Hello, and welcome to the 2026 annual meeting of shareholders of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated. During the meeting, we'll have a question and answer session. You can submit questions or comments at any time by clicking on the Q&A icon on the right-hand side of the meeting center screen. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Steve Steinour, Chairman, President, and CEO of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated. Mr. Steinour, the floor is yours.
Welcome, everyone, to the 2026 annual meeting of shareholders of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated. I'm Steve Steinour, and I'm pleased that all of you are joining us today for our virtual shareholder meeting. Thank you for your support. I'd like to introduce the members of our board who are in attendance today and standing for election this year. In addition to myself, Ann Crane, Rafael Diaz-Granados, Virginia Hepner, Chris Inglis, Allie Kline, Rick Neu, Ken Phelan, Dave Porteous, Alice Rodriguez, Dan Rollins, Teresa Shea, Roger Sit, Jeffrey Tate, and Gary Torgow. In particular, I'm excited to welcome our three new directors who've joined our board as part of our combination with Cadence, which includes Dan Rollins, Virginia Hepner, and Alice Rodriguez.
James D. Rollins III is the former chairman and CEO of Cadence Bank, Virginia A. Hepner is the retired president and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center and retired Wachovia Bank executive, and Alice Rodriguez is the co-owner of Kendall Milagro, Inc. and retired JPMorgan Chase & Co executive. We look forward to their service and contributions to our board. Members of Huntington's executive leadership team are also joining us today at the annual meeting of shareholders. As the Chairman of today's meeting, I now call this meeting to order. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with the meeting agenda and rules of conduct. The meeting agenda and rules of conduct are available online by clicking on the documents icon. If you need a copy of the annual report or the proxy statement, these are also available under the documents icon.
David Dietrich of Computershare Trust Company is in attendance and will act as Inspector of Election for this meeting. The general counsel and corporate secretary, duly appointed proxies, and representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers are also in attendance. This meeting was called by our board of directors, which set February 24, 2026 as the record date for the holders of shares of our common stock entitled to receive notice of and vote at this meeting. The notice of meeting and proxy statement were first mailed or made available on March 12, 2026 to holders of our common stock as of the record date. I've been advised by the general counsel and corporate secretary that at least a majority of the company's issued and outstanding shares of common stock entitled to vote are represented in person or by proxy at today's meeting.
Accordingly, a quorum is present, allowing us to conduct today's business. I'll address questions, if any, about the proposals after they are presented. You may submit questions online by clicking on the Q&A icon. Out of consideration for others, we request that shareholders limit themselves to one question or comment. We will now turn to the proposals to be presented for a vote of the shareholders. If you've already voted and do not wish to change your vote, no further action is needed. On the other hand, if you have not voted or wish to change your vote, you may do so now by clicking on the Vote icon. For this year's annual meeting, we have three proposals to be voted upon. Proposal one is the election of 15 directors to serve a one-year term expiring at the 2027 annual meeting.
Proposal two, typically referred to as say on pay, pertains to the approval on an advisory, non-binding basis of the executive compensation as disclosed in the proxy statement. Proposal three is to ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the independent registered public accounting firm for the company for 2026. The proposals are described in the proxy statement. Our board of directors recommends that shareholders vote for the election of each nominee for director listed in proposal one and for proposals two and three. I'd like to ask Eric Wasserstrom, Director of Investor Relations, if there are any questions specific to the proposals.
There are no questions specific to the proposals at this point, Steve.
All right. Thank you, Eric. We'll pause a moment to allow shareholders who may not have voted to vote. Thank you. The polls are now closed. The inspector has issued a preliminary report and informed me that each of the nominees for the board of directors has been elected. The say on pay resolution has been approved, and the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026 has been ratified. Based on the preliminary report of the inspector, I declare that proposals one, two, and three are approved. Final results of the vote will be recorded in the minutes of the meeting and will appear in a current report on the Form 8-K that the company will file within four business days of this meeting. This concludes the formal business portion of the meeting.
I'd now like to offer some comments, and then we'll proceed to your questions. Before we begin, I'd like to direct your attention to our safe harbor statement on slide four. I'll make some forward-looking statements today in my presentation, so I ask that you please review this slide. Let's start on slide five. I'd like to provide an overview of our 2025 performance with a first quarter earnings release coming out tomorrow morning, Thursday, April 23. My comments will focus only on 2025. However, I do encourage you all to dial in for our earnings release tomorrow morning at 9:00 A.M. Eastern Time. Following the presentation, I'll close with a general question and answer session. The executive leadership team and I welcome your questions and insights, and the webcast will provide that opportunity.
You can submit your questions at any time during my presentation by clicking on the Q&A icon, and our investor relations director will pose those questions to us on your behalf. Let's turn to slide six and begin. 2025 was a transformational year for Huntington, strengthening our platform and setting the foundation for accelerated growth in 2026 and beyond. As demonstrated in our results, our differentiated operating model is working, delivering durable organic growth while maintaining an aggregate moderate to low risk profile. Today, our consumer and regional bank operates across 21 states, combining national capabilities with locally led execution. Our commercial bank provides scale through middle market banking, specialty verticals, asset finance, and capital markets. Many of our commercial businesses operate throughout the nation. Across payments, wealth management, and capital markets, we are driving strong fee revenue growth through sustained investment.
