In this week's banking news roundup: Flagstar's shareholders approved a plan to merge its holding company into the bank; Huntington tapped a new chief auditor, along with two new business leaders; First Foundation hired a new chief credit officer; and more.
Cornerstone Capital Bancorp, a one-time independent mortgage banker that acquired a depository, has agreed to purchase another bank, Peoples Bancorp of Lubbock, Texas.Terms of the transaction were not disclosed."With one of the strongest capital positions in our markets and a deep base of low-cost core funding, we are well positioned for meaningful organic growth," Scott Almy, president and CEO of Cornerstone, said in a press release.In a deal announced in June 2021 and closed in October of the following year, Cornerstone Home Lending, headquartered in Houston, acquired Roscoe (Texas) State Bank. After the deal closed, Cornerstone Capital Bank SSB was formed.After it acquired Roscoe, Cornerstone noted several changes to its status, including that its loan officers no longer needed to be licensed.The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008, also known as the SAFE Act, created dual standards for working loan officers based on who their employer is. Only those who work for independent mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers need to have state licenses while also being registered in the Nationwide Multi-State Licensing System.Those MLOs working at depositories only need NMLS registration.Cornerstone viewed Peoples Bank as a way to lower funding costs, increase earnings and expand portfolio lending, moves it said would enhance its mortgage and servicing divisions and help it offer more value-added services to clients.Cornerstone had brought its servicing function in-house in April 2022, after the Roscoe deal was announced but before it closed.Banks are able to use deposits to fund mortgages and because of their balance sheet, have the option to retain loans in their portfolio.Another listed rationale for the deal is it would put Cornerstone in the top 20 among all Texas banks with less than $10 billion in assets, while reducing cost of deposits by approximately 68 basis points.The combination would have $3.1 billion of assets.The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, at which time the acquired institution will be part of a new Community Banking Division under the name Peoples Bank, a division of Cornerstone Capital Bank."For many years, Peoples has focused on building strong relationships and supporting the communities we serve," said Larry Allen, its chairman and CEO, in a press release. "This merger is a natural extension of that mission."Once the deal is completed, besides joining the boards of the holding company and Cornerstone Capital Bank, Allen will become area chairman, Peoples Bank.Cornerstone was advised by Piper Sandler as financial advisor and Otteson Shapiro as legal counsel, while Peoples' financial advisor was Hillworth Bank Partners and Fenimore Kay Harrison LLP as its legal counsel.
A Southern California mortgage brokerage has reached a settlement with four states over claims of wrongdoing that included several allegations of unlicensed lending activity. E Mortgage Capital, based in Irvine, California, agreed to settle with banking supervisors of Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon and Texas in late September following a multistate investigation that began in late 2023. In their examinations, regulators determined E Mortgage allowed unlicensed loan officers in their states to originate and earn commissions on 50 different transactions. The alleged violations took place between 2021 and 2023. Idaho and Texas officials also claimed unlicensed loan processors performed functions that should have been prohibited in their states in over 125 instances. Other infractions spelled out by examiners include E Mortgage's failure to cooperate or respond to inquiries, and Texas officials' assertions of "improper and deceptive or dishonest dealings." Regulators in Oregon also cited the brokerage's remote work-from-home plan, which it said lacked adequate inspections and insufficient supervision of loan officers.With the settlement, E Mortgage will pay financial penalties totaling $669,000. The brokerage also agreed to cease mortgage originations coming via unlicensed loan officers and processing activity involving ineligible employees. The company neither admitted nor denied liability or fault through the agreement, which was signed as a compromise "to avoid the cost, burden, disruption, and uncertainty of further proceedings," according to the legal documents signed by E Mortgage on Sept. 22.In a statement sent to National Mortgage News, company leadership emphasized the changes, including enhanced systems and compliance protocols, that the brokerage had implemented in the years since the allegations surfaced. "While we may not necessarily agree with every finding, we view this as an opportunity to keep improving," wrote E Mortgage Capital Chair and President Sam Hijazin."We take our responsibility to our clients and to our regulators very seriously. We fully respect the important role that state regulators play in protecting consumers and upholding the integrity of the mortgage industry, and we remain committed to full compliance with all applicable laws," Hijazin added.In May, the mortgage broker celebrated its growth this year in a press statement, pointing to its partnership with 80 different wholesale lenders and $470 million in April volume. The company also said it had added 41 loan officers, including some new to the industry.Regulatory focus turns toward statesThe settlement comes as the mortgage industry's eyes carefully at scrutiny and enforcement coming out of state regulators as federal oversight eases under the current Trump administration. Earlier this year, Washington State officials fined Xpert Home Lending for violations of its consumer banking laws following the company's failure to license five branches. Regulators threatened to rescind Xpert's authorization to conduct business in the state on the grounds of any future noncompliant activity. Last month, Connecticut's banking commissioner also revoked the mortgage lending licenses belonging to a suburban Hartford brokerage and its two leaders after evidence of shoddy recordkeeping and misleading statements were uncovered. Unlicensed origination activity was not a factor in the Connecticut case.
