Zions Bancorp. in Salt Lake City reported solid loan growth in multiple categories and a decline in nonperforming assets in the first quarter, while also marking a major accomplishment in its core-technology conversion.
Still, net income for the $70 billion-asset Zions fell 10% from a year earlier $213 million. Its earnings per share of $1.04 missed the mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Fact Set Research Systems by 1 cent.
But Chairman and CEO
Simmons also said that Zions made substantial progress on
Net interest income rose 6% year over year to $576 million, and the net interest margin expanded 12 basis points to 3.68%.
Net loans and leases rose 6% to $47.6 billion. Commercial lending rose 6% to $24.6 billion, commercial real estate rose 4% to $11.5 billion, and consumer lending rose 6% to $11.5 billion.
Total deposits rose 3% to $54.5 billion.
Noninterest income declined 4% to $132 million, driven by declines in certain customer-related fees, services charges on deposit accounts and dividends and investment income.
Noninterest expenses rose 3% to $431 million. Zions also improved its efficiency ratio to 60.2%, compared with 61.3% in the first quarter of 2018.
Credit quality also improved. Nonperforming assets declined 39% to $240 million due to improvements in the company’s oil and gas portfolio. It had no net charge-offs, compared with $5 million in net charge-offs last year.
However, Zions recorded a $4 million provision for credit losses, compared with a $47 million negative provision for credit losses a year earlier.
