F.N.B. Corporation Stock

Good day, and welcome to the F.N.B. Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lisa Hajdu, Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to our earnings call. This conference call of F.N.B. Corporation and the reports it files with the Securities and Exchange Commission often contain forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to and not as an alternative for our reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP operating measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our presentation materials and in our earnings release. Please refer to these non-GAAP and forward-looking statement disclosures contained in our related materials, reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are available on our website. .

A replay of this call will be available until Tuesday, October 27, and the webcast link will be posted to the -- about Us, Investor Relations section of our corporate website. I will now turn the call over to Vince Del-Lee, Chairman, President and CEO.

Thank you, and welcome to our third quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Vincent Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer; and Gary Guerrieri, our Chief Credit Officer.

F.N.B. third quarter net income of $153 million or $0.43 per share. This brings year-to-date earnings per share to $1.23, a 13% increase over the same period in 2025. F.N.B. produced solid revenue of $469 million, benefiting from a diverse income stream with record net interest income of $377 million.

This quarter, F.N.B. repurchased $51 million or 2.7 million shares of common stock, bringing the year-to-date buyback to $133 million or 7.4 million shares, representing 2.1% of total shares at the beginning of the year.

Tangible book value per common share increased 7% year-over-year to $12.28. Even with the buyback activity and negative impact of AOCI, demonstrating strong profitability levels and peer-leading internal capital generation.

Total loans ended the quarter at $36.5 billion, an 8.5% annualized linked quarter increase. F.N.B's. Loan growth has once again exceeded the published H8 data as we continue to gain market share across our geography led by commercial and industrial, equipment finance, consumer lending and seasonal residential mortgage production. Annualized linked-quarter deposit growth of 9% also outpaced the industry benefiting from deepening customer relationships as well as seasonal deposit inflows. Even with the strong deposit growth and increased competition, the cost of interest-bearing deposits was stable with only a 1 basis point increase.

Noninterest-bearing deposits ended the quarter over $10 billion, an annualized increase of 3%. The mix of noninterest-bearing deposits to total deposits ended the quarter at 26%, a level we have held for 8 straight quarters. As we have frequently discussed, we utilize all our tools, including data science, to price our deposits and support our client base while protecting net interest margin. This quarter, net interest margin increased 4 basis points to 3.29%. The FDIC deposit market share data released in September revealed that FNB outperformed overall market deposit growth to maintain strong market share positions. We now rank in the top 10 in over 80% of our MSAs, top 5 in 50% and top 3 in 30%. We continue to build out our fee-based platform, including our recent announcement to expand our family wealth program to serve ultra-high net worth clients with additional investments in specialized sophisticated advisory services and advanced solutions.

This is lead wealth advisory office aligns with our strategic approach to develop and expand new high-value business units that complement our existing products and services, driving a larger percentage share of total revenue. Our leadership team has established or significantly expanded 11 business lines, including 2 added last year, investment banking and public finance with both contributing to fee income this year. Investment banking has closed several deals with many opportunities in the pipeline.

Public finance has participated in a number of large bond underwritings and was recently awarded a significant left lead opportunity this quarter. We remain steadfast in our approach to consistent underwriting and managing credit risk to maintain a balanced well-positioned portfolio, enabling us to serve our customers through various business cycles. I would now like to turn the call over to Gary to discuss our credit results for the quarter. Gary?

Thank you, Vince, and good morning, everyone. We had another solid quarter of consistent credit performance across our portfolios. Delinquency totaled 75 basis points, up slightly in the quarter with NPLs and OREO remaining at near historical lows totaling 33 basis points, up 2 bps in the quarter and down 4 bps on a year-over-year basis. Net large offs reflect strong performance at 12 basis points, an improvement from 19 basis points in the prior quarter.

Criticized loans increased 40 basis points in the quarter with anticipated resolutions expected to offset this increase in the quarter ahead. Total funded provision expense for the quarter stood at $19.2 million, once again supporting our strong loan growth. Our ending fund reserve now stands at $455 million, an increase of $8.1 million, ending at 1.25%. When including acquired unamortized loan discounts, our reserve stands at 1.29% and our NPL coverage position remained strong at 396% and inclusive of the discounts.

We continue to maintain qualitative overlays for potential supply chain impacts due to the events in the Middle East, oil and diesel price volatility and ongoing tariff uncertainty in North America. Our consistent and proactive approach to managing credit risk and solid Allowance coverage enables us to maintain a strong credit profile through various economic environments.

Turning to loan growth. We are pleased with the resilience of our customer base which continues to perform well despite recent rate increases and ongoing inflationary pressures. Once again, we saw a strong reduction across all consumer categories this quarter while maintaining our solid credit metrics, with average origination FICO scores of 785 and delinquency and charge-offs of 72 and 5 basis points, respectively.

Despite a slight downtick in utilization, C&I loan growth was strong in the quarter, particularly in the manufacturing sector. CRE continued to decline as expected due to secondary market activity, ending at 182% of Tier 1 capital plus allowance. The declines were partially offset by a number of new projects originated in the quarter, and we are encouraged by the level of new opportunities we are seeing across our markets.

In closing, despite the continued macroeconomic volatility, our loan growth was strong in the quarter in both the wholesale and retail portfolios. Our loan portfolio remains well positioned, reflecting solid performance across each asset class with credit metrics near historical lows.

Pipelines continue to be robust as we enter the fourth quarter, positioning us well to achieve our desired growth targets this quarter and in the year ahead. I will now turn the call over to Vince Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer, for his remarks.

Thanks, Gary, and good morning. Today, I will review the third quarter financial results and walk through our full year guidance. Third quarter net income totaled $153 million or $0.43 per share, driven by strong growth in C&I and consumer loans and a 4 basis point sequential increase in the net interest margin. Both total loans and leases ended the quarter at $36.5 billion, an 8.5% annualized linked quarter increase. Growth of $435 million in consumer loans and $333 million in commercial loans and leases drove the increase.

Box C&I loans grew at a 20% annualized linked-quarter rate were $407 million, driven by growth across multiple markets most notably the Cleveland and Pennsylvania markets. CRE balances continue to be impacted by payoffs as expected and were down $90 million linked quarter. Seasonal growth in residential mortgages and growth in HELOCs and indirect auto fueled the rise in consumer loans. Spot total deposits grew $871 million sequentially, a 9% annualized rate, driven by growth in noninterest-bearing deposits, low-cost transaction deposits and money market accounts.

Seasonal treasury management inflows and deepening of customer relationships fuel the overall deposit growth. So noninterest-bearing deposits increased $78 million sequentially and remained stable at 26% of total deposits. The loan-to-deposit ratio was also stable from last quarter at a healthy 92.4%. The third quarter rise in the net interest margin at 3.29%, coupled with strong loan growth and a higher day count resulted in a nearly $11 million sequential increase in net interest income. Yield on earning assets increased 5 basis points sequentially to 5.18% is 1-month term SOFR moved higher and the securities portfolio yield jumped 12 basis points to 373 as reinvestment rates remained well above the overall portfolio yield.

Total cost of funds increased 2 basis points from the second quarter to 2.01% with rates paid on interest-bearing deposits up only 1 basis point and rates paid on total borrowings down 4 basis points.

Turning to noninterest income and expense. Noninterest income totaled $93 million, Service charges increased 5.7% from the year ago period on increased treasury management fee revenue and higher consumer transaction volumes. Insurance commissions and fees were up 20%, primarily due to growth in the property and casualty business. Wealth management revenues increased nearly 4% year-over-year to $21 million, with contributions across the geographic footprint.

Capital markets income reflected solid contributions across these businesses, even with an 18% reduction due to record debt capital markets and international banking income in the year ago quarter. Other noninterest income declined primarily due to a $5.4 million asset recovery recorded last year. Noninterest expense totaled $257 million, a 4.5% increase from the year ago quarter when adjusting for an FDIC special assessment reduction last year. Salaries and employee benefits increased only 1% as strategic hiring and normal merit increases were offset by lower variable compensation. Occupancy and equipment increased 14% primarily due to technology-related investments and higher occupancy costs.

Outside services increased 15% driven by higher third-party legal and consulting costs. Even with these increases, the third quarter efficiency ratio remained solid at 53.7%. F.N.B. continues to actively manage capital to support balance sheet growth and optimize shareholder returns while appropriately managing risk. Share repurchases totaled $133 million for the first 3 quarters of 2026, more than 4x the amount repurchased in the same period of 2025 and well within our disciplined deployment strategy. Over $200 million in share repurchase authorization remained at quarter end. Our strong financial performance and profitability have enabled F.N.B. to increase share repurchase activity and still maintain solid capital levels, as evidenced by a CET1 ratio of 11.3% and TCE ratio of 8.7% at quarter end. Tangible book value per share increased modestly from last quarter even with the increased buyback activity and impact of rising interest rates on AOCI.

Let's now look at guidance for the full year of 2026. Our guidance is based on current expectations while remaining cognizant of the highly uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment. We are maintaining our full year balance sheet guidance for spot balances denting period-end loans and deposits to grow mid-single digits on a full year basis.

Full year net interest income guidance has been revised to a range of $1.485 billion to $1.5 billion based upon results for the first 9 months of 2026 and our expectation for a continuation of heightened deposit competition within the industry. The noninterest income full year guide has been tightened to $370 million to $380 million. The full year guidance range for noninterest expense remains unchanged at $1.01 billion to $1.02 billion, with the results expected to be towards the higher end of the range.

We continue to expect strong positive operating leverage for full year 2026. Full year provision guidance has been revised to a range of $80 million to $90 million, down $5 million at the high end, given our favorable credit performance year-to-date and will be dependent on net loan growth charge-off activity in the last quarter. Lastly, the full year effective tax rate should be between 21% and 22%, which does not assume any investment tax credit activity that may occur.

With that, I will turn the call back to Vince.

F.N.B. continues to be an innovative leader in our industry, introducing tech forward digital and data solutions, including our proprietary eStore and common application. These tech innovations deliver convenient access to our products and services for our customers and allow us to serve as their trusted financial adviser. As evidenced by being named 1 of the world's best digital banks by Global Finance and a finalist for several of Fintech Futures Banking Tech Awards. We have created a platform that enhances our customer experience across our omnichannel network, enabling F.N.B. to continue to grow our share of wallet and expand customer primacy based upon positive outcomes for our clients.

Our technology-based competitive advantage will be further enhanced by the introduction of our proprietary Insight 360 platform. The AI-enabled customer aggregation and insight tool will provide our clients and bankers with the ability to optimize their broader banking relationship, all while consolidating their services with F.N.B. and contributing to improved household penetration.

Given our focus and investment in data capabilities, F.N.B. is one of the best positioned financial institutions to strategically leverage AI and data analytics to drive efficiency and accelerate revenue growth in an increasingly competitive landscape. Our ability to increase revenue, grow loans and deposits and expand market share has benefited greatly from these initiatives, and we are excited to deploy our newest capability.

By strategically investing in innovative technology to grow primary relationships and low-cost funding deposits while also maintaining a focus on expanding high-value fee-based businesses to diversify revenue streams, we are building a stronger, more resilient franchise. Our investments in these initiatives contributed to a strong third quarter performance and create sustainable value for the future.

With that, I would now like to turn the call over to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Kelly Motta with KBW.

I think I might want to start off with your last comment about technology and layering in positive operating leverage. You guys were very committed to driving positive operating leverage this year. I mean clearly, some of these investments in technology have been helpful for that. As you think about the outlook ahead, I know it's a little early to start talking about '27, but based on your pipeline for investments and kind of just outlook for revenue growth, do you think that your investment should enable a continuation of the positive operating leverage we are poised to see for this year?

Yes. Sure. Thank you for the question, Kelly. We're very excited about the tech that we're rolling out. I don't know if I was excited enough in my prepared comments. But I sat through a demo yesterday of our Insight 360 tool, it is fantastic. I mean you're going to be able -- the customers are going to be able to aggregate all their banking relationships at one place, view transactions across various cards at various institutions, and we're going to be able to do a lot with AI and promos and it's going to help us tremendously drive household penetration here. So it's a very exciting time for us.

We spent a lot of time building this strategy out over the last 10 years. So the CapEx spend is kind of embedded in our guide for this year. And we are very optimistic about positive operating leverage moving forward I think it says a lot about the company. When you think about deployment of data science and AI relative to revenue generation and revenue opportunities, it's not as frequent. You do not see companies at this stage in the game talking about revenue. initiatives from an AI perspective because of the cost, but because we've started a long time ago, focused on data, data governance, building out the data infrastructure. We're in a much better position than others to capitalize on it from a revenue perspective. And then there are about 100 initiatives across the company where the utilization of AI to improve either efficiency or drive revenue are still on the docket.

Obviously, we've said this before, but we're not just going to jump in and tackle everything because the expense build, the CapEx spend and additional build and infrastructure and token utilization relative to data consumption is expensive.

So we're going to leg into it and take out what we think -- or accomplish the best opportunities, take out the expenses that are most notable or largest and then we're going to move in the same -- at the same time, parallel with our strategies on revenue generation and improving share of wallet within our customer base.

So the answer to the question is we have some great things coming out in the first quarter. We're on track to deliver Insight 360, the eStore Common App has been improved, and we continue to work on it to improve it over time. There's a migration down the road to enhancements to our mobile application in '27. There are some things coming at the end of '27. They're pretty interesting and cool and we're excited about all of that. And then we continue to invest in the wholesale bank we just started really digging into the processes and looking at ways to significantly improve turnaround times in the construction of underwriting documents and analysis.

So a lot of very exciting things, but I do not think that none of it really presents a barrier to us achieving positive operating leverage or performing at the same levels or better from an efficiency ratio perspective. So the fee income build too is exciting, and the departments that we launched, Corporate Finance, the investment banking initiative and public finance are taking off, too. So that should help the cause next year.

No, we have a very robust prioritization process, too, because it can't do everything at once. So really being very methodical in the investments that we're going after initially kind of those with higher value, maybe less cost to initiate to pursue. And then as we've done with new businesses, we kind of dig in. So we'll start with it and then expand it once it's kind of in place. Part of how we're funding that, too, is we have our cost savings target for the year for '26, $20 million. Some of that goes towards that. And then as we grow, this creates scale for us. So maybe don't have to add as many visions as we would otherwise we will still add but we want -- it gives us the ability to create scale as these initiatives that Vince was talking about are deployed. .

Got it. That's -- I appreciate all the color. That's super helpful. One more ticky-tacky question, and then I'll step back. You had really nice margin expansion this quarter, especially in light of the really strong balance sheet growth you had. Just wondering, part of that was cost of deposits were very well controlled. I'm wondering what the incremental cost of funding is coming on at? And maybe if you have a spot rate at the end of the quarter, that would also be helpful.

Yes. I would say, I mean, from a pricing standpoint, if we look at our overall funding, the CDs are a key part of that, of course, the rates that we're bringing those on in the month of September came on at like a 3.22 rate. Now our best rate is a 4.15 rate for kind of our most attractive product that we have, which is a 13-month CD. One of the things we did kind of strategically is put the best rate on a longer-term CD. If you go back a little bit, we were focusing on kind of 5- and 7-month CD. So we have that 4.15 on the 13 months is really our acquisition strategy, a product that we're using.

But even with that, so that helps with new accounts. The blend overall is at that 3.22 what we brought in, in the month of September. So we're not bringing everything on it that 4.15. So the 3.22 is a good reference point. The noninterest-bearing deposit growth even with a very strong deposit growth is still held at 26%. So having that mix of noninterest bank deposits is key to kind of the overall cost of funds. And as we've talked about in the past, we have a very rigorous process. We have weekly pricing every Monday at 4:00, we have deposit strategy meetings once or twice a month to talk about where we want to be priced. The goal that we've had for a while is to grow volume but also manage the cost side very diligently. So I think that was worked well this quarter.

The key is client primacy, the noninterest-bearing deposits. We've had great success maintaining that 26% threshold even with the growth. And that's directly correlated to the strategies that we've deployed to be the principal bank for our clients. So less gimmicks, more hand-to-hand combat, bringing over customers that actually produce. You have float and rebalances that helps bring those costs down. As you know, we've been pretty competitive and we've grown market share across the footprint. If you look at the FDIC data that came out, we have significant market share expansion relative to the markets overall. I guess on a relative basis, with the market shrinking, we were still able to expand, let's say it that way.

So I think we've had really good performance .80% of our markets were in the top 10%, 30% were in the top 3 in terms of deposit share. So we're we continue to work on improving that and have had great success both commercially and from a consumer perspective in these markets. 50% in the top 5 and good, strong performance across the board from a deposit perspective.

So what excites me the most is the Insight 360 tool and what it's going to enable us to do in terms of identifying deposit opportunities within our customer base and using our insights and data analytics tools to drive promos to move that money to F.N.B. That, to me, is very exciting.

SP1.

The next question comes from David Smith with Truist Securities.

Starting off on credit. You had a really good quarter for net charge-offs, but the NPL and delinquency ratio has picked up slightly. Was there anything suppressing the charge-off rate in the quarter, like a big recovery or anything or anything that led you to elevate that reserve build? Just trying to get a better sense of what we might expect for the fourth quarter provisions since the range there is pretty wide right now.

Yes, David. The quarter was really very pure, nothing from a large recovery standpoint. We just had really solid performance from a loss perspective across all of our portfolios, and that really drove the 12 basis points that we saw there. .

And as it relates to the delinquency, it was up 4 basis points. We do see some seasonality usually in this third quarter with vacations and whatnot. We've seen it over time. So it's a few basis points. No changes in the performance of those portfolios. And when you're driving metrics at these levels, which are near historical low levels for us, you're going to have a few basis point movements here and there just in the normal course of business. But all said, really strong performance across the portfolio throughout the whole quarter.

And then you're kind of already at mid-single loan growth from the fourth quarter of 25% as of the third quarter, but deposit balances still have a ways to go. Can you remind us just on either side of the balance sheet, anything we should be thinking about from a seasonality perspective going into the fourth quarter?

I know you've got the public funds balances that can move around in the second half.

Yes. There's still some continued seasonal growth on the municipal side. I mean there was a nice surge in the third quarter. That usually continues through October, November. As we've talked about, we have a pipeline over $1 billion that's being actively pursued on the deposit side for new relationships. So that's kind of part of our thinking as to what's in there. The range mid-single digits is pretty broad. So we'd be at the lower end of mid-single digits, if you do the math as far as the deposit growth, but it's still pretty strong deposit growth.

And by the way, in public finance, we are the principal bank. So we do not go after the money market offerings or compete on CDs or we have to be the principal disbursement bank to get the noninterest-bearing deposits to drive the returns in that business, just to be clear. .

So what happens is we're the operating bank, there are cash outflows that happen pre add the [indiscernible] collection. So the balances shrink. And then over time, they surge back in -- and you can see it's supported across the board because the deposit mix stayed consistent. So what Vince is saying is we continue to see that into -- late into the fourth quarter.

So last quarter, we kind of got penalized because there were delays in it. This quarter, everybody discounts it because they say, well, it's seasonal, it is what it is. So those are deposit -- it is deposit balance growth -- and it is across the board and we are the principal treasury management bank. I just want to make sure -- I'm clear on that because Vince keeps talking about municipal deposits. This is not a function of going after the high-priced deposits.

Right. That's helpful. Vince Calabrese, hear you right, that you're thinking that deposits will probably be on the lower end of mid-single digits for the fourth quarter?

Yes, that's exactly what I said. If you just look at the range from us, based on the growth in the third quarter, what we expect for the fourth quarter. And the more wins we get for new business, its gets higher into the middle of that range. So I mean, there's opportunity right in the middle of it. It all depends on our success bringing in new accounts. .

The next question comes from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James.

Maybe just digging into the loan growth side. So first on the C&I side, really strong growth again in the third quarter. You talked about, I think it was just mentioned that you're basically already at the guidance and the midpoint of the guidance range for the year. But just curious, kind of, and you had utilization down in the third quarter. Just curious how you see pipelines and expectations for C&I loan growth kind of near term?

And then if you think there's any -- if you're seeing anything or anticipating any impact from the increase in rates?

Yes. I think a couple of things. First of all, I do think we've had good solid C&I performance across the board. It's coming from areas that we wouldn't have normally expected to come from, too. So we're seeing good client expansion in our more rural areas that we cover, more traditional areas where manufacturing might be a little represent a little bit more of the GDP coming out of these markets like read what we call our Northwest market, which is permitted share and [indiscernible] into Youngstown, Ohio. So we're starting to see some decent growth there in those areas. And then the central part of the state, where Penn State is located, there's a big -- that's a big market for us. It's a pretty big geography, but we've had great success there. We have good leadership there and probably 1 of our best teams, I mean, end-to-end, real all the way through to commercial.

As you know, we won the Penn State business. So everyone's pretty excited about that. So there's a lot of activity there, and it shows in the numbers as we move throughout the year. So they both have good solid pipelines. Cleveland hasn't performed in the past few years is starting to come back pretty significantly. Pittsburgh is pretty solid. The Mid-Atlantic region, there's a lot of activity in the DC area that we're seeing. So there's a lot of good activity for us there. Baltimore is coming around. And the Carolinas, the we've had some transition in Raleigh. We've just hired a terrific leader in Raleigh and recruited some really good bankers have some bankers in the queue.

So we're looking forward to getting that turned around with strong leadership and Charlotte's performed pretty well. Charleston, South Carolina is performer from a commercial loan perspective, and we expect that to continue. We've expanded across most of South Carolina. We have plans to build branches in markets that we weren't in through acquisition like [indiscernible] Greenville were on our third branch, I think, right?

So we're getting some additional penetration there. So we're very excited and optimistic about it. I think we have a pretty large C&I pipeline. The short-term pipeline anyway moving into the fourth quarter. So we're feeling pretty good about that with some fairly large funded deals that are coming. Equipment finance continues to perform very, very well. obviously, because of the tax law changes and strong leadership there for us. Good team, we've seen some pretty outsized growth in those portfolios relative to historical levels, and that continues. So that should help drive us. From an interest rate perspective, I don't think that even though rates have spiked, prime sitting a little higher today than it has been in the last few years. But I've not seen that as a barrier to CapEx spend, to be honest.

I mean, the economy seems to be ripping. I know there are certain things that you look at and you worry about inflation and other things. But from a CapEx spending perspective, maybe some of its data centers and a good bit of it is but there's a ripple effect. Manufacturing is taking off in a number of these markets, so there's some considerable CapEx spend, and we would expect that to continue. into next year. I don't know, Gary, do you have anything you want to add?

I think you covered it, Vince. I mean, the pipeline is robust. It is diverse across all the markets, which Vince kind of touched on. Interest rates moving up a quarter, I don't think has a significant impact. The key question is, where is it all going? I think you'll see some significant CapEx spend here before the end of the year from a tax perspective. And we're seeing opportunities. It's [indiscernible]

[indiscernible]

We're at 182 from a CRE standpoint. I think we talked about it at the last quarter's call. We're moving towards that inflection point. The opportunities are starting to increase in that space. We're seeing some very nice opportunities, solid equity positions with really top-tier clients, and we expect that to be productive as we move into 2027.

Where I see a tougher road to hoe would be in the mortgage business moving forward with higher rates, that's going to be a headwind for mortgage. Go ahead, Vince.

Yes, vince is right. We'll probably see some headwinds in mortgage, but our mortgage business is very different from the other banks. It's primarily purchase. It's much less dependent on refi. We actually did an analysis a couple of weeks ago looking at the correlation to mortgage originations to rates. Our correlation is less than 1% right? Whereas the mortgage industry is over 97%.

We do have an advantage in the purchase money strategy, and it shows statistically. We're well ahead of the the industry in terms of originations for purchase money.

And the great thing about our mortgage business is that it brings new clients to our our bank. They tend to be younger. We focus a lot on our physicians program, which makes them a good portion of our portfolio mortgage. And with that, that brings us to deposits, its brings direct deposits, its brings primary accounts and the like. So to Vince's point, none of the stuff is rocket science, but it's hard.

I think the aggregation tool that we deployed in the consumer space and the consumer app is also going to help us on the loan side. I've been focusing on deposits, but we're going to be able to look at aggregated loan balances within our customer base and provide promotional offers to get them to refinance with us or outright analyze the implied interest rate and try to work with them to provide them with a product that maybe works a little better for them.

The bundling is another thing that we're working on. So there's a lot of very exciting things, Danny, and I -- so loan growth, I'm not that concerned about a loan-to-deposit ratio of 92%, the concentration in CRE of 180% is pretty solid for us. So there's a lot of opportunity moving into next year that hinges on more of a geopolitical and economic environment than an F.N.B. -- lack of F.N.B., opportunity let's put it that way.

That's terrific color. I appreciate all of that from everyone. And maybe a follow-up on credit for Gary. It sounds like you're saying things are still pretty good, even though the charge-off rate was still kind of low in the third quarter. And I think did you make a comment that there are some resolutions you're expecting in the fourth quarter that might bring that up higher in terms of charge-offs and then kind of a higher level similar to the loan growth side.

Just curious on your thoughts on what these rates here and maybe a bit higher if we get another hike in December could mean for how you're thinking about overall credit quality.

Yes. Just to clarify my prepared remarks. In terms of the resolutions that I referenced, so criticized loans were up slightly, 40 basis points during the quarter. We already have expected upgrades and payoffs without any charge-offs, no charge-offs relating to that, that will reduce that slight increase back to a net 0 position.

So that's what I was referencing, Daniel, in reference to the expected resolutions. Again, those resolutions are occurring here early in the quarter with no charge-offs expected from that group of transactions that I referenced -- what was the other part of the question?

Just the impact of higher rates on kind of longer-term critic quality?

Okay. Yes, sure. In terms of the rate environment, -- we've not seen any impact at this point. Naturally, it's only 25 basis points, and it's early.

In terms of our CRE portfolio, our maturity walls during the fourth quarter, we'll have about $0.5 billion that will be looking at from a renewal standpoint. As we look back over the last 12 to 18 months, generally speaking, about half of that is just paying off in a normal course of business, half of it is being extended. The majority of that extended on a long-term basis because it's a solid project that needed a little more time. Very little of it is being extended on a short -- extremely short-term basis because we're concerned about those particular projects.

As we look to '27, [indiscernible] $400 million a quarter to come up from a maturity loss standpoint. And we're all over the credits due to what we've all been through from an industry standpoint with CRE over the last 3 to 4 years or so. And there's nothing in there that's overly concerning to us at this point. So we're not expecting the current rate environment to impact our portfolio.

Shocks of 100 to 150 basis points would cause some issues, I think, across the industry, but we've been very successful in working through that as you've seen over the last 3 to 4 years, and we feel very confident that our portfolio will perform through any uptick in rates.

The next question comes from Casey Haire with Autonomous Research. .

I wanted to follow up on the deposit costs. The spot -- I'm not sure if I missed the spot deposit cost at 9.30. And then just some updated thoughts on where -- what cumulative beta expectations you guys are thinking about versus, I think it was 38% during the last cycle on a total basis and 53% on an interest bearing.

Yes. I would say regarding the beta, Casey, I mean the the last cycle is a good reference point to have the kind of the 30 to 40. If you look at the last year, we were 40% for total deposits through that last up cycle.

I mean it's a good reference point to use. I mean, we're very early in this cycle. And as we've done -- we've done a very nice job managing the deposit cost side of things. So over this next cycle, who knows how long it's going to last. Right? But I think just for reference, history is probably just a good reference point to have out there. As far as the deposit costs or the average for the month of September, -- $179, $240 kind of total and interest-bearing for the average for the month of September.

Okay. Great. Excellent. And then just wanted to circle back on the loan growth pipeline. So it's -- after a good quarter, it sounds like pipelines are robust, and you guys have a lot of confidence that another hike won't won't slow down loan growth. But at what point -- because there are 3 hikes in the curve currently, at what point does the -- does that policy start to impact loan growth? Because we are hearing anecdotes where commercial borrowers are starting to [indiscernible] at some of the price they have to pay for capital.

