---
title: "Zions, Comerica say late 2024 will bring turnaround on loan growth"
description: "Loan growth at regional banks Zions and Comerica has been sluggish, but executives are optimistic that borrower demand will increase in the second half of the year. Both banks expect improvement in lo"
type: "news"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/202634989.md"
published_at: "2024-04-23T20:21:38.000Z"
---

# Zions, Comerica say late 2024 will bring turnaround on loan growth

> Loan growth at regional banks Zions and Comerica has been sluggish, but executives are optimistic that borrower demand will increase in the second half of the year. Both banks expect improvement in loan volume and are confident in their credit management despite rising criticized loans. Zions is intentionally decreasing its exposure to commercial real estate. Comerica projects a significant increase in loan volume in the last two quarters of the year.

Two regional banks — Zions Bancorp. and Comerica — are expressing optimism that loan demand will start to turn around in the back half of the year after a period when high interest rates and economic uncertainty muted the appetite for borrowing.

In their quarterly earnings calls, executives at the two companies laid out the case for bullishness in spite of recent loan trends.

At Salt Lake City, Utah-based Zions, bankers are beginning to hear more about customers' interest in borrowing, though that increase isn't yet translating into loan growth.

During Zions' first-quarter earnings call on Monday, Chief Financial Officer Ryan Richards said that customers' outlook about the economy's resilience is much brighter than it was six to nine months ago.

"Loan demand seems to have turned a corner of sorts this quarter with pipelines recovering somewhat from low levels late last year and improving customer sentiment," said Zions Chairman and CEO Harris Simmons. "Our true success will depend on our ability to grow our customer base, and we continue to place an emphasis on granular growth of small business customers."

The $87 billion-asset bank has been "particularly successful" with a streamlined Small Business Administration program, Simmons said. He added that while the initiative "doesn't immediately contribute meaningfully" to loan growth, Zions gains franchise value and new bank customers.

Richards said that it will take six months for pipeline conversations to filter into real loan growth.

In the first quarter, Zions recorded total loans of $58.1 billion, up 3% year over year. Its net interest income was $586 million, which was down 14% from the previous year, but in line with or better than analysts' estimates.

Depending on how interest rates change this year, Zions projects that net interest income will increase 2.8% in the best case, or decrease 0.5% in the worst case, between the first quarter of 2024 and the same period a year later.

Zions is "off to a good start in 2024," wrote Morningstar analyst Rajiv Bhatia. Credit trends were mostly healthy, he argued, although the bank had more criticized loans.

Zions isn't the only bank planning for a rise in loan demand later this year.

Dallas-based Comerica is projecting a 4%-5% increase in loans between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the same period this year. That would represent a marked improvement from the bank's loan volumes in the earlier parts of this year. For the full year, Comerica expects average loans to decline 3% from 2023.

On the company's recent first-quarter earnings call, CFO James Herzog said that Comerica anticipates broad-based growth in the second half of the year. The bank expects to see an increasing rate of improvement in loan volume from quarter to quarter throughout the year, and then into 2025.

"If you look at the guide that we gave, it implies a pretty significant hockey stick up in the last couple of quarters of the year," Herzog said.

Last quarter, loans at the $79.4 billion-asset company decreased by $1.4 billion to $51.4 billion. During the second quarter, Comerica is expecting average loans to stay flat or decrease by 1% as demand remains soft.

Comerica Chief Banking Officer Peter Sefzik said that the middle-market sector is where the bank is most confident, while small business customers and private banking clients are more sensitive to higher-for-longer interest rates.

"The pipeline has grown, and we really feel like that's going to be an opportunity throughout the year," Sefzik said on the earnings call.

A large portion of the loan books at both Zions and Comerica is tied to commercial real estate — a source of concern throughout the industry as CRE credit quality has started to waver.

The level of criticized loans at both banks rose in the first quarter, but Zions and Comerica executives expressed confidence in their credit management.

Zions is intentionally shifting its mix of loans to moderately decrease its exposure to commercial real estate, Richards said.

"We've actually reduced that intentionally over the last four or five years, so we were ahead of it even before the pandemic," he said. "I think the office \[sector\] will continue to have some challenges from what we do have, but I think it will be manageable over the near term."

### Related Stocks

- [ZION.US - Zions Bancorp](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/ZION.US.md)
- [CMA.US - Comerica](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CMA.US.md)

## Related News & Research

| Title | Description | URL |
|-------|-------------|-----|
| 發展黃金市場為今年重頭戲 許正宇：逾十銀行加入港金結算公司理事會 | 香港財經事務及庫務局局長許正宇表示，發展黃金市場是今年的重點，已與上海黃金交易所籤署合作協議，成立港金結算公司，預計年內啟動運作。超過 10 家銀行已確認加入理事會，目標是開發香港的黃金中央清算系統。此外，香港新股市場活躍，但對新股質素的關 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276291952.md) |
| 幣價大跌不用慌？特朗普家族加密貨幣平台海湖莊園辦大會，華爾街態度轉向 | 本週三的海湖莊園活動期間，昔日懷疑加密貨幣的高盛 CEO 蘇德巍透露，他本人持有數量非常有限的比特幣。曾稱比特幣是干擾的富蘭克林鄧普頓 CEO 稱，設想加密貨幣公司與傳統金融機構能攜手合作。特朗普的長子稱去年其家族推出的穩定幣將保護美元霸權 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276380974.md) |
| 齊昂銀行榮獲 2026 年 15 項 Coalition Greenwich 最佳銀行獎 \| ZION 股票新聞 | 齊昂銀行（Zions Bancorporation）榮獲 2026 年 15 項 Coalition Greenwich 最佳銀行獎，以表彰其對中型市場和小型企業客户的服務。這標誌着齊昂銀行連續第 17 年獲得認可，自 2009 年以來共獲 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276459710.md) |
| 據《金融時報》報道，大多數 Meta 員工的股權獎勵將減少 5% | 大多數 Meta 員工的股權獎勵將減少 5%，因為馬克·扎克伯格削減成本以資助鉅額的人工智能支出 -《金融時報》 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276389852.md) |
| 信用利差可能會因股票相關性而遭遇意外的衝擊 | 由彭博社宏觀策略師西蒙·懷特撰寫，平靜的信用利差如果股票經歷相關性衝擊將會突然上升。儘管科技股和私人信貸中存在一些壓力，以及與伊朗相關的風險不斷增加，但總體信用指標仍然温和 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276469020.md) |

---

> **Disclaimer**: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.
