Dive Overview:
Huntington Bank Expanding in North and South CarolinaThe Columbus, Ohio-based financial institution said Monday that it aims to open 55 branches in those states over the next five years.
The first North Carolina branch The first branches are established in Charlotte, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem, and in South Carolina in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville. With CFO Zach Wasserman Brant Standridge, president of Huntington’s consumer and community banking division. Attending a Barclays meeting.
With the expansion, the bank will add about 350 employees across its business units, executives said. “This investment expands our complete relationship-building approach across wealth management, consumer deposits and consumer lending,” Standridge said.
Dive Insights:
of Bank with $196 billion in assets Expanded Commercial banking enters the Carolinas Huntington is focusing on five markets across two states and has opened a regional headquarters in Charlotte. Huntington has about 60 bankers in the five markets, providing commercial banking, community banking and treasury management services, according to Huntington executives.
The expansion announced Monday adds Columbia as a sixth target market, as the bank sees “significant” opportunities in the two Sun Belt states that have seen the most growth. Significant population growth In recent years, Standridge said,
Speaking at the Barclays conference, he said the Carolinas markets have “significant population bases and attractive growth rates, comparable to many of our existing markets.”
Huntington isn’t the only one seeing big opportunities in the region, said Jason Goldberg, an analyst at Barclays, which he said will face a number of larger competitors, including Charlotte-based Bank of America and Truist, as well as JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bank, which are expanding in the area.
Huntington Bank has been operating in the region for about a decade with its national specialty business, including health care asset-backed lending, and that history, along with its recent experience opening branches in the Denver and Minneapolis areas, has executives confident its expansion into the Carolinas will be a fruitful one, Standridge said.
Standridge highlighted the “growth and vitality” of the Carolinas, along with the talent the bank has hired. “Obviously, that’s why a lot of organizations locate there,” he added.
“This momentum, and the speed with which our bankers have been able to achieve recovery, gives us the confidence to take the next step and bring a larger piece of the franchise to the table,” he added.
A spokesman for the bank said it has about 200 employees in the Carolinas. Earlier this year, Huntington Expanding in Texastoo.
Standridge said the rollout in the Carolinas will be a multiyear process. Branch locations are being selected, with the bank using data and its own market research to select locations with high traffic, visibility and growth potential. Construction is expected to begin in 2026, he said.
This year, Huntington opened five new branches in growth markets, all of which exceeded six- and 12-month loan and deposit goals at launch, Standridge said. Huntington has about 970 branches in 11 states.
Wasserman also highlighted the bank’s efforts to carefully manage expenses, saying it has “taken steps to drive cost savings across the organization and is directing those savings toward revenue-generating investments.” He said the bank expects to record an incremental expense of $20 million in the third quarter related to its ongoing efficiency programs.
Standridge noted that costs associated with building the branch and hiring in the Carolinas are “within our normal business investment capacity” planned for 2025 and beyond.
