Huntington Bancshares Earnings Call Insights: Total Loan Balances and Increases in Operating Expenses

Huntington Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HBAN) recently reported its fourth quarter earnings and discussed the following topics in its earnings conference call.

Total Loan Balances

Craig Siegenthaler – Credit Suisse: Do you expect total loan balances to grow in 2013 if we include your estimate for two auto securitizations?

Donald R. Kimble – SEVP and CFO: Our outlook would have modest growth including the impact of the auto securitizations. Keep in mind that we are getting closer to that two years of doing the auto securitizations and so it should start to plateau the impact for those sales.

Craig Siegenthaler – Credit Suisse: Then if loan demand this year is a little weaker in C&I and the commercial real estate than you planned, would you consider holding more residential mortgages and more indirect auto loans to temporarily support higher earning asset growth versus buying more securities?

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Stephen D. Steinour – Chairman, President, and CEO: We would but, you caveated your question, Craig, this is Steve. We are optimistic that the economy will perform reasonably well but could in fact pop if we can get through this set of issues in Washington. So we think we are well positioned to participate in an expansion trip so we would be able to get into that mode.