Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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David Turner: I would add that we also developed, not too long ago, a new tool. We call it our click, which didn’t mean anything to you. But what it does is it analyzes the cash flows of each of our customers. And we’ve built that, developed that tool to give us an idea of product and service that a customer may need from us that they don’t have. What we found is it gave us such good information on cash flows every month that it gave us an earlier indicator of potential credit stress. And that’s part of what you’re seeing when you see us move things into criticized categories. We can be more proactive because we have better information to manage credit risk management through that tool.

Stephen Scouten: Got it. That’s extremely helpful. And maybe just one other question for me there is loan growth, the 4% guide, I completely respect all the shifts and concerns in the environment that may take that down there. But, you put up 11% growth this quarter, utilizations continue to increase. Where could you outperform that 4%, I guess, if the environment maybe wasn’t as bad as we might fear? And — how do you think about that shift you’ve talked about into capital markets? And what could really drive that pushing some of those customers back into that space?

John Turner: So, we’re currently modeling about $2 billion, I think, in current outstanding that could move back — could move off the balance sheet, capital markets open. That’s a rough number, but that’s — give you some indication of a “headwind” if the capital markets do open. So, that could be a plus or minus to answer your question, and I think would be the one area where we probably would see more growth than we anticipated if that did not happen.

David Turner: Yes. Our line utilization is still below historical levels. Every 1 point increases about $600 million in outstanding. So, we get people drawn on their lines. Perhaps that could be helpful. We’ll see what the rate environment looks like with regards to mortgage. We’ll see what the economy looks like for consumers to improve their home and leverage Interbank. So, there are some opportunities for us to outperform those numbers if the economy kind of continues along its current path. It’s still fairly healthy, and inflation is coming down. So, I think we have some opportunity to outperform there.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Gerard Cassidy with RBC Capital Markets.

Gerard Cassidy: Can you guys share with us — you gave an interesting slide in your deck about how your deposit customers have more deposits in their accounts than pre-pandemic, I think, at slide 17. Have you reached out and what’s driving these numbers? Because obviously, you hear about the savings rate nationally is down, but you and your peers are showing numbers like this. And I was just wondering if you could share with us what your — some of the trends that you’re seeing here that keeps these balances the way they are?

David Turner: Yes. The specific page on 17 on the right-hand side, we’re talking about those customers that had less than $1,000 in their account. And that — compared to the end of €˜19, they have 6 times the balances. A big driver is that cohort was the recipient of a lot of stimulus. That stimulus could have come in the form of absolute transfer payments. It could have come in the form of minimum wage increases. Those are permanent. So, what we’ve seen is our customers actually are making more money, and they’re keeping it — they’re keeping their spending under control even though we have inflationary pressures. So, that cohort has had more wage growth than most everybody else. And we don’t see it going away. We’re a bit surprised and we’re watching it every month to see if there’s a change, but I think the slide was fairly consistent with what we showed you last quarter as well.

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