Timothy Spence on private credit
From Fifth Third Bancorp ($FITB) Q1 2026 Earnings Call · · Castify Earnings Call
“The reason we avoided it is because we couldn't figure out what total leverage was in these structures between the you know portfolio companies and the back leverage and the nav lending and the lending to the companies that were doing the nav lending and the capital call and all the rest and we don't like things that we that we don't understand. I think for me at least though the bigger reason to avoid it is it's not it's that is not an industry that like lending to BDC's is not a place where banks are going to build competitive barriers which means the return profile is just eventually will gravitate to cost of capital and we want to generate returns in excess of cost of capital.”
On , Timothy Spence, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & President at Fifth Third Bancorp, spoke about private credit during Fifth Third Bancorp ($FITB) Q1 2026 Earnings Call on Castify Earnings Call.
About Timothy Spence
Tim Spence, chairman, CEO, and president of Fifth Third Bancorp, has been focused on the bank's merger with Comerica, which he said received 99.7% of Fifth Third votes and 97% of Comerica votes cast in favor. He stated that the merger is expected to close on February 1, 2026, with systems conversion anticipated around Labor Day. Spence said the bank expects to deliver $850 million in expense synergies and more than half a billion dollars in revenue synergies over five years, and that EPS accretion of 9% from the deal is expected by the fourth quarter of 2026. He described the bank as being "on offense" and said it intends to continue investing in franchise growth, noting that headcount was flat year-over-year but that line-of-business and engineering resources grew 2% while staff and operations roles declined 3%. On economic and regulatory topics, Spence said that the magnitude of tariff announcements caught businesses by surprise and that their "universal" belief is that the only near-term response is to push prices. He predicted that inflation would pick up and growth would come down. Spence expressed skepticism about the risk stablecoins pose to domestic payments, arguing that existing digital money and payment schemes already provide competitive alternatives. He also said he wished all banks had undergone the most recent stress test, as he believes the results would have demonstrated benefits for regional banks. Spence noted that Fifth Third has less than $100 million in funded exposure to data centers and said the bank has been "on the more skeptical end" of that sector. He also stated that the tax bill eliminated tax credits on residential solar lending starting in January 2026, but said this has no impact on the bank's existing solar portfolio.