CMA
REFINITIV STREETEVENTS
EDITED TRANSCRIPT
CMA.N - Q1 2025 Comerica Inc Earnings Call
EVENT DATE/TIME: APRIL 21, 2025 / 12:00PM GMT
OVERVIEW:
Company Summary
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APRIL 21, 2025 / 12:00PM, CMA.N - Q1 2025 Comerica Inc Earnings Call
C O R P O R A T E P A R T I C I P A N T S
Kelly Gage Comerica Inc - Director of Investor Relations
Curtis Farmer Comerica Inc - Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer
James Herzog Comerica Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Senior Executive Vice President
Peter Sefzik Comerica Inc - Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Banking Officer
Melinda Chausse Comerica Inc - Executive Vice President, Chief Credit Officer
C O N F E R E N C E C A L L P A R T I C I P A N T S
Jon Arfstrom RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
Scott Siefers Piper Sandler - Analyst
Ken Uston Autonomous Research - Analyst
Manan Gosalia Morgan Stanley - Analyst
Bernard Von Gizycki Deutsche Bank - Analyst
John Pancari Evercore ISI - Analyst
Chris McGratty KBW - Analyst
Anthony Elian JPMorgan - Analyst
Brian Foran Truist Securities Inc - Analyst
Ben Gerlinger Citigroup - Analyst
Terry McEvoy Stephens Inc - Analyst
Nick Holowko UBS - Analyst
Bill Carcache Wolfe Research, LLC - Analyst
P R E S E N T A T I O N
Operator
Greetings and welcome to Comerica first-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Kelly Gage, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Kelly Gage - Comerica Inc - Director of Investor Relations
Thanks, Donna. Good morning and welcome to Comerica's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Participating on this call will be our President, Chairman and CEO, Curt Farmer; Chief Financial Officer, Jim Herzog; Chief Credit Officer, Melinda Chausse; and Chief Banking Officer, Peter Sefzik.
During this presentation, we will be referring to slides which provide additional detail. The presentation slides in our press release are available on the SEC's website, as well as in the Investor Relations section of our website comerica.com.
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APRIL 21, 2025 / 12:00PM, CMA.N - Q1 2025 Comerica Inc Earnings Call
The presentation in this conference call contains forward-looking statements. In that regard, you should be mindful of the risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this presentation, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Please refer to the safe harbor statement in today's earnings presentation on slide 2. Also, the presentation and this conference call will reference non-GAAP measures. In that regard, I direct you to the reconciliation of these measures in the earnings materials that are available on our website, comerica.com.
Now, I'll turn the call over to Curt, who will begin on slide 3.
Curtis Farmer - Comerica Inc - Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. This was a strong quarter for Comerica. We exceeded expectations across a number of categories resulting in higher profitability over the prior quarter. Although we saw seasonal deposit outflows, non-interest bearing balances performed well and contributed to net interest income outperforming guidance.
Movement in the rate curve benefited our tangible common equity ratio and drove an increase in our book value at quarter end. Conservative capital management remained a priority, and we grew our estimated CET1 ratio while returning $143 million to common shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.
Beyond our financial results, customer sentiment took a step back as the market saw an increase in macroeconomic uncertainty. As our customers await further clarity, we plan to continue confidently executing our relationship model, striving to provide customers with the consistency and support they need to adapt and succeed.
Comerica's legacy is built on successfully managing through cycles, and we feel our unique model positions as well to navigate a dynamic environment. Credit is a competitive differentiator with net charge-offs that have historically outperformed peers. We are regarded for our underwriting discipline. It's in our DNA and it's a crucial part of our culture.
We benefit from a diversified commercially oriented business mix and have limited consumer exposure. We enjoyed long tenured customer relationships with seasoned leadership teams who in many cases have successfully weathered downturns before. Our capital position provides us flexibility with an estimated CET1 ratio well above our strategic target.
We have robust liquidity with a strong loan to deposit ratio and have demonstrated our ability to quickly access additional liquidity as needed. We took deliberate steps to minimize our exposure to rate volatility. In fact, if rates decline, we expect to benefit and in the last down rate cycle, we saw outsized deposit growth relative to our peers.
