴我們Direct Express在2026年的數據狀況嗎？到第四節，這個數字能達到滿載運轉嗎？或者，您預計到 2027 年還會有更大的成長嗎？

Given the merger, the full run rate is in our numbers and is in the guide then for the fourth quarter, just given that we're assuming that we're maintaining the business as we do the merger. The only thing that's missing right now is one month of activity for the month of January.

鑑於此次合併，我們的數位和第四季的業績指引中都包含了完整的營運率，前提是我們假設在合併的同時維持業務運作。目前唯一缺少的是一月份的活動數據。

So Comerica stand-alone activity in the month of January is the only thing that would not be in our 2026 numbers. And that's -- that continues to operate in that $3.6 billion, $3.7 billion deposit range as well as $100 million-ish a year in expenses and fees. That's a continuation of that is what's resident in the guide that we provided other than the month of January activity.

因此，Comerica 在 1 月的獨立業務活動是唯一不會計入我們 2026 年資料的項目。而且，該機構的存款額繼續維持在 36 億美元至 37 億美元之間，每年的支出和費用約為 1 億美元。除了1月份的活動之外，這與我們提供的指南中的內容一脈相承。

Yeah. The upside there as we get into '27 and beyond, Manan, is like in my head, I associate the Direct Express program with social security payments because it's the super majority of the funds that are loaded onto those cards.

是的。馬南，到了 2027 年及以後，好處在於，在我看來，Direct Express 計劃與社會安全金聯繫在一起，因為絕大多數資金都充值到這些卡片上。

But the Direct Express program is the Bureau of Fiscal Services mechanism to help all government agencies get off paper checks in places where customers do not have a bank account that they are registering for ACH deposits.

但 Direct Express 計畫是財政服務局的機制，旨在幫助所有政府機構在客戶沒有銀行帳戶的情況下，擺脫紙本支票，以便他們註冊 ACH 存款。

So the President signed an executive order directing agencies across the government to eliminate paper check distributions for the sake of reducing fraud. And we do believe that as we get on to our tech platform, as we broaden the functionality that's available to Direct Express participants that we're going to be able to play a little bit of offense here and actually work with the Bureau of Fiscal services to go agency to agency and help them understand how they can make use of Direct Express as a mechanism to fulfill the executive order. And there is where we're going to find more meaningful upside out of that program in terms of growing it.

因此，總統簽署了一項行政命令，指示政府各部門取消紙本支票的發放，以減少詐欺行為。我們相信，隨著我們技術平台的完善，隨著Direct Express參與者可用功能的擴展，我們將能夠在這裡發揮一些主動作用，並與財政服務局合作，逐個機構地幫助他們了解如何利用Direct Express作為履行行政命令的機制。而這正是我們在發展這個專案時能夠發現更有意義的優勢的地方。

Got it. Is there a timeframe in which you can do that, or is that --

知道了。請問您能在多久內完成這件事？還是說…--

Yeah. We got to get the conversion done and the feature builds that job one is to take care of existing program participants. So that will be the majority of that work this year because we will be moving on to a different tech platform and that is being developed with Fifth Third and Fiserv. And once we're there, and we've got the existing program converted, we'll focus on how we expand the program.

是的。我們必須完成轉換工作，而功能建構的首要任務是照顧好現有的專案參與者。所以這將是今年大部分的工作，因為我們將轉向不同的技術平台，該平台是與 Fifth Third 和 Fiserv 共同開發的。一旦我們完成了現有程式的轉換，我們將專注於如何擴展該程式。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

Chris McGratty, KBW.

克里斯·麥格拉蒂，KBW。

Great. Thank you. Hey, Tim. Going back to capital, I noticed in your prepared remarks, you talked dividend, organic growth, buybacks. I didn't hear anything about inorganic growth. I'm wondering if the timing, the sooner closed conversion changes at all about your timing about when you would consider another bank acquisition, although I know you've been clear about getting this one right first?

偉大的。謝謝。嘿，提姆。回到資本方面，我注意到您在準備好的演講稿中談到了股息、內生成長和股票回購。我沒聽過無機成長這回事。我想知道，如果轉換交易完成得更快，是否會對您考慮收購另一家銀行的時間表產生任何影響？雖然我知道您已經明確表示要先把這件事做好。

Yeah. That is the last thing on my mind right now for what that's worth. The upside opportunity here is really significant and there's a lot of work in front of us. So the focus -- it doesn't change the timing in terms of how we would think about it.