Yes. I mean we don't play in the higher risk space. So if we were in left in, for example, it would cause delays. It would cause people to say, hey, I can't accept the leverage. I can't make the debt service payments. We're not in high LTV, high-velocity real estate transactions. So that's an area where it would impact. So really have to drill into the portfolio. I've said it for a long time, Gary and his team are excellent. They're very conservative. We take returns that are where there's measured risk, and we feel confident that the ability to repay is there.

Most of our borrowers engage in some sort of swap or derivatives to fix the rate. So as you noticed, we got the benefit from the SOFR elevation. Vince was right. I wanted to tell him, he forecasted SOFR to the penny. I don't know if you remember the last call, you should look at the transcript.

But basically, -- its true.

[indiscernible]

I -- we've been rubbing the driving his head like trying to get -- figure out where rates are going. But like Vince, tell us what's happening next. But I think those are the businesses that are going to suffer the most. -- that's where you're going to see delays in CapEx spend, maybe pull back from lenders that aren't going to accept a thinner debt service coverage.

I think in our book, we're pretty -- most of the companies that we deal with have substantial cash flow and significant debt service coverage. So the interest rate environment is a factor. I mean, they're going to take it into consideration, but it's not going to stop them from moving forward on something that's going to benefit them in the long run. And if you look at what's happening with investment in the United States, there's billions of dollars flowing in. The current administration talks about it, but it is for real. I know the media doesn't really cover it much, but over $20 billion in -- I think it's $20 billion -- might be $20 trillion, right? I can't remember the number. It's huge right? There's -- no it's $20 billion, $20 billion of investment coming into the United States, not just in data centers, but kind of across a broad spectrum of industries. Ultimately, that leads to expansion of manufacturing capabilities and and the need for CapEx spend. So I think that, that is a positive, right, especially for the businesses that we lend to.

Casey, the other thing that I would add, we're pretty aggressive on the origination side of things from an underwriting perspective with shock rates. We'll shock these underwriting to 300 and 400 basis points. And I'm sure that's happening across the industry. We probably pay more attention to that than most in our credit selection. So we have a built-in cushion there pretty much across the board that is important to us. So I think that helps through cycles.

And that goes back to what I said earlier, Gary, because those shocks wouldn't work. if you have a highly levered transaction and you're trying to and you do a pro forma and you're shocking interest rates 300 basis, typically they don't carry debt service. So that underwriting methodology is automatically going to eliminate borrowers that essentially may be pulling back at this stage of the game, right? Or could work trigger defaults, right? If you've already put them on the books. Anyway. Gary does a great job and his team is terrific, Tom and Gary and we benefited from that for a long time, continue to. Anything else, Case?

The next question comes from Russell Gunther with Stephens.

This is Nick filling in for Russell and I wanted to start off on fees. Last quarter, I believe you guys highlighted investment banking, treasury and wealth areas that should support fee growth in the second half. And given the 3Q performance, how are you guys thinking about the composition of that roughly $94 million implied 4Q fee contribution? And -- are there any areas that are now tracking differently from what you expected coming into the quarter?

Well, I mean, we had a surge in derivative activity after the quarter. So unfortunately, the timing wasn't great for this quarter, but for next quarter, that bodes well. So we had some fairly substantial derivative fee income that rolled in, in the last week or so. I think -- I don't know. It's hard to forecast where that goes from here because we saw a big jump in rates, right, from the last Fed increase.

So I would suspect that anybody that's looking to fix a rate should be considering it given the outlook for at least 50% of their debt. So that -- we're pretty optimistic about that. We got several investment banking opportunities in the queue, public finance and corporate finance that should help there. We're doing really well from a TM perspective with treasury management fees and merchant fee income, working to optimize interchange, so there's upside interchange.

So I think when we look at it, -- we've got a good -- we gave you the guide because we feel confident that we can deliver, and that's what we're going to try to do.

Yes. I would add too. If you look at it from a PPNR standpoint, the modest increase you saw second to third quarter, which is a couple of things. First of all, in the second quarter, we had much higher residual gains in our equipment finance business like $3.7 million. So that was in other income kind of 2Q to 3Q that is kind of lumpy. You don't have that every quarter.

And then if you go through kind of the components. So the fee income, that push the income was the main driver were not being up more. The capital markets decrease reflected. We had record level of debt capital markets in the second quarter. The move in interest rates delayed swap execution, as Vince talked about, we have a good start to the fourth quarter. But with rates moving up, some customers decided to hold off on swaps, they were looking to execute Mortgage banking had impacts from higher rates on production as well as fair value impacts that affected the third quarter figure.

And then if you kind of look ahead and why we're confident in hitting the PPNR number the fourth quarter, there are several things. Loans and deposits on a spot basis were $400 million, $700 million higher than the average balance. So that gives you a good start from a net interest income standpoint to the fourth quarter. The full quarter benefit of loan repricing to SOFR as well as primary change that happened in mid-September to get a full quarter's benefit of that.

In the investment portfolio, reinvesting 200 to 250 basis points higher than where rates are rolling off. And then we do expect to be bounce back like Vince commented on in capital markets as well as mortgage capital markets has a very strong pipeline. And then expenses overall is in our guidance expected to decrease. We had some inflated legal costs, fraud losses elevated, we have a SWAT team going after that to bring that number back down, new leadership in our financial crimes unit and then the down payment assistance component. Those are 3 kind of chunky things that will lessen as you go into the fourth quarter.

So if you roll all that up, well, I know people commented on the PPNR miss in the third quarter, but we're confident in having a nice rebound in that in the fourth quarter. And for the full year, the PPNR growth is nice and the operating leverage is very strong.

The next question comes from Terry McEvoy with Wells Fargo.

Market expectations have changed over the last couple of months in terms of what the Fed is expected to do with rates? How has that impacted your asset liability positioning? And how are you evaluating derivatives to either protect capital or protect net interest income?

Yes. I would say we continue to manage our asset liability position to fairly new to or a little bit asset sensitive right now. I think it's really very little change Q2 and Q3. We'll continue to manage that way.

And then I thought your comments on the manufacturing sector driving the C&I growth where it was insightful. Was that specific industry verticals you're focused on? Was that some of the markets or maybe some of the investments coming into the country that was mentioned a few minutes ago?

Well, I think it's -- there's a lot of it is coming through in the equipment finance business early, right? So the first thing that happens is the companies go out and start to procure equipment to deal with increasing demand. We're seeing that. And there's an incentive bonus depreciation to do it quickly. So there was a surge and that type of investment, usually that's a precursor to overall large CapEx investment.

So I think that's to follow. I don't even think we've seen it yet. So we're starting to see it emerge. The supply chain for these industries is pretty deep automotive. The -- even the data centers that are being built, they're structural steel components. There's all kinds of stuff. It goes into building these data centers and there's quite a bit of new construction going on across the Southeast, the light manufacturing facilities, owner-occupied facilities, expansion of owner-occupied. In the supply chain for a variety of industries, there's a ripple effect. So it kind of ripples through the manufacturing sector. So we're seeing benefits across the board.

And then transportation remains strong even though there are periods where and flows. It seems like it's still coming back pretty strong. So at least our clients are doing pretty well. So I think that all bodes well for us moving into next year, barring some, like I said before, some crazy geopolitical or economic scenario.

Yes. Just to add to Vince's comments, the manufacturing space has always been important to us organizationally. It's what we've all done for our banking careers from Vince all the way through our -- many of our bankers. And so we hold a good position there. We understand the business, and we have a lot of clients that we have banked for many, many years over the course of our careers, and it continues to be a really, really key segment for us moving forward. .

The next question comes from Timur Braziler with UBS.

Going back to some of the fee income comments. I think, Vince, you had called out that you were lead left on a pretty large public finance deal. Was that in 3Q or 4Q?

And then I guess maybe more broadly, as you're thinking about the investment banking rollout public finance, I think last time we spoke, you guys mentioned that are both kind of in the first inning of the build-out there. Just what does that trajectory look like? And is there incremental investments that need to take place within some of these fee income verticals to get them up to where they ultimately get to?

Yes, those are great questions. The public finance transaction were less lead occurs in the fourth quarter. So it has not closed yet. -- we want the business, we won the mandate, which we were excited about. But we've already closed several large transactions where we were a participant in the bond offering. So we benefited from the economics of issuing debt, and that should continue into the fourth quarter.

There are others that were other larger deals that are coming that we're going to be part of the syndicate. So we'll benefit there in public finance.

If you look at investment banking, our team that we hired basically is only now starting to make penetration into the customer base. So -- we're starting to see some really good leads coming out. I was on a call last week where there was tremendous opportunity for us to partner with 1 of our clients who's acquisitive. There's going to be continued opportunities there without a lot of added expense.

In public finance, there's some build-out that has to occur from a sales and trading perspective as we continue to evolve and grow. But as we've said before, our plan is to generate revenue and leg into the build-out. So the or the investments, let's say, not necessarily CapEx but personnel investment that goes into those areas, we should be able to handle within our efficiency ratio guide. And I think it's because we're balancing revenue, right, with the addition of personnel, and we've been able to do that with a pretty thin staff to date. And that's how we've grown most of our business...

National banking is a good case for case for them, right? I mean, it's consistently a couple of million dollars a quarter, and we started that from scratch and add to it as we grew.

So it started with 1 person. So we have all of our businesses were not, we're not going to launch. We're not a huge investment bank. We're going to bring in a lot of people and put them on the bench and tell them to generate revenue. We're kind of legging into this based upon opportunities.

We've done that with 11 businesses now, starting from scratch and grew it.

So significant increase in noninterest income over time is attributed to those 11 businesses because we shrunk the consumer fee income significantly during that same period. Right? We've grown the number of clients. If you look at the fees per account, they're down with overdraft fees and other things declining. So we've been able to do a pretty good job of creating a very diverse set of businesses that generate high-value fee income.

And if you go back, I think if we go back 15 years, right, $160 million up to where we are today. So it seems to work.

And if you look at Page 17 of our investor deck and you look at where the contribution of fee income are, they're largely demonstrating with our clients, right? It's transaction charges, it's wealth management. And if you look over time, we've been able to do this without meaningfully increasing our efficiency ratio, right? These are historically higher efficiency ratio of businesses, but by virtue of a lot of the expense management that you've seen over years, I mean this is now 10 years now, the efficiency ratio has really maintained over time.

And there's 1 other -- we started another boutique business within the wealth segment itself because we're now going to support family offices with our high net worth team. So there's some opportunity there as well, but Alfred is right. I mean we've been able to maintain the efficiency ratio. These typically are -- they're higher return businesses, but they have an impact on the efficiency ratio. -- because there's a larger expense burden associated with personnel that are brought with compensation, variable compensation and base compensation.

So we've been able to manage that very well over a long period of time. Anyway, I hope that answers your question,?

No, that's good color. I appreciate all that. And then maybe just another one on the mortgage portfolio. It's been a couple of quarters now where the commentary has been that it's either slowing or more of that is going to maybe get sold into the secondary market and the growth there still remains pretty robust. Is the thought here that concentration stays at around 30% and that business line grows alongside some of the commercial verticals or maybe as CRE comes back online, either production slows or more of that is sold off?

No, I think the percentage will decline over time simply because we're going to outgenerate others in deposits, and we're going to deploy those deposits into our C&I and other categories. So I think as a percentage, to your point, this should decline just by the nature of the opportunities that exist out there for us. .

I think the mortgage business for us, the stuff that's going on the balance sheet is very high quality for the most part, very high-quality mortgage loans that super high credit scores, a lot of physicians loans are coming on, putting them on the balance sheet, right, because they have certain special aspects to the offering.

But outside of that, I would expect us to continue to move performing mortgage loans and service them. So we would expect that to continue. And moving into a purchase money environment like we are, that will happen more frequently. So the margins will be a little thinner because interest rates went up so significantly. So selling a mortgage loan servicing retain, but you're going to get a lower margin than you would have in the lower rate environment.

But nonetheless, our goal is to move it off the balance sheet. We also periodically look at portfolios to sell. So some banks have announced big sales. We do little bites.If you go back and look, you'll see we package up a small portfolio and sell it. And that's happened pretty regularly over the last 7, 8 years. And that continues to be our plan. We constantly evaluating a single household mortgage loans, anything that doesn't fit our franchise footprint or we don't see opportunities to grow with the customer, we'll package it up and sell it post close once it's on the balance sheet.

So we don't rule that out either.

There's also some seasonality that drives that percentage up with the physicians program. So we keep those on balance sheet, and that kind of moves the percentage up. One other factor, too, the commercial real estate has talked about, we've been having payoffs that's been kind of running down when that turns, that will move that back up and will also affect the concentration from a mortgage perspective.

That was the point Timur has raised Yes. Maintain this given the changes that are coming with loan demand. And I would say it comes down as a percentage...

More like [indiscernible]

The next question comes from Manuel Navas with Piper Sandler.

The midpoint in the NII for next quarter implies pretty continued strong NIM expansion. Can you talk a little bit more in depth about the near-term NIM dynamics. Do you have a September NIM as well? .

Yes. September NIM was within a basis point of the quarter. It was 3.28%. The quarter was 3.29%. So pretty much in line with that. I would take into our guidance is the margin going up kind of gradually in the low to mid-single digits kind of movement in margin kind of third quarter to fourth quarter. .

And the items that I mentioned before, you're going to get the full quarter benefit of the repricing that occurred in the middle of September, plus so we're getting higher in the 3.90, 3.93, I think it was yesterday, that affects -- we get the full quarter's benefit of that. So that also kind of feeds into that.

And there's still some seasonality in deposit flows that -- and the pipeline for commercial is still pretty strong, too. So there's some potential deposit to help as well.

Yes. And as I mentioned, too, the spot balance is being significantly above the average for the quarter, particularly on the loan side to drive net interest income is also a factor in the investment any reinvestment on the securities portfolio, which is like I said 200 to 250 says probably 250 basis points above where securities are rolling off.

Okay. We've talked about the CRE balances kind of churning at sub wane. Can you just remind us some of the dynamics there? And what timing do you think that, that could start building again?

Yes. Emmanuel, in terms of where we sit today with expected moves out of the portfolio into the secondary market, -- we actually look at Q4 as right now being a little less than originally expected. We've had a few transactions click over the calendar year-end into the first quarter. I would say early in 2027, you will see the lines cross over there, and we'll start to start to see that balance move in the other direction to the positive side of that equation.

Okay. I appreciate that. And then my last question here is kind of a refresh on capital deployment priorities. CET1 is still really strong. Could the buyback accelerate here? Or -- and what could get you to become interested in M&A? Just some comments on capital deployment at this current moment.

I think as we look at deploying capital, we continue to maintain the same strategy, which is to do what we think is best from an earn-back perspective and accretion perspective. So we are focused on a couple of things. You've seen a big pickup in our buyback activity because we have capital, we get flexibility.

To do that, we increased the dividend a quarter or so ago. So I think there's room to do things. From an M&A perspective, if we find something that was accretive to capital accretive to earnings and didn't hurt our deposit mix and provided really big IRRs or we will look at a deal with an earn-back that's reasonable.

But as far as I'm concerned, there's not as much as people think out there that is attractive and we built a very attractive franchise, and it's performing extraordinarily well from an organic growth perspective. And we continue to invest in our capabilities to take share from larger competitors, smaller ones alike. And we are going to continue to ride that train, right? If something came along that looked good fit was accretive, we're like some of the smaller deals that we did in the last few years, that makes a lot of sense to us. We would look at it.

But again, this is all being looked at relative to the absolute best deployment of capital with the highest returns and the best outcome for the shareholders interest. One has to go.

And I think that a key point is it gives us optionality. [indiscernible] adjusted CET1 ratio is higher than the stated CET1 ratio for a lot of the banks that reported already. Right? And then Basel III -- in game probably adds some pick up there as well. So we've got a lot of capital flexibility. We've seen us deploy that into lending, which just on a sense deploy that into buybacks and dividends. And I think that's a reflection of the capital generation capability of the organization.

So as investors, you'll see a ton of optionality that we have by virtue of the business model. But I think we haven't changed our philosophy, I guess that's what I'm saying, it' still the same.

Yes. Just to put the buy backs in some context, right? So for the first 9 months, we repurchased $133 million and last year it was $32 million, we did $51 million is quarter. I think it continues to be very attractive to stock than it was where we were buying in the third quarter. So clearly, there's opportunity to continue to be active on the buyback side.

I

The next question comes from Brian Martin with Brean Capital.

Just a couple of follow-ups, I guess, just from what you guys have said. On the loan outlook, sounds like the outlook heading into next year -- this fourth quarter and next year is more C&I and CRE focused? Is that kind of that's leading the charge that's accurate. Just make sure I understand what you're saying there.

I would agree with that, Brian. Yes.

Got you. Okay. And then just on, I guess, Vince calibrated, I guess, just on the margin, I think just in general, can you just remind us, given the -- I know you're preliminary given you haven't given guidance for at least outlook for next year, but just the impact of the potential rate hikes and how you're thinking about those as you look into 2027?

Just build off what Scott said earlier. I mean from an interest rate risk standpoint, we're at slightly asset sensitive, but pretty close to neutral. So the impact really as you look ahead into next year, it's not material. .

Got you. Okay. Just confirming that. And then just, Vince, the new loan mods, you talked about deposits, but just where are new loans coming on today, if you can, I guess, broadly comment on that?

Yes. For the month of September, they came on at 570, which is 13 basis points higher than the portfolio yield. So that was the Level 4 for the month of September. .

Okay. And are they better for the C&I and CRE that are going to lead, I guess, potentially that the growth is, are they better on those, I guess, the yield there? How are those versus kind of that average for the September?

[indiscernible] quarter. So I don't want to get that precise. .

Yes, yes. Okay. I got you. And then did you say, Vince, maybe I misunderstood you. I think you commented somewhere there about a rebound in mortgage. I didn't know if that was in relation to fee income and kind of gain on sale line or maybe just -- if that's -- I guess what I was wondering on just to clarify that into fourth quarter.

Yes. No, just fee income moving up from third quarter level, not materially, but that it would bounce back up from where it was in the third quarter. The other element to your initial question, Brian, too, is on the commercial real estate the rates on those that are paying off are higher. So that's the headwind to margins that when that turns, as Gary commented, that also will be additive from a margin standpoint.

Right. Okay. That's what I was asking. And then just last 1 for me. I think, Gary, given the uptick in rates here, I guess any industries, obviously, credit is great, and your team has done a great job. Just any areas you're watching more closely today from a credit standpoint as you look into the next couple of quarters or into next year?

Yes. I mean, naturally, the CRE maturity wall quarter-by-quarter outlook is 1 that we watch very closely because interest rate movements can impact values and can impact debt surplus coverages. So that's something that we're constantly all over. Naturally, the commercial C&I borrowers get impacted as well, primarily the smaller business clients can see some more impact from that.

So it's part of our management of risk across the portfolio when interest rates start changing. And we're looking at each and every portfolio on a regular basis, Brian, to stay ahead of that.

So again, just a focus of the team in managing the risk on a day-to-day basis, and we'll continue to do that as we have.

The next question comes from Kelly Motta with KBW.

I have a really quick follow-up. Just a minor point of clarification from the transcript thus far. The comment about deposits being on the lower end of the mid-single-digit range. Was that a comment about the full year or indeed a comment about Q4?

Yes. No, the mid-single-digit guide, what I'm saying is the range that would imply. So kind of normal activity gets you to the low end of that range, but we have a variety of initiatives. We have a very strong treasury management pipeline. We have a variety of initiatives on the retail side to drive additional deposits. So the more successful we are on those, you get more into the kind of the mid of the mid-single digits. So that was what I was saying. It's probably confusing the way that I said it.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Vince Delie for any closing remarks.

Thank you, everybody. Really appreciate the questions, a lot of very detailed questions. And I'd like to congratulate our team and thank everybody. We had a whole village here presenting to you. Everybody chipped in, and I appreciate that. We've got a very good strong leadership team across the company, and we have a group of people here. They That are very capable of driving the business that we have and answering these questions. So we're lucky to have him here.

But thank you for your interest, and we appreciate you participating in the call. Thank you.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, and welcome to the F.N.B. Corporation Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lisa Hajdu, Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to our earnings call. This conference call of F.N.B. Corporation and the report that filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission often contain forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to and not as an alternative for our reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP. A Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP operating measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our presentation materials and in our earnings release. .

Please refer to these non-GAAP and forward-looking statement disclosures contained in our related materials, reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on our corporate website. A replay of this call will be available until Friday before, and the webcast link will be posted to the -- about Us, Investor Relations section of our corporate website.

I will now turn the call over to Vincent Delie. Chairman, President and CEO.

Thank you, and welcome to our second quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Vince Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer; and Gary Guerrieri, our Chief Credit Officer. F.N.B. second quarter earnings per share grew 17% year-over-year to $0.42, with net income of $149 million.

Our results included another quarter of record totaling $463 million, driven by net interest income of $366 million and solid noninterest income of $97 million. The solid quarterly performance contributed to pre-provision net revenue increasing 9% from the year ago quarter and positive operating leverage.

On a year-over-year basis, tangible book value per common share increased 10% to $12.24, demonstrating our strong profitability levels and commitment to peer-leading internal capital generation. F.N.B. repurchased $47 million or 2.7 million shares of common stock at a weighted average share price of $17.46. F.N.B. capital levels remained strong with TC at nearly 9% and with a solid return on average tangible common equity at 14%. Period-end loans increased 7.5% on an annualized linked quarter basis. with growth led by commercial and industrial, consumer lending and seasonal residential mortgage production.

DNI's 8% annualized linked quarter growth was driven by lower risk rated high-quality commercial borrowers. By leveraging our deep product set in capital markets, we were able to produce double-digit returns for the overall relationship while maintaining our strict credit discipline and originating lower risk assets in a volatile geopolitical and economic environment.

Our commitment to deepening customer relationships and serving as their primary operating bank was a key driver for 3% annualized growth in total average deposits, with average noninterest-bearing deposit balances growing nearly 5% annualized despite the competitive environment. At quarter end, noninterest-bearing deposit balances were over $10 billion for the second consecutive quarter, allowing us to maintain a 26% mix of noninterest-bearing to total deposits for the seventh consecutive quarter.

Our data analytics team has been able to leverage the success of our proprietary eStore and common application to gather additional data points for meaningfully improved insights on customers' preferences and competitive pricing. This ability enables us to use our significant investments in our data hub machine learning to analyze the relationships holistically to strategically price deposits. Our ability to utilize insights to drive pricing decisions contributed to the total cost of deposits decreasing 3 basis points linked quarter and 21 basis points from the year ago quarter.

Our wealth management revenue is up 8% year-over-year, aided by the utilization of new tools to improve client engagement with advanced financial planning, better portfolio analysis and increased efficiencies. For example, our brokerage advisers have been able to quickly translate complex financial data into intuitive visuals for our clients. These tools paired with the key strategic financial advisory hires across our footprint, helped to expand client relationships and produce record brokerage fee income this quarter.

We have also achieved solid progress on the development of our new AI-enabled customer aggregation and insight tool Insight 360. The ultimate goal will provide our clients and bankers with the ability to optimize their banking relations and improve product penetration. Our Insight 360 tool is expected to go live by the end of the year with additional enhancements to be introduced over time. In combination with the common app, Insight 360 will enable F.N.B. to continue to grow our share of wallet and customer primacy based upon positive outcomes for our clients.

As we've demonstrated over the past decade, we can successfully introduce innovative digital and data solutions, while also achieving a top quartile efficiency ratio. We will maintain the same disciplined approach towards managing expenses to implement AI through the reallocation of resources, leveraging our current technology investments and analyzing the efficiency gained over the long term.

We believe F.N.B. is one of the best positioned financial institutions to strategically expand AI and data analytics usage to drive efficiency and accelerate revenue growth. Our value proposition is being a trusted and regulated financial institution with fintech capabilities. These attributes will serve us well as we continue to adapt to a changing competitive landscape.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Gary to discuss our credit results for the quarter.

Gary?

Thank you, Vince, and good morning, everyone. We saw improvement in our continued solid asset quality metrics this quarter with both delinquency and NPL an Oreo decreasing 3 bps compared to the prior quarter. totaling 71 and 31 basis points, respectively. Net charge-offs continued to show solid performance, totaling 19 basis points, up 1 bp compared to the prior quarter. Criticized loans declined slightly in the quarter with a 68 basis point reduction compared to the prior year. .

Total funded provision expense for the quarter stood at $21.3 million, again supporting strong loan growth. Our ending funded reserve now stands at $447 million, an increase of $4.3 million, ending at 1.25%. When including acquired unamortized loan discounts, our reserve stands at 1.3%, and our NPL coverage position remains strong at 420%, inclusive of the discounts.

We continue to maintain qualitative overlays for potential supply chain impacts due to the events in the Middle East and ongoing tariff unserved. Our consistent underwriting and strong credit risk curriculum allow us to grow high-quality earning assets throughout various economic cycles, as shown in our results. With our focus on less volatile industries and asset classes, we remain optimistic that our diversified customer base will continue to show resilience as it has in the past.

Our consumer portfolio is very strong despite continued inflationary pressures. Average origination FICO scores were 784 in the quarter with delinquency of 66 basis points and charge-offs of 6 bps, both remaining at multiyear lows. During the quarter, we saw solid C&I loan growth, including a slight uptick in line utilization, along with higher CRE production. However, our overall CRE exposure declined in the quarter due to planned secondary market activity. ending at 187% of Tier 1 capital plus allowance.

We are continuing to see increasing levels of CRE activity in our desired asset classes throughout our markets. In closing, despite the continued volatility in the markets, we saw a solid loan growth across the portfolios. Our loan book is strong and well diversified and pipelines continue to remain at solid levels, positioning us to achieve our growth targets as we move into the second half of the year.

I will now turn the call over to Vince Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer, for his remarks.

Thanks, Gary, and good morning. Today, I will review the second quarter's financial results. and walk through our third quarter and full year guidance. Second quarter net income totaled $148.7 million or $0.42 per share, a 17% year-over-year increase driven by total revenues up 5.6% and prudent management of operating expenses, generating a 9% PPNR increase. .

Turning to the balance sheet. Loan activity was robust. Spot total loans and leases ending the quarter at $35.8 billion, a 7.5% annualized linked quarter increase. Growth of $547 million in consumer loans and $111 million in commercial loans and leases drove the increase. Spot C&I loans and commercial leases were up over 8% linked quarter annualized and were $186 million, driven primarily by growth in the Mid-Atlantic and Pittsburgh markets. CRE balances continued to be impacted by payoffs as expected and were down $129 million linked quarter.

Seasonal strength in residential mortgages and HELOC growth fueled the rise in consumer loans. Average total deposits grew at a 3% annualized rate for the first quarter driven by growth in noninterest-bearing balances, low-cost transaction deposits and time deposits. Of note, spot noninterest-bearing deposits increased $53 million, exceeding $10 billion for the second consecutive quarter and remain stable at 26% of total deposits.

Looking forward, public funds deposits typically build in the second half of the year and the treasury management deposit pipeline was strong at quarter end. The loan-to-deposit ratio ended the quarter at a healthy level of 92.5%. While the second quarter's net interest margin of [ 3.25% ] was equal to last quarter's NIM and Net interest income increased more than 7% on a linked-quarter annualized basis. Total yield on earning assets declined only 1 basis point linked quarter [indiscernible] with a 4 basis point decline in loan yields, offset by a 7 basis point increase in investment securities yields.

The decline in loan yields reflects the impact of lower 1-month sulfur on adjustable rate loans and tighter spreads on new originations. Reinvestment rates on investment securities remained well above the overall portfolio yields. Interest-bearing deposit costs declined 4 basis points driven by lower rates on money market and CD balances, while total borrowing costs improved by 1 basis point. As a result, the total cost of funds decreased 2 basis points to [indiscernible] .