There are still a number of unknowns, and we, along with the market will continue to monitor developments closely. Regardless of the direction of the economy, we feel confident in our playbook and track record to perform competitively.
Moving back to a summary of the first quarter on slide 4. We reported earnings of $172 million or $1.25 per share. Muted loan demand coupled with declines in national dealer services and commercial real estate drove a modest reduction in average loan balances in the quarter.
Good deposit trends, the impact of BSBY cessation and the structural benefit of our swaps and securities portfolios offset the negative impact of lower loans, keeping net interest income flat. These factors also drove a 12 basis point expansion of our net interest margin.
Our credit portfolio remained resilient and despite inflationary pressures continuing to impact customers, our credit metrics remained historically low. Although net charge-offs increased over the very low levels seen post COVID, they remained at the low end of the normal 20 to 40 basis point range.
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APRIL 21, 2025 / 12:00PM, CMA.N - Q1 2025 Comerica Inc Earnings Call
Non-interest income grew, but we saw CVA, non-customer related and seasonal pressures across several line items. Non-interest expenses declined as we prioritized efficiency but also saw some slowdown in business activity.
Capital remained a strength with an estimated CET1 ratio of 12.05%, comfortably above our strategic target, again providing us flexibility to navigate the economic environment. In all we felt great about the quarter and until we are positioned to support our customers while delivering results.
Now I'd like to turn the call over to Jim for further details.
James Herzog - Comerica Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Senior Executive Vice President
Thanks, Curt and good morning, everyone. Turning to loans on slide 5. Average loans declined less than 1% with lower floor plan balances in national dealer services and pay downs in commercial real estate offsetting modest increases across several businesses.
Dealer's inventory levels came down from a year-end peak, and at the end of the quarter, they saw an uptick in car sales. Total commitments declined largely due to commercial real estate trends, although commitment utilization increased slightly, this was partially due to dealer in the nature of floor plan facilities.
Excluding dealer, utilization would have been relatively flat quarter to quarter. Average loan yields came down 12 basis points as lower rates and non-accrual interests more than offset the benefit of the swap portfolio and BSBY cessation.
On slide 6, average deposits outperform guidance in the first quarter. Lower broker time deposits and seasonal outflows contributed to the $1.4 billion decrease in average balances from the fourth quarter. While seasonality can be challenging to predict, and other macroeconomic factors may influence balances, our strong deposit focus and offerings have helped us to mitigate some of the seasonality we've seen thus far.
Non-interest bearing deposits as a percentage of total remain flat at 38%, continuing to reflect a compelling funding mix. Period-end deposits decreased $2.3 billion. Adjusting for the timing related impact from direct express disbursements, the period-end decline would have been $1.2 billion concentrated almost entirely in interest bearing balances.
The proactive execution of our pricing strategy drove a 26 basis points decline in deposit pricing in the first quarter. Our deposit portfolio has long been a key strength of our franchise, and we are continuing to make investments in products, processes and talent to further enhance this competitive funding source.
We have already seen results from the strategic focus including efficient pricing, new products and deposit acquisition, and we are encouraged by what we see as the potential for future success.
Our securities portfolio on slide 7 increased slightly as the benefit of lower unrealized losses at quarter end more than offset paydowns and maturities. We expect future repayments and maturities to continue to benefit AOCI over time. Beyond periodic purchases to replace treasury maturities, we are not currently expecting more meaningful securities reinvestments to begin until late this year.
Turning to slide 8. Net interest income remains stable quarter over quarter at $575 million. Stronger than expected non-interest bearing deposits and successful deposit pricing strategies helped offset the negative impact of muted loans. We also saw the benefit of our modest fourth quarter securities repositioning.
With the structural tailwinds associated with our swap and securities portfolios as shown in slide 9, we continue to see promising trends for continued net interest income growth.
Moving to slide 10. We continue to believe the successful execution of our interest rate strategy allows us to better protect our profitability from rate volatility. If we do see a reduction in rates as the forward curve predicts, our modeling shows a slight benefit to income.
