Truist reported a busy quarter, noting it completed its largest core bank conversion event in February and brought 7 million clients into the Truist ecosystem.

“The integration was successful overall, especially when you consider the scale and complexity involved,” said Truist Chief Executive Officer Bill Rogers during today’s earnings call. “This was the largest bank technology integration in over 13 years.”

While Rogers acknowledged it was not perfect, noting there are opportunities to improve, he said “we now have millions of Truist clients who are absolutely pleased with our experience.”

“Our teams did an incredible job in resolving client challenges with urgency and a view toward long-term client and teammate experience improvements,” Rogers told analysts during the call.

Spike in CFPB complaints

The $544 billion bank saw a spike last quarter in complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which currently lists 2,319 complaints against the bank during Q1 2022. All the complaints are now resolved; 138 were resolved with monetary relief, according to the CFPB. Most of the complaints revolved around checking and savings issues, followed by mortgage issues, with some related to payments that didn’t post.

By comparison, the similarly sized PNC had 897 complaints during the past full year.

There is also an active Facebook page, “SunTrust/BB&T now Truist bank complaint group” with 1,343 members.

Truist spokesperson Shelley Miller said millions of customers are pleased with their experience, but acknowledged there were challenges.

“We continue to take steps to mitigate friction and address the challenges that some clients faced during the transition,” Miller told Bank Automation News. “These steps include increasing staffing at our contact centers, implementing enhanced technology solutions, and fixing certain processes to enhance the client experience. While there are currently no broad-based issues, our teammates continue to work diligently to help any of our clients who have individual challenges as part of the transition.”

The Charlotte, N.C.-based Truist reported earnings of $1.3 billion for the quarter, down 7% YoY. Non-interest expense for the first quarter was $3.7 billion, up 1.8% YoY. The three expense areas reported by Truist that could include technology spend were all up YoY:

• Software expense was $232 million, up 10.5%;
• Equipment expense was $118 million, up 4.4% YoY; and
• Professional fees and outside processing was $363, up 3.7 YoY.

Looking ahead, Rogers also predicted costs related to the merger would decrease dramatically for the remainder of the year, in part as datacenters and systems become decommissioned in the later half of the year.

Digital virtual assistant

The bank also revealed it plans to unveil a new virtual assistant, Truist Assist, but did not specify when, Rogers said it will be introduced during the second quarter. Truist Assist is a cloud-based virtual assistant that “understands client questions, delivers answers, and completes tasks on behalf of the clients using everyday language,” according to the earnings presentation. Truist Assist was built using agile development, Rogers noted.

“Truist Assist will help clients execute basic tasks, schedule appointments and provide insights and recommendations so they can have more control and confidence in their financial well-being,” Rogers said. “In addition, we’re executing and investing in a number of other areas over the coming quarters to improve our clients’ and teammates’ digital experience, including but not limited to digital payments, digital onboarding, enhanced authentication technology and expanding live streams to include a new deposit product on a real time cloudbased core.”

New apps, anti-fraud initiatives

Also new at Truist is Truist Insights, an app that analyzes retail clients’ historical transaction activity to provide “proactive, automated financial guidance to help clients spend, save, and live better.”

The bank has also introduced several functions that are new to its respective heritage BB&T and SunTrust clients while sunsetting all heritage digital experiences. New to BB&T customers is the Fraud Inspector for Business that identifies fraudulent items in the previous day’s cleared transactions and initiates a return request for suspected fraudulent items. SunTrust clients have been introduced to three digital tools from Truist:

• Business wires mobile, which allows business owners and entitled users to initiate a wire transfer;
• Personal financial management, which allows customers to view linked accounts and investments, categorize and track spending and income, and create budgets and goals; and
• One View mobile app with entitlement management and payment approvals, which supports CFOs and treasurers to give user permissions and entitlements at a granular level and approve ACH and wire transactions on the go.

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Editor’s Note: This story was updated Wednesday at 10:05 a.m. to include comments from Truist. 

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