On a year-over-year basis, net interest income increased 5.3% from the year ago quarter as the NIM expanded 6 basis points and earning assets grew 3%. Turning to noninterest income and expense. Noninterest income totaled $97 million, up 6.5% from the second quarter of 2025. Capital markets income increased 16% to $8 million on solid contributions from debt capital markets interest rate derivatives and International Banking as well as early contributions from our newer businesses of investment banking and public finance.

Wealth management revenues increased nearly 8% year-over-year the $22 million with contributions across the geographic footprint. Noninterest expense totaled $253 million, a 2.9% increase from the year ago quarter. Salaries and employee benefits increased 4.4%, reflecting strategic hiring and normal merit increases. Occupancy and equipment increased 5.1%, primarily due to technology-related investments and higher occupancy costs. Outside services increased 11.6%, driven by higher third-party legal and consulting costs. Even with these increases, the second quarter efficiency ratio remains solid at 53.7%, down more than 100 basis points from the year ago quarter, and we continue to manage our expense base in a disciplined manner.

F.N.B. continues to actively manage our capital position to support balance sheet growth and optimize shareholder returns while appropriately managing risk. Share repurchases totaled $47 million in the second quarter, more than $80 million for the first half of the year more than 300% increase from the dollar amount repurchased during the first half of 2025. Over $250 million in share repurchase authorization remained at quarter end. Stepped up repurchase pace and our recent quarterly common dividend increase reflects our strong financial performance and capital levels as evidenced by the TCE ratio of nearly 9% and a stable CET1 ratio of 11.4% in the quarter.

Let's now look at guidance for the third quarter and full year of 2026. Our guidance is based on current expectations while remaining cognizant of the highly uncertain macroeconomic geopolitical environments. We are maintaining our full year balance sheet guidance for spot balances projecting period-end loans and deposits to grow mid-single digits on a full year basis. Full year net interest income guidance has been revised to a range of $1.485 billion, $1.515 billion due to a combination of our first half results and our expectation for a continuation of heightened deposit competition within the industry.

We are assuming no Fed interest rate actions for 2026. Third quarter net interest income is projected between $375 million to $385 million. Noninterest income full year guide remains $370 million to $390 million, The third quarter level is expected between $93 million and $98 million. The full year guidance range for noninterest expense has been tightened $1.01 billion -- $1.02 billion we expect to be toward the high end of the range. Third quarter noninterest expense is expected to be between $255 million and $260 million. continue to expect strong positive operating leverage for full year 2026.

Full year provision guidance has been revised to a range of $80 million to $95 million down from $85 million to $105 million previously, given our favorable credit performance during the first half of the year and will be dependent on net loan growth and charge-off activity for the rest of the year. Lastly, the full year effective tax rate should be between 21% and 22%, which does not assume any investment tax credit activity that may occur.

With that, I will turn the call back to Vince.

Thank you, Vince. Our results are a testament to the talent, dedication and hard work of our employees, supported by our ongoing investments in AI and data analytics. The culture of F.N.B. is rooted in teamwork and collaboration, where we strive to collectively win together. F.N.B. continues to earn independent recognition for our client service financial performance and culture. This quarter, we were proud to be named as the Lender of the Year by the Export-Import Bank of the United States and a top workplace by Newsweek as well as earning the top financial innovations in North America award by Global Finance.

These select examples of F.N.B. third-party recognition, highlight the strength of our business model financial achievements and quality of our team. We've been able to recruit a number of highly talented executives in recent months, which adds to the depth of our leadership team and bankers. Earlier this month, Brian Mitchell, retired as Chief Fullsale Banking Officer. Since joining FNB in 2018, he has played a significant role in executing our strategy and was particularly instrumental in the early build-out of our capital markets capabilities.

I would like to thank Brian and convey our appreciation for his contributions over the past 9 years as F.N.B. continues to evolve into an elite commercial bank and a formidable competitor in our markets. I wish him all the best in his retirement.

With that, I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. -- maybe starting just on the reduction in the net interest income guidance. Just curious where you think the biggest change that occurred in the second quarter that drove that was and then assuming it's on the competition side, I know you talked a little bit about tighter loan spreads but as well as on the deposit side. Just curious if you think we are nearing kind of the end of the improvement on the deposit cost side?

Yes, I would say a couple of things, Danny. If you look at where we came in, $366 million, slightly below the guidance range. The 2 factors you just mentioned are part of it, for sure, that we commented on in the prepared remarks. And the decline in 1-month SOFR, like from peak to trough was 9 basis points during the quarter, kind of bottomed right at the end of May, so that has a significant impact. We have $13 billion worth of loans that are tied to 1 month over.

So that really coming from peak to trough down 9 basis points during the quarter the expectation is with the futures market is saying that, that kind of comes back and gets to like [ $3.73 ] on average in the third quarter. So that clearly affected the second quarter quite a bit. The competitive environment for deposits is there for everybody. We still had an ability to produce our interest-bearing deposit costs by 4 basis points.

So that was an accomplishment given the kind of the environment that we were in during the quarter. And then the spreads on kind of higher quality, lower risk loans that are tighter than other loans is definitely a factor 2. But if you kind of go forward to the next quarter, I mean, so the SOFR bounce back, as I mentioned, the normal seasonality in deposits that occurs from July through kind of October, November on the municipal side. We do expect that to come through and that replaces short-term borrowings, it helps to pay and fund for the loans.

I mean the higher short-term borrowings in the second quarter loan was like an extra $4 million interest expense or a reduction in net interest income. So that seasonality comes through, continue to have a very strong treasury management deposit pipeline on the commercial side of the house kind of over $1 billion that we're going after. So those are larger, there's more a longer lead time, but that's still very active and continues to be worked. And then the CRE headwind from payoffs, we expect another quarter of that, the third quarter and then expect that to dissipate some as you get into the fourth quarter. And those are loans that are probably 25 basis points or so higher than other loans.

So as those pay down, it definitely has an impact on the overall margin. And then the reinvestment rates on the security side we're reinvesting 125 to 150 basis points above kind of the roll-off rate. And for the next 12 months, it's $100 million in monthly cash flow, kind of $309 million on average rolling off. picking up 125 to 150 basis points on that. And I guess the last thing I'll pause on is just kind of the exit margin. So for the month of June was at 3.27%, a couple of basis points higher than where the full quarter came in and there's fees and stuff that fluctuate from month to month, but that's kind of our exit point into the third quarter.

Really helpful. And you hit on this a little bit on my next question on the CRE payoffs remaining elevated in the second quarter, but just kind of taking a step back a little bit here, certainly impacted by the payoffs, but the CRE has really the concentration ratio, but also just the percentage of the book has shrunk over the last several quarters going back for a while now. And mostly replaced by an increase in resi mortgage. I think you guys talked about coming into the year that was expected to grow at a similar pace to the book has outpaced so far.

You've got some seasonality in the second quarter certainly that impacts that. But just curious how you think about that mix going forward, if you have a reduction in payoffs in the CRE starts to pick up, do you think you portfolio fewer residential mortgage loans and that mix starts to get back to where it was? Or you're still willing to grow the balance sheet with the resi side even as the CRE starts to pick up?

Yes. I think the residential -- the contributions to growth from the resi portfolio. And that's largely physicians loans, very, very, very high-quality, larger mortgage loans coming on the book our -- we're not trying to rely on that to drive net interest income. That's not the case. And we've actually sold the portfolio. So we've actually sold some of the stuff that we've originated as it doesn't contribute deposits and other things that sits outside of markets we packaged up our portfolio and sold it actually. I don't know when it closed First quarter Yes.

So the impact of that is going to be in this quarter to some of those assets had higher yields on. But I think our goal is to try to drive growth across the portfolio, not to be reliant on one particular asset class. I think the CRE runoff, that's a train that you can't stop easily. We're financing construction and the stuff go into the permanent market. And quite frankly, there just wasn't enough -- there aren't enough projects driving on demand in that space. And that's starting to change. So I think -- I don't know, Gary, you could comment on...

Yes. During the quarter, Danny, the CRE growth was right at about $284 million that compared to $190 million in Q1. We are seeing a lot of very solid opportunities in that space. It is competitive as I think everyone is aware, the industry is really focused on CRE at this point. And there are some nice opportunities that have come through the organization. So we do expect that to continue to ramp up in the asset classes that we want to play in.

In reference to the mortgage that you had mentioned and Vince referenced -- the second quarter is an extremely high seasonal quarter for us because the doctors come out of school in March and they move into their new roles at the hospital organizations that they're joining and they go right into purchasing home -- so the second quarter is our seasonal peak there. Third quarter is -- the volume is still good, but generally lower around that doctor's program, and then it really tails off in Q4 and Q1 from that part of the program.

I'll add to that, too. We were talking about this a little earlier, Gary, and the pipeline is at a record in total pipeline, which includes CRE is at a record level for us at this point. So again, remember, it lagged for a little bit. Historically, has been growing and then we flattened out and it actually declined for a period or 2, but now it's back up above the all-time highs. So the short-term pipeline has contracted because we pushed a lot of volume through we closed a lot of deals this quarter.

So we should see that pick up again because it will pull through, right, from the larger pipeline. It's at least nearly 10% over where it was last quarter. So we expect the second half of the year, particularly this quarter coming up, just to see some good activity in C&I and CRE fundings, right, Gary? And then that will make up the fall off of the resi mortgage and the consumer growth that we've seen. So we're expecting to have a decent second half of the year from a commercial perspective. With that, there are a bunch of deposit clients, treasury management clients that we have in the pipeline that we're pulling through. Again, some largest clients in our history.

So we were able to win business at some pretty sizable entities. And it's going to help us in the second half of the year with deposit growth in addition to the seasonal inflows that we should see. I don't know if you want to comment, [indiscernible], on the deposits in general and what's happening in the consumer bank and...

Yes. I mean it continues to remain competitive. I think what we're had great success with is driving engagement with our existing and new clients. And oftentimes, particularly in the mortgage space, oftentimes that comes with low-cost DDA accounts. And we're being strategic about how we price the post some areas, we have opportunities to reduce deposit costs in some areas.

We want to be competitive, particularly in some of our new markets. While I'm never pleased with their caustic months and I'm always critical of memory that our people make. I think it's part of my job. Alfred, you made a comment earlier, or monitoring the reporting that's occurred to date. So how do we compare Yes. I mean deposit perspective, I -- and to that point, we're obviously managing to the dual mandates of lowering our deposit cost and providing debt as balance as to the impossible sure. But this quarter, we were 1 of the few banks, I think, we're tracking something like 15 banks that have reported so far. I think we're 1 of 3 that actually had a lower cost to deposit from the prior quarter. So despite the fact that the rate environment meaningfully changed from the beginning of the quarter to now, it kind of highlights the discipline that we've had and how we price these things.

Yes. It's actually 2 things. It's disciplined from a pricing perspective and strategy in the pricing using the insights that we have to maintain or try to maintain our margins, plus the investments that we've made to maintain primacy and some of the initiatives that Alfred and his team have launched, particularly the mortgage company with Wingspan, which is a bundling of services. that we do.

So you'll see more of that in our Insight 360 tool that we mentioned is going to be right in the sweet spot of driving better outcomes from a cost of deposit perspective, so -- and gaining share in primacy. So I'm very excited about that. I can't wait until you guys get to see it really cool. -- anyway Hope that was helpful.

Very, very helpful, Vince. I appreciate the color, Vince carrying out for as well. I'll step back...

Our next question comes from David Smith with Truist.

Could you help us size the impact of the public funds deposit seasonality? Just deposits are down a little bit year-to-date right now and you're still calling for mid-single-digit growth. And it sounds like it's going to be another solid quarter of loan growth for your commentary. So -- just thinking about the impact here? And how much of the deposit cost decrease this quarter might have to come back and in the continued competitive backdrop for deposits you site, particularly if we do end up getting fed hikes?

The format's answers that, I just want to make a comment. The municipal business that we have is we're the primary operating bank for the municipalities. We don't just go out and accept deposits replaced plugged from one of the high-yielding money market options that they have. So that's not our strategy. Our strategy is to go in, provide the operating accounts provide the treasury management services for those entities disbursements and collections and then benefit from the excess balances as they flow in.

So while there will be a surge in the deposit balances, there is -- it doesn't significantly change the mix because we'll see -- should see a lift in demand deposits as well. because they use those deposits to cover the cost of services, which is accelerating when the activity, the taxing activity there's cost associated with that, that they offset with demand deposits. But why don't you answer directly the question...

The volume side of it. I mean it's historically been about $0.5 billion kind of plus or minus a couple of hundred million dollars from kind of peak to trough. -- used to be the 300 to 500. And as we've grown and have larger, more relationships, it's a little bit bigger, about $0.5 billion or so kind of we would expect to kind of surge through as we go through the end of the second quarter through kind of the October, November time frame. And to Vince's point, it's a mix. It's clearly a mix of different deposit categories. .

Okay. So the public funds are a little bit of the implied increase in deposits through the second half, but it's not the majority or anything. And then on expenses, we just take kind of the midpoint of the 3Q and full year guidance implies a decent step down in noninterest expenses in the fourth quarter. Your seasonality has typically been for a small increase quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter. just looking at adjusted deposit in the last few -- excuse me, adjusted expense trends in the past few years.

I was wondering if you could help us unpack that a little bit, if there's anything unusual either in the third quarter or fourth quarter that's driving that abnormal seasonality?

The fourth quarter typically doesn't have additional expense associated with the tax credit sales. So they're very -- the way we focus them, which is important to that until we end up with this big expense front. So that's reflected in the fourth quarter after for at least the last 3 4th quarters, right? So there's going to be a little bit of distortion there defense. I don't know if you want to comment generally on the total expenses seasonality in the expense base in the last 2 quarters of the year.

Yes, I would -- I think a couple of things, right? So again, for the quarter, we came in right in the middle of our range. efficiency ratio down to 53.7%, over 100 basis points kind of year-over-year, which takes out the seasonality there. As we go forward, I mean, there's things that in the first couple of quarters that have occurred.

We had higher fraud losses. We brought that down significantly. We have a down payment assistance program that's come down meaningfully in dollars kind of second to third quarter and I mean we expect a nice step down second to third quarter and then again into the fourth quarter. I mean that should reduce by $1 million to $1.5 million kind of per quarter. I mean there's a commission component that's tied to revenue largely unknown. -- mortgage origination side. So that kind of fluctuates as the activity fluctuates. And then on the marketing side, there's some seasonality and more timing of it when we choose to do that.

So we expect to see some increase in marketing dollars as you go from kind of the second to the third quarter. So there's a lot of moving parts in there. And with all those kind of normal bank operation items. We continue to invest, as Vince was talking about in our tech investments between the digital initiatives we have and the AI initiatives, but we're being very disciplined in how we fund that. So...

Yes, we also have -- it's also lumpy on the de novo branch expansion too because we announced we were on branches over a 5-year period and the timing of when those branches open it isn't scheduled out in a month by month. So it's -- so you'll see some lumpiness in the expense base, particularly in the first half of this year, we opened 2 branches went online in Charles and South Carolina. It brought the expense online as well.

And then we also have the investments in Insite360, the tool that I mentioned. So that's reflected in the first half of the year and probably we'll continue to be an expense burden into the second half, right, to development is completed and it launched. So as there are some impacts -- but I think the important points here are we have positive operating leverage, and we're forecasting positive operating leverage. The expense base our guide was...

Well, yes, efficiency ratio...

So the expense base itself and the guide in low single digits. .

Yes, the full year to full year yes...

So we've been able to take cost out and invest in tools, AI tools, and that's a unique thing because a lot of companies are spending tremendous resources taking on capital expenditures prior to receiving any benefit from an AI investment. And we're seeing that all over the place even with ethane customer base. So it takes time to get the actual benefits. And we're focusing more on revenue opportunities right now than we are expense takeout. I mean there's a combination of both we're more heavily weighted towards generating revenue with their AI investment, which also speaks to the infrastructure that we've built because that requires a much more complex data governance framework within the company.

So we're -- I believe we're in a really good position. I said that in my prepared comments to benefit from this, and it should not impact materially our expense base on a run rate basis the year forward.

Our next question comes from Casey Haire with Autonomous.

Great -- so Vince, the question for you, following up on the NIM. So the guide does not assume any Fed action, but it does -- it sounds like you do expect SOFR to bounce back to $373 million -- that's 11 bps higher than where it is today. Just wondering where -- assuming SOFR holds this level, where does NII track versus within this guide?

Yes. What I was referring to, Casey, was if you look at what happened during the quarter, we went from a peak of [ 3.67, ] April 15, down to [ 3.58 ] May 20, and we have a lot of loans that we set at the end of the month. And today, we're at 3.67%. So what the future is Mark is saying, there's just another 6 basis points of pickup in that. So on the $13 billion. If that comes through, they or may not, there's as you know, there's a lot of volatility with interest rates with everything going on in the world.

And whether the -- we went from an environment where the Fed was going to cut an environment where they're going to raise and it's October, it's December. I mean, it moves around quite a bit. So just based on what we know today, I mean, if 6 basis points up from where we are today on that $13 billion, is kind of the math you would do there.

Okay. .

[indiscernible] you might be part until overnight. Right.

Got you. Okay. Got you. All right. I'll take a look. Okay. And then just, I guess, switching to capital. And any updated thoughts on what the Basel III proposal does for you guys. I think you didn't quantify it last quarter, you said it was meaningful. And then do you lean into that in terms of buyback. The buyback was very strong this quarter? How do we think about that appetite going forward? Is it -- are we going to hold this 11.4% level -- or is there room to even to push the payout ratio? Just trying to think about how you guys think about the buyback?

Yes. I would say, I mean, for the Basel III and then I'll turn it over to Frank. I mean, based on what we know -- you need to get the final rules, right, where you can say with certainty. I mean it's an 80 to 100 basis point kind of pickup to the capital ratios and if that does happen at that point, and I don't know if they're talking January 1 of next year, potentially, once that will happen, we definitely step back and take a fresh look at the overall capital allocation approach that we want to use going forward. turn it to Frank for kind of comment on our buyback loss for today. .

We think buybacks continue to be attractive here. We transacted them at around 1,750 on average in the quarter. As we talked about at that point, that was sort of a 3-year earn back. Obviously, markets have moved higher. But even at these levels, we're still talking about a sort of a 4-and-change year earn back here. And for buybacks, where you don't have things like deal entrain risk, obviously, you can be pretty confident in that earn back. I still think that -- we still think that's a pretty good return. And so good return, good capital management tool.

As you pointed out, over the last few quarters, -- we reported flattish CET1 ratio at 11.4%. -- obviously, very comfortable at those levels. And while we don't give quarterly guide on repurchases, I think holding capital around those current levels is a pretty good sort of application or the year.

Our next question comes from Russell Gunther with D.A. Davidson.

I appreciate all the color on the margin dynamics this quarter. I was hoping to unpack some of the assumptions or what under Ballet June 327 NIM I really focus on the loan yield. So the $552 million. Maybe just give us a sense for where overall new loan production is coming on, if possible, to share kind of where pipeline loan yield stands and perhaps the spot loan yield as of June?

Yes. The new loans, if we look at what happen in the second quarter, Russell came out at 554 for the second quarter. for reference, that was 5.57% in the first quarter. So I'm just a few basis points lower. If you look at kind of on a spot basis, the overall portfolio yield was down 8 basis points to 55 again, with no Fed actions. But with the impact of 1 month soforunning through there. So again, that obviously affects the yield bubble.

So the portfolio came down at 8 bps, Harrison last quarter, it was kind of down 1 basis point. So it's the new stuff that's coming on at 5.54%.

Okay. Got it. And then just the other side of that, please, on the deposit front. So it sounds like you should have some good growth this quarter, bringing that loan-to-deposit ratio kind of back into the '90s, perhaps where you're more comfortable? But could you give us a help in terms of where spot deposit costs were for the quarter here for June?

On the deposit ratio, we have been higher than 92% historically. I mean we -- it's not that we want to -- I would prefer to be sub-90 of course, but Alert can produce deposits without pricing. So we're being very selective in trying to maintain the margin. But there's a trade-off between that strategy of margin preservation -- and even though I want everything in the on the deposit ratio.

But typically, as we move into the second half of the year, we do see those seasonal inflows, and we do get back to the area that you mentioned is a comfortable spot for us just to be candid. I mean that's -- was somewhat intentional for us to be where we are. So we're not uncomfortable where we are just going to make sure said that -- go ahead.

No. I think that strategy was important for us to get it down to 90. So that if you have quarters where loans are growing faster than deposits, we're at 92.5%, 93. So there's plenty of buffer there to levels in the past. -- where we started to take action with at 96%, 97%. So being at 90% as a reference point and grown up a few percentage points is fine. So I think that was an intentional strategy -- and I think that's working very well for us. .

As far as the spot rate, so for the month of June, total deposits were at 174 total interest-bearing deposits were at $2.33.

No, that's very helpful, guys. And then just Yes. I guess last 1 for me, guys, on the fee income side. What -- as you look at the back half of the year, what verticals are kind of the key drivers of growth in 3Q, 4Q? And if you were to kind of come in at the high end, what operating environment and see verticals get you there?

Yes. I think clearly, there's opportunity in our Investment Banking segment. We have a number of deals, both public finance and corporate finance transactions that are in the pipeline. So that should benefit us moving into the second half of the year. So there's some benefit there. We're still optimistic about derivatives.

Our derivatives business has been down because of the interest rate environment in but we think things are starting to grade because of the CapEx spend, right, that requires a need for fixing rates. And as you know, we fix -- we use derivatives put large extra loans on our balance sheet typically, will we prefer to push it off balance sheet. So those businesses should do particularly well. We have opportunities on the upside to merchant as we move into the second half of the year with interchange fees and some of the initiatives we pushed in wealth and brokerage should benefit us. So there's a lot of momentum there.

We have record levels of record level growth and brokerage, and we continue to add to the team and continue to build out in the Carolinas, which has been very helpful for us. So those are the areas that I would view as being pretty favorable. And obviously, you want to -- you also asked about the economic backdrop. Of course, if we were in a different scenario where we were expecting rates to decline, I think you'd see an acceleration in some of those business units, particularly mortgage would continue to contribute probably at a stronger level.

Given where we are, I would expect our mortgage business to be pretty stable in the second half of the year. not declining because a lot of the production that we do is purchase money production and you tend to see more activity. People buy homes between now and September, right? So we'll see that coming through. in the next quarter or so.

The third quarter mortgage banking should step up nicely second quarter at some of the -- so thank .

We've also seen, as we've talked, some increasing opportunities in the FX space with the -- I mean they've really continued to ramp those opportunities...

Yes. With fact CapEx spend for larger nPulse more cross-border activity, and we were able to benefit on our foreign exchange area in particular, while they should continue to do well every throughout the rest of the year. So all of that combined, and while individually, they're not huge numbers, but gives you a pretty good base moving into the second half of the year .

And that capital markets piece, too, has been performing at a really high level consistently this quarter...

As business to too. I mean we're back to plus there and that should continue. As I mentioned, we have a lot of very long or management customers in the pipeline that are coming online in the second half of this year, which will contribute to fee income because this they'll pay fees and not just use balances. So you'll see an increase there as well. .

Yes. I think what you're seeing a bit here, Russell, is the building out and the diversity of all these fee income business lines is really taking hold and really providing a good source of fee income that's diverse across the company.

And there's puts and takes throughout the mix. And as you've seen, we've been able on different interest rate requirements. So it's -- as Dara said, it's pretty well assembled, and there's a lot of diversification in that base. So we're very optimistic about the fee income categories and the upside there. .

That's great, guys. I appreciate all your thoughts Thanks, Ross.

Our next question comes from Manuel Navas with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Organ we too can we go back to some of the deposit pipelines you have those in the treasury management area, you talked about the seasonality in munis. How are retail deposits flowing as well -- and as you look at those pipelines, what kind of -- are they coming in above current deposit costs? What is kind of the pipeline rate on the deposits.

Well, I mean, I think that our deposit activity within the consumer bank has been pretty favorable. We've begun to grow households at a faster clip. We've got the Penn State initiative that we haven't even really launched yet, it's in its infancy. But those initiatives should contribute Wingspan, we mentioned in the mortgage business. They're all starting to contribute and I would say that our goal when we bring on a consumer depositor, and I'll segment it because there's a difference between a consumer and a small business depositor, but a consumer depositors coming on very low cost, right, because we typically are striving to be the disbursement bank for the consumer, they're operating bank. .

So they keep balances there. And then we get the benefit of excess balances moved into money market products. So we priced our money market product to be attractive enough to retain those deposit balances, but we're relying on free balances, and those accounts average like $4,000, I think so there's a lot of them, but it's very granular. The business side is a little different. The deposit balances are, I think, averaging what offer and business banking like $12,000 per account. It's a bit higher, but again, it's still relatively granular. And to Vince's point, when we're bringing on any kind of client it's always a holistic onboarding process.

So it's not just a -- it's a single service. Our focus is really to drive primacy across multiple products that both on the deposit side and on the lending.

And on the TM side, there's 2 pieces to it as well. I mean there's a pre-balance piece, which we forecast. We can't really predict whether a client will use earnings credits or not. -- but there's the fee income side and then there's the forecasting that goes on with 3 balances to compensate for services. So we're feeling pretty good about both the fee income piece and our ability to drive compensating balances by bringing in new clients because we have a pretty strong pipeline. That's what you're trying to say. I don't know if I answered your question. or not. But I would say, if you look at our cost of deposits, we've done a pretty good job of bringing clients over and picking up noninterest-bearing deposits, which has really helped us because it's very competitive right now.

And we basically are pricing to retain our existing customer base and then we'll go out and will become a little more aggressive on new opportunities and try to position those opportunities to benefit from the free balances and the compensating balances and the structure.

And the new relationship search designed to go after the whole relationship right side, the deposit side, wealth businesses, the entire kind of capital market side of it. So there's -- so you can't just look at 1 pipeline to draw conclusion about what the direction of the deposits are. So it varies. -- quarter-to-quarter. But I would say in the second half of the year, we're expecting contributions from both consumer and the treasury management pipeline for deposit growth. That's why we're often a guide. .

That's really helpful. I just wanted to make sure to kind of pin down where is greater competition expected on those 2...

It's all over the place, but to say I think we've got a pretty good handle line, and I think we've got some really good opportunities, and we're willing to compete. But we can compete with higher-yielding competitors particularly smaller competitors, we may see that more frequently in the consumer space and then you move into the larger depositors in the commercial space. It's a function of being able to win both not just go after -- we don't want to just go after the high-yielding low-margin deposit relationships.

We want the whole thing. So holistically, pursuing those opportunities is the right statement that tends to bring the cost of those deposits down considerably based on the component -- the no cost component of the [indiscernible]..

The overall profitability of the relationship expands.

So there's a lot of science associated with it. It's not as simple as just looking at a pipeline report.

I appreciate that color. Hopefully, it's a simpler question. Our loan yields also structurally going to benefit. I understand the SOFR side. Our loan yields also going to structurally benefit from resi real estate originations kind of fallen off a little bit seasonally and more commercial originations -- is that also part of the go-forward on loan yields?

Yes. That's also a very complex question, will I just. I'm just No, actually, we should see -- we were talking about that. If you look at the originations that we experienced this quarter, we have some higher yielding growth in the commercial finance segment. Our leasing financing arm is seeing pretty decent margin. It's still 100 competitive pressure, but better than you would see in the C&I book because the C&I book is a lot of very large middle market and upper middle market transactions that we've seen CapEx spend in.

So higher quality originations with lower yields this quarter that really impacted the numbers when you look at it's fairly size impact. Our goal is to bring those in. Typically, if you just went straight credit, extending your balance sheet, pricing to market in that space, you're going to see like a 6% to 9% return, which isn't good enough for us. So we would have to have some ancillary business. either the depository business or our debt capital markets business or FX business that we look at in our models that takes us north of 12%, 13%, 14% or more in turn.

