Fifth Third reported a solid Q3 2025 with adjusted PPNR up 11%, despite a $178M fraud charge from Tricolor. The Comerica merger was highlighted as a transformative deal with strong strategic fit, and management reaffirmed record NII and positive operating leverage for the full year. Credit trends ex-Tricolor remain stable, and the NDFI portfolio is defended as well-diversified. Adjusted revenue of $2.3B (+6% YoY) and core EPS of $0.93, with 330bps positive operating leverage.
Fifth Third reported a solid Q3 2025 with adjusted PPNR up 11%, despite a $178M fraud charge from Tricolor. The Comerica merger was highlighted as a transformative deal with strong strategic fit, and management reaffirmed record NII and positive operating leverage for the full year. Credit trends ex-Tricolor remain stable, and the NDFI portfolio is defended as well-diversified. Adjusted revenue of $2.3B (+6% YoY) and core EPS of $0.93, with 330bps positive operating leverage.
Fifth Third reported a solid Q3 2025 with adjusted PPNR up 11%, despite a $178M fraud charge from Tricolor. The Comerica merger was highlighted as a transformative deal with strong strategic fit, and management reaffirmed record NII and positive operating leverage for the full…
Guidance · revenue to 4.75%
Guidance · revenue to 4.75%
Comerica acquisition on track for Q1 2026 close; NDFI combined exposure will be only 7%, with Comerica's portfolio 70% in low-risk subscription facilities.
Management is confident in achieving record net interest income and positive operating leverage, supported by strong loan growth, fee momentum, and cost discipline, despite the Tricolor fraud headwind.
Management highlighted ongoing investments in technology, branch expansion (50 branches planned for 2025, 60 more next year), and strategic hires, funded partly by value stream savings, with expenses expected to rise 2% in Q4 due to branch openings and incentive compensation.
Management expressed confidence in delivering record NII, positive operating leverage, and a successful Comerica integration, while addressing the Tricolor fraud and credit concerns with detailed portfolio breakdowns.
“70% of Comerica's NDFI portfolio is concentrated in low risk subscription facilities... Post-close, our combined NDFI balances would be 7%”
| Metric | Period | Range | Midpoint | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RevenueNII | FY2025 Q4 | 0%–1% | 0.5% | GUIDED |
| RevenueFEE_INCOME | FY2025 Q4 | 2%–3% | 2.5% | GUIDED |
| Revenue | FY2025 | 4.5%–5% | 4.75% | GUIDED |
| Issued | Metric | Target | Guide | Actual | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 Q1 | Revenue | FY2026 Q2 | $2.2B–$2.25B | $2.22B | Met / beat |
Stripe's Treasury product is a key driver of New Line's deposit and fee growth at Fifth Third, indicating deepening partnership.
“We expect New Line to sustain its growth as transactional activity ramps from the rollout of Stripe Treasury”
… million in annual commercial payments fees and $34 million in capital markets fees. We are excited to add Comerica Strong Verticals to our existing expertise, including in national dealer services, environmental services, and tech and life sciences, among others. In commercial payments, fee growth re-accelerated to 3% sequentially in the third quarter. New Line increased revenue by 31% year-over-year and grew deposits by more than a billion dollars. We expect New Line to sustain its growth as transactional activity ramps from the rollout of Stripe Treasury and many other category deployment payments customers who build on New Line's APIs. We're also seeing strong early activity from our acquisition of DTS Connects. Since the announcement, we have launched pilots with the most profitable quick service restaurant in the industry and a 1,200 location chain of convenience stores. and also executed the first pre-ordered branch change order at a major bank with over 2,000 branches. On DirectXpress, our merger with Comerica should simplify the transition for its 3.4 million program participants. We also anticipate additional growth opportunities stemming from the President's …
Fifth Third is highly optimistic about the Comerica acquisition, citing complementary strengths in retail deposits, middle market lending, payments, and wealth management.
“the beauty of what we're doing with Comerica is the things you need to believe are either strength strength or strength opportunity”
Good morning, Tim. Good morning, Brian. Good morning, Gerard. Good morning. Tim, can you give us some further updates or color on the Comerica transaction in terms of how it's been received internally at Comerica and maybe by their customers? they're going to be obviously part of Fifth Third in a short while. And then second, as part of that, how the process is going with the regulators, we're seeing an incredibly expedited timeline on deals that have been announced before your deal being approved in less than six months.
… just reiterated. I think the feedback from employees and communities has been really positive on both sides of Fifth Third and Comerica. I think the number one question that we're getting is what the name of the Detroit Tigers Stadium is going to be at the end of all this. That's a pretty good sign about what we're dealing with. And I think what has rung true to folks is this idea that we're going to be able to accomplish things together that neither company was going to be able to do on their own. One of the other CEOs on another call talked a little bit about their philosophy on M&A and what they were interested in not. I actually think what he said, if I were to abstract a little bit, is really true. Like, if you're going to do a deal and you want it to be successful, it either has to be strength pairing strength or strength pairing opportunity. You can't have places where both companies are weak be critical to the deal outcome. And the beauty of what we're doing with Comerica is the things you need to believe are either strength strength or strength opportunity, right? We're great at retail deposit gathering. and are already primarily retail deposit funded, so we're going to be able to do a lot there. They have a fabulous granular middle market loan franchise. We prize more granularity in our commercial business, so there's going to be a really nice complement there. We're both strong in different ways in the payments business and wealth management, so there's a strength-strength match. I just think there's a lot positive there. I think what we are going to try to do either later this quarter or as we turn the beginning of the year is to just provide a little bit more insight to investors on the synergies. We are feeling very good about our ability to get the outcomes. When you look at the synergies as a percentage of Fifth Third and Comerica combined, which is really the right way to look at it because that's the way that we'll be approaching this exercise, they're quite manageable. Uh, and, uh, I think well-defined, uh, but I just, in general, I, the reception has been, uh, it's, it's, I, we, the teams on both sides were small because of the focused, uh, diligence effort. Uh, so that I, the first announcement Monday morning was wow. Uh, you know, followed by, I think in general, a lot of excitement about what we're going to be able to get done …
Comerica's NDFI portfolio is 70% concentrated in low-risk subscription facilities; combined NDFI exposure will be only 7% of total loans.