Executive VP & CFO, Northern
Search every verified David Fox interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. David Fox, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Northern Trust, participated in the company’s second and third quarter 2025 earnings conference calls. In the third quarter, Fox reported net income of $458 million, earnings per share of $2.29, and a return on average common equity of 14.8%. He noted that the company delivered positive operating leverage of 110 basis points and returned nearly 100% of earnings to shareholders. Fox stated that trust and investment servicing fees totaled $1.3 billion, a 6% increase year-over-year, while net interest income was $596 million, up 5% from the prior year. He described credit quality as “very strong” and said the company recorded a $17 million release of the credit reserve. Fox also said that deposits ended September at $135 billion and that the company expects a slight pickup in the fourth quarter. He projected that net interest income in 2026 would be flat to up 1 to 2%, assuming no more than two U.S. rate cuts. In the second quarter, Fox reported net income of $421 million, earnings per share of $2.13, and a return on average common equity of 14.2%. He described net interest income as a record $615 million, up 16% year-over-year. Fox noted that the provision for credit losses increased to $16.5 million, largely due to a small number of non-performing loans, and said the company expected a return to more normalized levels in subsequent quarters. He stated that the company returned $486 million to common shareholders, reflecting a payout ratio of 117%. Fox also highlighted new disclosures in the company’s earnings materials, saying they aimed to “enhance the quality and transparency of our disclosures, ensuring we are responsive to shareholder feedback.”
“We now expect net interest income to be up 9 to 10% year-over-year. This is an increase from our previous guide up mid to high single digits. We now expect total revenue to grow by 9 to 10% year-over-year, which is an increase from our previous guide of up mid-single digits. Excluding notable items, we now expect to de...”
“We have some very large institutional clients that in the first and second quarters decided to put substantial amounts on our balance sheet. And we don't view those as being permanent. And so, as I guided you last quarter, we were about 4 billion above where we normally would have been. I guided you down, but obviously...”
“I have very strong conviction around the 5% or below number. So, this we can take that issue off the table if you will and obviously what we try to do is in putting that number out, we don't put it out in isolation. So, our northstar is obviously what Mike talked about earlier, which is positive operating leverage, but...”
“We're trying to build a sustainable financial model that can last through all cycles. So at the end of the day, the cost curve has to go down regardless of markets, right? We can't rely on things we don't control. And so when we look at what we're trying to do over time is really get that expense line to stand up and n...”
“This morning we reported third quarter net income of $458 million, earnings per share of $2.29, and our return on average common equity was 14.8%.”
“We delivered positive operating leverage of 110 basis points, 120 basis points of year‑over‑year improvement in our expense to trust fee ratio, and returned nearly 100% of our earnings.”
“Trust and investment and other servicing fees totaled $1.3 billion, a 3% sequential increase and a 6% increase compared to last year. Net interest income on an FTE basis was $596 million, down 3% sequentially and up 5% compared to the prior year.”
“Overall, our credit quality remains very strong with all key credit metrics in line with historical standards. We recorded a $17 million release of the credit reserve in the third quarter.”
“Relative to the prior year period and excluding notable items, revenue was up 6%, expenses were up 4.7%, our pre‑tax margin was up 200 basis points, and earnings per share increased 14%.”
“Deposits actually did perform pretty much in line with what we had previewed and they're actually up from last year at this time. We've already seen a slight pickup in deposits in Q4 and we ended September at $135 billion, and we think Q4 deposits are going to be a little bit higher on average during the quarter.”
“We have rate cuts built into our projections but we're not anticipating more than two rate cuts in the U.S. next year; taking puts and takes into account, we feel that net interest income in 2026 should be flat to up 1 to 2%.”
“If you take a look at the AUCA growth, there were a number of individual clients that drove those AUCA numbers; one client in particular represented about two‑thirds of the degradation and that was a restructuring moving from mutual funds into a CIT structure that's less expensive to the participants.”
“Our average earning assets were down 4% on a linked quarter basis as softer deposit levels drove a decline in cash held at the Fed and central banks. We opportunistically added fixed‑price securities to the portfolio; the fixed/floating breakdown of the securities portfolio is now 54% to 46% and the duration of the por...”
“Our capital and regulatory ratios remain strong: CET1 under the standardized approach increased to 12.4% and our tier 1 leverage ratio was 8%, and we returned $431 million to common shareholders in the quarter through cash dividends of $154 million and repurchases of $277 million reflecting a payout ratio of 98%.”
“You may have noticed that we included a number of new disclosures in our earnings materials this quarter. They include additional segment level detail including average loans, average deposits, pre-tax profit and margins along with enhanced regulatory and capital metrics — these additional metrics aim to enhance the qu...”
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Dave Fox is a former competitive bodybuilder with wins of the NABBA NI, NABBA Ireland, and NABBA Britain, as well as owning ...
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