Applications for new-home purchase mortgages ran ahead of last year's pace in September, but various factors have the leading industry trade group preparing for a near-term slowdown.Purchase applications for new single-family properties increased 2% on a year-over-year basis last month, picking up some momentum after August's flatter 1% rise, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's survey of homebuilder lending units. While numbers ended up higher, activity slowed from the hot 10.8% surge of a year earlier. Month to month, application volume decreased 5% compared to August activity. Numbers were not seasonally adjusted."Applications were down over the month, but were consistent with typical seasonal patterns for September," said Joel Kan, MBA vice president and deputy chief economist, in a press release. While some market conditions now encourage buyer activity, seasonality and economic worries raise some caution flags over the coming months, Kan added. "Despite more inventory, builder incentives and lower mortgage rates, near-term demand is slowing as the labor market weakens," he said.September activity led MBA to adjust its estimate of new-home sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 680,000, falling off approximately 7% after reaching its 2025 high of 730,000 in August. On a nonadjusted basis, new-home sales totaled 54,000 in September, 3.6% lower from 56,000 units sold in the previous month, MBA found. The mean loan size on new-home purchases climbed higher by 1.3% to $379,107 from $374,288 in August, but the current average fell 5.8% from $402,658 in September 2024. Although the average is still lower compared to a year ago, the prospect of price hikes for new homes remain on the horizon, with some leading publicly traded homebuilders hinting at higher costs in 2025's final months due to expected tariff policy impacts.New-home sales breakdown by lending categoryConventional lending products accounted for over half of September's monthly new-home application volume with a 52.5% share of activity. The slice grew from 49.9% in August but contracted from 61.2% reported 12 months earlier. Growth in conventional loans came at the expense of government-sponsored mortgages. Federal Housing Administration-insured applications made up 33.8% of volume, contracting from 35.6% one month earlier, but up from 28.7% in September 2024. While still accounting for over one-third of borrower activity, the FHA portion is off from recent all-time highs as potential buyers looked toward the new-home market due to sluggish turnover of existing properties in the past few years. Applications sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs nabbed 12.6% relative to total volume, edging down from 13.4% in August but rising year over year from 9.6%.The small sliver of U.S. Department of Agriculture-guaranteed mortgages represented 1% of September activity compared to 1.2% the previous month and 0.4% a year ago. All new USDA lending activity is currently suspended due to the U.S. government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1 As the government budget impasse prevents collection and release of census data, MBA's numbers are one of the few gauges of new-home sales currently available, the trade group said. Its monthly data comes from survey responses regarding borrowing activity provided by U.S. homebuilders' mortgage affiliates.