At the same time, our partnerships with Veritex Community Bank and Cadence Bank have meaningfully expanded our footprint and positioned us to springboard further growth. With disciplined execution, strong digital capabilities, and a growing presence in attractive markets, we have never been better positioned to compound performance and deliver long-term value for our customers, colleagues, and you, our shareholders. Moving on to slide seven. Our 2025 results reflect the strength of our operating model, and the components of this model come together to activate a powerful flywheel of value creation, driving sustainable high growth, expanding reinvestment capacity, and strengthening our competitive advantage. Our results for the year were outstanding. 11% revenue growth, 16% adjusted earnings per share growth, and 290 basis points of positive operating leverage combined with strong credit performance. Together, these outcomes generated significant capital and reinforced our ability to compound performance going forward. Turning to slide eight.
Our focus on disciplined organic execution produced a clearly differentiated growth profile across assets, loans, and deposits. We are acquiring customers, deepening relationships, and consistently executing across the core elements of our strategy. By year-end 2025, Huntington had grown to $225 billion in assets and is a top 10 regional bank in the U.S. That scale, combined with investments in new capabilities and geographies and disciplined expense management, delivered $3.4 billion in pre-provision net revenue. As shown on slide nine, we delivered another year of significant above peer cumulative organic loan and deposit growth, reflecting disciplined execution across every customer segment. Primary bank relationships continued to expand, up 4% in consumer banking and 7% in business banking, driven by a clear focus on acquiring customers, deepening relationships, and expanding wallet share while maintaining diversified, well-balanced portfolios. Turning to slide 10.
Our fee income businesses continue to be a durable growth engine as well. Since 2023, fee revenues have grown at a steady, high single digit CAGR, and we see this trajectory as sustainable over the long term. Our strategy is focused on three core businesses, payments, wealth management, and capital markets, where we see significant growth opportunities, and we continue to expand value added services in these businesses that deepen relationships, meet customer needs, and strengthen the franchise. Turning to slide 11. Our credit performance remains very strong, reflecting consistent underwriting discipline and diversified portfolios. Net charge-offs were stable at 22 basis points for the year, well below our through the cycle range. Allowance for credit losses ended the year at 1.83%. Taken together, 2025 demonstrates the power of our differentiated operating model, driving strong organic growth, disciplined reinvestment, durable earnings, and consistent risk performance.
Our flywheel is firmly in motion, reinforcing our ability to compound performance and deliver sustainable long-term value. As I mentioned before, I hope you can join us tomorrow morning, April 23rd, at 9:00 A.M. Eastern Time for our first quarter 2026 earnings call to check in and hear about how we are executing on our vision in 2026 to be the leading people first customer centered bank in the country. We now have some time for shareholders to ask questions. Eric, will you review the procedures for this Q&A period?
Yes. Thank you, Steve. We would ask all shareholders to submit their questions in the appropriate format. Steve, we do have one question related to community investment in Detroit. I will read it now in its entirety. "Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and fellow shareholders. I'm a proud Detroiter and shareholder. I would like to recognize Huntington's executive team for its commitment to the communities it serves and acknowledge Huntington's support of nonprofit organizations in Detroit. I hope there is opportunity to deepen that investment in Southwest Detroit, where community-based organizations continue to respond to significant and evolving needs. As we look ahead to 2026, I would respectfully ask how Huntington plans to continue or expand its support of the vital nonprofit organization that serve Detroit residents, strengthen neighborhoods, and address evolving community needs.
I value Huntington's partnership and look forward to its continued investment in our communities." Steve.
Thank you for that question. We have a terrific team in Michigan, and throughout the state, and especially in East Michigan, led by our Bank Chairman, Gary Torgow. Our team is very involved in the community, especially Gary. We expect that we will be continuing, as we've done over the years, to be highly dynamic, highly supportive, and a great corporate citizen for those in Detroit and in Michigan generally. Gary's one of the outstanding leaders, and I think in the country, if not the world, and we're proud to have him in Detroit as our Chairman of the Bank.
Our team is terrific as well, and the commitments we've made in the past, we will continue at a minimum going forward and expect to find more ways to be even more meaningful to the nonprofit community, recognizing the challenges, especially today, are somewhat greater than they've been in recent past. Thank you very much for the question. Eric, is there a second question?
Steve, we have no further questions.
All right. Well, thank you, Eric, and thank you for those who've joined us. This concludes the Q&A period. As appropriate, we will try to respond directly to questions that were not answered here today, so let us know. That's Eric Wasserstrom in our investor relations area, if you have any other questions that we did not somehow catch today. Thank you for joining us today for our 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. On behalf of our board, the executive leadership team, and Huntington colleagues, we're grateful, very grateful for your continued support. Thank you, and I now declare this meeting adjourned. Have a great day.
This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.