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APRIL 21, 2025 / 12:00PM, CMA.N - Q1 2025 Comerica Inc Earnings Call
That said, we generally consider ourselves to be asset neutral and by strategically managing our swap and securities portfolios while considering the balance sheet dynamics, we intend to maintain our insulated position over time.
Our credit portfolio shown on slide 11 performed as expected. Net charge offs increased to 21 basis points, but we're at the low end of our normal range. Consistent with prior quarters, persistent inflation and elevated rates pressured customer profitability, driving continued but expected normalization in criticized loans, and notably they remain well below historical levels.
Non-performing loans remain well controlled and below our long-term average. The allowance for credit losses was down slightly due to lower loan balances, stable credit metrics and a relatively benign economic forecast at quarter end.
Given the elevated risks and uncertainty at the time, we increased our qualitative reserves which resulted in maintaining our 1.44% coverage ratio. With the benefit of our relationship model, we plan to stay close to our customers as they better understand potential supply chain implications on their businesses and formulate their action plans. We feel confident in our highly regarded approach to credit and have a proven track record of navigating cycles over many years.
On slide 12, first quarter non-inter income increased $4 million, largely due to the $19 million fourth quarter loss from securities repositioning, which did not repeat in the first quarter. Setting aside that benefit, the largest decline was in the CVA, which reduced $5 million due to rate and commodity price movement.
We also saw non-customer and seasonal declines across several other line items. Despite pressures observed in the quarter, we continue to prioritize non-interest income and expect to drive positive momentum in customer-related fees.
Expenses on slide 13 decreased $3 million over the prior quarter. Seasonally higher salaries and benefits and an increase in the FDIC special assessment were more than offset by the benefit of lower litigation related expenses, charitable contributions and consulting fees.
We also incurred lower outside processing expenses correlated with lower business activity in products like Card. While we did not see the level of gains related to real estate that we saw in the fourth quarter, we did recognize a sizeable gain on the sale of a leasing asset. Expense discipline remains a key priority as we continue to focus on driving efficiency.
As shown on slide 14, we continue to favor a conservative approach to capital and value the flexibility our position provides us. With an estimated CET1 at 12.05%, we are above our strategic target even after returning capital to shareholders through repurchases and dividends in the quarter.
Movement in the forward curve reduced unrealized losses in AOCI, contributing to an 82 basis point improvement in our tangible common equity ratio and growing book value.
Our outlook for 2025 is on slide 15. Given increased economic uncertainty, we see potential for a wide range of outcomes if market trends differ from our economic assumptions. By way of context, our outlook assumes uncertainty begins to abate and while we are not assuming a recession, we do assume slower GDP growth in 2025 than in 2024.
We project full year 2025 average loans to be down 1% to 2%. Although pipelines and activity levels remain strong, we expect customers to await better visibility before seeing a stronger uptick in loan demand. Recognizing that may not be immediate, we think the second quarter average loans will continue to move down slightly relative to the first quarter. From there we expect to see loan growth resume in the second half of the year.
Our deposit forecast remains unchanged as we expect lower brokered CDs to drive full year average deposits down 2% to 3% in 2025. We believe the second quarter average deposits will be relatively flat to the first quarter as core deposit growth is offset by a small decline in average brokered time deposits.
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APRIL 21, 2025 / 12:00PM, CMA.N - Q1 2025 Comerica Inc Earnings Call
Although we anticipate continued success in winning interest-bearing balances, we believe our non-interest bearing deposit mix will remain relatively consistent in the upper 30% range. Based on our current understanding of the transition strategy, we're still not assuming direct express deposit attrition within our 2025 outlook.
We expect full year 2025 net interest income to increase 5% to 7% with the benefit of BSBY cessation, maturing and replace securities and swaps and a more efficient funding mix, all more than offsetting lower average non-interest bearing balances and loans year to year.
We expect the second quarter to be relatively unchanged from the first quarter as the lower benefit of BSBY cessation is offset by the impact of day count. You can find details on the BSBY cessation in the appendix and excluding BSBY, we expect to see growth in net interest income quarter-to-quarter throughout 2025.