Several developments involving companies active in the industry's secondary and capital market emerged this week.AI-driven pricing data provider buys MBS specialistSolve, a provider of pre-trade data and predictive pricing that has long used artificial intelligence to aggregate and analyze information, announced Thursday that it has purchased a company with similar but deeper capabilities focused specifically on mortgage-backed securities.The financial terms for the acquisition of MBS Source are private. MBS Source's founder, Mihai Szabo, will take on a new role involving innovation AI, machine learning and predictive analytics at Solve in line with the company's past practice in bringing new acquisitions into the fold."With every firm, the idea was that the senior team take some sort of a bigger, larger leadership role within Solve," CEO Eugene Grinberg said in an interview.Specific capabilities MBS Source brings to solve include predictive pricing for agencies, a prepayment model, and derived information from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine that's more specific than what FINRA provides.Intercontinental Exchange teams up with REIT on new indicesAGNC Investment Trust and ICE Mortgage Technology' corporate parent have created three indices for current coupon government-related securities.The two companies have launched indices for 30-year Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities, and 15- and 30-year uniform MBS from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."These indices will provide market insights and performance data for the most liquid and actively traded segments of the agency MBS market," Sean Reid, executive vice president, strategy and corporate development at AGNC, said in a press release.Optimal Blue launches capital markets platform updatesTechnology vendor Optimal Blue reported that it introduced a new product and added new features to three existing ones this week ahead of the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention.Broker search data license, the new product, aims to give investors a view of demand across the market using anonymized information from the Loansifter platform.The company also added pipeline monitoring to its existing product and pricing engine, tracking data like credit scores, loan amounts or property information as the loan gets processed. The monitoring is designed to help users track changes that could affect pricing or eligibility.Optimal Blue also added new capabilities to its hedging and loan trading technology that are aimed at allowing traders to directly collect, compare and execute broker-dealer pricing. The company also added the ability to track this pricing over time for competitive analysis.The Comergence platform, a due diligence, added the ability for business users to add integrations without coding.Incenter Lender Services collaborates on CRA loan exchangeWhile some parts of the Community Redevelopment Act have been undergoing a rollback, the core rule remains in place and interest in CRA loan trades persists that a new national platform from Incenter Lender Services supports.Incenter built the platform with e11tec, an automated decision engine for loans in underserved markets, and a division of Watermark Capital that acts as a central counterparty.The technology helps match bank buyers who have to meet quarterly and annual deadlines with sellers that often come from the nonbank community.
I’ve mentioned on several occasions that I predicted a sub-6% mortgage rate by the fourth quarter of 2025.We are now in the fourth quarter, but still have about two and half months left before the calendar rolls over to Q1 2026.That actually feels like an eternity given mortgage rates can change daily, and often experience all kinds of unforeseen twists and turns.And seeing the trend lately, of lower and lower rates, one cannot rule out a 30-year fixed mortgage rate that begins with a 5 at some point this year.But the “odds” of it happening still remain quite low, at least by the market makers.Will the 30-Year Fixed Rate Fall Below 6.00% at Any Point by December 31st?I checked out Polymarket this morning to see what the odds were for a 30-year fixed below 6% by December 31st.I knew it was one of the markets on there so I was curious if it had become more of a favorite lately.After all, mortgage rates have been moving lower lately and are hovering near three-year lows.They’re also not too far above 6% anymore, so the thought of a mortgage rate starting with a “5” doesn’t sound so crazy anymore.Despite this, there are still long odds for us to see a 30-year fixed below 6% in the next 75 days or so.At last glance, there was just a “28% chance” of this happening on Polymarket, which seems pretty low given the 30-year fixed was last reported to be 6.27%, per Freddie Mac.That’s the source used for this proposition. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) average found in Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS).While it seems so close, the Freddie mortgage rate index can move slowly and often lags (the problem with mortgage rate surveys).It’s also a survey! So the banks and lenders they ask have to tell you rates are sub-6%.Anyway, I felt it was interesting that the odds of a 30-year mortgage rate below 6% were nearly 50% just three weeks ago.And today, despite rates moving lower, odds are just 28%, albeit up markedly from 13% last week.Why Mortgage Rates Might Not Fall Below 6% This YearI already explained why mortgage rates could fall below 6% by December.Now let’s talk about why they might not, since those are the odds we’re looking at. A 28% chance indicates something is a longshot after all.So what’s the rationale here? Well, one issue standing in the way of even lower mortgage rates, which only need to fall ~0.25% from here, is a lack of new data.With the government shutdown festering, there is no new data from the government.So we don’t get the monthly jobs report, which is the biggest mover of mortgage rates (both up and down).And the one that’s been