Fifth Third Bank is expanding its branch network in the Southeast and doubling down on its tech investments to grow operations.

The $213 billion bank opened “31 [new] branch locations in 2024,” Chief Executive Tim Spence said during the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings call today. The bank plans to open “60 new branches in the Southeast in 2025, [which] should set us up well to continue to gain market share.” 

While new branches and technology investment will increase the bank’s expenses, “these costs continue to be partially funded through the savings generated by our value stream efficiency programs” over the past few quarters, Spence said. He gave no specific savings amount. 

Branch expansion is also key at Bank of America and JPMorgan, according to those banks’ Q4 earnings reports. The $2.4 trillion Bank of America opened 17 branches in Q4 per its strategy of “investing in the future” and aims to open more branches in 2025, Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said during the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Jan. 16. 

THE BIG PICTURE: Fifth Third bank is investing in technology in preparation for an expected worker shortage, Spence said. 

“We have more people retiring every year right now than we have entering the workforce,” Spence said. “That’s a structural problem that I don’t think gets better unless you can boost productivity with technology.” 

Many FIs are investing in technology because younger employees might not be interested in jobs vacated as people retire, Carey Ransom, managing director at venture capital firm BankTech Ventures, told Bank Automation News. 

“In order to get that work done with fewer people or to attract the next generation of workers, they have to upgrade their systems to just make it a job people would be willing to do,” Ransom said. “So, creating better tools with better interfaces or much smarter and more automated solutions is just a reality that they are accepting.” 

BY THE NUMBERS: The Cincinnati-based bank reported non-interest expenses of $1.2 billion, up 1% year over year, partially driven by tech and communications expenses in Q4 of $123 million, up 5% YoY, according to the bank’s earnings report. 

In Q4, Fifth Third reported: 

• Net interest income of $1.4 billion, up 1% YoY; 

• An efficiency ratio of 56.4%, compared with 67.2% in Q4 2023; and 

• Noninterest income of $732 million, down 2% YoY. 

OF NOTE: Jude Schramm, chief information officer at Fifth Third Bank will be speaking at Bank Automation Summit 2025 to be held on March 3-4 in Nashville, Tenn. 

Schramm will discuss how FIs assess new tech like gen AI, how investment in such technologies is evaluated and what ROI banks expect from these investments. 

Register here for Bank Automation Summit 2025, taking place March 3-4 in Nashville, Tenn. View the full event agenda here.