So we want to be way above our cost of capital in terms of bringing these things on. So we have models that the line runs. But the point of this is a lot of those originations that occurred this past quarter were larger, either syndicated deals or large middle market single names where there's lower priced, lower risk, you brought those on this quarter. I'd say as we move into the second half of the year, the real estate originations price higher.

So there's a big differential, probably 75 to 100 basis points in spread on those CRE opportunities. And then as we gain traction in the traditional middle market in C&I as well. We should see better yields coming in. It's still under competitive pressure, but better than what we originated so far this year from a yield perspective. I hope that helps.

There stereo payoffs diminish as we go through the year. Yes, that...

You're seeing stuff going out that's $2.25 to $2.75 over silver, and we're originating at $1.50. That that's not a great sustainable environment. But that's an anomaly because you brought in, you've got the tailwinds from the big deals coming in, and then you got the headwind of the higher-margin both running off and then lower originations in that space. But that -- we see that turning because the CRE runoff is pretty much done.

And as we move into the second half of the year, the real estate lenders are more optimistic if you look at the pipeline, they've got some good stuff coming on. That doesn't mean it's not under the higher quality paper is not under pressure. It is, but it's a higher margin than what we've originated.

So it would be a better story -- so it's kind of tough to model. I know you're trying to model it. I hope I helped Jud. .

it helps -- thank you.

Our next question comes from Brian Martin with Brean Capital.

So just 1 or 2 things for me, most of what we just covered that in the last question. But just on the loan pipeline, Vince, I think you commented that the pull through this quarter. So the short term is maybe a little bit down, but the long term is the strongest. Just kind of if you could just frame up just big picture, just either geographically or kind of by segment where that long-term pipeline hit the peak today, kind of where the strength is there -- we were just...

Gary and I were just talking about it. I mean Cleveland is starting to come off pretty strong. The Central Pennsylvania area as we call it the Central Mountain Capital Region are both doing really well, and they've got pretty strong pipelines -- from a historical perspective, both of them are at an all-time high. And then South Carolina is a high or near an all-time high and they're right at their all-time high. So there was 1 other quarter back to '24 when they were at a similar level. So that's all looking good.

And then there's cities. Pittsburgh is really strong, yes. That's -- that's -- I don't know if it's an all-time high, but it's at least a high relative to the last 3 or 4 years and to meaningfully -- it's big. So there's some really bright spots. The more competitive markets, we're still up in Charlotte and Raleigh, but not at all-time high. So there's upside. I see in some of those markets as we build out those teams because we're still focusing on adding to the teams there.

Got you. And then just by segment, like where is the real strength there?

Yes. I'd say C&I is a good winter. I mean I don't care seeing it .

Definitely on the C&I side. The CRE pipelines are building Brian, but the period mobile business has been building site. All business has been building, and it has been a steady increase in the first half. in finance, it's been a nice -- it's been good .

Equipment finance is all C&I. That's been very strong because of the CapEx spend that's going on in the tax environment, right, with the capital gains treatment. .

That C&I, it's got -- to your point, it's got better yield. It's not all the stuff you put on this quarter, that kind of the higher quality, I guess, call it lower risk there's a mix in there that those yields are better than what you brought on this quarter that's kind of your point. .

Yes, because we -- it was very lumpy this quarter. There were a lot of large transactions, M&A transactions, refinancing activity going on within the large corporate and upper middle market space. And some of them even they restructured and went to the bond market, which is why we had strong performance in our broker -- in our debt capital markets group, the broker-dealer that we stood up for capital markets. That -- that was all concentrated.

So we saw a lot of concentration in the quarter of lower-yielding assets coming on, which are very high quality. That's why I said in my comments. I don't mind doing that in this environment. I would rather our teams not go out and compete foolishly for assets because it is still very volatile. I know we feel like we're in a great economic environment, but you're seeing cracks here and there, you've got work in Iran that could throw us into a weird situation with oil prices rising and interest rates have been more volatile. You saw so as Vince mentioned, there was a little imbalance in SOFR for a period of time, and it contracted and then expanded are not consistent with the rest of the yield curve.

So there was a little inflection in supply and demand. And that happens from time to time. So I'd rather see us go out and do higher-quality paper right, and then stage what we go after in the second half of the year to bring some higher-yielding assets on that are manageable and we can manage from a risk perspective. I still think we're 1 of the best banks in the country in terms of risk management. And we have yet to be tested here for a long time because we performed extraordinarily well through the last downturn, which was a long time ago. I've been in the seat I've been at least President of the bank for nearly 20 years.

So I got to see it last time. We performed extraordinarily well through that period. Gary is very good and very conservative, and our portfolio is extraordinarily well positioned -- our reserves are strong, given the risk profile in our portfolio. So I think the way we go about doing things is the right way because when the floor does fall out, you will see us stand up. I mean we're going to be perform -- high performer throughout that period. So based on the quality of the portfolio and the asset classes that we went into, anyway. Gary, do you feel the sign .

I feel exactly that way. I mean I think the portfolio is very nicely positioned where we sit today, and we're excited for the future opportunities that we have from...

And Gary and I are in lockstep. We don't disagree on many things. I think we're pretty consistent here.

Forever, right? .

Yes. a long time. Together for a long time.

Yes. So thanks -- and great job, Gary, on the -- and your team on the credit side. That's a proven it's the long-term front for you guys and great work. So just the last 2 for me, just on the just the -- I appreciate all the color on the CRE. I guess bottom line is if you look at the net growth in CRE, do you expect that to rebound in 2017? So I get the payoffs, it sounds like they're dissipating, so maybe some net growth you'd expect in; 27. Is that fair?

I think that's a very fair view of it at this point, Brian. -- based on what we're seeing here halfway through the year and looking out through the end of the year and into early '27, I would expect that to be the case. .

Okay. That's clear enough. And then the last 2, just the funding cost, it sounds like this quarter is kind of being -- obviously stand out relative to those 16 banks. But maybe this is kind of the bottom on funding costs. I appreciate all that. I mean, what's going to happen in the second half with the dynamics of the municipal funding and the treasury deposits you've got coming in. But maybe kind of we're at a bottom here on the funding side? Is that especially given the potential outlook for rate hikes?

It really depends on what we bring in. I mean the new relationships that Vince was talking about that we're the operating bank for those clients, then bringing demand deposits and new relationships, bringing in kind of the full relationship is what we go after. So obviously, the more eAsia that has a positive impact on the overall rate that's there. The municipal stuff comes in at a mix like Vince said earlier, the CDs are close to a bottom kind of like we were -- I think the overall portfolio is like just over 3%, and we're probably close to a bottom on the CDs.

So the new CDs coming in are pretty close to the CDs that are maturing. So -- and that's been like that private last quarter or 2. So it's really a function of our success bringing in the new related natives.

Yes. Okay. And then the very last one, sorry, was the -- just -- I appreciate the color on the fee income side. Just where do you see -- given all the momentum you have with all the build-out and the broadening out on the fee income side, that -- where it's at today at 21% of total revenues or core revenues, do you see that trending up on a relative basis? Is it kind of pretty steady in this range? Or how are you thinking about that just maybe longer term, given the momentum you have?

Yes. Obviously, we would like it to be higher always because it creates more stability for us rather than relying on net interest income solely. So I think we would like to see it higher. I think it's hard for us given the interest rate environment and the impact on revenue to throw a number out there because it will get higher with lower net interest income, you wouldn't sign that -- we want to make sure we're growing above and we would love to see it approaching 25% and someday, 30%.

So some of these businesses are very new, and there's a lot of upside. So I think we're going to continue to manage this like we have. We grew it -- if you remember, back in 2017, we were about $160 million, $180 million. We're about $112 million, we're guiding to what this year. It's almost 400 -- it's been a pretty remarkable ride. But I think there's upside as we build out these other business units, particularly investment banking, public finance, and we're continuing to invest in debt capital markets. And we're adding team members in large corporate so that we can pursue more I think derivatives has been flat for several years. And maybe we're getting through the end of some of those fixed rate cycles.

So some of these borrowers are going to have to do something. So we'll probably see that pick up a little bit. first activity creates some martial real estate activity certainly will create it because that's a big driver of derivative fee income. So those are all the benefits. And then we haven't even begun to focus on optimization of interchange, and we're building out payment platforms today that will enable us to do certain things. Insight 360 is an exciting tool that should drive fee income because we're going to give customers the ability to use -- we're looking at an aggregate portfolio of products and then make product recommendations, which includes wealth and insurance products, right? So all that is exciting. I think there's upside there long term.

And Brian, that's Slide 17, we have in the deck is a key 1 to summarize it. I mean we've established for expanding 10 business lines that we started from scratch or started small and really expanded. And the newer ones, Vince mentioned, investment banking, public finance or brand new, they're starting to contribute this year. and there's quite a bit of upside there. And TM we're at record levels. But what Vince just commented on, there's upside there so building out a new portal for TM. There's a bunch of things happening on the commercial side, which will be additive moving into '27, I'm excited about that, too. So I think TM is definitely an area that we could perform better in the years to come.

And I think the important thing to note here is that all these fee income businesses are being brought on efficiently. It's not to our efficiency ratio just it's all wealth -- and that's the same with our AI approach. We want to make sure that we're taking cost out to invest in certain businesses that have a higher growth trajectory and produce higher returns for the for our shareholders. So we basically are very careful about launching these businesses. So we launched them very gradually and then build them over time so that we can sustain profitability and sustain a decent return, which is why the efficiency ratio has generated revenue faster than we're taking in adding new people and adding expense to those areas, we're gradually building it and reallocating resources to get part of Sage.

We constantly look at the allocation of personnel and resources to ensure that we're getting the most optimal deployment of those expenses.

It's all super helpful just with the -- I mean, I guess, kind of just worth shining a spotlight on it's going to grow for the right reason, and that's what you just be talking about rather than at the expense of NII and just a better ratio. So thank you for...

And it's not pie in the sky. I mean, you can see the growth over a long period of time. It's not like we're making the stuff. I mean it's -- there's a historical framework that you can point to. And we're very excited about continuing to grow it. .

Yes. No, it sounds like a lot of opportunities ahead, so especially given the young businesses here. So well, thank you for all the help and all the color today.

6 All right. Thanks, Brian.

Our next question comes from Kelly Motta with KBW.

To lot of great things I've been covered today. So I think most of mine have been asked and answered at this point. But -- maybe stepping back at a high level. When I look at F&B through the years, you've generally generated above average profitability on a ROCE basis, at least. And the peers that have narrowed that gap here with you guys at 14% -- you clearly have made a lot of investments in the platform in technology and AI.

I'm wondering, as you look ahead and you're thinking about a normalized profitability for F.N.B. if there's still additional room for improvement as you leverage those investments to generate positive operating leverage? Or at this point, we're thinking this is where we're leveling off here with the reinvestment back in the business. And I'm just trying to kind of balance how to think about that.

I think we -- Alfred and I had a long conversation about that exact topic last night when I called him on my walk, to for an hour. -- basically, what our conversation was about was our returns, a 14% return on tangible common equity. It doesn't sound impressive. But if you look at the capital accumulation because of our profitability, it is pretty impressive considering that we're not near 9% TCE, CET1, 11.4, and we've got a 14% return. I mean we don't need -- because of the risk profile within the portfolio, we are operating with less leverage than our peers.

So we have opportunities to drive the returns 2 ways; one, by continuing to invest in the businesses that produce a higher return on capital; and two, basically repatriating capital, returning capital to the shareholders because of our risk profile. So both of those things are going to happen because we're not going to sit here and accumulate capital, no reason -- our goal is to drive shareholder value. And to do that, we have to be very judicious about capital deployment. So we're going to continue to focus on ways to leverage that capital. and drive returns.

To manage it both sides of it...

I mean it's -- but you're spot on. I mean, we were having last night is I don't want to be in the middle of the path. -- as part of our compensation, right? We get scored on that. The Board reset relative to peers. So we need the highest return on tangible common equity in the risk environment, risk profile that we maintained, right, which means we can't -- we really shouldn't have excess capital. We should be thinking about managing our capital returning capital and we are in Frank answer. -- question about buybacks...

And our TCE ratio, if you compare it to the peer group for us, we're 50 basis points higher. So that's another important element. -- looking at the overall return on equity there. And as Vince said, we're going to continue to manage the denominator. .

Our growth and our capital is not as -- we're not benefiting -- we didn't have big impairments -- so we're not getting accretion from AOCI impairments, we're actually earning our way to these higher capital levels. And that's a distinction that people fail to take into consideration when you look across the period. .

Got it. That's helpful. Maybe maybe last Oh, sorry, can -- Okay. Maybe last question for me. I apologize if you've answered it already, but just in terms of your rate sensitivity profile here. If you look at the static balance sheet, you are asset sensitive. But I am wondering, given the competitive pressures like through your markets, how you feel NIM reacts in response to a rate cut and apps and cuts, I think you said the spot is in the high [ 320s ] if there's any further levers or if that's kind of a status point or potential pressure off of that?

Yes, I would say, I mean, we've brought our interest rate position down. I mean we're pretty near neutral now. We're still slightly asset sensitive. But as we've kind of gone back towards more like neutral. I mean the impact of 1 -- if we get an increase, let's use that as a reference point in October. I mean that's worth probably $0.01 or so to the fourth quarter potentially. I don't know whether we're going to get it or not, I guess we'll see how the year plays out.

But the magnitude of the impact of either a cut or a hike is not as the largest out because we intentionally brought it back down towards near neutral. This way, we're not taking a risk either way and let growth in loans and deposits and investments driving net interest income.

Got it. And I guess the last question about NIM. You did take your NII guide down. Just wondering if this -- any just high 20s margin, if it seems like loan yields are coming in right around where the book is probably limited route on deposits or is some increased pressure. If this is it's up relative to the blended quarter and if this is kind of flattish from here absent moves in the rates...

Yes. I would say what's baked in is kind of I would call it a drifting up from this level very kind of very gradual not, but there's some movement up.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Vincent Delie for any closing remarks.

I'd just like to thank everybody, thank the employees again for another great quarter. I know a little disappointing on the NIM, but more macroeconomic than efforts, and I look forward to a really strong ending to the year. A lot of momentum in a lot of areas. So we're going to keep that momentum up and work really hard for the shareholders. So thank you. Thank you for the questions, too. They were great questions. I'm glad we had a chance to answer -- take care, everybody. Thank you. Bye. .

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good day, and welcome to the FNB First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Lisa Hajdu, Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to our earnings call. This conference call of FNB Corporation and the reports it files with the Securities and Exchange Commission often contain forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to and not as an alternative for our reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP. A Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP operating measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our presentation materials and our earnings release.

Please refer to these non-GAAP and forward-looking statement disclosures contained in our related materials, reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on our corporate website. A replay of this call will be available until Friday, April 24, and the webcast link will be posted to the -- About Us, Investor Relations section of our corporate website.

I will now turn the call over to Vince Delie. Chairman, President and CEO.

Thank you, and welcome to our first quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Vince Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer; and Gary Guerrieri, our Chief Credit Officer.

FNB produced a solid quarter with net income of $137 million. EPS increased 19% over the first quarter of 2025 to $0.38 a Pre-provision net revenue increased 17% from the year ago quarter as we generated positive operating leverage of 4.9%. Our capital ratios remained strong and continue to move favorably, all while producing a strong return on average tangible common equity of 13.2%.

Tangible book value per share of $12.06 represents an 11% increase from the year ago quarter. Since 2009, we expands the tenure of our leadership team's management of the bank and holding company. We have focused on a disciplined and strategic approach to developing and executing our long-term growth plan. Our actions have resulted in the company's robust capital accumulation sustainable, superior financial performance, investments and a resilient risk management framework and a strong balance sheet.

Over time, we have grown our capital to record levels and effectively manage the dividend payout ratio from nearly 80% down to 31%, in line with our peers. During that time period, we also grew the balance sheet 477% and with an organic compounded annual growth rate of 8%. We invested in our enterprise risk management framework, built out our advisory and capital markets businesses to diversify our revenue streams and established FMB as an industry innovator with an award-winning digital and data analytics capability, including the eStore. These significant investments occurred over time while maintaining an industry-leading efficiency ratio in the low to mid-50% range.

I can't emphasize enough the hard work and superior execution by our team. to get to where we are today. These efforts have produced sustained levels of increased profitability, significant returns and strong capital generation. This strategy was fully aligned with shareholders' interests. We recently announced an 8% increase to our quarterly cash dividend to $0.13 per share, starting with the dividend to be paid in June.

Our Board of Directors also unanimously approved our management's recommendation for an additional $250 million for the repurchase of our common stock on top of the $50 million remaining in our existing share repurchase program. Inclusive of the March dividend, and $35 million repurchased in the first quarter of 2026.

FNB has returned a total of $2.4 billion in capital to shareholders through both dividends and repurchases since 2009, demonstrating our long-term commitment to optimize value for our shareholders while also growing and reinvesting in the company for continued future success.

FNB's financial performance is achieved through consistent execution and sustained growth in our engaged customer base. We were thrilled to recently announce our partnership as the official and exclusive retail bank and financial provider to the Pennsylvania State University. Beginning in July, Penn State's 90,000 students faculty and staff will have exclusive access to FNB's on-campus banking services, including our proprietary eStore.

FNB was also selective as the primary treasury management provider to all Penn State campuses. Our continued success of winning despite significant competition, demonstrates our capabilities and leadership in the industry.

As a core business, University Banking highlights another differentiated product offering. In addition to significant investments in AI and digital, FNB's innovative solutions also extend to our ATM network. This month, our first ATM that offers foreign currency disbursement for Canadian dollars and Mexican pesos opened at the new Pittsburgh International Airport. Once again, an industry leader, our ability to offer foreign currency disbursement through an ATM is very rare across the banking industry and builds upon our momentum to improve the ease of banking for current and new customers.

We congratulate the airport authority and its leadership on the completion of the new terminal, which includes FNB's state-of-the-art visually stunning banking center. We are proud to play a role in this transformational Pittsburgh asset with our ATMs and sponsorship.

The first quarter reflected a promising start to 2026, with our ability to continue to attract top-tier talent, deploy innovative solutions and deepen customer relationships, period-end loan growth of 3.9% annualized linked quarter was driven by 4 middle market C&I. It is important to note that our growth has not benefited from NDF or lending into private credit, a category that we continue to avoid.

With that, I would like to now turn the call over to Gary to discuss all of our credit results for the quarter. Gary?

Thank you, Vince, and good morning, everyone. We ended the quarter with our asset quality metrics remaining at solid levels. Delinquency along with NPLs and OREO increased slightly, each up 3 bps compared to the prior quarter, totaling 74 and 34 basis points, respectively. Net charge-offs continued to show strong performance totaling 18 basis points, down 1 bp compared to the prior quarter. Criticized loans increased slightly, consistent with the seasonality we have seen in the first quarter over the last several years.

Total funded provision expense for the quarter stood at $19.4 million, supporting the C&I loan growth and charge-offs. Our ending funded reserve now stands at $443 million, an increase of $3.5 million, ending at 1.26%, unchanged from the prior quarter. When including acquired unamortized loan discounts, our reserve stands at 1.32%, and our NPL coverage position remained strong at 393%, inclusive of the discounts.

While we have not experienced any impact related to tariffs, we are maintaining the related qualitative overlays from a year ago due to the ongoing conflict and uncertainty in the Middle East. Our comprehensive risk management oversight, including concentrations of credit line utilization, proactive CRE management, stress testing and the 360-degree risk view of our client relationships allows us to maintain a strong risk profile throughout economic cycles and during periods of economic uncertainty.

We are monitoring the situation in the Middle East closely, as we have done in the past during the pandemic, the Ukrainian conflict supply chain disruptions, inflationary periods and tariff increases. Throughout all of these periods of disruption, our loan portfolio and customer base have proved resilient and did not experience any material adverse impacts.

Our consumer portfolio remains very strong with average origination FICO scores of 782 with delinquency and charge-offs ending the quarter at multiyear lows of 67 and 5 basis points, respectively. We continue to originate loans within our commercial and consumer portfolios under our long-standing and consistent credit underwriting philosophy.

In the quarter, we had solid C&I activity leading to increased loan growth with a slight uptick in line utilization. Additionally, we are seeing increased levels of high-quality CRE opportunities. However, our exposure declined in the quarter, ending at 194% of Tier 1 capital plus allowance.

In closing, despite the continued volatility in the markets, we look forward to building on the momentum we had in the first quarter with our pipelines at near record levels across the majority of our portfolios. With the quality and diversification of our portfolio, we are well positioned to achieve our growth objectives in the year ahead.

I will now turn the call over to Vince Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer, for his remarks.

Thanks, Gary, and good morning. Today, I will review the first quarter's financial results and walk through our second quarter and full year guidance. First quarter net income totaled $137 million or $0.38 per share, with total revenues up a strong 9.4% from the year ago period and coupled with prudent management of operating expenses, PPNR increased nearly 17%.

Turning to the balance sheet. Loan activity began to accelerate late in the quarter with spot total loans and leases ending the quarter at $35.1 billion, a 3.9% annualized linked quarter increase driven by growth of $198 million in consumer loans and $136 million in commercial loans and leases. Spot C&I loan balances were up over 4% linked quarter on annualized were $314 million, driven by growth in the Carolinas, Cleveland and the Mid-Atlantic.

CRE balances continue to be impacted by expected payoffs and were down $110 million linked quarter. Residential mortgages, indirect and HELOCs all contributed to the consumer loan growth. Spot total deposits ended the quarter at $38.9 billion, a linked quarter increase of $142 million with the first quarter impacted by normal seasonal outflow for corporate deposits. Noninterest-bearing deposits increased $89 million or 3.6% linked quarter annualized and remained stable at 26% of total deposits.

The loan-to-deposit ratio held steady at 90%. First quarter's net interest margin was 3.25% and down 3 basis points sequentially as the timing of the Fed rate cut in December 2025 impacted NIM for the quarter. Additionally, normal seasonal outflows and deposits were funded temporarily with higher cost short-term borrowings.

Interest-bearing deposit costs declined 13 basis points linked quarter, driven by lower rates paid on money market CD balances and total borrowing cost decreased 12 basis points. Our cumulative total spot deposit beta since the fed interest rate cuts began in September of 2024, was 27% at quarter end. The total yield on earning assets declined 11 basis points to 5.14 on an 11 basis point decline in loan yields and a slight 2 basis point decline in investment securities yields. Reinvestment rates on investment securities remained well above the overall portfolio yield. Looking ahead to next quarter, the margin for the month of March was at $3.30 on Net interest income increased nearly 11% from the year ago period as the NIM expanded significantly, increasing 22 basis points with earning asset growth of 3.5% year-over-year.

Turning to noninterest income and expense. Noninterest income totaled $91 million, up 3.7% in the first quarter of 2025. And Capital markets income increased 27.8% to $6.8 million on solid contributions from debt capital markets, swap fees and international banking. Wealth management revenues increased 2.8% year-over-year to $21.8 million, with contributions across the geographic footprint.

Noninterest expense totaled $257.9 million, a 4.5% increase from the year ago quarter. Salaries and employee benefits increased less than $1 million or 0.4% as lower performance-based compensation and health care costs offset strategic hiring and normal merit increases. Occupancy and equipment increased $5.1 million or 11%, primarily due to technology-related investments and higher occupancy costs, which included unusually high seasonal snow removal costs.

Other noninterest expense increased $6.8 million or 30% due to a combination of higher fraud losses litigation-related expenses and the impact of our mortgage down payment assistance program. The first quarter efficiency ratio remained solid at 56.1% down meaningfully from 58.5% a year ago, and we continue to manage our expense base in a disciplined manner.

FNB continues to actively manage our capital position to support balance sheet growth and optimize shareholder returns while appropriately managing risk. Given the new share repurchase authorization, Vince mentioned earlier, we now have remaining capacity of $300 million after repurchasing a total of $35 million in the first quarter of this year. The 8% quarterly common dividend increase marks our first quarterly dividend increase since 2007 and reflects our strong financial performance and capital levels as evidenced by the TCE ratio of nearly 9% and the CET1 ratio of 11.4%.

Let's now look at guidance for the second quarter and full year of 2026. All guidance is based on current expectations, are remaining cognizant of the highly uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environments. We are maintaining our full year balance sheet guidance for spot balances, projecting period-end loans and deposits to grow mid-single digits on a full year basis as balances continue to build on the growth acceleration we experienced late in the first quarter.

Our projected full year income statement guide is largely unchanged with last quarter. Full year net interest income is still expected to be between $1.495 billion and $1.535 billion. We are assuming no Fed interest rate cuts for 2026 versus our previous expectation for 225 basis point cuts, while maintaining our previous net interest income range due to our expectation of continued deposit pricing pressures in an environment with no Fed cuts and accelerating loan growth in the industry.

Second quarter net interest income is projected between $370 million and $380 million. The noninterest income full year guide remains $370 million to $390 million with second quarter levels expected between $90 million and $95 million. The full year guidance range for noninterest expense remains unchanged between $1 billion and $1.02 billion, but we now expect to be at the higher end of that range due to increased investments in franchise growth and new strategic initiatives.

Second quarter noninterest expense is expected to be between $250 million and $255 million. We continue to expect strong positive operating leverage for the full year of 2026. Full year provision guidance is maintained at $85 million to $105 million, given the stability in our credit performance to start the year and will be dependent on net loan growth and charge-off activity.

Lastly, the full year effective tax rate should be between 21% and 22%, which does not assume any investment tax credit activity that may occur.

With that, I will turn the call back to Vince.

Thank you. Our team is cultivated in an environment that succeeds through passion, collaboration, hard work and respect. We pair the advantages of our scale with the discipline of agility to win business that is heavily sought after by both large and small competitors.

As a regional bank, FNB's differentiated investments in technology and product offerings have enabled us to win against competitors of all sizes to gain market share, drive shareholder value and meet the needs of our commercial and consumer customers.

I would also like to thank our Independent Lead Director, Bill Campbell, who announced his upcoming retirement from our Board in May. I want to extend my great appreciation for his distinguished service independence, dedication, leadership and mentorship to many, including myself. He instilled in all of us a desire to put the shareholders first, and his insight on the Board will be missed. Best wishes to Director Campbell in his future endeavors. His presence will be missed, but his legacy at FNB will live on.

In closing, we are proud of our differentiated culture, which continues to be one of the most recognized in the industry for leadership, innovation, employee engagement and client experiences. This quarter, FNB received numerous awards including America's best customer service and financial services by USA TODAY, America's best financial services by time, America's greatest workplaces for entry-level employees by Newsweek a top workplace U.S.A. by Energage and a Greenwich Excellence Awards winner for client service, a recognition we have earned annually since 2011.

These awards and recognition occur because of the dedication and commitment of our employees. On behalf of the Board and executive team, I would like to thank them for their extraordinary accomplishments.

With that, I will turn the call over to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James.

Maybe starting on the C&I loan growth, really strong in the first quarter. You made a comment in the release that it accelerated towards the end of the quarter. Maybe you can expand a little bit on what that looked like. And I think Gary made a comment about Vince about near-record pipeline. Just curious what those look like in C&I and kind of the path forward given the strong quarter.

Yes, Dan, we saw a lot of activity. It started building fairly early in the quarter and finished up really strong. The pipelines have increased significantly and are pretty close to near record levels. It's really across the whole company.

On top of that, we've seen a lot of high-quality opportunities from very strong investment grade type of larger corporate borrowers. We saw some M&A activity, so it's really been across the board and very diverse. We did have one maturing loan that paid out, which even impacted the growth even further, right at the end of the quarter or that number would have even been stronger. So we really like the position of the pipeline right now and the activity that we're starting to see we expect it to build throughout the year.

Great. And maybe one for Vince. Just curious if you can expand on the strategic initiatives comment in the release about, which drove the increase in the expense guide to the higher end of the range?