pushing them lower lately because the reports have been so very bad.Since we aren’t getting new job creation and unemployment data, mortgage rates could be a little “stuck” at the moment.They can move some, but might be kind of range-bound because their biggest driver is out of commission right now.One caveat here is we will get a delayed CPI report next Friday, which could carry more weight than normal since other reports are on hold.If that comes in hot, mortgage rates could bounce higher. But if it’s another cool report, it could nudge mortgage rates even closer to the 5s.Another issue is the sheer number of days left in the calendar year. We’ve got about 75 days left in 2025.It’s not a small number of days by any stretch, but it’s not getting any longer. So each day that passes, you’ve got fewer days to “win.”Also, the Freddie Mac survey only comes out once a week, on Thursdays, so the timing needs to be just right to catch a low-rate day.For example, mortgage rates could dip below 6% on a Monday and bounce back by Wednesday, and never show up in the data.So that in itself can drive the odds of this happening lower. With less and less time it’s becoming harder.It does seem like we’re heading in that direction though, even if it’s just a matter of time.(photo: k) Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.Latest posts by Colin Robertson (see all)
Every day my family rents to people who pay their rent on time, balance their budget and save responsibly. Yet when the time comes for them to buy a home, the traditional credit system does not recognize their financial discipline. According to the 2023 National Association of Realtors report, 65% of Millennials and Generation Z prefer renting over homeownership. Unlike Generation X and baby boomers, they are less likely to view a 30-year fixed mortgage as the only path to financial freedom. For younger Americans and longtime renters now ready to transition into homeownership, the barriers can be steep. In July, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte announced a significant change in the path to homeownership. Pulte posted on X that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can now allow lenders to use a person's rental history to assess creditworthiness.The industry often refers to people without credit cards or loan debt as "credit invisible." This underscores the inadequacy of the traditional credit system, which penalizes renters who live within their means and pay their bills on time. A 2021 VantageScore study, based on a sample of 45 million consumers, revealed diverse credit populations that traditional models fail to capture.An example of the diverse credit populations is evident in recent reports of the drop in traditional FICO scores, the steepest since the Great Recession. This drop exposes the flaws in a system that penalizes young renters unfairly. The need for expanded metrics is clear when the FICO score of 14% of young borrowers drops 50 plus points. Under traditional scoring, this could happen from a missed student loan payment that lacks a long credit history to offset it. The steep drop comes even when the person has a stellar rental history. This is a flaw that can be overcome by taking FHFA Director Pulte's directive to use rental history, increasing not only homeownership, but the stock of affordable housing.LOANTHINK COLUMNS ON CREDIT SCORINGWhy credit score politics have nothing to do with lendingVantageScore's 'future of credit' rests on shaky mathFair Isaac's white paper makes it clear it is raising pricesVantageScore 4.0's predictive power stands up to scrutinyFICO isn't the problem. A premature two-score system isCredit score competition reduces mortgage market riskPulte's tweet hands credit bureaus an unfair edgeCredit scores are not the issueFor almost four decades my family has built homes for owners and renters. Over the years, we have seen an increase in the need for affordable homes in both the rental and homeownership markets. We have the unique privilege of watching individuals and families transition from renters to homeowners as their lives change.One of my favorite couples is Jo and Jay. Their story reminds me a lot of my parents' story. They too began dating in high school, later married and began to plan for a family. They were great tenants. Responsible with their budget, they decided to buy their first home. Couples and individuals like Jo and Jay, should not be penalized for responsibly renting.A new era of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence now improves loan default risk prediction by 8% to 10%. Machine learning combined with nontraditional data such as rent, utility and telecom payments along with trended data over 24 months provides a more accurate measure of creditworthiness. In the traditional model, consistent payments for cell phone or utility bills are ignored unless the payments are delinquent. If failure to pay indicates credit risk, it is only logical and fair that consistent payments should demonstrate creditworthiness.According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, expanding the use of nontraditional tools could significantly increase homeownership and wealth creation in America. Approximately 17 million renters could potentially be deemed creditworthy. This shift could profoundly impact builders' willingness to enter the affordable housing market. Builders are more likely to increase production of starter homes and affordable housing when there is a clear market for qualified purchasers. The fact that today's advanced analytics allows a more accurate prediction of default risks makes affordable housing even more attractive to builders.If the goal is to reduce lender risk and increase access to homeownership, policymakers, lenders and credit bureaus should recognize the value of expanded metrics. For families like Jo and Jay and the thousands of responsible renters across the country, using expanded data could mean the start of a legacy-building chapter that strengthens families and communities for generations.