是的。說實話，我現在最不想的就是這個。這裡的發展潛力非常巨大，但我們面前還有很多工作要做。所以重點是──它不會改變我們對它的思考方式。

The focus really is on making sure that we get the Comerica customers converted and taken care of, that we make the company from an employee perspective, feel like one company, and that we get the expanded capabilities that both Fifth Third -- legacy Fifth Third customers and Comerica customers are going to benefit from to market that -- we've got plenty to work on as it is.

重點在於確保 Comerica 的客戶順利過渡並得到妥善照顧，從員工的角度讓公司感覺像一個整體，並獲得 Fifth Third（包括原 Fifth Third 客戶和 Comerica 客戶）都將受益的擴展能力，以便進行市場推廣——我們目前已經有很多工作要做了。

Okay, very clear. Thank you. And then the follow-up would be just on investments. You talked about, I think, $40 million going back into the business with the sooner cost takeout. Can you just help us with tech spend pro forma rate of growth, what you're spending, how you measure it? I think some of your peers have been walking that number up. But just interested in your thoughts on tech spend broadly.

好的，非常清楚。謝謝。然後後續工作就只關注投資方面了。我想你之前提到過，透過更快地削減成本，將有 4000 萬美元重新投入業務。能否提供一下科技支出成長率的預測數據，包括你們的支出狀況以及衡量標準？我認為你們的一些同行一直在提高這個數字。但我只是想聽聽您對科技支出的看法。

Yeah. I mean, we have grown for several years now tech spend in the high single-digit to low double-digit range, right, call it, 7% to 10% on an annualized basis. I anticipate we're going to continue to do it. What we've been artful about here is we've been able to fund the franchise investments about half of them, right, through other cost reductions. Like the number itself that you'll see in our disclosures on FTE is a good example of this.

是的。我的意思是，我們已經連續幾年保持科技支出在個位數高點到兩位數低位的增長，對吧，姑且稱之為年化增長率 7% 到 10%。我預計我們會繼續這樣做。我們巧妙地利用其他成本削減措施，為特許經營投資提供了約一半的資金。例如，您在我們關於 FTE（全職員工）披露的資訊中看到的數字就是一個很好的例子。

Like if you look year over year from December '25 back to '24, that head count was flat at Fifth Third. But underneath the surface, line of business and engineering resources and tech actually grew 2%. And then the staff roles came down and operations roles came down 3% as the investments we've made in automation and the value streams and otherwise actually play their way through. So we will continue to make those investments.

如果從 2025 年 12 月到 2024 年逐年比較，第五三銀行的員工人數一直保持穩定。但實際上，業務線、工程資源和技術成長了 2%。然後，隨著我們在自動化、價值流等方面的投資逐漸發揮作用，員工崗位減少了 3%，營運職位也減少了 3%。因此我們將繼續進行這些投資。

I think it was one of our fellow Category 3 banks who made the comment in their call that you're either on offense or defense, and we are on offense here and tend to continue to be on offense for the foreseeable future.

我認為是我們同屬第三類銀行的一家銀行在電話會議上發表了這樣的評論：要么進攻，要么防守，而我們現在處於進攻狀態，並且在可預見的未來，我們將繼續保持進攻狀態。

All right. Perfect. Thank you.

好的。完美的。謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

And we have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Matt Curoe for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。現在我將把電話轉回給馬特·庫羅，請他作總結發言。

Yeah. Just one last thing before I hand it over to Matt, to the 1,000 Fifth Third employees in Indiana, [hoo, hoo, hoo] Hoosiers.

是的。在把它交給馬特之前，還有最後一件事要對印第安納州的 1000 名 Fifth Third 員工說，[hoo, hoo, hoo] 印第安納州人。

Thanks, Tim, and thank you, Rob, and thanks, everyone, for your interest in Fifth Third. Please contact the Investor Relations Department if you have any follow-up questions. Rob, you may now disconnect the call.

謝謝提姆，謝謝羅布，也謝謝大家對第五三銀行的關注。如有任何後續問題，請聯絡投資者關係部門。羅布，你現在可以掛斷電話了。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。