There's a variety. As you know, we've consistently been investing in our Fit-to-brick strategy. And as part of kind of the normal capital investment that we're doing. I mean there's a variety of things. We've announced that we were going to be launching 30 de novos over the next 5 years. So that's part of it. We're fully launching that with DC Metro as far as the ATMs throughout that network.

We continue to invest in the eStore and have some new initiatives looking to create a 360 view of our customers. We began that initiative to be able to pull in internal data as well as external data so that our customer-facing employees have all the data right at their fingertips on what customers have here and somewhere else and then leverage AI to kind of say, well, what's the next product that would make sense for them. So it's really continuing those key tech investments that we've been making.

And I would say that we've redesigned how we're approaching development within the company. We moved from a traditional IT development environment where IT coordinates all of the -- with business analysts and interactions with the front line, they coordinate all of the development assets that we have, which includes a large number of consultants. We've kind of changed the model. We're pushing those programmers to the 3 areas that we feel are the most impactful for us from a revenue and efficiency perspective. So that's part of of the expense build. We're looking at some AI in incidence that we've invested in.

So there's personnel expense related to bringing those development contractors on that's reflected in the guide. Most of it ends up being capitalized for software applications that we develop and then put it online. Vince mentioned the 360 view of the customer that's essentially both an inward and outward tool, tool for clients to review their relationship within FNB.

There is an AI overlay that permits for those clients to see the products and services that they're using and how they can best improve their circumstances, either from a cash flow perspective or from managing risk. It's a really cool product. It's proprietary. I don't see it anywhere. We're slated to put it out by the end of the year. It should be in production at the end of the year and then into the first quarter of next year.

But it will also help internally because what it does is it actually evaluates what's going on. It looks at numerous data fields based on what the customer is doing within our organization. And when we open it up to outside, it will be opened up to bring in external aggregation as well. That will help us guide the customer to better products and services and a better solution within FNB's product offering.

So if they have a high rate mortgage somewhere else and we offer a better product, this tool will actually tell them and they will actually explain that they could save X amount of dollars by refinancing. And then to tie it all together, because we built out this platform that enables us to apply for multiple products simultaneously, which is also being improved with AI.

We will be able to move those clients into an environment where they're seeing their 360 view, they're actually getting recommendations on things that they should be doing to improve their banking relationship, and then they'll be able to purchase the products because tab, and it will actually -- they can just put them in the cart and then proceed to check out.

We have automated data flooding and authentication and all that stuff built into the common app. So -- that's the game plan. And that's why there's a little extra we're saying there's going to be a little extra spend in the forecast.

Yes, part of that, we've also baked in investing in treasury management, some of our offerings to make it easier for customers, wealth management, there's initiatives that are part of that as well.

And then on top of that, just normal process improvement, I mean, leveraging AI and machine learning -- someone that we've had in place for many years, leveraging those tools to extract costs as we move forward, which will help improve the run rate.

Yes, some of this is transitory, though. This is not embedded in the run rate of the company. And there's quite a bit of contract expense or contractor expense built into that guide, the change that we're pro Yes.

The next question comes from Casey Haire with Autonomous.

Yes. Great. So I wanted to touch on the NIM outlook, the 330 NIM in March, so you get some pretty good momentum entering the second quarter here. I'm guessing that was on the funding side of things, given the seasonal outflows in DDA, but just a little color on where that's trending. Maybe the spot deposit cost rate at the end of the quarter and some thoughts on how the 2Q NIM trends.

I guess just looking at net interest income overall, the $6 million decrease from the fourth quarter, right in the middle, the number we landed out at $359 was right in the middle of our range we provided in January, which was $3.55 to $3.65.

The timing of the last Fed cut clearly makes a difference on loan yields for us. As you know, I'm talking about that in the past that 45% or so of our loan portfolio reprices based on SOFR changes. So originally, we had that in January and that coming forward to December kind of affects the net interest income for the first quarter.

The other element is we have our normal trough in deposits that happens every year in the first quarter, and we fund that temporarily with short-term borrowings that's about 2 basis points of margin, $2.5 million in net interest income in the first quarter, and then that kind of goes away as we move forward. But we have been operating with a dual mandate of trying to grow deposits to fund the loan growth that Gary talked about and Vince talked about that we saw to accelerate in March and the expected loan growth as we go forward.

So we're trying to balance growing deposits to help fund that loan growth as well as managing the deposit cost down. So there's clearly a balancing act there. And then, Casey, as you mentioned, the 330 exit margin for the month of March is key. And as we look forward, I mean, our guidance implies that going up gradually a few basis points or so a quarter between the first quarter and the end of the year. And without the Fed cut expected for the rest of the year, at this point, there are several levers we have to support net interest income growth. I mean average earning asset growth, obviously, is the key.

In our investment portfolio, we're reinvesting 75 to 125 basis points above the roll-off rate. For CDs, we're still picking up 20 to 25 basis points. Next quarter alone, that's $3.3 billion worth of CDs maturing. And then in our fixed rate loan portfolio, we're picking up about 35 basis points on $2.5 billion over the next 12 months. So there's a lot of levers there that will kind of work off with that 3/3 launch point. the spot deposit cost of 199.

177 total Yes. IBD versus the 240?

That's total deposits?

Right.

Total IBD 236, Casey, is interest-bearing. $177 million includes noninterest.

Okay. Great. Just 1 more on the capital front. So very strong buyback this quarter. The CET1 ratio kind of held flat. I'm just wondering, is that -- is that kind of what you guys want to -- you going to manage it here? Just keep it at this level within balancing between loan growth and buyback? And then any thoughts on the Basel III proposal?

Yes. I would say, I mean, with the CET1 ratio at 11.4%, the payout ratio now in the low 30s, combined with our guidance, implying continued strong internal capital generation, -- as we talked about last quarter, we're in the best position to deploy capital, which is why we made the announcement that we made earlier in the week.

Beyond supporting the expected balance sheet growth, we continue to see buybacks attractive at current valuation levels, for sure. I think the earn back is maybe 3 years at this point with where the stock is trading. We bought back $50 million for the full year of last year, and I talked about buying at least that or more.

First quarter, we did $35 million -- so I think we'll continue to be opportunistic on the buyback program. We were down to $50 million. So it was the right time to increase the authorization. So kind of have $300 million worth of powder there. And with the earnings generation level, we would expect capital ratios to still build. I mean I would just say, off the cuff, not looking to reduce 11.4%, but being active on the buyback, the dividend another component of that, which isn't a lot in dollars from a capital standpoint, but I think it's important.

If you go back to -- last time we had raised dividend was 2007. And in 2009, for those that were following us when everybody went to a nickel or $0.01, we went from $0.24 to 12%. So our Board made a decision only to go at that point. So we had a super high payout ratio, but investors are getting paid a very nice dividend yield over that entire period. So that was important.

And we reached a point with the way capital is building that we were comfortable not only having the buyback but increasing the dividend. -- at this point in time. And the goal would be, over time, to be able to move that up as we grow and as earnings continue to grow. So I think that's another important point.

On Basel III -- II, Casey, I'm sorry, that was the last part of your question. I mean we're studying it. I mean it has a meaningful impact if it gets in place the way it is. I mean we've looked at different ways of analyzing it. And it's definitely meaningful. So I guess we'll see how that plays out in the end. We've studied what's in the proposal. And that's not baked into our plans here as far as capital deployment, right? That would be a new factor if it gets approved way it's proposed.

And the next question comes from Russell Gunther with Stephens.

I wanted to follow up on the deposit pricing pressure commentary you guys made would be helpful to get a sense for how you would expect deposit cost to trend from here -- the spot rates you gave us were pretty darn close to the full quarter average. And I think in the past, you've talked about a mid-30s terminal deposit beta versus the 27 we've got right now. So it would be helpful to just understand whether we should expect some upward pressure on total deposit cost, but that's what's embedded in that kind of March 30 guide moving higher.

Yes. No, I would say -- I mean, there's still opportunity for that cost of deposits to come down. I mentioned the CDs picking up 20 to 25 basis points on $3.3 billion. So that obviously affects that.

Our success bringing in noninterest-bearing deposits which has been a strategy forever, obviously, is key to the overall cost of deposits there and the cost of funds. So I think there's still room for us to bring it down strategically, Russell, is the way I would say it, because without the cover of the fed cuts, you have to be very strategic.

And I think our team has done a very nice job analyzing the different components and maybe customers that don't have as much with us, you're a little more aggressive on how you adjust the rates and it's just a constant day-to-day process for us to look at where there are opportunities. But there's still opportunities for the total deposit cost to come down.

And like I said, the focus on noninterest-bearing is key. The -- going after some larger kind of accounts to bring in larger deposit balances has been something we've focused on over the past year and have had some good success bringing in some larger deposit.

We basically -- we brought some very attractive, large, complex treasury management relationships over. They're in the pipeline. They're moving over to us. And they're coming from all over. I mean, some of the larger banks bank them today. So that's going to have an impact. It will have an impact on our free balances because they use balances to pay for services. So there's quite a bit in that pipeline. That's what Vince is referring to.

But if you look at it globally, take a step back, that's one of the only ways we can really control. We're not a price setter. We have to react to the marketplace. So the way we drive our cost down despite increasing the noninterest-bearing component in the mix. And that's a strategy that we have talked about for a long time, will continue to do. So I think there's some optimism here from a cost funding cost perspective because of those opportunities that we have and some success that we're seeing, particularly in the consumer bank as well.

With new clients coming over and increasing share of wallet with the consumer. Some of the things we've done, we've invested in a number of tools to create client primacy and it's really starting to pay off. And the investment in our AI to analyze lots of data to make pricing decisions is also paying off so.

So -- that was a large corporate following efforts right. It's helping on the loan side as well as the deposit side.

So we're -- we've got some -- there are some good things coming. But if you look at it overall, what Vince was saying in his comments, if the industry is going to be trying to loan up particularly in C&I. There's going to be the pricing pressure from a funding perspective kind of. That's the expectation. So that's the uncertain part about it is how aggressive do others get from a pricing perspective.

We're sitting in one of the best positions we've been in from a loan-to-deposit standpoint, at this point in the year, too. So there's a -- there's definitely -- we're definitely sitting in a much more favorable place to give us some flexibility on pricing.

That's really helpful, guys. I appreciate all of that color. And then let me just follow up on the capital front. If you guys could just remind us of how you think about a CET1 floor and how active you would expect to be with the buyback against your kind of mid-single-digit loan growth expectation.

I mean we've been using 11% as a floor for CET1. We're at 11.4%, and we're not looking to really drive that down. We'd like to have a powder there. if the loan growth and when the loan growth really accelerates and comes on board, we want to have that capital to support the loan growth. So -- but I mean, if I had to state the floor, I would say 11% would be a floor for that level for the CET1 ratio.

Previously, we had said 10% and we grew about 10%. Now we're at 4% or so.

I'd be okay with 10, [indiscernible].

That's true, [indiscernible] 10%.

And the next question comes from David Smith with Truist Securities.

So now that you've taken those cuts out of the outlook seems like it's a little bit of a tougher backdrop for loan growth, although you kept the guidance the same in that mid-single-digit range. Can you talk about any puts and takes there? Has your expectations for where that low loan growth is coming from evolved over the last 3 months?

Yes. As we've said, our short term -- if you look at the short-term C&I pipeline, commercial pipelines, they're up 10% in the same period. So this is typically a seasonally slower period. So we're starting to see more activity. If you look at our leasing and finance project finance area. They've had -- they continue to have really strong pipelines and had great production last year. There's -- because of the tax law changes, that's going to continue. If you look at the commercial bank or the consumer bank, we -- our pipelines are up significantly in the consumer bank. So I think nearly all correct.

So there are some bright spots out there. On the flip side of that, CRE still continues to trite because we've already gotten into all this, but we pulled back a little bit, and we're just letting those large bonds go to the permanent market. right, Gary.

Yes. And even with that, we are starting to see some extremely strong new CRE credit opportunities. So there is -- there are some shoots there that are starting to show and we've liked what we've seen so far.

Yes. So as I mentioned on the last call, our capital growth, the reduction in that exposure, we're below 200%. I expect that probably in the different. So it gives us the ability to go out and pick good high-quality projects to do in the CRA space. that's not even reflected in our our pipeline yet because that all tons should be coming in the second half of the year. But there are some bright spots.

So that's why we're not changing our guide. -- and that's why we still believe pretty strongly in our ability to produce net interest income that we -- that's reflected in our guidance.

Okay. And then the fee guidance implies a little bit of a ramp-up in the second half from $90 million in the first quarter and $90 million to $95 million this coming quarter. Can you just unpack your expectations there, like where you see that growth coming from?

Sure. The investment banking segment should produce some pretty significant fee events. So the public finance and the investment banking group that we brought on -- there are some deals that are slated to happen in the second half of the year that will contribute to that that are already in the works.

I think that's one contributor. We also think that when there's less interest rate volatility here, if things settle down a little bit, there should be a pickup in derivative activity. We're still pretty optimistic about our ability to grow market share in the mortgage business, so there's gain on sale. Opportunities up and down the Eastern seaboard because those markets are continuing to grow. We've got wealth growing.

We have some great momentum in our wealth shop. So we're building out a group to handle family office, opportunities. So we're going to be moving up market in that space, and there's some promising opportunities there.

So I think fee income mortgage treasury management as I've mentioned earlier, we have some fairly significant treasury management clients. Penn States, one of them. There are others that we have won that are even larger that will come over. So fee income in the treasury management space should continue to expand.

And then there's interchange. We've seen a pickup lately in interchange activity. We've not even really spent a lot of time activating our debit portfolio, and it's a fairly sizable fee income stream for us. So there's going to be a focus on that. particularly with the use of AI and some tools that we have to try to drive more activity on our -- in our debit card platform and with our small credit card portfolio, but it's small relative to the debit side. Those are the drivers.

And this is our fourth consecutive quarter with fee income at $90 million or above. So I think that's a key point for us. And I think there's good momentum in the businesses that Vince talked about in debt capital markets and public finance. So there's a lot of excitement about what the rest of the year holds for us on the fee side.

Yes. And we've been doing really well from an international perspective as well. We just won another word, I'm not like to mention what it is, but those people have done well. the person that runs it, Gener is a long-time associate of mine and respective -- and he's done a terrific job, and that continues to grow, too.

So we're seeing more and more opportunities with international banking with hedging and spot transactions for our clients, particularly as we're moving upmarket. So I'd say given that we have a really low relative share to some of these large players in the capital market space and the revenue lines associated with some of these businesses is relatively small, and it's already reflected in the run rate. There's upside.

Less public finance is another door business.

So that -- yes, as I mentioned earlier, with investment banking, that's another one. We think hundreds, maybe thousands of municipalities across our footprint. We have a specialization and handling their principal treasury management fees. And I think that, that will open the door, building out that team opens the door to some significant opportunities in the public finance space for us. And that's a highly competitive business, but we have the relationships already.

We've been farming it out or turning it over to others, and we now can capitalize on it. So very granular I mentioned all these areas. So there's a lot of granularity. So it doesn't take much of a number of those areas increase even low single digits. It starts to really drive the total revenue number.

And the next question comes from Kelly Motta with KBW.

We've talked a lot about your capital as well as the organic loan pipeline and the opportunities in C&I, I'd like to circle back to M&A and get another updated thoughts here on your appetite for deals and a reminder of what you look for given it does seem like your organic outlook is quite strong.

Yes. I've said it a number of times, we're going to be opportunistic. There's not a lot out there that we see that is high value even if they were available. Like there are things that we could look at that would make a lot of sense, but a bank has to be for sale to do a transaction. We're not actively in the market. I'm just referring to deals that have been done, things that I'm hearing in the marketplace. But I think our early drive to do M&A was to gain the scale to get over some of the regulatory hurdles and to be able to do some of the things that we're doing today.

And I think given the size of the organization, we're in the sweet spot, even though some don't believe it, we're able to compete very effectively with everybody, and we have a very deep product set. And I think what you get from us is a $50 billion balance sheet and maybe a $1 trillion banks product offering, at least for our clients, right, because we're not banking Fortune 100 companies as their primary bank.

So the middle market and large middle market clients that we bank, we can do everything that a lot of the other banks that are much, much larger than us to, but we do it in a way that is more boutique-ish there's more attention paid to getting stuff done. There's less bureaucracy. We're a little more creative because we don't have the same level of infrastructure or systemic methods of doing things. So it lets us be a little more entrepreneurial.

And I think the customers enjoy that, and we're seeing great opportunities because of that. And I think that -- and I've said this, I just did a podcast it's not out yet with the ABA, but the smaller banks have an incredible opportunity right now to build product that's unique.

Because of AI, because of the changes that are occurring from a tech perspective with cloud-based computing, the speed of computing, the ability to develop software with I think you're going to see some pretty interesting things come about, and I think it's changing the equation on scale, particularly relative to technology. So that's -- and if you look at our cost of funds and you look at our returns and our return profile and our efficiency ratio, we're right there with the larger banks.

So efficiency within the consumer bank was actually better when we did the analysis. So we're able to do that because we're very smart about how we deploy our resources, we're able to do it because we don't have the bureaucracy, we're able to do it because we're not arrogant. There's a bunch of things that we've seen out there that certainly play in our favor. So I'm sorry for the long answer, but we've talked a lot about this internally.

I really appreciate all the color. That's very helpful. Maybe to turn back on the margin. I appreciate the commentary about C&I growth being really strong and pipeline to record levels. Hoping, I apologize if I missed it, but if you could provide additional color as to how loan pricing and spreads are holding up. I know you gave some color about the continued repricing opportunities here, but just hoping to get more on pricing.

Yes, you would expect in this environment for credit spreads to broaden because of the geopolitical environment that we're in, we're not seeing that necessarily in the middle market. I think there's still some pretty significant tailwinds from an economic perspective that keep people optimistic and I think the tax law changes were very favorable for capital investment. So you're not seeing what you typically would see when we have the geopolitical environment that we have. So I would say what that means is that you're not going to see a broadening of credit spreads because of issues with repayment or problems. I don't know, Gary, you could speak to that.

But there is competitive pressure, obviously, but there's always competitive pressure. I've been doing this for a long, long time. I've been in corporate bank and my whole career. And one of my pet peeves is when I sit there with the commercial bankers and they tell me that it's so competitive. I can remember back 30 years ago when I was competing for deals in the upper middle market and transactions were priced at 50 basis points over LIBOR on a sub investment-grade credit opportunity. That's that pricing doesn't exist today so the margins are better today.

So it goes through ebbs and flows and changes and credit spreads impact how pricing is impacted. So we'll see what happens with the economy. We've always benefited because we were more conservative. So when credit spreads were broadening, what that means is that we're going to get paid more for lower risk transactions, because we have the capital and the appetite to deploy capital.

And Gary has talked about that many times. Others will get out over their skis from a lending perspective and then have to pull back during those periods. And there during frothy periods, credit spreads are thinner. So I would say if you want to shorten, sorry for all these long answers, Kelly. But the reality is it's a complicated business. And in certain segments, like if you move deep down into small business lending, I think spreads have come in because there's increased competition for C&I opportunities.

When you move up into the larger end of the spectrum. I think spreads are pretty consistent with how they've been underwritten, particularly on syndicated deals. It may have come in a little bit. I don't know, Gary, if you...

Inch you hit it pretty well. Spreads are where you expect them to be today on a transaction-by-transaction basis, you can get squeezed a little bit, but we're very comfortable with the with the spreads that we're seeing in the marketplace today and based on where the economy is, is it going to probably get a little more competitive as we move forward. It wouldn't surprise me, Kelly. So we'll keep an eye on that. Continue to manage it accordingly.

Great. I really do appreciate all the color.

And the next question comes from Manuel Navas with Piper Sandler.

Just a quick follow-up on Kelly's question. What are kind of new loans coming in at what yield?

It depends on the category.

New loans originated during the first quarter came out at $557 million -- if you look at it compared to the fourth quarter on average, I mean, it's 589 in the fourth quarter, you had 2 Fed cuts affecting fourth quarter levels. So on a spot basis, so the overall portfolio yield is at $561 -- it was only down a basis point in total, which includes all of the different categories of loans, no Fed costs during the quarter.

So total moving a basis point the lines have kind of have approached each other now where we have been -- if you go back a few quarters to new loans, we're coming on 25, 30 basis points higher than the portfolio yield. It's kind of more in line based on the mix of what we originated during the first quarter.

Okay. I appreciate that. The deposit pipeline, you're speaking to some commercial clients that are going to come on over time with treasury management solutions, -- is that pipeline also -- how does that compare to your current deposit costs?

Yes, it's a -- that's a hard -- it's a good question. It's a hard 1 to answer on the fly. -- because you're going to have different levels of demand deposits based upon floor balances that are set because they use an earnings credit to pay for services. It depends on the client and the level of services -- so I don't know if I have a good answer for you, but it's a great question.

In the pipeline, some of it you really don't know because I mean -- well, I think most of the stuff we're doing, we're the operating bank, right? So you will see higher cost deposits coming on board as well. But that's the excess balances that are being swept. So if you look at that, typically, they're swept into our standard price, it doesn't change our stated pricing. So we don't exception price that. The focus is on setting the floor balance and whether the client is going to pay with fees or use demand deposits. So -- and the level of -- but the cost is for us.

So I would just add one thing 2-minute well, but the commercial deposit pipeline is up meaningfully. I mean we were a little under $1 billion at the end of the year, and we're around $1.2 billion now. So we convert and we continue to add new names into that.

That's great. I appreciate that. Just my last one is can you talk about how quickly some of your investments in account primacy or AI, when they should kind of pay off and how kind of should we track your progress beyond deposit growth, solid returns. You planned to some market share gains. Any other metrics you'd like to point us to kind of see how this is paying off?

Well, we have mentioned in the past, applications. Our application volume is up considerably. Using the platform that we've developed that utilizes AI and our common app. So I think 38% increase in deposit applications through that network. It's kind of hard to give a global number because you've got disintermediation going on with traditional origination methods. But we track how many come through that channel and it's up significantly. It continues to grow significantly.

I think loans were up. I don't remember what the number is 10%. Yes, 5% actually loan application volumes up 5% quarter-over-quarter and 31% is the increase in deposit applications. So you're seeing increases in those categories that should accelerate over time. The best way to look at this, I think, for any bank would be to look at their overall performance because it's so dispersed throughout the organization. And we're trying to balance obviously, we have limited resources, as I've said earlier.

So we don't want our expenses to grow and then not get a benefit right? So we're not a tech company, we can't burn cash and then tell you we're not going to make any money. So we're a bank. So we basically have to gain the efficiency, pick the project, deploy it, gain the efficiency and it's reflected in the numbers. But I will say, we have a number of things that we've already pulled off. We have upgraded our ability to monitor deposit base and affect deposit betas with analysis that we've done. And we had a system before opportunity.

We have a new opportunity Q2, which is much more sophisticated and speedy because we're using AI to assist with it, not just machine learning tools and insights. So I think that's 1 example. We've got a project underway to automate our pulse center. Based on some research that we've done. So we -- there's some pretty spectacular AI software that's available that really can have a significant impact on the customer experience and our cost servicing a customer via the call center.

So we're engaged and looking at that, we are in the throes of building out our 360 View, which has an AI overlay I mentioned it earlier, that we're in, I'd say, mid phase there, and we're moving very quickly. We're building out a proprietary mortgage application that's going to be embedded into the common app. That's coming, which will help us in the long run with cross-sell opportunity because we'll be able to -- as we originate a mortgage loan use those data fields instantly for the customer to purchase other products like in insurance, home insurance, depository products.

And then we've already announced, we have embedded in our mobile app, the ability to move your direct deposit instantly and repetitive ACH transactions. We're working on bill pay. We're going to get there. We're integrating that into the origination platform, and we have pushed that common app origination platform into the field. So the entire branch network is originating on the same digital platform that consumers use online. So there's a lot. We've done a lot.

There's a lot that's already done that's reflected in the expense run rate. And then there are some things that we're finalizing that should come online very shortly here and be additive probably in '27 either from an efficiency perspective or generating additional revenue for us. I don't if that's helpful. But I don't have a precise number to give you. I can only tell you...

Were going to be building out external dashboards where we've been building internal and I think we mentioned before, having more dashboard type data that we'll be sharing as we proceed with these initiatives.

And the next question comes from Brian Martin with Green Capital.

Maybe one follow-up for Gary. Just maybe it's Vince. Just on the loan growth, just on the CRE side, in terms of the sales into the secondary market and just kind of managing that. How are you thinking about that? It sounds like there's opportunities, but you're still seeing payoffs just in terms of contribution to growth this year. It sounds like C&I is obviously was strong this quarter. The pipelines are good there. But just on the CRE side, given your capacity and how you're thinking about that in the secondary market.

Yes, Brian, we still have projects that we've been involved with for the last couple of years that are coming on a quarterly basis regularly that are moving into the secondary market. So we'll continue to see that as we work our way through the year ahead there.

That being said, we were pleasantly surprised by the ramp-up in new CRE opportunities. And pretty much across the board, those opportunities have been really solid. So we're going to aggressively pursue those solar transactions in that space. I will tell you that, that is, as we talked about competition earlier, it's very competitive because many banks are getting back in the CRE business.

So we're seeing that there's a lot of activity there, and we expect that to build throughout the year. So in terms of those payouts and moves into the secondary market, they will continue. That will be a headwind in that category, but we're going to be very choosy of the assets that we're putting on, and we will see we will see activity from a new booking standpoint there build throughout the year.

By the way, the C&I growth that we have, does not include MDFR. So I've been saying this for a long time. I think people finally started looking at it. But when you look at the H8 data, it included basically warehouse lending for consumer borrowings that get reflected in the commercial line because you can't segment it out or there's another category that you can't really figure out what's sitting in that bucket when you look at the public disclosures. But we don't have that. So we're not -- we're growing with traditional C&I.

So we haven't had any help in any way, right, from and [indiscernible]. And I think that's an important distinction. So as the economy starts to accelerate, you'll see us perform even better as we continue to build out some of these tools that I mentioned, we'll see better penetration in the small business segment. We should get there. The consumer business that we talked about, we're starting to see pretty explosive opportunities in certain segments and consumers? Right?

Yes. The consumer book has been really strong. The performance of it continues to be exceptional that record low credit metric levels at this point, high-quality paper, and the teams are doing a really good job generating opportunities and those pipelines are very high.

Just as a reference point, too, if you look at our changes since the end of the year, our NDF balances, which were very low, and we're in probably the lowest decile there. Ours came down 5%, 7%. The other -- all banks were up 7%. So it's driving a lot of the loan growth at some of our competitors.

Perfect. That's a great segue. Just one last one on the CRE Gary. I'm assuming that, that CRE concentration level around 200 pie stands or it's not moving a whole lot based on origination -- potential originations with payoffs. So that's not like it's going to ramp up.

We're at 194% at the end of the quarter, Brian, to Tier 1 plus the allowance. I would tell you that I would expect that to be lower as we move into the second and third quarters before we start to see some stabilization.

Got you. Okay. And then just to Vince's comment or both Vince's comments on NBFI, can you just remind us that your -- how low that exposure is today, just so we have that clarity in terms of that exposure relative to other banks?

Yes. In terms of our bucket, the largest bucket that we have in there is the other category, which is a mix of wealth management, advisory, family office and insurance companies for nonlending purposes. The credit facilities that we have in place, their support working capital acquisitions and lift-out strategies for our clients.

Remaining is a handful of customers, which is a little over $100 million clients that we do C&I business with that have formed some REITs and our PTCs, which we got from an acquisition a number of years ago, and we pared it back to the strongest of the strong. There are 5 of them. They're 4 of them are investment-grade companies. The balance is $40 million -- so it's really small. Right? Yes. $40 million.

And again, we've not focused -- that is not a focus of this company. That's the byproduct of acquisitions and clients accommodating certain clients. But we don't have a practice of going out and originating in that space.

And it's only 1% of the total loan book, too. So it's tiny. Minimal.