Another ex-loan originator in a reverse mortgage scheme that cost elderly African-American Chicago-area homeowners millions of dollars is going to prison.Gary Bohn, 59, was sentenced Wednesday to 1-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the wider fraud, according to Law360 which reported the sentencing. The former Illinois-based LO with American Fidelity Financial Services had pleaded guilty to helping facilitate a scheme to scam homeowners out of their reverse mortgage proceeds. Other co-conspirators have also pleaded guilty, including ringleader Mark Steven Diamond, who was sentenced in January to 17 years in prison. Diamond, also a former originator, worked with brokers and an appraisal management company in taking funds from 17 homeowners to pay for shoddy or nonexistent home repairs, resulting in $6 million in damages. Beginning in 2006, Diamond and others tricked property owners into believing they were signing documents to start supposed repair work, while Bohn submitted loan documentation to lenders on behalf of the unlicensed Diamond. Defendants pocketed the loan proceeds and often did not perform any repair work whatsoever. In 2013, the Department of Housing and Urban Development limited the cash that could be paid out to reverse borrowers. Bohn told co-conspirators they could skirt that rule as it didn't limit the amount of money that could be paid at closing to pay off a mechanics lien. "Bohn's decision to tell Diamond and Fefferman how to avoid the HUD rules was not a slip of the tongue or an innocuous conversation," wrote prosecutors in a sentencing memorandum this month, referring to another co-conspirator. Feds asked for a 28-month sentence, while Bohn requested three years of probation in his sentencing memo. While the former LO was facing up to 30 years in prison for his fraud charges, prosecutors gave him credit for immediately cooperating with investigators, including wearing a recording device on several occasions. Bohn in his sentencing memo said he regretted the scheme, and that he's already made $20,000 of over $300,000 in restitution payments. An attorney for Bohn didn't return a request for comment this week. An Illinois regulator revoked Bohn's mortgage loan originator license last July, after he pleaded guilty to fraud months earlier. He and two other co-conspirators, who have pleaded guilty but have not yet been sentenced, were charged in 2017. The Trump administration today says it's placing a greater emphasis on rooting out fraud, including rolling out a mortgage tip line and stepping up the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Suspended Counterparties Program. Feds have also pestered President Trump's political foes with mortgage fraud accusations, including indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James last week.
Key insight: Fifth Third's massive credit blow tied to the allegedly-fraudulent Tricolor Holdings bankruptcy "didn't end up costing them that much," an analyst said.What's at stake: The company said last week it would acquire Comerica Bank, in what has been the largest bank deal announcement of 2025.Supporting data: The KBW Regional Banking Index fell nearly 6% on Thursday.Fifth Third Bancorp delivered mostly unsurprising financials during its third quarter, even as the bank has recently announced a major bank acquisition, a new commercial payments software, a branch expansion and a large credit hit.Before dropping its largely as-expected earnings results on Friday morning, the company's stock slid nearly 6% Thursday, in line with the KBW Regional Banking Index, as concerns about souring loans at regional banks whirled through Wall Street. But in its third quarter, Fifth Third's bottom line beat the consensus analyst estimate, while some parts of its business, such as fee income, were stronger than others, like credit quality, per the company's Friday morning earnings report. CEO Tim Spence said in a Friday morning prepared statement that the $212 billion-asset bank's results underscore its "diverse revenue streams and disciplined expense management.""Our ongoing investments in strategic growth priorities continue to drive robust results," he said. "By focusing on high-quality deposits, diversified loan originations, recurring fee revenue and consistent improvements in operating scalability, we expect to continue to generate strong, stable through-the-cycle returns for our long-term shareholders."Credit concernsLast month, Fifth Third announced it would take a roughly $200 million credit hit due to its exposure to Tricolor Holdings, a subprime auto company that filed for bankruptcy amid allegations of fraud. A handful of banks said they would take losses tied to the collapsed company, including JPMorgan Chase, which logged a $170 million charge in its third quarter.The total impact of Tricolor's fallout is still unfolding in court, and through Department of Justice investigations into the company. On Thursday, after two other midsize banks announced credit exposures to different borrowers alleged to have committed fraud, markets battered the industry.But all considered, "the whole thing didn't end up costing them that much," wrote Brian Foran, an analyst at Truist Securities, about Fifth Third in a Friday morning note. And the bank logged quarterly improvement in nonperforming loans.Fifth Third reeled in net income of $608 million in the third quarter, or 91 cents per diluted share, beating the consensus analyst estimate of 86 cents per share. Since Fifth Third's disclosure about Tricolor, the consensus estimate for the bank's earnings had fallen; the pre-loss consensus had been 94 cents per share.Strategic movesThe company's earnings report comes just weeks after it announced plans to acquire Comerica Bank in Dallas for nearly $11 billion. Spence said in an interview at the time that the deal will unlock a major middle market expansion for Fifth Third across certain states, including Texas, Michigan. "This is