Huntington Bancshares continued its Operation Accelerate initiative to increase efficiency in the second quarter of 2023 as the bank posted a solid quarter amid economic uncertainty.
The $188 billion bank’s initiative, announced in February, involves examining the customer experience, from prospecting to servicing, to find opportunities to automate and simplify processes.
“We’ve developed and executed a series of proactive actions to reduce expense run rates, including the voluntary retirement program, organizational alignment and our continued implementation of long-term efficiency programs, such as branch optimization and Operation Accelerate,” Huntington Chief Financial Officer Zach Wasserman said during today’s Q2 earnings call.
In Q2, the bank’s headcount remained relatively flat, increasing by 300 people year over year, to about 20,200, according to the bank’s earnings supplement.
The bank kept its branch count steady in Q2 with no closures, according to the supplement.
“We continue to proactively manage the expense base to align with the revenue outlook,” said Chief Executive Stephen Steinour. “Operation Accelerate remains on track, and we will increase our use of business process outsourcing to drive sustained efficiencies into 2024.”
BY THE NUMBERS: Huntington posted in Q2:
- Monthly active digital users increased 4% YoY to 3.42 million;
- Monthly active mobile users increased 8% YoY to 2.67 million;
- Total noninterest expense increased 3% YoY to $1.1 billion; and
- Total revenue increased 5% to $1.8 billion.
NOTEWORTHY: Huntington’s Chief Credit Officer Rich Pohle is set to retire at the end of the year, Steinour said during the call. He will be succeeded by Brendan Lawlor, deputy chief credit officer.
FUTURE LOOK: As the bank focuses on expense management, another multiyear project is in the pipeline to drive efficiency, Steinour said on the call.
“The team is also working on a longer-term project Operation Accelerate,” he said. “It’s changing procedures and digitizing substantially the front to back side of the bank.”
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