KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Clark Khayat: Yeah. So I think, I mean, the rate available when the treasuries and swaps mature is sort of the single biggest factor, and that would be — would have been reflected in the $720 million moving to $900 million. So — and again, that’s isolating kind of the income portion of that. I do think there’s a couple of variables. So think about the treasuries, whether or not we reinvest them in the market, use them as replacement funding or hold them in cash. Today, those are relatively neutral. Over time, if there’s a disparity between those three, you might see a little bit of pickup or drop depending on which decision we make. But today, it’s kind of a push across all three of those. And then your other point was right, which is the funding side of this.

So I tried to reflect that as well in my comments of lower beta expectations at the end of Q1, when we showed you a $720 million opportunity, higher beta expectations here today, but that opportunity has gone up kind of in a related way. So, I don’t know and I don’t want to pretend those are kind of one-to-one tide, but I would think about those moving at least in a fairly correlated direction.

John Pancari: Got it. Okay. All right. Thank you. And then separately, as you continue to exit the — or as you’re evaluating the non-strategic businesses and other optimization, just to confirm, any progress you make incrementally on that front that would be in addition, like to the guidance of a decline of 1% to 3% on the loan front? So, anything on the incremental optimization that would provide — that would lead to potential incremental downside to those numbers.

Clark Khayat: I think if there was something more significant than what Chris referred to, which is maybe a very active management of the business, that would be incremental. But I think what we’ve built into this guidance is how we’re running the business right now.

John Pancari: Okay. All right. Thank you.

Operator: We’ll go next to the line of Matt O’Connor with Deutsche Bank.

Matt O’Connor: Good morning. I want to follow-up on the kind of capital line of questions. I guess the first thing is a lot of your peers seem to be targeting 10% plus on the CET1. And obviously, there’s capital proposals coming out. But I guess first question is what are your thoughts in terms of that 9% to 9.5% target moving closer to 10% to 10.5% like some of your peers?

Chris Gorman: So, Matt, we think 9% to 9.5% is the right number for us given our business mix. If you think about 50% of our C&I book being investment grade, if you think about the fact that we don’t have really any credit card business to speak of, if you think about the fact that a funding — we have FICO scores in our consumer business of 760 or so, we think it’s the right number. And obviously, at 9.2% and having grown it from 9.1% this quarter, we’re right in the strike zone. Having said all of that, we, like everybody else, will wait and digest anything that comes out in the not-too-distant future and reevaluate it at that point. But for our business, right now, we feel that’s the right number.

Matt O’Connor: Okay. And then in terms of the RWA optimization, is it possible to size that or give a range and the timing of when you’ll get the benefit of that?

Chris Gorman: We’re looking at a lot of different things. But right now, I’m most comfortable just directing you to the guidance that we gave around loans. But as I mentioned, we’re looking at other things as well. I’ll leave it at that.

Matt O’Connor: Okay. Thank you.

Chris Gorman: Thank you, Matt.

Operator: We’ll go next to the line of Manan Gosalia with Morgan Stanley.

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