Good morning. Huntington Bancshares Inc. is marking its 160th year by showing that traditional branch banking and digital growth can advance together, not at each other’s expense.
Founded in 1866, Huntington (No. 351 on the Fortune 500) operates more than 1,000 branches nationwide and is leaning into expansion. CFO Zachary Wasserman described 2026 as a “major” strategic year, with a focus on integrating recent partnerships while keeping core businesses growing faster than the industry.
A visible piece of that strategy is the Southeast build-out. “Our expectation is opening one branch almost every two weeks this year in North Carolina and South Carolina,” Wasserman said.
Huntington opened five branches across the two states in 2025 and plans roughly 24 more this year, putting it on track for about 55 locations by the end of 2027. Beyond physical expansion, the bank views each new branch as a talent opportunity. “We’re putting a major organizational focus around this, and the results have been encouraging,” Wasserman said.
The rollout has been supported by heavy pre-launch marketing, with many branches surpassing full-year deposit targets before opening, he added.
At the same time, Huntington has become increasingly digital-first in new customer acquisition. The bank now brings in more customers digitally than through branches—an approach Wasserman described as “very unusual” for an institution of its size. Most new relationships now begin online, even if customers later turn to branches for more complex needs.
Crucially, the digital and physical footprints overlap. About 80% of new digital customers live within five miles of a Huntington branch, underscoring that local presence still matters even when accounts are opened online, Wasserman said. The bank is using that proximity to deepen relationships and drive growth in higher-value businesses such as commercial payments, wealth management and capital markets, he said.
Huntington reported on Thursday solid fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results, driven by loan and deposit growth, higher fee income, improving margins and strong credit quality. Fourth-quarter EPS was $0.30, or $0.37 on an adjusted basis, up 9% year over year and ahead of estimates. Goldman Sachs reiterated its buy rating and $21 price target on the stock following what it called a “decent quarter and mixed outlook.”
Behind the branch and digital push is a broader integration agenda. Wasserman said Huntington is “well down the track” on integrating two recently announced bank partnerships—its merger with Veritex Holdings and a definitive agreement to acquire Cadence Bank. The bank is applying lessons from the Veritex deal, including early leadership decisions and clear communication around systems conversions, to retain employees and customers during transitions.
Wasserman framed Huntington’s strategy as a long-term effort to win market share through steady, multi-year investment rather than stop-start growth cycles. Consistent spending on branches, digital platforms and specialized businesses, he said, is key to fully realizing the benefits of the bank’s expansion over time.
Have a good weekend.
Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]
Leaderboard
CFO moves this week:
Josh Jepsen was appointed CFO of Honeywell Aerospace, effective February 23, which will become an independent, publicly traded company following its planned spin-off from Honeywell in the second half of 2026. The company will be headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, and will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “HONA.” Jepsen is currently SVP and CFO of Deere & Company. Before this role, he held senior positions across finance, investor relations, and accounting at Deere.
Patrick O’Connell, CFO of AMC Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: AMCX), will be departing the company to pursue an opportunity outside of the media industry. O’Connell will remain with AMC Networks through March and participate in the company’s 2025 fourth quarter and year-end earnings call. The company has initiated a search for O’Connell’s successor.
Hugo Doetsch was appointed CFO of AuditBoard, a governance, risk, and compliance platform. Doetsch brings over two decades of financial leadership and strategic operating experience to AuditBoard. Most recently, he served as CFO at symplr, an enterprise health care operations software provider. Before that, he was CFO at NetDocuments, a cloud-based content management platform. Doetsch also held senior leadership roles at Ping Identity, where he assisted the company in a 2019 initial public offering.
Linda LaGorga will step down as CFO of Entegris, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTG), an advanced materials science provider, effective Feb. 28. Effective March 1. Mike Sauer, Entegris’ VP, controller and chief accounting officer, will assume the role of interim CFO, in addition to maintaining the responsibilities of his current role. LaGorga will serve as a senior advisor to Entegris through May 15. Entegris has initiated a search process for a permanent CFO with an executive search firm.
Ann Hyllengren was appointed CFO of Ember LifeSciences, Inc. Hyllengren joins Ember LifeSciences from Amgen, where she brings nearly two decades of experience. Most recently, she served as a senior executive on Amgen’s investor relations team. She also held multiple senior finance leadership roles at Amgen, including serving as head of finance for the U.S. General Medicine business unit. In addition, she served as CFO of the Amgen Foundation.
Anubhav Mittal was appointed SVP and CFO of Universal Corporation (NYSE: UVV), a global agricultural products company, effective Feb. 17. Mittal brings 20 years of experience. Most recently, he served as CFO of ADM Nutrition, Archer Daniels Midland Company’s global nutrition, flavors, and ingredients business. Mittal also previously served as CFO of ADM’s Global Pet Solutions business and as ADM’s global head of business development and M&A.
Helen Cai was appointed senior executive vice president and CFO of Barrick Mining Corporation (NYSE: B), effective March 1, following the departure of long-serving finance chief Graham Shuttleworth, who will be leaving the company after its year-end results. Cai has served on Barrick’s board since November 2021 and brings more than 20 years of experience.
Meredith Peck was named CFO of Zekelman Industries, the largest independent steel pipe and tube manufacturer in North America. Peck succeeds Mike Graham, who will retire on May 15 following a planned transition period. She brings more than 20 years of financial leadership experience and most recently served as CFO for Cotsworks Inc., after earlier roles as the company’s controller and then vice president of finance and administration.
Big Deal
Gartner, Inc. finds that the use of AI tools in investor research means that CFOs are devoting more time to investor relations.
A recent Gartner survey of 146 CFOs reveals that that 35% or more of respondents reported an increase in the volume, frequency, and time sensitivity of investor communications and engagements in 2025 when compared to 2024.
“It is going to become increasingly difficult for organizations to control their narrative and influence investors with manual methods alone,” Dymah Paige, a director analyst in the Gartner Finance practice, said in a statement. “To keep pace, CFOs should be considering private AI solutions available on the market today that can help them to spend more of their time and effort on higher impact priorities.”
“Companies can leverage these tools off the shelf and start to deploy right away, but in private, contained, and traceable environments. Some of the world’s biggest companies are already using these tools in their IR activities,” Paige said.
Going deeper
Here are four Fortune weekend reads:
“AI luminaries at Davos clash over how close human level intelligence really is” By Jeremy Kahn
“No ‘job apocalypse’: Goldman Sachs CEO denies the AI hiring nightmare is real” By Nick Lichtenberg
“Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says ‘a lot’ of six-figure jobs in plumbing and construction are about to be unlocked because someone needs to build all these new AI centers” By Preston Fore
“American oil company CEOs feel increasingly ‘slighted’ by Trump’s focus on Venezuela: ‘That’s bad for U.S. producers’” By Jordan Blum
Overheard
“Many of our clients ask, ‘How can we rewire our organizations for artificial intelligence?’ Almost none ask the question that will ultimately determine whether AI delivers value: ‘Are we investing in the human advantage: our brains?'”
—Bob Sternfels, global managing partner of McKinsey & Company, and Lucy Pérez, a senior partner and a global leader of the McKinsey Health Institute, write in a Fortune opinion piece.