Yes. Okay. Good to highlight that. And just maybe the last 1 Yes. Maybe just the last one for me was your comments on the cost of deposits. It sounds like -- it sounds as though they are kind of flat to down maybe over the balance of the year, just with that balance of the C&I potential growth of the -- and I guess that's assuming that there's no rapid growth in loans and no change in rates. But that funding cost trending down. It seems like the outlook we should be looking at. Is that right?

And b, just can you talk about the pipeline of commercial deposits. Is that -- do you see that the baseline of 26% today trending a bit higher given your outlook for that pipeline?

It's too hard to say given the inflows and outflows in that bucket, what can happen potentially with disintermediation. I think that's a hard thing to say. -- right -- and we've been pretty steady at that level. It's risen and then the yield curve changes and then elaborates away and then comes back. So it's kind of hard to say, but we tend to target that levels, right? So it's reflected in our guide, and that's what you have. If we can do better, it's going to come from the things that I mentioned earlier.

Yes. Just from a higher for longer environment, Brian, I mean there's still some room for the deposits to come down, but it's going to be a function of the overall loan growth and the competitiveness like Vince mentioned earlier on the deposit pricing side. So I think there's room for to come down a little bit from here, but the rest of -- the back half of the year is going to be a function of what's happening with the overall loan growth.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Vince Delie for any closing remarks.

Thank you. Thank you for the questions. And I want to thank our shareholders for sticking with us for so long. I think I've been in the seat for a long time. I've been here 20 years. So it's pretty amazing how time goes by. But it's great to be able to be here and to really deliver a dividend increase. I know a lot of shareholders -- individual shareholders and one that -- we're finally at a point here where we've accumulated capital. We have capital flexibility. So it gives us the opportunity to defend the company from a risk perspective to invest in some of the great things we're investing in that drive returns, right? We're very return-oriented.

And now because of the capital position we're in. We can continue to repatriate capital at even higher levels. And just so everyone doesn't forget we have returned $2.4 billion in capital since I became CEO here since CFO. So we are focused on taking care of our shareholders. And we did that all while we acquired banks and grew 8% to 9% on an organic basis over a sustained period. So anyway, thank you, and it's a great honor.

And I also want to say one more thing. I want to thank Bill Campbell again because he was a tremendous director and a phenomenal advocate to shareholders. He's done a lot of creative things over time. Early in his Board career, he was focused pretty heavily on governance, and that built the framework for what we have today. So he's kind of ahead of this time he's a great person and a great mentor, and we're going to miss him. So thank you for everything you've done, Bill.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, everyone. And welcome to the FNB Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Please also note that today's event is being recorded.

At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Lisa Hajdu, Manager of Investor Relations. Ma'am, please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to our earnings call. This conference call of FNB Corporation and the reports as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission often contain forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to and not as an alternative for our reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP operating measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our presentation materials and in our earnings release. Please refer to these non-GAAP and forward-looking statement disclosures contained in our related materials, reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on our corporate website. A replay of this call will be available until Wednesday, January 28, and the webcast link will be posted to the About Us, Investor Relations section of our corporate website.

I will now turn the call over to Vince Delie, Chairman, President and CEO.

Thank you, and welcome to our fourth quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Vince Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer; and Gary Guerrieri, our Chief Credit Officer.

FNB reported fourth quarter operating net income available to common shareholders of $182 million or $0.50 per diluted common share. Full year 2025's operating performance reflected several records, including revenue of $1.8 billion, operating net income available to common shareholders of $577 million and operating earnings per diluted common share of $1.59.

Full year operating EPS grew 14% year-over-year, driven by the 9% growth in net interest income, significant margin expansion and record noninterest income. We delivered strong profitability and capital metrics with return on average tangible common equity equaling 16% and tangible book value per share of $11.87, an increase of 13% from the year ago quarter. Throughout 2025, we focused on resetting the balance sheet to best position FNB for continued future success, including managing loan concentrations as well as improving the loan-to-deposit ratio to 89.7%.

In December, we transferred approximately $200 million of performing residual mortgage loans to held for sale in anticipation of a loan sale to close in the first quarter of 2026. Additionally, as I mentioned on the earnings call a year ago, we have strategically decreased our CRE concentration organically to 197% over the past few years. We are generating enough capital to support growth across our loan portfolio, including CRE and have ample capacity to achieve historical growth rates. Since launching our Clicks-to-Bricks strategy 10 years ago, FNB has introduced innovative solutions, including the eStore and common application that provide an enhanced client experience to deepen relationships and achieve customer primacy. Our comprehensive digital strategy, including our early adoption of AI, remains a driving force behind client acquisition, engagement and convenience.

This quarter, we introduced payment switch, which enables customers to easily switch preauthorized payments to their primary checking to FNB through our mobile app. With direct deposit switch and payment switch, we've eliminated 2 of the most common barriers for customers to move their primary banking relationship to FNB. This is another great example of how FNB is leading the industry with our eStore Clicks-to-Bricks strategy and comprehensive digital capabilities. We are planning on introducing additional unique features over the coming quarters that will benefit our customers and further differentiate us in the marketplace.

Concurrently, FNB continues to expand to AI and data analytics usage to drive efficiency and accelerate revenue growth. Through our disciplined expense management culture, FNB has achieved annual cost savings of $10 million to $20 million per year since 2019. Leveraging our investments in technology, AI and data analytics, we expect even higher levels of cost savings in 2026 through increased automation and process improvements. This provides FNB the ability to continue to invest in our revenue-generating businesses and differentiated omnichannel customer experience while continuing to produce meaningful positive operating leverage.

With that, I would like to turn the call over to Gary to discuss the strong credit results for the quarter. Gary?

Thank you, Vince. Good morning, everyone. We ended the quarter and year-end with our asset quality metrics remaining at very strong levels. Total delinquency ended the quarter at 71 basis points, up 6 bps from the prior quarter with NPLs and OREO down 6 bps, ending at a multiyear low of 31 basis points. Net charge-offs totaled 19 basis points and 20 basis points for the year, showing continued strong performance throughout an uncertain economic environment.

We experienced a further decline of $147 million or 10.2% in criticized loans on a linked quarter basis, driven by payoff activity with decreases again observed throughout all of the commercial segments. Once again, we were pleased with the improvements we saw during the quarter and throughout 2025. Total funded provision expense for the quarter stood at $18.7 million, supporting the C&I loan growth and charge-offs. Our ending fund reserve stands at $440 million, an increase of $2.3 million, ending at 1.26%, up 1 basis point from the prior quarter.

When including acquired unamortized loan discounts, our reserve stands at 1.32%, and our NPL coverage position remained strong at 438%, inclusive of the discounts. Regarding tariffs, we continue to monitor line utilization and industry concentrations, especially customers with a higher potential impact over the longer-term. Since Q1, we have not seen any material impacts on the loan portfolio and have continued to experience positive credit migration since then. Furthermore, this quarter marked our strongest C&I loan production activity for the year, enabling us to achieve positive net C&I loan growth in the quarter and year-over-year which offset another decrease in line utilization. Regarding the nonowner CRE portfolio, all credit metrics improved quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year with delinquency and NPLs at 34 and 31 basis points, respectively.

We have successfully managed the CRE risk and exposure to end the year within our desired range as a percentage of our capital base. We started to see some high-quality opportunities during the quarter However, exits through ongoing secondary market activity resulted in a reduction in exposure. We continue to enhance our concentration risk and allowance for credit loss frameworks and our proprietary credit management tool that provides a comprehensive view of our customer base. Not standing periodic uncertainty in the economic environment our core credit philosophy and strong credit risk management practices position us to successfully navigate any potential volatility across the various economic cycles.

In summary, we continue to be very pleased with the performance of our loan portfolio and our team's attention to managing risk, which has positioned us well for growth in the year ahead. Building on the strong momentum we saw in the quarter, we continue to focus on core C&I and equipment finance growth with our building pipelines. Additionally, with potential for increases in line utilization, our growth expectations for high-quality CRE and our well-positioned retail franchise, we look forward to achieving our desired levels of balance sheet growth in the year ahead.

I will now turn the call over to Vince Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer, for his remarks.

Thanks, Gary, and good morning. Today, I will focus on the fourth quarter's financial results and walk through our guidance for the first quarter and full year of 2026. Fourth quarter operating net income totaled a record $181.8 million or $0.50 per share when excluding a discretionary $20 million charitable contribution to the FNB Foundation partially offset by a reduction in the estimated FDIC special assessment.

Record total revenues of nearly $458 million, grew a very strong 12.4% on an operating basis and operating pre-provision net revenue grew 21.5% from the year ago quarter. The fourth quarter's performance also includes investment tax credits of $37.2 million from a renewable energy financing transaction, partially offset by related noncredit valuation impairment of $4.4 million pretax on the financing receivable, which is included in other noninterest expense. FNB's Equipment Finance business originates renewable energy financing transactions is a core element of their business strategy. While we continue to have an active pipeline in the renewable energy sector, certain types of projects are limited by changes in the tax laws.

Total assets at year-end 2025 exceeded $50 billion for the first time in company history. Fourth quarter average loans and leases of $35 billion, increased $169 million from last quarter or 1.9% annualized. Average consumer loans grew $223 million, primarily due to higher residential mortgage and consumer line of credit balances. Average commercial loans and leases slightly decreased $54 million linked quarter driven by higher attrition from secondary market activity, lower line utilization and further scheduled reductions in CRE balances. Average commercial and industrial loans increased $81 million and commercial leases increased $26 million, while average commercial real estate loans declined $158 million.

CRE exposure has reached our desired concentration range and combined with record capital levels and a sub-90% loan-to-deposit ratio provides FNB a meaningful opportunity to participate in an economic environment with more favorable loan growth prospects. As part of our ongoing balance sheet management strategies, approximately $200 million of performing residential mortgage loans were transferred to held for sale late in the fourth quarter with the actual loan sale expected to close in the first quarter.

Residential mortgage loans are expected to roughly approximate the growth in the overall loan portfolio in 2026. Fourth quarter average deposits totaled $38.6 billion, an increase of $740 million or 7.7% linked quarter annualized driven by organic growth in new and existing customer relationships. Average interest-bearing demand balances grew strongly, particularly interest-bearing checking and money market balances. Average noninterest-bearing deposits exceeded $10 billion and were up 4.5% linked quarter annualized. The mix of noninterest-bearing deposits to total deposits on a spot basis remained at 26%. Success of our ongoing balance sheet management strategies and deposit gathering initiatives brought our loan-to-deposit ratio below 90%, a more than 170 basis point improvement from year-end 2024. Fourth quarter net interest income totaled a record $365.4 million, up 1.7% linked quarter and 13.4% above the fourth quarter of 2024.

Average earning assets were up $310 million sequentially on higher loan and investment securities balances. The yield on earning assets declined 11 basis points sequentially as variable rate loans were impacted by the 75 basis points of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts since September of 2025, while the yield on the investment securities portfolio only declined slightly. Interest-bearing deposit costs decreased 13 basis points linked quarter to 2.53% and borrowing costs declined 30 basis points to 4.35%. The resulting fourth quarter net interest margin was 3.28%, up 3 basis points linked quarter and up 24 basis points year-over-year. Our total cumulative spot deposit beta. Since the Fed interest rate cuts began in September of 2024, ended the year at 25%. We continue to strategically lower deposit pricing in step with the downward trend in the Fed funds rate and we expect a relatively stable net interest margin in the first quarter of 2026.

Operating noninterest income was $92.3 million, up 8.8% from the year ago period. Wealth Management revenues grew 15% from 2024 levels, driven by securities commissions and fees and growth across the geographic footprint. Service charges increased 4.1% from last year reflecting increased contributions from treasury management activities. Increases in SBA sold loan premiums and other miscellaneous gains drove the strong increase in other income and BOLI income was boosted by higher life insurance claims. Capital markets income included higher swap fees and increased international banking revenue. Despite higher gain on sale and net positive fair value adjustments from hedging activity, mortgage banking income declined on higher MSR amortization and a net MSR fair value recovery in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Operating noninterest expense totaled $256.5 million and $8.3 million or 3.4% increase from the year ago quarter. Salaries and employee benefits expenses were up 4.5% from the year ago quarter, primarily reflecting strategic hiring and higher performance and production-related compensation. Output Services increased 15.3% from last year due to higher volume-related technology and third-party costs and occupancy and equipment increased 7.3% primarily due to technology-related investments and higher occupancy costs. Other operating noninterest expense decreased $3.3 million and included a financing receivable noncredit impairment of $4.4 million from the tax credit transaction mentioned earlier, which was approximately $6 million lower than the impairment recognized for the fourth quarter 2024 tax credit transaction.

The efficiency ratio remained solid at 53.8% for the fourth quarter, 307 basis points better than the fourth quarter of 2024. We continue to manage our expense base in a disciplined manner which is expected to generate significant positive operating leverage in 2026. FNB's capital levels remained at record levels with a CET1 ratio at 11.4% and tangible common equity ratio at 8.9%, providing flexibility to optimally deploy capital to increase shareholder value. On a year-over-year basis, tangible book value per common share increased $1.38 or 13.2% to $11.87, demonstrating our strong profitability levels and commitment to peer-leading internal capital generation. Share repurchases totaled nearly $50 million for the full year of 2025, the highest level since the program originated in 2020.

Let's now look at the guidance for the first quarter and full year 2026 starting with the balance sheet. For full year 2026, period-end loans and deposits are expected to grow mid-single digits versus year-end 2025 as we continue to increase our market share across our diverse geographic footprint. Full year 2026 net interest income is expected to be between $1.495 billion and $1.535 billion with first quarter net interest income expected between $355 million and $365 million.

Our guidance assumes 225 basis point rate cuts in April and October. Noninterest income for the year is expected to be between $370 million and $390 million, with the first quarter expected between $90 million and $95 million. Full year guidance for noninterest expense is expected to be between $1 billion and $1.02 billion, representing a 1.5% increase at the midpoint compared with 2025 operating expenses. First quarter noninterest expenses are expected in a range of $255 million to $260 million as compensation expense is seasonally higher in the first quarter due to the timing of normal long-term stock compensation and higher payroll taxes. The 2026 provision expense is expected to be between $85 million and $105 million, dependent on net loan growth and charge-off activity.

Lastly, the full year effective tax rate should be between 21% and 22%, which does not include any investment tax credit activity that may occur.

With that, I will turn the call back to Vince.

As you've heard in our prepared remarks, we are very pleased with our financial results and achieved a number of records for 2025 including revenue, noninterest income and EPS. Our balance sheet surpassed $50 billion in assets, and we are well positioned to benefit from technology investment and expected growth opportunities. Our performance reflects steadfast execution of our multipronged strategy, diversifying revenue streams, optimizing our balance sheet, deploying capital thoughtfully and serving as the primary bank for our clients, enabled by our tech investments in eStore and omnichannel capabilities. Successful execution of FNB's strategy has led to enhance profitability and capital accretion, all while achieving some of the highest returns in the industry.

Looking ahead to 2026, we are confident in our ability to deliver meaningful loan and deposit growth, margin expansion and further diversification of fee income. Our improved capital levels and double-digit tangible book value growth year-over-year provide strong capital flexibility and position FNB to continue to deliver sustainable long-term value benefiting our customers, employees, communities and shareholders.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Daniel Tamayo from Raymond James.

Maybe we start on the fee income side. Obviously, at the Investor Day last quarter, you talked a lot about growth that has been expected -- sorry, investments that have been made into the fee income businesses and kind of long-term growth pathways. Just curious, as you look at the guidance range for '26, what do you think might get you towards the upper end of the guide and how likely that could be in your mind?

Yes. I mean, I don't -- do you want to answer, Vince.

Sure. I can jump in and you can add. I think just a couple of things on fee income, right? It again highlights the importance of diversification. So we had all-time highs for 7 of our fee-based businesses for the full year and 4 of them in the fourth quarter alone. When you look at the kind of moving parts that were there, the growth in service charges, insurance and securities commissions and BOLI offset mortgage banking and capital markets being lower than the prior quarter.

So the benefit of the diversification comes through. When you look ahead to '26, we're projecting continued solid growth there. The newer businesses that we've talked about starting to contribute at higher levels is definitely baked into the guidance. I think there might be some upside to that. And then strong performance from our kind of core fee-based businesses, wealth, treasury management, capital markets and mortgage. I think there's an opportunity for them to have another strong year as we did in 2025.

The only thing I was going to add, Vince, is that the macroeconomic environment, as we mentioned, when we were all together, Danny, plays in our favor. So the interest rate environment is positive for the mortgage banking business. We sell servicing release gain on sale from the sale of mortgage loans. So that's reflected in the fee income number. More activity in treasury management moving into next year because of what Vince said, with market share gains, expect...

New initiatives there.

And new initiatives there and the build-out of our TM platform. We expect that to continue to grow with contributions from merchant and other areas that relate to treasury management. Derivatives, we would expect, given the interest rate environment from a derivatives perspective to play out in our favor. And then we built out the public finance division in the process of building it out. We're very optimistic about contributions from that business and the debt capital markets arena. So that should play out for us. And then the M&A advisory business is they're seeing a lot of opportunities that we're expecting to translate that into fee income in '26. So there are quite a few drivers that's why we're fairly confident that we're going to be able to achieve what we've laid out in the guide.

And we did move the first quarter guidance up a bit, Danny, too. The implied guide for the fourth quarter was [ 88% to 93% ] we moved it up to [ 90% to 95% ] In a seasonally slower quarter. So I think that's an indication too.

Great, Vince. Maybe a bigger picture question on operating leverage. Just your thoughts around operating leverage in 2026 and what might be potential issues in not getting there or levers to achieve it?

Yes, I would just -- a couple of things. So if you look at the PPNR was lower in the fourth quarter versus the third quarter, all very explainable. We had about $12 million of not -- what I would call discrete nonrun rate expenses that came through in the fourth quarter. We had the solar tax impairment that we mentioned in the remarks. We had some higher medical claims that occur in the fourth quarter every year, our mortgage down payment program was a little over $3 million.

And then year-end performance-based accruals and 401(k) contributions based on the strong overall financial performance. So -- and then in the third quarter, we had that $5.4 million recovery. So there was a lot of noise kind of moving from third to fourth quarter. I mean as we go forward next year, our guidance includes a meaningful increase in PPNR and in the operating leverage. And I think as we talked about at Investor Day, expenses growing in the low single digits, while we're continuing to invest in the new initiatives, some of the ones that Vince mentioned. So I think we feel pretty good about our ability to meaningfully increase the operating leverage in 2026.

We also don't have the expense related to heightened standards, building as rapidly because we've completed many of the initiatives that we needed to complete from a personnel perspective and from a consulting and systems perspective. So -- we don't expect that to be a headwind anymore. We've also completed -- we fulfilled our obligation to fund grants for low income mortgage loans. So that was a pretty significant expense in '25. So that will be behind us as well. So we're fairly confident that we're going to be able to achieve the results that we reflected in our guide. In addition, we've had a number of expense initiatives that Vince has mentioned in the past.

And this year, we believe we can achieve even better cost takeouts on a run rate basis than we have historically. We've been focused on it. So efficiency is a focus moving into next year. And we're also leveraging some of the digital investment changes that we're making from a process perspective by utilizing AI and data analytics to make our operations more efficient. And the deployment of the common app in the retail delivery channel also provides a great deal of efficiency from a back office perspective because a lot of that processing is digitized. So that should all play well for us as we move into next year with elevated volumes in the consumer set.

Yes, some of the initiatives baked into from a CapEx standpoint is investing in our data science platform, AI and machine learning data platform with the new leaders that we have on board, investing more to get even more benefit out of those functions there. And that's part of why we were confident with the higher cost savings goal that we have for '26. And if you baked into our guidance has the efficiency ratio kind of getting down into the low 50s by the end of the year or second half of the year, I would say.

Our next question comes from Russell Gunther from Stephens.

I wanted to ask on the -- the loan growth outlook for '26 of mid-single digits. First, Vince, I want to make sure I caught you that your expectations for the resi portfolio would be around that sort of mid-single-digit level.

And then second, as you discussed at the Investor Day, C&I and CRE are expected to be the loan growth leaders going forward. So if we are thinking about resi in that mid-single digits, is it safe to assume C&I and CRE would outpunch that and maybe just some comments around the drivers of the magnitude within commercial.

Sure. I mean if you strip out the large payoffs that we had, particularly in the CRE space, we had a very strong production quarter. I know it's not reflected in the spot balance because of those payouts, acceleration in payoffs, particularly in multifamily with some larger C&I credits that went the way of capital markets versus bank debt. So I think the production -- the underlying production was very strong. The C&I production was extraordinarily good, I would say, for the fourth quarter of the year. So we're moving into next year with some good momentum. We do have a lot of capacity.

We talked a little bit in the prepared remarks about resetting the balance sheet. So we used '25 to kind of position our company to grow CRE loans and to grow C&I loans more rapidly. If you look at our loan-to-deposit ratio, we've had great success generating deposits. As I said earlier in the year, my hope was we would be closer to 88%. We're at 89.7%. So we're close. That gives us a lot of capacity to fund loan growth moving into '26 and to manage our margin from a deposit cost perspective. So those are positives.

If you look at the capital generation that this company has been able to produce historically, we generate sufficient capital levels to sustain mid- to high single-digit loan growth with relative ease. If you look at capacity from a CRE perspective, we're one of the few banks in our peer group that has a concentration as low as we do. And we've specifically managed that down. We mentioned we wanted to be under 200%. We finished just under 200%...

197%.

197% capital. So this is a reset and that should give you great confidence because now we can move into '26 and be much more aggressive in the CRE space and in the C&I lending space. And we have a much stronger platform from a fee income perspective to support leading those credits. So I think all of that is why we're very optimistic about achieving the guide that we put out there.

The other thing I will note, if you look at the H8 data and you exclude some of the payoffs that we've had, we've actually performed significantly better than the banks in total in the last quarter. So again, not looking at the full year because we were being very measured and we were reducing exposures in a bunch of areas that we wanted to reduce exposures in to prepare for '26. But if you strip out some of the payoffs, we were many times greater than the other banks in the industry. So we're optimistic about it. We haven't pulled back in terms of our pursuit of good C&I opportunities. We're not an NBFI. We're not a commercial finance driven C&I shop. So this is core C&I across our markets. where we're taking market share.

The line utilization is very low.

The line utilization remains low. So there's upside there as well. So all in, I think we're in a fairly strong position moving into '26 to continue to drive growth in our loan categories. In mortgage, I would -- we're -- there's a sale of performing mortgage loans. We decided there were some single household mortgage loans that we felt we should move off the balance sheet to give capacity for other things to provide higher returns, and that's the decision driving that. So I would expect growth in the mortgage business to be more tempered moving into '26 and with the change in rates probably an opportunity to get better gain on sale margin as we move into '26 to help fee income. So more moving off the balance sheet in '26. I hope that helps.

Okay. Great. And then my second question would be capital related. CET1 11.4% not too long ago, that target was 10% than 10.5%. It would be helpful to get a sense for where you would plan to manage that in 2026. And as you grow that CRE where are you willing to flex that concentration level to?

Yes, I would say a few things on that topic, right? Like you mentioned, the 11.4%. It wasn't that long ago that we had a goal of 10% and then 10% was the floor and now we're at 11.4%. Dividend payout for the full year, then you combine that with our expectation for strong internal capital generation based on the guidance that we have. So we're in the best position we've ever been to deploy capital to optimize shareholder value. The organic growth is the first use of that, of course. But like Vince said, we're generating enough capital to really support high single-digit loan growth. So I think that Vince...

To stop you right there because you asked a question about our ability to maintain the concentration levels. We did look at that -- we do generate a lot of capital, as you mentioned, our strong internal capital generation. We could -- basically, based on that in our guide, we could originate nearly $1 billion in CRE loans and not change the concentration level at this point in time. I think that's an important point, and I'm sorry to interrupt you. I thought given your speech on our capital.

Yes.

So there's -- I mean there's significant capacity to do business as usual there. And we're going to pick the transactions that we want to bank. But we've got plenty of capacity with the capital generation that the company is achieving.

But if we move slightly above 200%, that's not going to kill us. We're still well below others that we compete against in the marketplace. But our goal is to stay there if we can. Go ahead.

So beyond supporting that balance sheet growth, we still think buybacks are attractive. I mean we did $50 million for the full year. We did $18 million in the fourth quarter. Even at these valuation levels, we still think it's attractive. And for 2026, I would expect we'd be at the same level or higher as far as buyback activity. And then the dividend, we've been having conversations. I mean it's something we discussed regularly, and we'll be discussing with our Board. In the past, we had that elevated payout ratio for such a long period of time.

And we like the flexibility of the buybacks. So that will be a component of capital management. But our payout ratio in the 25% level at least creates the ability to increase the dividend at some point if we decide to do that. So it's definitely something that's on the table for us to discuss. There hasn't been a decision or anything, that's a Board decision, but it's something we'll take a hard look at this year. This is a strategic planning cycle for us. So it would be kind of part of our capital management planning as we look ahead.

And the Board is going to look at it through the lens of our shareholders. They want to do what's absolutely best from a capital deployment perspective. That has always been their stated mission. They want to drive returns at the company, drive higher stock price performance. So they're going to look at all of that and look at our relative valuation with buybacks in mind when they make those decisions. So deployment of capital is a focus of the Board will continue to be. .

Yes. The last point I would make, too, is just when you look at our financial performance, Alfred always says and it's a good point. We have a 16.3% return on tangible common equity on a TCE ratio that's 8.9%. So that TCE ratio has built significantly from the 4.5%. It was when the 3 of us started in our roles, it's 8.9%. So I think that's important, too. So even with the higher levels of capital, we're generating a top quartile for sure, return on tangible common equity and managing that capital will be key to our performance as we move forward.

Our next question comes from Casey Haire.

I want to touch on the margin. So the -- just wondering the interest-bearing deposit beta, where does that trend throughout '26 versus that 25% cycle to date?

Yes. I would say we've still talked and still feel that kind of mid-30s on a terminal beta makes sense to us. By the end of the year, our guidance probably get to about 30% or so, up from the '25. I think our team has done an excellent job managing the deposit rates through this cycle, being very thoughtful and strategic in how we're adjusting rates and which tranches we're adjusting rates at. So there's still opportunity for us from end of the year reference point forward to continue to bring down deposit rates and big slugs of the deposit base. So I would say 30% or so by the end of the year, Casey, and still kind of a mid-30s once this cycle finishes.

Okay. Excellent. And then just a credit question.

Total, too. sorry, I should comment.

So that's not IBD. That's total deposit.

That's total. Yes, I'm sorry. You're asking interest. That's total.

Okay. Got you. Okay. All right. And then on the credit side, so the provision guide, does that assume -- like that assumes that the ACL ratio. The reserve ratio kind of holds this level supports mid-single-digit growth, and then the charge-off outlook, I'm assuming that presumes that we kind of hang out at this 20 bps level.

Yes. I think you're spot on, Casey, with your assessment of that, all sounds pretty close to what we're expecting there with the guide. .

Okay. Great. And just last one for me and one more on the capital front. So you guys clearly have a very nice capital generation. It's not inconceivable that you're above 12% CET1 in a year from now. So I guess, kind of the other way, is there -- I know you're well above your floor, are you looking at -- is there a level of capital that's too much? Or are you happy to just let capital stockpile for I mean you have more room to be more aggressive and take the payout ratio higher. I'm just wondering what's preventing you.

Nothing is really preventing us. I mean, as I commented on, the dividend will be a discussion with our Board this year as far as potentially increasing the dividend, having buybacks at or higher than the level that we did last year is kind of part of what's baked into our plan. The capital ratio, if you do the math and run it forward, you get around 12% by the end of the year. So some of that at some point, the loan growth activity picks up to get to the high single digits, right? And you want to have the ability to do that. But we're looking at all the pieces of it between funding loan growth as well as the dividend and the buyback.