We expect full year 2025 non-interest income to increase approximately 2%, considering the negative pressure we saw in the first quarter, including the credit valuation adjustment and deferred compensation. We expect the second quarter to be stronger than the first and project growth in customer-related fee income through the balance of the year.
Full year 2025 non-interest expenses are expected to grow 2% to 3% with the objective of managing within this range, subject to the revenue trajectory as we progress through the year. We expect second quarter expenses to pick up slightly from the first quarter as we continue to balance strategic and risk management investments with the drive towards efficiency.
Considering our strong credit metrics, proving underwriting approach, and consistent portfolio monitoring, we expect full year net charge offs to be in the lower end of our normal 20 to 40 basis point range.
Moving the capital, we continue to appreciate the importance of a strong capital position, and we intend to maintain a CET1 ratio well above our 10% strategic target throughout 2025. With an estimated CET1 at over 12%, we feel we have ample capacity in our position to continue repurchases in the second quarter, perhaps even as much as we repurchased in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Given the volatility in the market and the movement in the forward curve, we are not committing to a targeted amount today. Instead, we intend to closely monitor market conditions and execute opportunistically with consideration to economic developments throughout the quarter.
Stepping back, as we and the market await more clarity, we will continue to stay close to our customers, prioritize responsible loan growth where it makes sense and focus on our deposit gathering efforts while conservatively managing capital expenses and credit.
Now, I'll turn the call back to Curt.
Curtis Farmer - Comerica Inc - Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Jim. In times of uncertainty, we understand what is important to our customers. They seek stability. They prioritize consistent access to capital and a value-added partner who is patient and understands how to help them overcome obstacles.
We have a proven track record of doing just that for over 175 years. With the foundation of conservative capital, credit and liquidity management, we have demonstrated resiliency. We understand there is uncertainty in the marketplace, and we see this as an opportunity to stay close with our customers.
History would tell us that these are the times where Comerica's relationship model and strategy tends to shine. We have a geographically diverse model, tenured colleagues, and experienced leadership team, a conservative approach to underwriting, and a blue-chip customer base which altogether position us well to outperform through cycles.
We had a great quarter, and we plan to continue investing in responsible growth for the long term while benefiting from the structural tailwinds embedded in our swap and securities portfolios.
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APRIL 21, 2025 / 12:00PM, CMA.N - Q1 2025 Comerica Inc Earnings Call
And so, with that, we'd be happy to take your questions.
Q U E S T I O N S A N D A N S W E R S
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Jon Arfstrom, RBC Capital Markets.
Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
Yeah. Maybe for you, Peter, I guess, on the loan growth outlook, I think we all understand that you guys are really a proxy for commercial lending, but can you talk a little bit about what you're hearing right now from your lenders and borrowers, maybe some of the very near-term conversations.
And then maybe talk a little bit more about the longer term outlook. It sounds like you're still thinking the pipelines are there and the growth outlook could get better as the year progresses, but maybe very near-term stuff and then confidence in the longer term.
Peter Sefzik - Comerica Inc - Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Banking Officer
Yeah, Jon. So I think I would say near term, if I had to describe the whole portfolio, I would say that what you're hearing from customers is that they're not putting the brakes on but they're taking their foot off the accelerator and you're seeing that around the country and around our businesses, maybe different speeds, if you will to that approach.
I think markets like Michigan, we've probably seen a more concern there than we have per se in Texas just quite candidly as when you talk about the middle market. We've seen a little bit more of a pullback in our equity fund services businesses versus our environmental services business that is still pretty robust.
So it really depends on the business. It depends on the type of service that they do, geographically where they are, but I think in the in the near term, and I think that's where we're going with our outlook for the second quarter is that there's a lot of folks that are pulling their foot off the accelerator, but they're not necessarily putting the brakes on.
Now all that said, we continue to hear really good long-term outlook and we do continue to see our pipeline creep up. It's a little bit interesting to see the pipeline go up, but not necessarily feel like we're going to see outstandings in the next quarter per se. But throughout the year as it goes on, we feel like it's going to, I guess, you might say, get better with loan demand.
And again, we're not projecting a recession. We don't feel that way. We feel like the economy is going to grow this year and we feel like we're in the right markets and lines of business to benefit from that growth, even if it's not what we've seen over the last year or two.
