Huntington Bancshares, on Thursday says its added deposits in the first three months of the year and the percentage of uninsured deposits fell, assuring customers that its mix of deposits and loans can withstand the turbulence of the past few weeks that has included the failure of two big banks.

"This is a storm, not a crisis. I think the the storm has passed," Steve Steinour, Huntington's chairman, president and CEO said after the bank released its first-quarter financial results. "I believe banks at all levels will settle down."

Shares of Huntington along with the shares of other regional and major banks have taken a hit following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank in California and Signature Bank in New York caused by an old-fashioned bank run in which depositors quickly pulled their money from the banks out of solvency fears.

While many banks reported that deposits fell during the first quarter, Huntington's rose $3.2 billion from a year ago and nearly $500 million from the final three months of 2022 to $146.1 billion. Normally, the bank's deposits decline in the first quarter because of seasonal variations.

Steinour said 69% of its deposits, about $100 billion, are now covered by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage, the most of any bank with $50 billion in assets or more, and the bank has ample liquidity.

In the final months of 2022, 67% of the bank's deposits were covered by the FDIC, according to the bank's regulatory filings.

The bank's growth in deposits goes back years and stems from its "fair play" initiative that, for example, gives consumers a full day to cover overdrafts before imposing fees, Steinour said.

"This has been a long-term effort," he said.

Also, Steinour said the bank has avoided the situation where many other banks have found themselves when it comes to handling large deposits. Huntington has worked with those customers to put them into safe, alternative investments such as federal government securities, he said.

The bank reported profit of $602 million, or 39 cents per share, for the first three months of 2023, a nearly 31% increase from a year ago when the bank was still implementing the acquisition of Michigan-based TCF Financial that gave Huntington new markets such as Minneapolis and Denver.

"We're very pleased with the support and growth we’ve had," Steinour said.

Discounting one-time charges and gains, the bank earned 38 cents per share, a penny ahead of Wall Street estimates.

Revenue rose 17% from a year ago to $1.93 billion.

The report didn't do much for Huntington shares, which have fallen below $12 since the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank a month ago. The shares were above $15 then.

The combination of the bank failures and evidence of a slowing economy does have the bank's business customers pulling back a bit, he said.

"My sense is they're having a good year," he said. "They also are getting more cautious.’’

Steinour said the bank also remains confident with its commercial real estate portfolio even as the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates and office buildings have been slow to refill after the pandemic.

"I don’t believe there is a wave of something next that’s about to happen,’’ he said.

The bank is prepared to manage through a range of economic environments, Steinour said.

"We have a lot of confidence in the relationships we have,’’ he said. "We will be able to help them get through the cycles."

Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank, which also posted its first-quarter results on Thursday, said it saw growth in its accounts following the Silicon Valley collapse.

"In the weekend, following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank alone, we open more new commercial deposit accounts than we would in a typical month," Timothy Spence, the bank's president and CEO, told analysts on a conference call. "Similarly, our consumer household growth accelerated after the March turmoil."

Key Bank CEO Chris Gorman told analysts after the Cleveland-based bank reported its first-quarter results that its deposits have remained stable.

"We saw a couple larger excess deposits move. But in general, the reason we've enjoyed such stickiness of the deposit is kind of the comments that I made earlier, these are operating accounts or businesses, and these are businesses that have been clients are key for a long time," he said. "And frankly, there wasn't even a lot of angst. I mean, we obviously did a good job of reaching out to all of our customers as we always do. But I was very pleased with the stickiness of the deposit in the core deposit base."

mawilliams@dispatch.com

@BizMarkWilliams

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Huntington CEO Steinour on banking crisis I think the storm has passed