officially the biggest thing we've ever done as a company, by any measure," Spence said then. "So it is number one, two and three for us, in terms of the focus."Comerica, which also reported third-quarter earnings on Friday, also beat consensus analyst estimates for its bottom line."Expenses and provision are a little better, fees are a little worse," Foran said in his note. "Credit looks mostly fine."For Comerica, the transaction will provide a healthy supply of retail deposits from Fifth Third, which the Ohio bank has worked to build in recent years. Fifth Third said last year that it would build 200 branches by 2028, adding at the time that it was remixing its footprint so that 50% of its locations would be in the Southeast. Last week, the bank said that it would also add at least 150 new branches in Texas before starting to grow its footprint in California.Many banks have made moves to alter their deposit franchises in recent years, after interest rates rapidly rose in 2022 and 2023 — putting pressure on deposit costs — and the mini banking crisis in Spring 2023 fueled concerns about liquidity. At Fifth Third, deposits in the latest quarter were up 1% from the prior quarter, driven by growth in money market and demand deposits, while savings and interest checking balances fell. From the prior year, deposits were down 1%, as the bank pared back brokered deposits and certificates of deposit over $250,000. Although deposit costs for the quarter were up 2 basis points from the prior quarter, that still represents a 60 basis-point decline from a year ago. The bank has also continued to work on increasing its earnings streams, especially in wealth and asset management, capital markets and commercial payments. Fee revenue made up about one-third of total adjusted revenue in the last year. Noninterest income of $781 million, up 5% from the prior year, saw boosts from last year in mortgage banking net revenue and wealth and asset management fees. From the second quarter, capital markets fees were up 28%.Total loans were also up 6% from the prior year, mostly due to growth in commercial and industrial lending and consumer lines like indirect secured consumer lending, home equity and residential mortgage lending.
Key insight: Truist Financial reported third-quarter earnings Friday, with earnings per share that beat analysts' estimates.Forward look: The regional bank expects full-year 2025 expenses to rise about 1% compared with the prior year.Supporting data: Wealth management fees rose 6.9% year over year.This news is developing. Please check back for updates.Truist Financial exceeded Wall Street expectations for third-quarter earnings, with a year-over-year increase in wealth management income and service charges on deposits both contributing to the higher results.The regional bank, which recently announced on a branch opening project as part of an effort to gain more mass-affluent customers, reported net income of $1.45 billion for the period ending Sept. 30. That's a slight improvement from net income of $1.44 billion in the year-ago quarter. Earnings per share came in at $1.04. Analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ had predicted earnings per share of $0.99. Revenue totaled $5.19 billion, up approximately 2% compared with the same quarter last year, while expenses rose by 3% during the same time period to $3.01 billion. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company put a firm number on one of its most closely watched profitability metrics, return on tangible common equity, disclosing in its third-quarter earnings presentation that it's aiming to achieve a 15% ROTCE in 2027. For the third quarter, Truist's ROTCE was 13.6%.It was a solid quarter for fee income, which climbed 5.1% year over year, the bank said in a press release. Wealth management income totaled $374 million for the quarter, up 6.9% year over year, largely as a result of more assets under management, the bank said. Service charges on deposits rose even higher, up 8.6% due to higher treasury management fees, it said.But those weren't the only bright spots. Mortgage banking revenue was up 11.3% year over year while lending-related fees were up 17%. Investment banking and trading fees were down 2.7%.In August, the $543.9 billion-asset bank said it intends to open 100 branches and renovate 300 existing offices in high-growth markets, primarily in the Southeast, as a way to attract more mass-affluent or "premier" customers, which Truist executives have previously defined as individuals with at least $100,000 in deposits or assets under management of up to $1 million. Read more about Truist: https://www.americanbanker.com/organization/truist-financialAs part of the same branch opening-and-refreshing initiative, Truist is hiring more financial advisors to serve those clients, modernizing ATMs and deploying more AI tools and capabilities.Truist's branch plans are among a recent wave of branch expansions being undertaken by large and regional banks. Most are targeting the fast-growing markets of the Southeast. Truist has not yet disclosed the number of new branches to be built in each of the target markets, which includes Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. It has also not yet said which existing branches will be renovated.For the third quarter, Truist's net interest income was $3.63 billion, up 0.6% year over year.Loans and leases were $325.7 billion at the end of the quarter, up from $304.4 billion in the year-ago quarter. Deposits totaled $394.9 billion, an increase from $387.8 billion a year ago.On Friday, Truist maintained its guidance for the full year. Adjusted revenue for 2025 should be up 1.5-2.5% compared with 2024 while adjusted expenses should rise about 1%, the bank said.Read more about bank earnings here: https://www.americanbanker.com/earningsDuring the quarter, the bank repurchased $500 million of its common stock. It expects to buy back another $750 million in the fourth quarter.