Jon Arfstrom - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
Okay. Got it. We talked about this maybe in past quarters, can you talk a little bit more about commercial real estate and what you're seeing there? It seems like there's still some headwinds and I'm curious if there's any hope for stabilizing that category?
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APRIL 21, 2025 / 12:00PM, CMA.N - Q1 2025 Comerica Inc Earnings Call
Peter Sefzik - Comerica Inc - Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Banking Officer
Candidly, I think there is some hope for stabilizing it. Part of our outlook actually includes commercial real estate not coming down as much as we thought it would 90 days ago. We still foresee it being a headwind, but I don't think it's maybe blowing as hard as it was 60, 90 days ago. We've seen deal flow pick up in commercial real estate.
I was really glad last year, we were one of the first banks to kind of get back to doing deals second quarter of last year, and I think that's benefited us. So we're seeing some opportunities and to the extent that our borrowers need us. We're putting out commitments in commercial real estate.
So I do think as we go into next year, we'll probably continue again to see it level off. We'll see what interest rates do to that business. But as of right now, it's a headwind, but maybe not as strong actually as it was 60 days ago.
Operator
Scott Siefers, Piper Sandler.
Scott Siefers - Piper Sandler - Analyst
Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking the question. Let's see, Jim, could you maybe walk through the progression on both the fee and the expense guide? I know in the past, you've discussed the full year puts and takes on the fee side. But I guess just looking at it, I think you need to average much higher quarterly base to get to the updated guidance, maybe how do you do so?
And then by contrast, on the expense side, it looks like the guidance would suggest that the second half expense base will be lower than what you experienced in the first half. So maybe just some color on how the flow works to your thinking?
James Herzog - Comerica Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Senior Executive Vice President
Yes. Good morning, Scott. Looking at non-interest income, we did have some non-customer trends that appeared in the first quarter. We probably put $6 million to $7 million of pressure on the overall guidance that we provided back in January. And some of those will probably continue to some extent maybe not to the same pace that we had in the first quarter, but we do expect a little more pressure from non-interest income.
Relative to expenses, I really think that we're going to have to monitor that as the year goes on and see how PPNR progresses. Certainly, there's a piece of that that's in the bag. Certainly, the sale of equipment and the gain we had there will be pocketed and won't be going away.
But we had some other expenses related to maybe timing, maybe challenging of projects and expenses that we'll have to make decisions on as we move through the year, try to calibrate how revenue progresses through the year also. So we do have a little bit more control, obviously, on the expenses than we do in the noninterest income.
We do see non-interest income for the customer categories getting largely back to plan or back to consensus and outlook that we had back in January.
And so, we do think we're going to get some bounce back there, but we did have a weaker customer quarter in the first quarter. We did a weaker non-customer quarter, and some of those non-customer trends may continue to a very small degree. So we'll let the overall revenue pace inform both our expense control and as we continue to monitor the non-interest income flows.
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APRIL 21, 2025 / 12:00PM, CMA.N - Q1 2025 Comerica Inc Earnings Call
Curtis Farmer - Comerica Inc - Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer
Jim, I might add. Scott, this is obviously an environment which is somewhat difficult to accurately forecast go-forward trends. But depending upon how things play out, depending upon if we do or do not see loan demand return and stabilization from the economy to think whether or not we have recession again, we are seeing that probability a little bit lower.
We really calibrate how we think about expenses going forward. We are very committed to the things that we have in flight, the expansion of many of our businesses, product development technology, expansion into new markets that we've talked about previously. But the pace upon which we are doing some of those things could be calibrated if we really do see a more elongated disruption to the market or certainly if we saw a recession.
Operator
[Ken Uston], Autonomous Research.
Ken Uston - Autonomous Research - Analyst
Thanks. Good morning, guys. You're doing a great job reducing deposit costs and continue to show a really fast beta on the downside. I'm just wondering how much more room do you have to either remix deposits further, take down brokered CDs within that? And then I'll ask a follow-up. Thanks.