Yes. We don't want to sit here and keep accumulating capital, Casey. We're focusing on a bunch of avenues to deploy capital to move some returns too. I mean we -- if we can invest capital in high-returning opportunities, then we're going to have a much higher return on tangible common equity on a slightly lower capital base. But it has to be sustainable. It can't just be a onetime deal, where we bought back shares, and then everything rolls back. And we're looking forward and making sure that we're deploying that capital in the most productive ways on a go-forward basis, so we can drive returns.

Yes. And the industry has been moving higher, too. The peers generally have been shifting upwards. So kind of keep one eye on that and then the rest of our eyes on kind of what we're doing.

Yes. I mean the -- it's kind of tough when you look at the AOCI impairment that occurred a few years ago, and there's accretion going on, Casey. So some of the TBV build is just a reversal of impairments that occurred and we didn't have that. So when you look at these big outsized numbers and TBV growth, you have to take that into consideration. Ours is core earnings and retained earnings. That's a big difference. So when you're evaluating all these banks, you should be taking that into consideration, I hope. I think you are...

And we've returned with $2.2 billion capital since 2009. So I mean it's been an active part of our overall shareholder positioning.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Kelly Motta from KBW.

So not to beat a dead horse with capital, but just kind of building off of the last couple of questions there. It sounds like you believe your stock is still attractive here. Can you, one, remind us any price sensitivity that you have regarding the buyback, if there's any sort of guiding principles there.

And then two, I'd be remiss if not to ask about any updated thoughts on M&A here.

Yes. I would just say valuation, we think our stock is worth a lot more than where it's trading. If you look at where it was trading sake in the last year or 2, I mean, it had been trading at a discount on a P basis to our peers, which didn't make sense to us. And now it's kind of equal to the peers, and we think it should be higher than it appears. So we still think it's a good investment for us to make even at these higher valuation levels. And there's not a bright line, Kelly, I guess I would say, where we would stop. I mean, we look at our relative positioning and what's happening with the market and what's happening with the economy. So -- but definitely room for us to continue to be active.

Yes, we're -- from an M&A perspective, we're 9 years past our last M&A -- large M&A transaction. We did 2 small bank deals, very small. We've said repeatedly, we're focused on internal capital generation. We're focused -- we've said this back going back 5, 6 years ago. We're going to continue to look at the mechanisms that we have to drive returns through organic growth. So that's our priority. We've been able to do that very successfully. We've been able to invest in tech and outperform some of the largest banks in the country in certain aspects of our tech offering.

So we're going to keep doing that. And if something comes up opportunistically, it really has to be a good fit. And I think it would have to provide us with -- it can't dilute what we built. So 26% noninterest-bearing deposits and the deposit mix is pretty strong still even after it declined post the effect of stimulus. And I think our goal is to continue to drive that mix in a favorable manner. We don't want to dilute that. We don't want to dilute capital tangible book value materially because we've spent a lot of talking focusing on it and driving TPV growth. So we have good momentum there.

If something provides us with an opportunity to drive organic growth at a faster clip, sure we would look at it. But we've got tremendous markets. We're spread across a pretty broad geography. We -- as I've said before, we've grown market share in 75% of the MSAs that we compete in. So we are proving that we can compete effectively at our scale and size and our efficiency ratio is very strong. So I don't place that as a high priority anymore. I know that seems surprising to people, but because we've been here for so long. I mean, I've been in this seat for almost 15 years. So we did a lot of M&A transactions to get to where we are, but we needed to get to this level.

And then leveraging the investments we made that are really early stages of contributing.

Yes. So I guess the answer is we're going to do whatever we think makes the most sense for the shareholders, and we're going to be very cautious as we move forward, just like we have been over the last in 5, 6, 7 years. And if something presents itself that checks all the boxes, sure, we'll look at it. But we're going to continue to stay focused on organic growth, driving organic growth, building out our platform leveraging our retail bank, which is, I think, the 19th, if you look at locations, it's the 19th largest retail bank in the country, right, Alfred, and one of the most efficient if we looked at metrics relative to the largest banks in the country, and we run a very efficient retail bank. So the consumer business for us is a good business.

Anyway, that's our take on it. And I appreciate the question.

Got it. I appreciate all the color makes total sense. Maybe 1 follow-up for me just asking the operating leverage kind of in a different way. Clearly, you've set the stage very well for 2026 to drive positive operating leverage ahead. And you noted you anticipate the efficiency ratio getting into the low 50s kind of by the second half of the year. Looking back, you were more a mid- to high 50s efficiency ratio type bank. You've obviously made a lot of investments in tech that you're able to really leverage now. Just wondering, as you kind of think about the longer-term efficiency ratio of the bank, given these significant investments you have made in technology, do you think that low 50s is that lower run rate is sustainable? Any kind of thoughts in either direction here, particularly as de novo expansion remains a focus here?

Yes. I think there's 2 things. One, there's the efficiency that's being produced through automation and digitization of the banking industry. We've talked about this where we built out the data hub. We're using that data to drive efficiency in the delivery of products and services.

I think we've only scratched the surface on taking cost out, right, over time. With looking at how we process transactions across the entire bank and thinking about the impact of AI and automation on driving efficiency and what that means over time, I think, is pretty positive for the industry. That should be viewed as positive. I also think from a revenue generation perspective, which is the other side of this, our ability to analyze data, present information to prospects, clients for our own internal people extremely fast, so that they're able to react to it and produce better revenue results per engagement with a customer is going to drive that efficiency ratio as well. So revenue growth through automation and efficiency are still -- we're still looking down the road for that. We've started to experience some of it, but there's quite a bit to come. So I'm very optimistic about that. I don't know, Vince, if you want to add anything to the question?

No, I would just say sustaining around that low 50s to 50% level feels very achievable as we move forward, given all the things Vince just described. That's all I would say.

And I also think when you look at us relative to the other banks our size, we have a disproportionately large retail bank. So the efficiency ratio in the retail business is not what it is in the commercial business. So if we were a pure commercial bank, yes, we would be below 50%, well below. But Alfred gives us all these branches. We've got a good note, you're laughing. But the truth is, we've got this big machine that we have to run, and it's a good business for us. And as I've said, we were able to do it very efficiently, which is remarkable given our size and scale.

I mean, in fairness to the retail business, we do run an incredibly efficient retail delivery channel. It compares very favorably to the largest banks in the country. And if you look at the efficiency ratio broadly speaking, there are probably going to be some puts and takes to it. We're going to continue to drive efficiency in the areas that we can through automation. But as Vince mentioned earlier, we have plan to grow fee income, which tends to be a higher efficiency ratio business in and of itself. And the idea is that all these investments that will continue to drive the efficiency ratio plus the investments in growing additional fee income. I think net-net results in a top quartile ROE that compares pretty favorably to our peers.

And you saw Kelly, you were here, you saw what we've already done with the digitization of the retail delivery channel. We've already embedded the eStore into the ITM. So that somebody remotely can engage a customer fully digitally in a branch and provide them with the ability to transact, cash checks down to the penny, make loan payments. And also, it buys them on what they have in the shopping cart, help them proceed to check out right there. So that in and of itself reduces the need for personnel in the branches over time. So that helps us gain efficiency as well, and we've already built it. It hasn't been deployed fully, but it's built. So that's coming as well. Anyway, that -- that's all. I don't know what else to add. Yes. I think we're in a pretty good spot, and we're very optimistic about efficiency.

So it seems like there is a break with our operator. But Manuel, I think that you're on the line, if you have a question, please go ahead and ask it.

Okay. Great. I hear you guys on the lending capacity from your end and kind of strong production. Can you discuss lending sentiment in your markets? And how -- does that drive kind of expectations for growth to be more back half of the year loaded? And are you already seeing headwinds from payoffs and secondary market improvement slowing already?

Yes. I'd say we -- I think you're right. We tend -- typically in this business, we tend to see the loan growth come in the C&I side anyway. Real estate is kind of all over the board depending on when the project was launched, but from a C&I perspective, you tend to see it build towards the second half of the year because companies are completing their financial statements, they're turning them over to the bank. They're planning from a CapEx perspective now.

So then they're coming back right about now and they're starting to reach out to the bankers and start to make plans for capital expenditures and working capital needs. So that's happening, like discussions are happening. I would expect growth to be more back-ended this year. I also think bonus depreciation in some of the comments I read, we get comments back from every region before we do this call. So we all read them. They do a pretty nice job. I thought this was the best they've ever done, giving me commentary. I spent last night reading 38 pages of commentary.

But I think when you look at the Southeast, you look at Charlotte and Raleigh and Greensboro, there's a lot of competition. You've got branches being built out across that footprint. But our people continue to see opportunities. We're entrenched in those markets. We have been building out our delivery channel as well and introducing digital strategy and building out our treasury management capabilities. So those markets have performed extraordinarily well, and I would expect them to continue to perform well. If you pivot to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Baltimore, the more mature markets that we're in, they've had some pretty significant payoffs in those markets, not because we lost customers to other banks, but because we tend to play upmarket. So we have a lot of clients drives that debt capital markets business where we get fee income on bonds as well.

Unfortunately, the flip side of that is the company has access to capital markets and they paid down the facility. So we had a lot of that going on last year. I think that's pretty much over unless you see a significant decline in interest rates from here, short-term rates from here, which would be positive for us from a margin perspective, but negative from a capital markets access standpoint, but it also reduces the cost of capital from a bank loan perspective for clients. So I would suspect that next year should be a pretty good year for everyone, assuming that those markets remain calm. We don't have some big turbulent event. But the sentiment around the table is people are starting to have serious talks about capital investment. So that bodes well for loan growth. That's what we're seeing. That's what I've read across the board. I will also pivot to the depository side. We have a lot of large deposit prospects that are coming in. So I see that being positive, too, for next year.

Yes, in the past, you've talked about the treasury management pipelines being solid. It's showing on the fee side. Do they remain -- they're remaining robust as well on the commercial treasury management deposits?

Yes. We're seeing lots of opportunities across the footprint from a depository perspective, from a treasury management perspective. So...

We still have a large pipeline close to $1 billion of deposit prospects we're going after.

Yes.

The other thing I would add, Manuel, is we are starting to see increased levels of opportunities around some high-quality CRE. Discussions were pretty active over the last 60 to 90 days here, and we're seeing some really nice opportunities there. .

All right. That's good to hear. Anything -- any more details on the mortgage sale? And I hear you that you're just opening up capacity. Were they specific to any region? Just any more color on kind of this sale that's coming up in the first quarter?

Yes, they were predominantly -- they were out of market predominantly, not out of market -- not out of our operating area, but out of our immediate area, so around branches. So we looked at them from a practical perspective and said our probability of cross-selling additional services to this pool is limited. So there's nothing wrong from a credit perspective, they're good credits, but we just don't see an opportunity to be able to deploy cross-sell engagement.

So we decided to return the capital and reuse it for something we can become the primary client, right? And that's what drove that. That plus it helps us manage the -- my expectation is as we move into next year, we're going to see prepayment speeds elevate anyway. So we're going to see attrition in that book anyway. And I think we're going to be able to move more off the balance sheet because there's more activity in the conforming space moving into next year, particularly in a lower rate environment. So I would expect us to drive fee income, manage the exposure and be able to still grow the other categories because we have the capital to do that, the other higher returning categories. But those loans, in particular, we just viewed as a drag on capital.

Yes. We were -- the other thing I would add too is just from a concentration management standpoint, mortgages as a percent of total loans, around 25%. You can see that in the slide deck. So kind of managing that level of concentration, we decided to take $200 million off. I mean we're very strategic in how we take actions. Remember, during the year, we had pricing strategies to generate more saleable production, just to again manage the total mortgages on the balance sheet. And I think as we go forward in '26, that creates capacity for the commercial growth that you heard us talk about. And as far as the sales too, we expect sales to be basically at par when it settles this quarter.

Right.

And our next question comes from Brian Martin from Janney Montgomery.

Just your last comment, maybe Gary made a comment about the loan growth, but -- and I joined late. So from a commentary standpoint, it sounds like the loan growth outlook is mid-single digits, back-end loaded. Did you talk about kind of the current pipeline? And then also just maybe your comment about Vince, the mortgage being coming down around 25%. When you think about big picture about the loan concentration levels, where they are today, where do you see opportunity to maybe make some additional changes throughout the year as we get to the end of '26, is there a target in terms of where that mortgage number might be, where other buckets may be that you can kind of talk a little bit about in terms of how the positioning looks?

I'll do a high level, and then I'll turn it back over to these guys. Our goal would be to shrink the mortgage book and redeploy over time, right? If you see prepayment speeds accelerated in a different interest rate environment, you're going to see that portfolio basically stay the same in size, right, or grow very small as a percentage of the total. But our goal would be to redeploy that capital into C&I and CRE lending. And I said earlier, I don't know if you missed it, but earlier I talked about our internal capital generation, Brian, and the ability for us now that our CRE concentration is at 197%. It's below 200%.

There's capacity there to lend. So keeping that concentration at the same level, given the internal capital generation, we could still originate and fund...

About $1 billion.

$1 billion in CRE loans. So we don't have to keep it at 197%. There's some way to move up and down. That was just our internal goal, right, from a concentration perspective. It puts us in a much better position than many of the peers. So there's a lot of capacity to lend there. We can be very selective. On the C&I side, I think we have a great opportunity to deploy capital there and grow over the next 12 months because we think that, that business will start to accelerate for us and we can move in. Again, we're not doing the consumer finance stuff, NDFI, all the other stuff that is baked into the H8 data for C&I growth that really is mass consumer growth. But we're doing true middle market transactions across our footprint and growing that business. And I think we've done a pretty good job and the pipelines have actually built over time? And go ahead, Gary, you're going to...

Just going to add, Brian, the equipment finance business for us has been extremely strong. And you would expect that with the bonus depreciation that group had an exceptional year, and that just continues to build. They had a very strong fourth quarter, and we expect to have a really, really solid 2026 across that group through the quarters and even building more, as Vince mentioned, towards the latter part of the year with where we sit economically at the moment. So really, really excited about that piece of the business and the C&I opportunities ahead of us.

Yes. Brian, I would just mortgage point, just to close it out. I mean we're looking for production levels to still be very strong. So it's not that we're trying to lessen the activity in that business, the amount of originations. It's just what ends up on the balance sheet. And just for reference, I was looking back, Last year, it was 23% of total loans at the end of '23, it was 20%, just as kind of reference points. Today, it's 25%. So just managing that concentration -- the commercial activity that Gary and Vince have talked about.

Got you. And Gary, that equipment finance, how big a piece of the loan book is that today?

That portfolio today sits at right about $1.5 billion.

$1.5 billion. Okay. Perfect. And then maybe just 1 or 2 last ones. Just on the loan pricing, maybe -- I don't know if you talked about this earlier, but we've heard that some of the pricing has been a bit rational of late. So just wondering how that -- how you're viewing on the loan pricing and just how that plays into the trajectory on your outlook for the margin for the year and kind of what's embedded in your guidance on that as you kind of look into 2026.

I don't think loan pricing in the C&I book or across the board? What are you referencing specifically?

I guess the commentary we've heard is that people are really looking to be aggressive on pricing just because they haven't had the ability to grow. So I guess I haven't heard that it's whether it's on CRE or C&I specifically. So just kind of wondering...

I wouldn't say -- yes, the CRE pricing has been a little -- it's been more firm. The C&I pricing is more aggressive, but it has been. I mean I -- you sound like some of the people that run the regions that we have, they talk about how competitive it is. It's always been competitive. For the 40 years I've been in banking, I've never sat there and said, well, it's not -- it's so uncompetitive. I just -- I can do anything I want. It's always competitive. But there's always a threshold for returns, right? Everybody is running the same models.

So we try to achieve a certain return risk-adjusted return on capital. And I would say that kind of governs it. So it tends to fluctuate. Let's say, C&I is good, solid C&I credit, not risky stuff because that could be all over the board. But your traditional middle market transaction that's on solid footing, good fixed charge coverage, lots of capital. You're looking at 25 basis point variance between extraordinarily competitive and not as competitive. So it's never that wide of a margin right? It gets skinny from time to time. But I think you've got to be able to overcome that with products and services that produce returns. And you look at the broader relationship and bring in deposits, compensating balances to support treasury management fees, provide capital markets fees with derivatives and debt capital markets opportunities that's what gives the return. We kind of look at those returns holistically, and we look for returns that are north of sticking 15%, 16%, 17% all in some cases higher. So that kind of drives the whole marketplace essentially.

Yes. And I think we've done a good job driving that cross-sell activity across all of those fee income products that we have. We talked about the diversification of those income streams earlier. The group is very focused on it. And I can tell you, the leadership there is really driving that through the banking teams.

And Brian, I would just add 1 point. So top of the house, the new loans that we made during the fourth quarter came on at 5.92%, which up 24 basis points above the portfolio rate. So it's still additive to the overall return.

Vince is always bringing you facts. I'm giving anecdote. He layers into the stuff you really want to hear.

It all works together.

Exactly. Cool. And then how about just -- did you guys -- any commentary on kind of what's embedded in the NII outlook in terms of margin, just kind of trajectory of margin kind of as you kind of go through the year, given your outlook for rate cuts here and just kind of the better environment?

Yes. I would just say what's baked into our guidance is 2 rate cuts, 1 in April, 1 in September. I mean, April and October. If we don't get to next one, I think last I saw the market was saying in July. I mean it's -- if you don't get it, it's like a couple of million dollars' worth of benefit to a quarter. So just kind of as a reference point, baked into our guidance, has the margin moving up modestly, a few basis points a quarter, say, between the 3.28% and the end of the year is kind of what's baked into our guidance if you do the math.

Okay. I think I'm good. And Vince, just the question on M&A, I guess, just in terms of big picture, if we do see something, if there's a great opportunity out there, does it feel like it's a smaller opportunity given you don't want to kind of take momentum away from what you have, all you've talked about today? Or is that the wrong way to think about it because the right opportunity could be something bigger. It just feels like it might be something smaller and less disruptive if there was an opportunity out there. But I guess maybe I'm reading into that.

No, I think we're pretty focused internally on organic growth. And what we're doing is, we're looking at capital deployment constantly. We've talked about this before somebody else asked a similar question. I don't know if not. But we're going to do whatever we think makes the most sense for the shareholders from a return and capital deployment perspective. We're not out trying to find things. I think given where we are right now and the success we're having and how valuations line up, it's more unlikely that we do a large M&A transaction, right?

And if you look back over the last I said 9 years going back to the large -- last large deal we did. We've only done 2 deals. Since then, they were relatively small, and they were -- they basically were additive to the overall strategy. So both deals have really high demand deposit mix it as set. And they provided lots of customers, it was like granularity in the customer base, and it could be plugged into the consumer bank and we could drive on the cross-sell strategies and drive fee income. And that's that made sense to us, but those are more opportunistic than plotted.

Yes. Okay. Yes, that answers it. Congrats on the quarter and the momentum you guys have going into '26.

Yes. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thanks, Brian. Thank you, everybody. I think that concludes the questions. And I want to thank our employees for a tremendous year. I know there was a lot of hard work that went into this year, and I want you to know the executive leadership team. I appreciate it. And thank you to our shareholders for continuing to believe in us and support us. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll conclude today's conference call and presentation. We do thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

Good day, and welcome to the F.N.B. Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, today's event is being recorded.

I'd now like to turn the conference over to Lisa Hajdu, Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to our earnings call. This conference call of F.N.B. and reported files with the Securities and Exchange Commission often contain forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to and not in this alternative for our reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP operating measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our presentation materials and in our earnings release. Please refer to these non-GAAP and forward-looking statement disclosures contained in our related materials, reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on our corporate website.

A replay of this call will be available until Friday, October 24th, and the webcast link will be posted to the About Us, Investor Relations section of our corporate website.

I will now turn the call over to Vince Delie, Chairman, President and CEO.

Thank you, and welcome to our third quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Ms. Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer; and Gary Guerrieri, our Chief Credit Officer.

F.N.B.'s third quarter earnings per share grew 14% linked quarter to a record $0.41 and reported net income available to common shareholders increased to $150 million. Operating pre-provision net revenue increased 18% from the year-ago quarter, contributing to positive operating leverage and a peer-leading efficiency ratio at 52%. F.N.B. produced another quarter of record revenue, totaling $457 million, with strong contributions from fee-based businesses, most notably in capital markets, and mortgage banking, driving total noninterest income to a record $98.2 million. F.N.B.'s capital position has reached record levels with tangible common equity at 8.7% in CET1 at 11%. Our growing capital base provided our company with flexibility to return to $162 million to shareholders year-to-date through our active share repurchase program and quarterly dividends. The company's profitable quarter resulted in a return on average tangible common equity of 15% and tangible book value per share growth of 11% to $11.48. Period-end loans increased 3% on an annualized linked quarter basis with growth led by equipment finance, consumer lending and seasonal residential mortgage production.

Commercial and industrial loans grew 2% annual last linked quarter, impacted by lower line utilization and higher than normal attrition driven by outsized customer M&A activity. Equipment finance had a strong quarter with 21% annualized loan growth, reflecting activity across our footprint, likely driven by fiscal policy. We continue to maintain our strict credit discipline with a primary focus on traditional C&I lending. We are not in the business of lending to private capital providers particularly entities that engage in direct consumer and small business lending. As we've indicated on prop polls, 2 areas of focus that position F.N.B. for future growth are continuing to grow low-cost deposits and reducing our CRE concentration. This quarter, we made good progress on both fronts with a loan-to-deposit ratio ending the quarter at 90.9%, and our CRE concentration improving to 214%.

Our business model and its emphasis on a diverse and attractive footprint is contributing factor to grow deposits at a favorable level. Annualized linked quarter deposit growth of 7% outpaced the industry and reflected continued commercial client acquisition. The FDIC deposit market share data released in September revealed that F.N.B. grew in nearly 75% of the MSAs we operate in. We now rank in the top 5 in nearly 50% of our MSAs and in the top 3 market share in nearly 30%. Noninterest-bearing deposits comprised 26% of total deposits stable to the prior quarter with favorable total deposit cost of 193% at quarter end. Our strategy has been to price our deposits competitively to support our client base while protecting our net interest margin by leveraging our digital capabilities and data analytics. We have successfully executed on broadening our household penetration and becoming the primary bank for new and existing clients through our streamlined digital customer experience in our proprietary store and common application.

Since our in-branch Common App pilot concluded in May 2025, the percentage of applications originated through the common app has nearly tripled. Our data analytics team now mine the data and leverages AI to provide our customer-facing team with quality leads to accelerate sales and grow revenue. We have been able to gain insight on our customers' references and competitor pricing from data points housed in our enterprise data warehouse system and through external data aggregation. This allows us to strategically price our deposits and analyze the relationship holistically. Implementing this pricing approach contributed to our net interest margin expanding 6 basis points linked quarter. Our newly formed AI and innovation team is actively reviewing and prioritizing high-impact use cases from across the organization. I am energized by the transformative potential of AI elevate operational efficiency, accelerate revenue growth and deepen client engagement. As we grow our AI footprint, we remain committed to strong risk management framework and controls, ensuring our innovation is both responsible and sustainable.

With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Gary to discuss the strong credit results for the quarter. Gary?

Thank you, Vince, and good morning, everyone.

We ended the quarter with our asset quality metrics remaining at solid levels. Total delinquency ended the quarter at 65 basis points, up 3 bps from the prior quarter with NPLs and OREO up 3 bps remaining at a solid 37 basis points. Net charge-offs totaled 22 basis points, bringing the year-to-date results to 21 bps, reflecting good performance despite the continuation of a somewhat volatile economic environment.

Criticized loans were down 7.3% or $113 million on a linked-quarter basis, with decreases observed throughout all of the commercial segments. We were pleased with the stability and improvements we saw during the quarter and were successful in removing some risk from the loan portfolio. Total funded provision expense for the quarter stood at $24.9 million, supporting loan growth and charge-offs. Our ending funded reserve stands at $437 million, an increase of $5.2 million, ending at 1.25%, unchanged from the prior quarter. When including acquired unamortized loan discounts, our reserve stands at 1.32%, and our NPL coverage position remained strong at 368%, inclusive of the discounts.

Regarding tariffs, we continue to monitor line utilization and industry concentrations especially customers with a higher potential impact over the longer term. Since Q1, we have not seen any material impacts on the loan portfolio and have, in fact, experienced positive credit migration, as I mentioned earlier. Also of note, our overall C&I line utilization was down again in the quarter, including sectors that could potentially be impacted by higher tariffs, remaining at stable levels. The government shutdown remains a fluid situation. We are monitoring the portfolio closely and are having discussions with our customers that are potentially impacted to support them in what should be a temporary event. Each quarter, we continue to run a lot of sensitivities in a full portfolio stress test. Our stress test results were stable with our current ACL more than covering projected charge-offs in a severe economic downturn.

Regarding the nonowner CRE portfolio, credit metrics also improved, contributing to the criticized decline I mentioned earlier with delinquency and NPLs at 53 and 50 basis points, respectively. This reflects an improvement from 64 and 62 bps at the prior quarter end. We continue to aggressively manage this portfolio as we have throughout this interest rate cycle with a nonowner exposure declining by another $226 million in the quarter, bringing the year-to-date decline to $646 million, ending at 214% of capital.

In closing, we continue to be pleased with the performance of our loan portfolio. We look forward to increasing levels of activity with the fiscal policies that have been enacted which are already driving our equipment finance portfolio growth. As uncertainty eases, we expect broad-based growth in a potentially more robust and business-friendly environment. Our consistent credit results through many cycles and uncertain times continue to be driven by our credit risk appetite and credit selection. Our robust concentration risk management framework and our 360-degree view of our customer activity and performance. As Vince referenced earlier, our credit philosophy continues to be focused on core C&I lending activity, which has and will continue to drive our growth into the future.

I will now turn the call over to Vince Calabrese, our Chief Financial Officer, for his remarks.

Thanks, Gary, and good morning. Today, I will review the third quarter's financial results and walk through our updated full year guidance.

Third quarter operating net income totaled $147.7 million or $0.41 per share. Total revenues were a quarterly record at $457 million with both net interest and noninterest income exceeding the high end of our prior quarterly guidance ranges. As a result, third quarter operating pre-provision net revenues grew 18.3% in the year-ago period. Third quarter average loans and leases totaled $34.8 billion, a 3.6% annualized linked quarter increase. Average consumer loans increased $431 million on strong residential mortgage and home equity lending growth as seasonality and a drop in interest rates provided a favorable environment for consumer lending. Average commercial balances declined $119 million linked quarter due primarily to a planned reduction in commercial real estate balances, offset by growth in C&I. Average deposits totaled $37.9 billion, a strong 8.2% annualized linked quarter increase, reflecting organic growth in new and existing customer relationships. Both noninterest-bearing demand deposits grew 1% linked quarter and were stable at 26% of total deposits. The loan-to-deposit ratio declined nearly 1% in the second quarter level to 90.9%. The cumulative total deposit beta since the interest rate cuts began in September of last year was 24% at quarter end, reflecting the timing of the most recent Fed cut late in the third quarter.

Record net interest income of $359.3 million grew 3.5% from the prior quarter and over 11% from the year ago period, attributable in part to our diligent management of deposit costs. The third quarter's net interest margin of 3.25% was up 6 basis points sequentially and 17 basis points from last year's third quarter. Earning asset yields increased 3 basis points linked quarter to 5.36 driven by higher yields on the investment securities portfolio, with reinvestment rates on securities remaining well above the average portfolio rate and higher yields on new fixed rate loans compared to maturing loans. The average loan yield held steady sequentially even with lower mortgage rates and the Fed cut late in the quarter.

On the funding side, the cost of total deposits and borrowings was down 3 basis points linked quarter as a result of a 7 basis point decline in the cost of borrowings and the funding mix shift towards deposits. Average borrowings were down $424 million linked quarter, primarily due to the $350 million of 5.15% senior notes that matured in August of 2025 and the growth recorded in deposits.

