Dive Brief:

• Huntington Bank is expanding in North and South Carolina, targeting 55 branch openings in those states over the next five years, the Columbus, Ohio-based lender said Monday.
• The first North Carolina branches will be located in Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, while initial South Carolina branches will be established in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville, said CFO Zach Wasserman and Brant Standridge, Huntington's consumer and regional banking president, during an appearance at a Barclays conference.
• The bank expects to add about 350 employees across business lines through that expansion, executives said. “This investment will expand on our full relationship approach with wealth management, consumer deposits and consumer lending,” Standridge said.

Dive Insight:

The $196 billion-asset bank expanded its commercial banking footprint into the Carolinas — focusing on five markets across the two states — and opened a regional headquarters in Charlotte. Huntington has about 60 bankers across five markets, providing commercial banking, regional banking and treasury management services, executives said.

Monday’s announced expansion adds Columbia as a sixth target market. The bank sees “substantial” opportunity in the two states, which are among the Sun Belt states that have experienced notable population growth in recent years, Standridge said.  

Each of the Carolinas markets “represents a sizable population base with attractive growth rates that would rival many of our existing markets,” he said at the Barclays conference.

Huntington isn’t alone in seeing that market’s substantial opportunity, said Jason Goldberg, an analyst for Barclays. The regional will face a slew of larger competitors there, including Charlotte-based Bank of America and Truist, as well as JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bank, which are expanding in the region, he said.

Huntington has been in the region with its national specialty businesses, such as healthcare asset-based lending, for about a decade. That history plus the bank’s recent experience opening branches in Denver and the Minneapolis area give executives confidence the Carolinas expansion can prove fruitful, Standridge said. 

Along with the talent the bank has brought on board, Standridge highlighted “the growth and vitality” of the Carolinas. “Obviously, that’s the reason that many organizations are going there,” he added.

“Because of that momentum, and the speed in which these bankers have been able to achieve … payback, that gives us some confidence to now take the next step and bring a larger portion of the franchise to the table,” he added. 

The bank has about 200 employees in the Carolinas, a spokesperson said. Earlier this year, Huntington said it was expanding in Texas, too.

The full launch in the Carolinas will occur over several years, Standridge said. Branch sites are being chosen, with the bank using data and proprietary market research to select sites with high traffic and visibility as well as growth potential; construction is slated to begin in 2026, he said.

This year, Huntington has opened five new branches within growth markets; all had exceeded six- and 12-month loan and deposit balance targets by the time their doors opened, Standridge noted. Huntington has about 970 branches across 11 states.

Wasserman also underscored the bank’s efforts to manage expenses carefully, “taking actions to drive cost-savings across the organization, and allocating those savings to fund revenue-producing investments.” The bank expects to record $20 million in additional expenses tied to ongoing efficiency programs in the third quarter, he said. 

Costs associated with branch builds and employment in the Carolinas “are well within our business-as-usual investment capacity” planned for 2025 and beyond, Standridge noted.