Earnings

For the fourth straight quarter, the nation's largest bank boosted its loan-loss reserves, this time setting aside $1.4 billion to cover potentially souring loans. Other big banks made similar moves as the industry braces for a potential recession.

The New York bank, which recorded an 8% increase in expenses last year, projects that they will rise by 5% in 2023. Other megabanks are also contending with higher costs.

The Dallas-based company is expanding in the Southeast and the Mountain West, and overhauling its digital systems, as part of a plan that executives say will pay off over a two- to five-year period.

"Right now, we are seeing nothing but stability," Visa CEO Al Kelly said. But the card network is hedging its bets against a broad downturn by diversifying its opportunities and accelerating new use cases and markets for direct debit payments.

The Indiana company reported strong growth in profits and loan income, and it hopes its addition of more than two dozen wealth management and commercial banking specialists will help beef up what one analyst called "softer than expected" noninterest income.

Loans at the Utah bank increased 6% in the third quarter. Executives said a darkening economic forecast could lower that figure.

CEO Rob Holmes says that much of the Dallas company's increased spending is now in the past. But meeting the bank's targets is "a complete show-me story," one analyst said.