James Herzog - Comerica Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Senior Executive Vice President
All right, Ken. Good morning. It's Jim. Yeah, we have had great success with deposit pricing, a little better than we had actually expected in the first quarter. So far, as I look at our deposit betas, if I go back to when the Fed started cutting rates in the third quarter of last year, we are running about a 71% beta through the first quarter.
So that's obviously higher than the 60% or so that we long term think we'll get back to. We are well above that 71%, obviously, in the first quarter. So we are having great success. As I mentioned, I think in the January earnings call and certainly at the conference that we attended in March, we do expect to see that slow up a little bit. In fact, we may, given how proactively we moved.
We may actually in some small pockets have to give a little bit back to customers. But having said that, as rates continue to move down, we do expect to still achieve on an incremental go-forward basis of probably a 40% to 50% beta going forward. So we certainly have room to continue to react as rates continue to go down. But we will have probably some pockets of pressure upward.
Now you mentioned brokered deposits, yes, we do expect to run off really that remaining -- about $1 billion of brokered deposits by the end of the year. We are paying in the low to mid 5% range on those. So that will certainly be a big benefit too as those roll off. But we expect to get even a nice beta on the non-brokered deposits, the core deposits too as rates continue to move down.
So overall, a really good story, probably won't continue at the same pace that we've seen but certainly can continue to adjust as the FOMC continues to lower rates. So that's one that we also have to monitor overall market trends.
And I have mentioned in the past too, we do plan on being fairly proactive in gathering more interest-bearing deposits. And in some cases, we may pay up for those. We're happy to do that if we can garner them.
We still make money on those. They're still a preferred funding source versus purchase funds. And so overall, I just feel really good about the deposit story, both the volume as well as the success we've had with pay rates thus far.
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APRIL 21, 2025 / 12:00PM, CMA.N - Q1 2025 Comerica Inc Earnings Call
Ken Uston - Autonomous Research - Analyst
Got it. Great. And the second question just relates to deposits as well. You mentioned very clearly that the Direct Express, there's no changes in the '25 outlook. I believe you had said it really wouldn't be in play until the out years.
Can you just give us an update on how you're thinking about that? And if deposit growth continues to be strong, do you think about starting to get ahead of some of that mix shifting at some point? Thanks, guys.
Peter Sefzik - Comerica Inc - Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Banking Officer
Yeah. Ken, it's Peter. Yeah. There's no real change to our outlook on what we see with Direct Express. We think that balances really aren't going to be impacted at all in '25. And we haven't provided, obviously, outlook for next year, but we continue to believe that the transition here is quite long.
And so, what I would tell you is that as far as running the rest of the company, we're very focused on deposits in all the other businesses that we have, whether that be in small business and what we do in some of our corporate businesses that are deposit gathering, and really even what we do on the consumer side.
I think there's a tremendous opportunity there for us to increase our deposit base through those channels. So we are looking at that pretty regularly. I'd say that's a constant conversation that we have. But at the moment, there's no real update about what the transition plan for Direct Express. I think our messaging is consistent at the current time.
Operator
Manan Gosalia, Morgan Stanley.
Manan Gosalia - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
Hey, good morning. Can you expand on how you're thinking about the trajectory of NII from here and the jumping off point for 2026? As you noted, the BSBY benefits fared, which might be masking some nice growth in core NII. So can you talk about the factors driving that increase as we go through the year?
James Herzog - Comerica Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Senior Executive Vice President
Sure. Good morning, Manan. Yeah. Excluding the BSBY impact, which we do have that schedule in the appendix as we always do, we are expecting steady growth in net interest income, both dollars and it will tick up each quarter and NIM percentage also most likely.
A number of drivers there. We are expecting deposits to continue to grow as we move through the rest of 2025. So deposits will certainly be a key contributor. Non-interest bearing could be just a very small drag in the second quarter because we were higher than we expected in the first quarter.
But then in the second half of the year, we do see the potential for some small increases in non-interest bearing. But most of those deposit increases will be on the interest-bearing side, all contributing to increasing net interest income. Of course, the loan growth that we expect to happen in the second half of the year will be a key contributor also.
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Disclaimer
Comerica Inc. published this content on April 23, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on April 23, 2025 at 20:39 UTC.