Noninterest income totaled a record $98.2 million, up 9.5% in the year-ago period. Capital markets income grew 27% on a record debt capital markets and international banking income as well as contributions from customer swap activity, syndications, public finance and advisory services. Wealth Management revenues increased 8% year-over-year on solid trust income and double-digit growth securities commissions and fees. Mortgage banking income increased $3.6 million from last year to the strong sold loan volumes, net positive fair value adjustments from pipeline hedging activity and the $2.8 million MSR impairment in the third quarter of 2024.

Other noninterest income increased $5.3 million, primarily due to a $5.4 million recovery on an asset previously written off through purchase accounting as part of a 2017 acquisition. Operating noninterest expense totaled $245.8 million, up 5% from the third quarter of 2024. We Salaries and employee benefits increased $5.5 million or 4.4%, primarily reflecting strategic hiring, continued investments in our risk management infrastructure and higher production-related compensation.

Outside services increased $1.7 million due to higher volume-related technology and third-party costs. Other noninterest expense increased $3.7 million primarily reflecting our mortgage down payment assistance program.

Year-over-year operating revenue growth of 10.7% was more than twice the 5% increase in operating expenses. As a result, the efficiency ratio reflected strong improvements and declined nearly 280 basis points from the third quarter of last year to 52.4%. We expect continued strength in operating leverage performance in the fourth quarter and positive operating leverage for the full year of 2025.

We are in the process of developing our annual cost savings target for 2026 and to maintain our positive operating leverage momentum moving forward by renegotiating vendor relationships and leveraging investments in AI, data science and machine learning.

F.N.B. continues to actively manage our capital position for ample flexibility to support balance sheet growth and optimize shareholder returns while appropriately managing risk. Our financial performance and capital management strategies resulted in our CET1 ratio, reaching 11% and our TCE ratio reaching 8.7%, both record levels. Tangible book value was $11.48 per share at quarter end, an increase of $1.15 or 11.1% compared to last year.

Let's now look at updated guidance for the full year of 2025. All guidance is based on current expectations, while remaining cognizant of operating in an uncertain economic environment. We are maintaining our balance sheet guidance for spot balances, projecting period-end loans and deposits to grow mid-single digits on a full year basis as we increased our market share across a diverse geographic footprint. For loans, we expect to be towards the lower end of the mid-single-digit guide given continued expectations for secondary market activity and our continued active management of CRE exposures. We are raising our 2025 net interest income guidance for the second consecutive quarter to incorporate the strong performance in the third quarter and our fourth quarter outlook. Our revised full year net interest income guidance range is $1.39 billion to $1.405 billion. This guidance includes an expectation for a 25 basis point rate cut in October compared to our previous expectation for a cut in December.

The noninterest income full year guidance range has been revised to $365 million to $370 million, with fourth quarter levels expected to approximate $90 million. Full year guidance for noninterest expense has been maintained at $975 million to $985 million. The revised full year provision guidance range of $85 million to $95 million reflects a $5 million decrease on the high end, given our year-to-date performance and strong asset quality metrics. As always, provision will be dependent on net loan growth and charge-off activity, and we continue to monitor risks posed by the current economic environment.

The full year effective tax rate should be between 21% and 22%, which does not assume any investment tax credit activity that may occur.

Lastly, we also remain opportunistic and disciplined in our approach to buybacks, taking advantage of attractive valuation levels.

With that, I will turn the call back to Vince.

Thanks, Vince. Last month, we announced plans to further deploy our organic growth strategy by adding 30 new branches to our network by 2003, focused primarily in the high-growth Carolina and the Mid-Atlantic markets. This expansion will build upon our commitment to client service and will incorporate the modern concept design and latest technology including our AI-driven e-store platform, now found in all branches throughout F.N.B.'s multistate footprint. We also recently announced a leadership transition for the consumer bank with the hiring offer show as Chief Consumer Banking Officer, succeeding Barry Robinson upon his retirement. Over his 15 years at F.N.B., Barry has been a valued leader during a period of prolific growth for our company and has contributed to the build-out of our mortgage banking operations, the rollout of our retail scorecards and the expansion of our distribution network. I am grateful to Barry for his many years and dedicated service and contributions.

[Audio Gap]

throughout the company, we have continued to attract the line with our world culture and key strategic initiatives to drive growth and a superior client experience. As we continue to expand the depth of our strategic management team, we recently hired Frank Schiraldi as Director of Corporate Strategy, who joined us with 20 years' experience as a prominent New York-based sell-side analyst. I welcome Alfred Frank and other recent strategic hires to Pittsburgh and look forward to working alongside them and our current team to create value for all of our stakeholders.

F.N.B. remains dedicated to advancing our technology, people and delivery channels to gain scale and operational efficiency. This happens by cultivating meaningful lasting relationships with our clients and communities, while simultaneously creating value for our shareholders.

With that, I would like to turn the call over to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And today's first question comes from Kelly Motta with KBW.

So loan growth has been really solid. I know it's now expected to be sort of on the lower end of the mid-single digit. Wondering just as a high level, you're one of the few banks who had some really nice growth in residential mortgage. I'm wondering, you mentioned the secondary markets, but wondering as we've had a look ahead here with rates coming down, if you see any sort of headwind from refi risk of your existing book that was put on at higher rates.

Yes, I -- we -- obviously, we analyze the mortgage book. We spent a lot of time looking at it. I think we shifted strategically a while ago in terms of pricing pricing more aggressively in the conforming space. So we've been moving assets off the balance sheet through origination for a little bit here. I would expect that to continue. So we don't -- our cost things shift that we're able to reduce our -- I don't think the prepayment speeds accelerating in the mortgage book is a negative, even though there's a margin impact, we can redeploy that capital in the commercial book and get deposits and really drive return on equity at the company. I think that's really the strategy in the long run. Most of the production that's coming online for us is they're very wealthy individuals that do jump up mortgage loans and physicians. So we're bringing that on our book, which has tremendously good credit metrics. Maybe they're priced a little thinner because it's a pretty competitive space to begin with. So that's the book I would see maybe turning over a little bit. But again, that's not a terribly negative thing because we're using data analytics on those customers to try to cross-sell wealth and other products and services. So -- and we've retained the servicing, we try to refinance it if we can get it into a conforming product and then retain the searching and retain the customer over time. So we're not that concerned about that. I think you'll see a shifting in production over time, less consumer-centric, more commercially oriented as we move through this choppy period. I'm pretty optimistic in certain sectors. We're a traditional lender. We're not doing anything fancy. It's block and tackling, it's going after clients in the markets, it's middle market banking. It's the hard stuff. That's why we don't produce outsized loan growth. We manage the exposures. We go after the holistic relationship and try to achieve primacy from a depository and treasury management perspective. And you can see it in the results that we have, it's very steady, very stable, there's really strong credit results. We continue to grow demand deposits and deposits overall. So it's that business. So yes, I don't know, I probably gave you too much information, but I wouldn't get hung up on a particular asset class within our balance sheet because we're focused on all of it, from an exposure perspective and there's strategies in place to deal with margin erosion in those portfolios with acceleration of prepayment speeds.

Great. That is actually a super helpful color and underscores the strength that you guys have. Maybe since you mentioned the deposit base, maybe I could ask a follow-up on that. I mean deposit growth was really solid. And most impressively, in demand deposits, noninterest-bearing, wondering if you could provide additional color and commentary as to how much of that is coming from your growth market, what's the drivers of that? I know you guys have been doing a lot with the DAE store in AI and just hoping to get additional color.

Yes. I think it's across the board. I can't just point to 1 specific market. We've had great success growing deposits in the Carolinas. I know everybody was a little nervous with us moving in there and said it's highly competitive, but we've grown in many, many markets there, a lot of the FDIC data that we refer specifically to those markets in Carolina, where we have pretty decent share. We've been able to continue to grow. Pittsburgh, for example, is not a high-growth market from a deposit expansion perspective. I think deposits declined in the market overall because there's big balances that shift around with some of the -- with the custody banks that are located here. There's large institutional deposit bases that move around here and then P&C is faced here. So it's kind of hard to say. But we've grown deposits out right here. I think on a relative basis, we've gained share, and we've solidly positioned ourselves as the #2 retail deposit bank in Pittsburgh. That comes from a whole bunch of things. Really solid execution in the field, a technology offering that enables us to compete with large banks, the efficiency contained within the common app to bring customers in quickly and using AI to guide them into depository products right away and let them purchase those products instantly. So a lot of those things come into play. And then on top of all of that, the commercial bankers have really been trained to go after depository only relationships. So they do both. And that's the old traditional corporate banker, that's what I was trying to do, go after. I don't just focus on loans. I focused on whatever would drive good results for the balance sheet. And our incentive compensation plans are aligned to produce results because we incent people to originate low-cost deposits, not specialty priced. They don't get incentives to bring in high-priced deposits. It's the solid stuff. So there's a lot of block and tackling. It's not -- there's no silver bullet. It takes a lot of people that are pretty dedicated to making that happen, and you have to stay true to the model that that you've developed. And we have a very solid growth model, a very good execution in the field and a laser focus on doing what we think is best for the shareholders and then incenting people to do that. So I know that doesn't give you your answer because you were looking for 1 specific thing. But I don't think there is. It's a combination of things, and we have a very well thought out strategy and it's playing out, it's played out over 15 years.

I would add, too, if you look at the FDIC market share data, right, the June to June, I mean, we more than doubled the market growth in that period. We grew in 75% of the MSAs that we're in, outperformed the market in 38. We're now with this growth and performance we had, we're top 5 and nearly 50% of our MSAs and top 3 and 30%. So it's really kind of across the footprint.

Next question today comes from Casey Haire at Autonomous.

So question Vince , a question for you on Slide 15. So the interest-bearing deposit beta down to 35% from 40% cumulatively. Just where do you see that going through the cycle versus the 54% on the upswing?

Yes. I would say just as a reminder, on the way we finished the cycle with a cumulative beta, total deposit beta of 39.8%, and we outperformed our peers by 8 percentage points during that period. And meaningfully on the deposit cost, 38 basis points. As you would expect, I mean we have a very active process discussing strategy and tactics for bringing rates down and we've started to do that. in anticipation of the Fed moving as we move through this cycle. So I think we have a very good game plan for how to do that as we move forward. Just kind of where we think it might go. I mean, we still think mid-30s terminal down beta seems reasonable for us given our historical performance. As far as year-end, I guess it depends on if you get a December cut, right, which obviously a cut late in the quarter just affects the math. So if we do get that cut, we're probably in the low 20s or so. Without a December cut, we're kind of in the, I would say, the mid-20s just for this year, but kind of mid-30s as we move forward through the cycle.

Okay. Very good. And then switching to capital management, just to see the CET1 ratio at 11%. I don't think -- I mean that's a very big number. And I just wanted to get some updated thoughts. You guys do have an attractive stock price. You had to buy back a little. I think you could have done it more. Just what is the go-forward strategy with a very strong capital ratio. And the Vince, if you want to tell me to shut up about M&A, please take that opportunity.

I'm going to reserve my comments. The M&A answer, I'll give that right away. We haven't changed our position. So we're still focused on executing our core model. and it's performing very well. So I've said it before, often would be opportunistic, but we're focused internally. And we need to be focused internally right now. I think it's paying off for us. So again, opportunistic but not looking to make any huge moves here. Go ahead, Vince.

Sure. So I would just -- as far as capital management, like you mentioned, CET1 ratio at a record for us at 11%. Dividend payout ratio, 30% below 30%. We're in a great position to deploy capital as we move forward to optimize shareholder value. And with the risk of the balance sheet, combined with -- as you look ahead, and our guidance implies higher earnings, higher capital generation. So we'll be well positioned to support the loan growth. We do expect the commercial growth to start to pick up at some point and very well positioned to be able to support that. With where the stock is trading, clearly, the valuation is very attractive. So we've been active in the last 3 or 4 quarters. I would expect it to be active again this quarter as we move forward. And then the dividend is another element. I mean, we have regular conversations about the dividend. In the [indiscernible], we had a very elevated payout ratio for a long period of time. carried a higher cash dividend. And with the sub 30% level, and it's definitely something we're actively talking about. We still like the flexibility of the buyback to be able to do that opportunistically with valuation. The dividend is something that we'll continue to talk about.

Okay. Great. And just last 1 for me. The Investor Day upcoming in a couple of weeks here, but it's been a while since you guys -- I think it was 2019. Just you guys are a lot bigger. Just wondering what we can expect? Are you guys looking to put up profitability targets? Just a little color on what to expect.

Well, we -- the purpose of the Investor Day is to show off the tech to introduce you to the team. There's a lot of depth here. I think just having the ability to interact with our digital and AI people and our leadership from the field here in this building, which is brand new. I think it's going to be very impactful for the investors. So you hear a lot of things people talk about things when you come and experience the tangible effect of the new building and the tech that we have, and what we're doing, I think the investors will leave energized. It's very impressive. And we wanted to show it off. And I think that we pulled it off and we got the building built, and we got everybody in here. 800 people or more working in this building. It's very impressive. And employees are very, very proud of it. And I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring investors in to show them what we've built for now, right? This is all about us driving business. So you'll see when you come through the entire building designed to entertain clients and to drive business to grow revenue and earnings. You'll see that when you come...

It's collaboration.

It's collaboration. It's An awesome space and should bode well for us as we move into the future.

Our next question comes from Russell Gunther at Stephens.

A question on the expense side of things. So nice to see the revenue guide up and expenses flat and efficiency come down nicely for the quarter, and it sounds like guided to continue to improve in I think for the year, that would still kind of get you towards the higher end of what I believe an internal target has been a 50% to 55%. So is that still the right range to think about for you see you guys making some progress on that ratio going forward? I guess, can that back half of the year efficiency sustain in 2026? How do we think about it?

Let me -- can I answer quickly, and I'll turn it over to you, Vince.

Yes, of course.

We're very cognizant about the expenses here at this company, we spend a lot of time focused on it. We actually have a team that reports up through Vince that focuses exclusively on our line expense line items, right? We have meetings and talk about it. But there's an expense initiative moving into next year that's fairly sizable. Vince mentioned it in his prepared remarks. We have, over time, taking picking expense out run rate expense out historically at a pretty healthy [indiscernible], $20 billion per year for consecutive years. We're planning on reengaging and working to optimize our expense base, right? There are certain things that are coming from an efficiency perspective, which is helping us the common app over time will help us because that's a very, very efficient onboarding process with a lot of digital components to it. So we're already starting to see benefits from an operational perspective by using that those digital work streams and using that software application to origin across a variety of product areas. That's all part of the evolution. And then the other part of this is approaching $50 billion in assets. We have spent a lot of money, okay, invested a lot in our risk infrastructure. So we have automation like you couldn't believe. We're tracking thousands of metrics internally using AI in our data science. We did process mapping across our entire operations area. So we're very, let's say, well prepared to move through a cycle and to benefit from that study from an efficiency perspective. But go ahead, Vince, you can answer that.

Yes, which is all I would really ask that is as we planned for '26, I mean the focus, we're always a disciplined manager of expenses. So it's -- the focus isn't just on cost savings, but on efficiency, scalability, kind of leveraging the stuff that Vince was talking about. We'll continue to focus on renegotiating vendor contracts. We're going after that pretty hard. It's part of every year, but we're definitely going after that in a meaningful way, kind of streamlining operations through automation. And then we've made investments in people, technology, data science, AI and we're at early stages for some of that, some of it's been around for longer, but leveraging those investments to just really drive overall profitability.

Yes. Well, our efficiency ratio is 52%, and we have been making those investments all along. So there's been -- we opened a number of de novo branches over the last few years. We didn't even talk about it. We we're better positioned to drive revenue growth today and the expense -- a vast majority of those expenses are baked into the fund rate. And we start to see good positive operating leverage as we move forward, but because we're going to leverage those investments to drive threat.

No, that's what I was going to say. That's the key point is positive operating leverage, right? So we're going to have it for this year and enhance that and grow it even more as we move forward. And to the direct question on the efficiency ratio, there's still room to bring the efficiency ratio down. But it really -- the key is the overall profitable operating leverage combined with the efficiency ratio and then return on tangible common equity, driving the profitability.

Yes, and the Board and the management team, are laser focused on efficiency, the efficiency ratio be stuff pretty extensive reporting to the Board about our progress. Operating leverage -- positive operating leverage is a mandate for operating plans. We're very focused on it. So I would expect it to continue to improve over time.

That's great color, guys. I appreciate both your thoughts there. And then just last for me, Gary, would you be able to expand upon your comment about having removed some risk from the portfolio maybe size up the exposure you examined as potentially impacted by a government shutdown, just be helpful to get your thoughts about how you're thinking around that issue.

Yes, I'll touch on the government shutdown first, Russell. I mean, we're continuing to watch for fallout from the [ those ] efforts earlier in the year as well as the new government shutdown. At this point, we have seen absolutely nothing from an impact standpoint coming out of either one of those situations. The government shutdown is a fluid situation and a twist and turns every day here. but we're keeping an eye on it. We'll continue to keep an eye on those portfolios that are potentially impacted. But as mentioned, nothing at all at this point. In terms of taking the risk off the table comment, essentially, we saw, again, another good reduction a couple of quarters running now in our criticized asset levels on a net basis, down about $113 million. A number of those clients were exits from the bank, just normal payouts, getting refinanced at other institutions. So we were pleased to see some of that activity with those clients move off the books. We also did see a few upgrades where performance was improved, but that's a chunk of risk that has been taken off of our balance sheet. We're pleased with that and continue to manage the portfolios each and every day in that manner. So just kind of normal blocking and tackling from our perspective in what we do here every day.

And our next question comes from Daniel Tamayo with Raymond James.

Yes, maybe first one for Gary here. We've had some issues here with other banks with the depository financial institution loans. You talked about it in the comments, that's really not what you guys are doing. But curious if you can provide kind of where you stand end of quarter you had pretty low concentration relative to other banks at the end of the second quarter, just on the [ Y9 ] data, but just curious if that's changed at all in the third quarter? And then maybe if you could give a little bit of a breakdown of what those loans are that you have on the balance sheet, you could give us comfort around credit.

Yes, the call report, any really cast a pretty large and wide net there. I mean, our customers are primarily in the other bucket. -- and it's really diversified across a number of sectors, such as wealth management firms, advisory firms, insurance firms, investment companies and that's primarily the type of companies that we see in that bucket. And when you look at those companies, our lending arrangements or generally for working capital and expansion versus direct lending activities. And as Vince mentioned earlier, we're not in the business of lending to private capital funds, including private equity and private debt funds. So we're not in that business, and that's not where we're going to play. That was a conscious decision that was made a long, long time ago, and we're going to continue to manage the book that way. It's not a business we have any interest in.

Okay. And then maybe one for...

As I said earlier, the bulk of our portfolio, but if you look at our portfolio, it's extraordinarily granular and it's small businesses, middle-market companies across the 7-state footprint. So I don't think from a concentration perspective, you're going to find material concentrations that are unmanageable. And Gary and I, people have come forward with proposals on verticals we have jointly shut them down, okay, because we have a belief that we need to stay true to focusing on serving the communities that we're in and providing capital to middle market and small businesses. That's our end consumers, that's our goal. So I don't know if you want to...

No. You've heard Vince. You use the word lock and tackle a couple of times today. I mean, that's what we do each and every day here at the company. I mean, it's core banking business, core C&I in the communities that we do business with through all segments of the C&I space, small mid and corporate. And those portfolios, we understand really well how they performed through the cycles. We've been through many cycles of this management team. And we've continued to to focus on providing stable EPS streams through good and bad environments. And that's what our focus is and is going to going to continue to be.

And we don't have verticals here to speak of. I mean there's a CRE vertical, but that's intentional for credit management. We don't believe in institutionally originating credit. So we're characters first. We have to know the customer, it's very disciplined across the footprint. So I guess that's part of the reason why our performance has been so strong from a credit perspective over long periods of time.

Very helpful, Vince and Gary. Yes, maybe a follow-up just on the fee income side. So in the slide deck, you had a bullet there that said you've had 9% fee income CAGR over the last 10 years, which is certainly a nice number. You talked a little bit in the conversation about efficiency ratio, about investments that you've been making. Just curious where you see runway for continued growth on the fee income side kind of in the medium term as we look forward here?

We've made recent investments in our indebted banking platform in public finance. We have an effort. We've expanded our hedging offering and treasury management investments and treasury management. Those are the areas that I see the biggest lift in over time. The pipelines are building in public finance. Obviously, we're a very active player any municipal space on the depository side. And we're not just taking the high-yielding deposits we're actually providing treasury management services and when their principal bank. So there have been many, many requests over the last few years for us to participate in bond activity, we weren't able to do it, but we built out the platform. So we're -- that's something we're very excited about. We're seeing a lot of activity as we build that out, we now are a viable option for a number of municipalities across our footprint nonprofits who want to raise capital by issuing bonds. We're there now. That's purely fee-based, and we're excited about that. We're seeing a pipeline build. From an M&A perspective, the people that we brought over the best you could find. I mean, they are just terrific people. I've known Greg forever. They're going to do a great job, and he's got some really great opportunities out there. So we'll get some benefit from that. I think as we see the balance sheet has grown, we're a large organization. We have a deeper penetration in commercial across our footprint. We will see a pickup in syndication activity as we get through this period. So I'm very excited about underwritten traditional bank deals and our ability to be the left fleet in those transactions. That to me is a game changer for us from a return perspective. And then to add on top of that, we've been a player. We built out our debt capital markets capability with the creation of a broker-dealer focused principally on taking bond economics. That's also to help Gary because he's very risk averse. So we play in the investment-grade space in the near investment grade space. And those companies that need capital in that space, they don't -- the spreads are pretty thin. There's a lot of unfunded commitments, but when you factor in the bond economics, the returns are north of 15%, right, because you're getting paid to provide capital through the investment banking activity. So I think that's all worked extraordinarily well for us, and those will continue to drive. We'll be able to drive fee income. And then from a treasury management perspective, if you look at our treasury management platform, we really have not penetrated the small business segment. We have 90,000 to 100,000 small businesses, and we have very low penetration from a merchant and treasury management perspective. And we're using AI, and we're building out tools and bundling products right now to go after that segment. So there's a lot of granularity in that segment. We already have the delivery channel through the retail distribution channel and the POs that we have. We're layering in additional expertise there. I'm very excited about TM as we move forward. And then there's mortgage banking. As we shift into this lower rate environment, another thing that's going to happen is you're going to see we're principally a purchase money originator. So historically, we've had much, much higher gain on sale activity in a lower rate environment. So if we can get there with a more normal yield curve and lower rates, we're going to see a significant pickup in fee income from the mortgage bank as well. So hopefully, that all lines up, and we continue to see an expansion in the noninterest income bucket here. Our fee-based businesses are poised to grow. And then wealth has grown historically 9% to 10%. So -- and we've only scratched the surface from a wealth perspective because we really haven't fully built out the wealth capabilities across our new geography. So the Mid-Atlantic, the D.C. market still need -- we need to hire people and build that out in the Carolinas, we have people, but there's an opportunity to add more because of the number of opportunities there. So I'm very optimistic about our ability to continue to sustain that growth in that fee income bucket and shift our dependence away from just being a spread bank, right? So fee income is north of 20%, right? I mean, as noninterest income increases, hopefully, that fee income outpaces it. We're able to have a larger portion of our revenue contributed by those high-returning businesses. Anyway, that's the strategy. I think that we're in a really good place. And I think we've proven over time that we can execute.

Yes, there's a couple of key points on that. Slide 17, just for reference. We mentioned that we've either started from scratch or expanded from very small 10 business lines that are now multimillion dollar revenue generators. So that diversification is really important. And the newest stuff that we've added, that Vince mentioned, the public finance and the investment banking it really allows us to serve our clients through their whole life cycle. So this has been a strategic plan that we probably started, I don't know, 12 years ago in adding these other capabilities. And now that we have that, really, there's no reason for our clients to go to another bank or have to go to another bank for those services. We can take them all the way through.

Great color.

Come to the Investor Day, you'll see more.

I'll be there.

And our next question today comes from David Smith at Truist Securities.

In the past, you've spoken about your balance sheet being short-term asset sensitive, medium-term neutral, long-term liability sensitive. As we think about the ongoing Fed cut cycle what should we be on the lookout for in terms of the timing of how you're will be reacting right now?

Yes, I mean we're essentially neutral right now. I mean, if you -- we're around 1% or so for a 100 basis point move at June 30th. We'll probably be a little bit closer to neutral. Historically, we've managed to neutral. That's really what we've managed to as we've gone through these periods from a profitability standpoint, we're more asset sensitive to kind of benefit from what was happening with the yield curve. So the goal moving forward will really be to stay neutral-ish I would say, and then benefit net interest income by growing loans and deposits. So we have a lot of levers. If you look at what's kind of driving the net interest income performance that we've seen this quarter, and we've raised the guide again. I mean the new loan originations are coming on 50 basis points above the portfolio rate. Cash flows from securities. We're reinvesting 147 basis points above the roll-off rate. So that's positive. We have fixed rate loans that we're originating. In total loans, we're put on the books in the 630. So we're originating loans there above the maturing rate. So that's all helping on that side. We have the chunk of the loans that are will adjust as SOFR adjust, and that's kind of part of what we have to manage through. And then on the deposit side, I mean we've kind of had a dual mandate for our team of growing deposits while really optimizing the cost side. And I think we've done a nice job bringing the cost down. And again, like I commented earlier, we're very active in the tactics and the strategies we're deploying to continue to bring those rates down. And with the Fed moving and there's been plenty of cover with other banks too, that have been doing the same thing. So that we've been able to start to bring rates down on slugs of the deposit portfolio and really have not had any negative customer reaction to that.

And then when you compare the 75% of the markets where you grew your deposit market share, it's a minority where you didn't? Are there any lessons you can learn about what's working in those markets that you can apply to the ones where you're not growing share right now?

Yes. It's -- when you look at the FDIC data, the areas that we're not growing share all over the board, it can be a circumstance where there's a large player that controls a significant portion of the MSA, and we only have 1 or 2 branches there. So the growth that we're going to experience isn't going to move the needle there, right? So it depends on the MSA, but I think lessons learned. I think we gain more from focusing on the 75% where we grew. I think the 25% when you drill into it, the vast majority of those markets are not markets where we're going to meaningfully change our position without significant investment. So we're focusing on the markets that were down, and we do have a big investment, and we need to drill in and figure out why we have it wrong like we have in the markets where we've had achieve success. So there aren't very many of those, so that's the good news, and we continuously look at it. And I've listened to Alan Mulally's book on tape. And one of the things he did was he sat down with all of his executives and they had to present to them. We do the same exact thing here I've just told our folks, when you're in a market that's not performing, you have to tell us that you're in a market that's not performing, and what you're going to do to fix it. So we're very keenly focused on it. We have quarterly and monthly meetings, any scorecard, daily scorecards with automation and with AI now, it's going to be mind-blowing because we have daily scorecards with all these metrics, and we're tracking performance daily. So we can layer on top of that an analysis, right, through open AI Architect. So instead of me calling and offer it and asking him questions about where the retail bank is performing. I could just go in and queue it up myself. So that's going to be a game changer for us and for the leaders in the field who are trying to drive performance.

And then you can call out.

Then I can call out. Then I call and say, what's going on.

Yes I've worn them out after 15 years. So new person here. But that's how it works. I mean, that's how you keep driving results.

And our next question today comes from Brian Martin at Janney.

And it appears their line is on hold. So at this time, I'm going to move on, and I will turn the call over for final remarks to Vincent Delie. Vincent Delie, please go ahead, sir.

Yes, thank you very much for the questions, giving us an opportunity to present to you. I'm just very pleased with our people. I think we've gone through a number of challenging periods. We've had headwinds like you couldn't believe the performance of this company has been outstanding, and it's outstanding because of the people that work here. So thank you to our employees. Take care, everybody.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.